Today's reading from Mark may seem like “Once upon a time, far, far
away and long, long ago...." At
that time people made a direct connection between a physical ailment and
sin. If a person was afflicted with an
ailment, in this case leprosy, it was presumed to be punishment for some sin
the person had committed.
So sickness - especially a sickness like leprosy, carried with it a double whammy
- not only were you, and all that you touched, presumed to be physically
contagious - and thus to be avoided - but also you were seen as morally or
spiritually inferior - as cursed. The community, after all, needed protection,
not just from the possibility of physical contagion, but from moral corruption
as well.
So it was, once upon a time, far, far away and long, long ago, those with leprosy
or any skin disease that might turn out to be leprosy, were expelled from the
community. Lepers were to "dwell apart", that
they were to live outside the camp of the people. To live where they are not
allowed to touch, to hug, to embrace those they knew and loved. To live in such
a way that anything that they touched, or carried, or worked on, could only be
shared by others in the same position as they. To be utterly dependant on the
charity - provided at a safe distance - of others. To have to
announce their presence to others, their danger to others, by crying out
"unclean, unclean" whenever they drew near.
When lepers - or those suspected of leprosy - recovered from their disease, they had to go through elaborate rites of
purification so that they might rejoin the community - and in rejoining the
community recover their identity … their sense of being one of God's
people … their sense of being loved
and of being worthy of being loved.
One commentator has suggested that maybe one reason Jesus responded the leper's
cry in today's Gospel story is because he identified with the man's condition.
Jesus too would be an outcast from his family and people. He would, in effect, be declared
"unclean" and cast out of the city to be executed. When he, at the end of his ministry, was
"examined" by the priests, he was found to be unacceptable, to be not
a true member of the people, to be not worthy of either God's love or the
community's. Just as the lepers dressed
like corpses in their "treatments", ritually dying and being reborn,
so Christ died, and was wrapped in a shroud, and after a period of time, he was
reborn to a new life, a new life with a new community of believers gathered
around him, a community which not only accepts him and loves him, but is loved
and accepted by him.
In the gospel reading today Jesus cured the leper with a word and a touch. In other miracles that we read about in the
gospel narratives we see that a word was sufficient for a cure. And surely it was here as well. But in this story concerning the leper Jesus
did the unthinkable - he touched the leper - he bridged the gap between what was
clean and what was unclean – he made himself, in many eyes, unclean along
with the leper.
By his touch Jesus made himself one with the leper - indeed his touch identified
him with all lepers and with all who are unclean. He was one with them - in effect, because of
his touch he bore their sin, he bore their contagion, he claimed their
uncleanness - as his own.
Yet - as we know - with the word and the touch - rather than Jesus becoming unclean
- the leper became clean. Is our society so very different than that of ancient
In our society, to paraphrase Vince Lombardi, "looks aren't everything,
they are the only thing."
I was standing at the checkout line of our local supermarket the other day looking
at the magazine covers next to me. Angelina
Jolie and Brad Pitt were on practically every
cover. Now I don’t have anything
personally against Angelina and Brad. In
fact, I understand that they are vitally involved with a number of organizations
that fight world hunger and that Brad has established the “Make it Right Foundation” which builds eco-friendly homes and playgrounds
in the Lower 9th Ward district of New Orleans. I think that is wonderful and I hope that
many other celebreties join his cause. But they weren’t featured on those
magazine covers becaues of their generosity…they
were splashed across the news stand because of they way they look. Now I also don’t have anything
personally against the way Brad (and Angelina for that matter) look either.
But none of us in that grocery store line came anywhere close to
looking like them. We were the too fat,
the too short, the too tall, the too skinny, the too young, the too old, the
too bald, and the too hairy. We - or our types at least - are not good enough
to be on the covers of magazines. We are
not the ideal type, we lack something... something
perhaps we can be sold if we just purchase that magazine. But there are other, perhaps more serious
judgments that we make, judgments that can cause people to become outcasts and
to suffer from isolation - even when the judgment later proves to be false.
Who can live down an accusation of child abuse. Who
can really live a normal life in the community if he or she is known to be HIV
positive? Who can really walk about as one of us in this age of the war against
terrorism if they come from the wrong ethnic group - if they wear the wrong
clothes - or have the wrong skin color.
