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SERMONS:
Pastor Peg posts her two most recent sermons on this page. If you are interested in reading more of her sermons you can go to pastorpeg.wordpress.com. Currently our sermon series is: Unknown Heroes and Heroines of the Bible. Enjoy.
Unknown but Still God’s Messenger
August 3, 2027 8th Sunday of Pentecost Communion
2 Kings 5:1-21
Naaman is one of those stories that Sunday school teachers use to illustrate that if you overcome your stubbornness and just take a risk and believe in God, you might find that your prayers are answered.
The two main characters in the story are Elisha and Naaman. Elisha is the main prophet in the northern state of Israel who is well known for his miracles. Naaman is the accomplished general of the country of Aram which is located to the north of Israel. Apparently Naaman has secured the borders of Aram and the king is very grateful to him because of this. Probably during border skirmishes Naaman ventured into the territory of Israel, and this is when he captured a young Israeli girl who he has given to his wife as a maid servant. But Naaman, for all his greatness and tactical genius has a problem; he’s developed leprosy.
Leprosy is a very lonely disease. The ancients didn't know how to cure it, and they knew that it was contagious. The way they controlled it was to isolate people that had the disease.
Now I think that Naaman and his wife were probably very nice people. I say this because the Israeli serving girl says: Oh, if only my master could meet the prophet of Samaria, he would be healed of his skin disease. She has compassion for Naaman and would like him to be healed. This tells me that Naaman and his wife have probably treated her very well. After all, you don't tell someone who has mistreated you that there is a possible cure out there for a serious disease that you have.
Naaman is so excited at this possible cure that he gets the blessing of his king to go to Israel to find the prophet. The Israeli king of course suspects that this is all a ploy to start a war, but Elisha tells him not to worry and to send Naaman over to him.
Once Naaman arrives at Elisha's house, Elisha’s servant greets him and gives him the message to go and bathe seven times in the river Jordan. Naaman gets really upset because this is not the answer or the treatment that he thought he was going to get. He even says, I thought the guy would come out and greet me and wave his hands over me and the leprosy would be cured. He has the definite idea about how things should be done. Not only that, he disparages the river Jordan and talks about how much better the rivers are in his country.
But let's not be too upset at Naaman. We've all been like that. We have a situation in life that we think is going to be terribly difficult to take care of, and then somebody tells us that it's really not that difficult, all you have to do is XYZ. And of course we don't believe them. This has just got to be much more difficult than everybody is telling me.
Naaman is about to go off in a huff when his servant says: “Father, if the prophet had asked you to do something hard and heroic, wouldn’t you have done it? So why not this simple ‘wash and be clean’? This is a voice of reason. It is amazing how as humans we can psych ourselves out of solutions by either believing that something is too difficult or believing that something is too easy. When actually we should just be doing it, and then we'll find out how truly hard or how truly easy it is.
So Naaman goes down to the river Jordan. Now on the cover of our bulletin I have given you a picture of the river Jordan, so that you can see how small it is; it's kind of like the West Delaware. If it's not raining a lot, it's not that big, although I understand that the river Jordan is very deep in some places. But you can see why Naaman might not have been so impressed with the idea of washing and being cured in such a small river.
But what has he got to lose? So he goes down, washes seven times and he finds himself all clean. This miracle so impresses him that he decides that from now on he is going to worship the God of Israel.
Now usually when we preach on this story Naaman is the main focus. But since our sermon series is about unlikely heroes and heroines of the Bible we want to focus on the unlikely hero and heroine of this story: The two servants.
Servants weren't very significant people back then. In fact, the term servant could mean a servant who is paid; an indentured servant who is required to work for someone until they pay off a debt; or even a slave, someone who own and don't have to pay at all. Servants didn't have a lot of power. Pretty much you were there to make sure that your employers or masters were well taken care of. And if your employer or master wasn't satisfied with your work you could legally be physically punished or even killed.
So, in this story we have two people who essentially have no power and yet they have a lot of influence.
The serving girl tells Naaman, through his wife, that there is someone out there who can cure him of his disease. She is an evangelist who is telling Naaman, a gentile outside of her religion, that there is a great power connected to her God and his prophets. She is sharing the Old Testament Good News. This young girl, one of the least socially powerful people, is instrumental in bringing Naaman to his healing and then to God. And she does it through an action of generosity with her information, and an action of compassion because she cares about him. And both of those are actions of grace.
