December 13, 2020: As Much Dirt As You Can Handle – Dave Neuhausel

There was a belief in the Ancient Near Eastern world that the gods were local - specific to a place, a people, a nation. My god is my god over there, your god is your god right here. So if you were to travel through a nation, you were well served to offer sacrifices to the gods of whatever nation you were traveling through, because your god only had a particular region in which she could exert her power. It may sound archaic, but consider the way many churches work. We worship different gods. Some worship a god of power, some worship a god of anger, some worship a god who forgives, and we do so believing our god is the right one. Not too far off from our ancient siblings now, are we?

 

It was this kind of thinking that we see reflected in the story of Naaman. A valiant soldier from Aram who worshipped the god Rimmon. He was stricken with leprosy, which, in that time was a death sentence. He made his way to see the prophet Elisha. Upon arrival, Elisha told him to go dip in the Jordan River seven times - then he’d be healed. After some protesting, Naaman goes and does it and he is born again (his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy). Naaman then makes a curious request. He asks Elisha to give him dirt to bring home with him. Wha’?! Why would one do that?

One would do that to bring the God of Elisha home with him, because if the gods had zip codes, then bring some of the zip code with you! But one more thing, Naaman says, “When my master enters the temple of Rimmon to bow down and he is leaning on my arm and I have to bow there also - when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the Lord forgive your servant for this.” Elisha’s response, “Go in your wholeness.” Things admittedly get blurry here - boundaries, who is being worshipped and the actual location of God. Perhaps, we may have eyes to see that God is always right here, right now.