Don’t Get Hooked

I have always loved Mark Twain’s famous line, “ “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so. “ 

Today’s readings tell the story of Naaman the Syrian (from the Hebrew scriptures) which Jesus then uses as a wake-up call for his hearers.

Naaman is an “outsider” (meaning he is not Jewish) and is a great warrior (for a kingdom that was at war with Israel). Naaman is also affected by leprosy. So Naaman’s king sends him to the king of Israel, hoping that he can cure him (because the god of Israel is renowned to be a mighty god). The king thinks it’s some kind of trick. But Elisha, the prophet of God, says, “Hold up. Let me meet with him.” So Naaman meets with Elisha who tells him to go wash in the Jordan River seven times. Naaman gets angry because he just can’t believe that this is going to work. His family convinces him otherwise, and he goes to wash – and is cured! He and his entire crew of people go back to Elisha and proclaim the greatness of God.

Fast forward to Jesus who is at the start of his ministry and already encountering some serious resistance and reaction to his ministry. He is preaching and teaching and is facing one of his toughest crowds – those who know him! And so he says his famous line, “No prophet is accepted in his native place,”  and then goes on to give examples!

I saw a Twitter (X) post recently that said, “My partner asked me if they do anything that annoys me and then got all offended when I started the powerpoint presentation!”

Well, Jesus is giving a powerpoint presentation. And so he tells the story of Elijah and says that back in the time of Elijah the prophet (1 Kings 17), there were a lot of widows’ houses that Elijah could have chosen to stay in. But Elijah chose an outsider’s house (knowing she would have great faith) as the place to do his miracle. Then he cites the story of Naaman, another outsider who did as he was asked to do, and was healed.

The people are enraged because they get the point of the story. And they want to do him harm. It’s hard to say exactly what a corresponding “insult” might be to the egos of the folks reading this, but I think you get the point. The people feel some feelings. Somehow Jesus escapes, and his point was made. But so was theirs!

What do we do with information that comes our way that contradicts what we “know for sure” about ourselves (or our group/collective)? How do we learn to lean into our defensiveness or emotional reactivity?

I find today’s readings very powerful because they are so personal. Just like in the time of Jesus, things are happening around us that are from God but do not look, smell, taste or feel like what we expected to be from God. And so we dismiss them or reject them because we can’t get past our own narrative and let in new information. Or, as I mentioned in a prior post, we’re so stuck in a single-story about another person or group that we just can’t let any other information in about them (or about ourselves)

One place to start in our spiritual life is to ask, “What do I take offense at and get really triggered by?”

Buddhist teacher Pema Chodron says that The Tibetan word for this is shenpa. It is usually translated “attachment,” but a more descriptive translation might be “hooked.” When shenpa hooks us, we’re likely to get stuck….” Chodron goes on to say that shenpa represents our human tendency to “close down” when something new comes our way because it might feel threatening somehow (or to some aspect of our identity or sense of belonging that we are attached to). 

The remedy, she counsels, is meditative practice or prayer. In this process we work to develop seeing more clearly – both in terms of noticing what our attachment is as well as working to see what is true in the present moment (that may have been hard for us to accept or let in).

In the musical Godspell, the song Day By Day says, “Oh, dear Lord, three things I pray: To see thee more clearly, to love thee more dearly, to follow thee more nearly.”

In order to follow God more nearly in this world, we do need to see more clearly – with the eyes of the heart. And in order to do this, we must learn to work with our own defensiveness and attachments that keep us stuck. God is ever trying to do something new (Isaiah 43) in our life and in the world, and in order to be prepared for it, we must develop a capacity to let that newness in somehow. That may mean letting go of old ideas that held us back. It may mean accepting that we said or did something wrong and need to make amends for it. It may mean forgiving someone and not carrying that anger any longer. It may mean that we have to accept a ‘hard truth’ that brings us into greater alignment with what is real.

Whatever it may be, something will come your way this week that temps you to give in to shenpa. Don’t get hooked