Knowing that an “insignificant” girl can bring someone of consequence into the awareness of God tells us that none of us are insignificant as evangelists. I think she's an example of how kindness can lead other people to the awareness of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Also, that God doesn't waste any of our actions of kindness.
The second servant in this story is the one who tells Naaman that he should just go ahead and try what the prophet has told them to do. Now since Naaman was a general I've always imagined that this servant is a soldier who has served under him and is someone who Naaman trusts. I think this trust is why he’s able to confront Naaman and point out that his dismissive attitude isn't going to get him anywhere. There's a little bit of a challenge in the servant’s tone; almost a dare to go ahead and do what the prophet has told him to do.
All of us sometimes stand on our beliefs and think that we know better. Sometimes it takes somebody that you trust to break you out of that mindset. That's who the servant was. Sometimes we have to be like that to our friends or even to people that are above us. But I think trust was why Naaman listened to him.
That's something we should take to heart. Trust goes both ways. If a person in power operates fairly and ethically then people under them will trust their directions and their orders. I think that's why Naaman was a great general. You can be the best strategist in the world but if soldiers under you don't trust you, you’re not going to be an effective general.
On the other hand, a person in charge has to be able to trust that the people under them are going to do their jobs. And so, when we're in a position of employment we should show that we're trustworthy in our work. Then when we see that we need to speak up to those above us, they will trust us and listen to what we say to them, even though it might be difficult for them to hear.
Naaman was brought to and shown the greatness of God by two people who are not powerful, but who have compassion for his wellbeing, a willingness to share their faith in the possibilities that God can bring, and their willingness to speak up and guide them to a good outcome to his problem.
No matter where we stand in life’s hierarchy, we can always bring compassion, evangelism, and guidance to people who need it. And if our suggestions are done in the spirit of God’s love, people will always be led one step closer to God and His healing.
Abigail the Reconciler
July 27, 2025 7th Sunday of Pentecost
1 Samuel 25:2-20 1 Samuel 25:21-42
Abigail is one of the first female diplomates of the Bible. The Bible even says that she is very intelligent. Abigail is also listed, in Rabbinic commentaries, as one of the four most beautiful women of the Bible; the other three being Sarah, Rahab, and Esther.
Now you all know about King David. But before he was king, he was a soldier and commander under King Saul. Saul even allowed David to marry his daughter Michal; after he performed a requested feat of bravery and conquest. Unfortunately, the people admired David over Saul, and Saul was worried that David would take his throne from him. So, he arranged to have David assassinated. But Michal found out and warned David, who escaped and went on the run with a company of men who were loyal to him. Saul was so angry at Michal that he forced her to divorce David and married her to another man.
So, in this story David is not yet king. He and his soldiers were hiding from Saul, in the wilderness of Paran, which most scholars locate south of Israel in the Sinai Peninsula. Nabal and Abigail live in the area of Carmel, which is south-east of Jerusalem, along the Jordan river but north of the Dead Sea.
This is during the tribal period of Israel. Tribes owned territories with the head of the tribe as the manager of those territories. People did own land, but usually the owned land was used for agricultural purposes like growing grains, orchards, or vineyards. Within the tribal territory there was also land that was used in common by all the families in the tribe as grazing areas for their goats and sheep.
Now David and his men, were not roaming the countryside lawlessly. They were actually protecting the Israeli people from bandits and hostile tribes. Because of this the people were supporting David’s group by feeding them and providing them places to sleep.
Apparently, David had sent ten young men to Nabal’s tribal area when they were shearing their sheep, to be bodyguards for the shepherds. This would help the shepherds get the job done quickly and would prevent bandits from stealing the produce. And David’s men acted honorably. One of Nabal’s men confirms to Abigail: Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we never missed anything when we were in the fields, as long as we were with them; they were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. But when David sends some of his men to Nabal to asked for compensation for their work, which was not an unusual request, Nabal sends insults to David.
David’s reaction is: Every man strap on his sword. Okay you might think this is a bit of a knee-jerk reaction, and you would be right. Throughout David’s history his big problem is that sometimes he acts before he thinks. Don’t get me wrong, the man was a brilliant strategist and was great at bringing people together, but he had a problem with his temper, and he was always getting into trouble because of it. (It is one of the things I like about the Bible – it shows people very realistically at their best, and at their worst.) So there David goes, off to avenge his honor, with 400 men, to basically slaughter the whole male population of Nabal’s house.
