19th Sunday after Trinity 14th October 07

As some of you may know a week ago I was on retreat at a Benedictine monastery called Burford Priory, which is in the Cotswolds near Oxford. The priority in the daily lives of the monks and nuns is prayer, accompanied by study and manual work. They hold the Priory in an atmosphere of stillness and silence. The community and guests are helped to be open and receptive to the presence of God. The community at Burford sustains an extraordinary calm, and a deep unbroken focus on God, based on a combination of faith and the monastic virtues of obedience and humility. The brothers and sisters live according to the Rule of St Benedict, a sixth century Italian layman who founded a great monastery at Monte Cassino around 526.

Humility is not a very common or lauded virtue in many circles. It is too easily confused with such things as weakness, low self-esteem or false modesty. It can be seen as a necessary condition rather than a desirable virtue, as was suggested by Winston Churchill when he famously put down Clement Attlee, saying, ‘He is a modest man, but then he has much to be modest about’. Humility in the Benedictine context is something quite different.

Humility is about responding to Jesus’ call to free ourselves of self-concern so that we are open to God’s will and freed to receive his love. Remember Jesus’ comment about not looking for an important place when invited to a banquet – ‘for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted’. Humility is also about being obedient to God’s will, as perfectly revealed in Jesus himself. As St Paul wrote: ‘he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.‘

A lack of humility is at the heart of Naaman’s encounter with Elisha in the Old Testament story we heard today. And by the end of the story we don’t just see Naaman’s physical transformation as his leprosy is healed. We also witness his personal transformation as he shows humility and acceptance of God.

We get the impression from the story that Naaman is a quite a likeable character. But he is rather full of all the trappings of his status as a wealthy king and mighty warrior. The king arrives outside Elisha’s mudhut with his horses and chariots filled, the missing verses tell us, with gold and silver and great finery. No doubt he was expecting an awestruck Elisha to greet him, suitably subservient, to offer a cure with grand prayers and ritual. But instead Elisha does not even bother to come out. He just sends his servant who tells Naaman to go and wash in the river.

Naaman immediately loses his temper. But his own servants gently persuade him to just trust in the prophet. And then we see a complete transformation. Naaman emerges from the river not only clean of his leprosy, but also humble and grateful - returning to Elisha, the man he had thought could not even be bothered to come out to meet him. Realising that he needed to be released of more than just his leprosy to understand the true nature of God’s rule, Naaman had learnt humility.

The gospel reading is another story of healing from leprosy, but rather more puzzling than the story of Naaman. Because the story poses a huge question for us – if ten people were healed of leprosy why does only one come back to thank Jesus. What happened to the others? Jesus says to the one who comes back, who, like Naaman, is showing great humility prostrating himself at Jesus feet, ‘your faith has made you well’. How can this be true when the other nine have not even thanked him, but have just taken his cure and gone?

The difference for the one who returned to Jesus is that his well-ness, his wholeness, is complete. He has been healed and accepted by God. As a man with leprosy, he would have been rejected and outcast. Furthermore he was a Samaritan, a group shunned by the Jewish people. Through his act of humility and gratitude to God he is completely restored, blessed by God, well both physically and spiritually.

Each year near the festival for St Luke, the great physician, we hold this service of Wholeness and Healing. It is a part of our ongoing ministry of prayer for healing, including the laying on of hands that we offer week by week. Today we give thanks for all that God’s healing power does for us. So it is appropriate for us to remember that as well as offering prayer and asking for healing we need to show gratitude and humility, as did Naaman and the healed leper.

Week in and out, I, like many others I am sure, witness the amazing power of prayer to sustain and give strength to people, sometimes in almost unbearably difficult situations. The prayer for healing team have been called to a special role gathering each week to pray for, and with, those in need. But the task and gift of prayer is also given to each and every one of us. And today we are inviting everyone, should they wish, to write prayer intentions. Use the papers we have handed out and bring them up when you come to the altar for communion. We can give thanks for prayers answered, pray for ourselves or for other people, for individuals, families or simply the church. We offer these prayers to God today. Then, on Wednesday evening, at our service of Peace and Prayer, we will pray all our prayers aloud. Everyone is invited to join in this prayer evening.

In our often busy and distracted secular lives humility and closeness to God do not come in the manner of instant transformation, experienced by Naaman and the leper. It takes at least six years living in community for a Benedictine monk or nun to make the spiritual journey from novitiate to full profession. So our journeys may well be and feel very long indeed. But through constancy in prayer, and an attempt to understand the freedom God gives us when we become humble to his will, we give shape to our Christian lives. Lives that in turn bring life to others, most especially those in need.

Release may come by understanding the paradox of how free and unencumbered we feel when humble to God’s will. Recognising that we can’t do everything on our own and shouldn’t try. True wholeness and healing come in giving of ourselves but also, like Namaan and the Leper, receiving in return.

© Robert Jenkins October 2007