Jesus' love, exhibited in today's miracle, offers us something different from
the usual way we are treated and judged. We are accepted, not because our skin
is perfect or our spirits unblemished, but because he has entered our condition
and he knows our needs - and our weakness. We are accepted because he knows us
as God's children … as his brothers and sisters … no matter what
facade - what exterior - is present … no matter what sin, what fear
… what interior blemish exists.
And he reaches out to touch us … he reaches out to make us whole …to
restore us to the relationships that we should have …the relationship we
should have with God - and with ourselves - with our community - with our
neighbors.
That is what Jesus is all about. That is what our Communion Service
celebrates. Here he touches us, here he
makes us clean, here he restores us to one another.
I notice these days how many people hug when greeting one another. Not just in this church - which has some
exceptional huggers, but beyond these doors as well. I particularly notice it among men. It's far from universal, but it is much more
than I remember it when I was young. Men
used to shake hands, now they give each other a hug. My best friend in
But there are lots of people who never get touched much less hugged. Older
people say they don't get touched as much as they used to by friends and family
members. People with AIDS also report
that they don't get touched as much as they used to before they became HIV
positive. A young man I visited during my hospital chaplaincy called himself a
Leper because his own family regarded him as unclean. It broke my heart to learn that he had died
alone.
There are people we avoid touching in other ways. Michael Kirwan, a
long time member of the Catholic Worker community in Washington, DC, and highly
respected for his work feeding and
caring for the homeless in that city once told the story of how he began his
work. Catch the leper tale here:
"One night as I brought down a large gallon jug of split pea soup and set
it down on the cement block near the heating vent where the homeless gathered,
a rather rough looking fellow picked up his bowl of soup and, in one motion, broke
it over my head.... "Instead of
running away, I asked the man why he had done that. These were probably the
first words I had ever spoken to any of them.
He told me I was doing nothing more than bringing food to the dogs. I
was bringing food, setting it down like I was feeding them out of a pet dish
and then just walking away. He said,
'Talk to us. Visit us. We don't bite.'"
Michael did begin visiting.
"What happened that night, he said, 'was that a first barrier had been
broken in my perceptions of who homeless people
are. I realized that these men and women
on the street had feelings, just like me.
They wanted to be loved and respected and listened to. They cared that
someone cared about them, but jut giving food and a blanket was not
enough." For the rest of his long
ministry Michael Kirwan's constant message was this: "It
is in community that we find love, and in love there is no ending.
A leper came to Jesus begging him, and kneeling he said to him, "If you choose,
you can make me clean." Moved with
pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I do
choose. Be made clean!
Jesus reaches out today to us. As he stretched out his hand to the leper and
touched him and made him whole - so he stretched out his hands on the cross to
make us whole. He took upon himself the sin and moral impurity that we have, he
became unclean in the eyes of the law that we might be made clean, he allowed
himself to be rejected so that those who are rejected might be accepted.
The point is: we are forgiven, every last one of us. God's love is there,
waiting for us, at all times in our life. God’s arms are reaching out to
us, God wills - God chooses - to make us clean.
We don't have to persuade God to forgive us...forgiveness is offered freely. All we have to do is call out ... all we need
to do is ask ... "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean"
Jesus reaches out to us today. He bids
us to come to him. He chooses to touch us and to make us part of his family,
his community, his church and he calls us to touch others with his love …to
touch them … and to bring them into communion with him …and with
all who call on upon his name.
Be at peace with God - and with one another…take the hands of the people
near to you … hug your neighbor … let them know that God loves them
… and that you love them …and that together you are forgiven
… together you are one body in Christ.
May we pray?
God of our salvation, we come to you, as the leper came to Jesus, longing to
be made clean; longing for the world to be cleansed of warfare, oppression and
greed; longing for communities to be cleansed of intolerance, materialism and
violence; longing for our lives to be cleansed of selfishness, indifference and
sin. God of our salvation, we come to you. We want to be united in love with you and
with one another. Touch us and make us
whole, ourselves - and our world. Amen.
Mary Anne Biggs, Pastor
Nekoosa United
Nekoosa