Does anyone think this is a good idea? This is not a good idea. If David goes through with this, he’s going to lose all the good will that he’s been building up with the people of Israel. And he will be handing to Saul, on a silver platter, the perfect excuse to declare war on him and hunt him down to extinction. Not a good idea!
Fortunately, Nabal, who we have been told is a very surly and mean person, has an intelligent wife. I am sure that she knows about the 600 soldiers that David has under him. (He left 200 to guard the camp.) When she’s informed about what her husband did, she decides to head the situation off at the pass. Literally! She meets David and his men with two hundred loaves, two skins of wine, five sheep ready dressed, five measures of parched grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs.
Then she apologizes for her out-of-bounds husband’s behavior and begs him to accept her gift of food. She also mentions that she hopes David will turn from his path and points out that this will start a blood feud against him and bring him disgrace and dishonor. David is brought to his senses, accepts the food, and thanks Abigail for reminding him of who he is and what his mission is: To unite Israel. This act of act of revenge would have resulted in the opposite of that.
When Abigail returns home, she tells her husband what she’s done. It’s implied that her news causes him to have a heart-attack which he eventually dies from a few days later. I’m not surprised that Nabal ends up being so shocked at his close call when he finds out that he narrowly missed being set upon by 400 armed men because of his insult.
When David hears the news, he praises God for bringing the judgement upon Nabal, instead of being responsible for it. This story ends with David asking Abigail to be his wife, and she accepts. This might seem to be a bit strange for us, but it’s very possible that as a young widow, she will now lose her standing with Nabal’s family, and that they might even blame her for his death. So besides asking a beautiful, intelligent woman, who prevented him from making a terrible mistake, to marry him; David is also offering her protection. Also remember at this point that David doesn’t have a wife. Abigail becomes his principal wife after this. (He would end up having eight in total when he becomes king.)
What struck me about Abigail was the decisiveness of her actions. Once she was made aware of the problem she didn’t weep and wail about the unfairness of things. She made a decision to solve the problem and then gathered the food, rounded up her servants, and went out to stop what was going on. How many times when we find ourselves in difficult situations do we waste time complaining how unfair the world is? Abigail didn’t waste time. I’m sure she felt, Oh no. What has that husband of mine done to us this time? Now I’m going to have to clean up his mess! Maybe she spent one minute saying a few well-chosen words, but then she figured out what she could do to solve the problem. The next time I’m hit with a problem I think I’ll use her as a model, skip the complaining, and just get on with dealing with the situation.
Also, she was very brave. David was angry, and armed, and had 400 soldiers with him. There was a good chance that her household would have been cut down, especially if the food escort had been all men. But by going with them, she defused the situation. By approaching David, as a woman and the wife of Nabal, she put her life in David’s hands, which made him stop and think for a moment. It would not have looked good for David to attack an unarmed woman, with an unarmed escort, who were delivering food. Sometimes we can defuse conflict by setting up an unexpected situation on neutral ground that everyone can deal with.
Now we might think that falling down in front of someone is a little extreme, but that was how you did a sincere, apology back then. It’s a bit dramatic, but David was distracted from his anger and refocused on the apology. It wasn’t Abigail’s fault, but she decided to swallow her pride for the sake of her people. And the result was a win for both David and Abigail’s people. Sometimes we get so stuck on our own pride in a situation that we make it worse for ourselves and others. This doesn’t mean that you don’t speak truth to power – Abigail certainly did that. She pointed out to David that he was going to bring a lot of grief on himself by his actions. But she didn’t scold; she appealed to his better nature. She emphasized a positive outcome instead of a negative one, reminding him that he would become a just ruler for his people.
Facing and solving the problem; Being brave and finding a way to confront the issue effectively; Swallowing our pride so that we can work to the greater good; And emphasizing a positive outcome. Abigail gives all of us a model for problem solving in a crisis. But finally, Abigail had faith that God would work everything out, and she reminded David of that. In the end Nabal paid for his arrogance, and David eventually became king, with Rachael as his beloved queen. And I am sure – though the Bible doesn’t mention it – that she helped to keep David on a more even keel with his temper.
So, the next time a nasty problem surprises you, remember Abigail: Her resolution, cleverness, bravery, humility, and faith. I believe you’ll be guided to a better outcome that will reflect the wisdom of God and will lead to a just resolution for everyone.