Sermon February 12, 2012

2 Kings 5:1-14

Psalm 30

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Mark 1:40-45

“Healing Presence”

All of the texts today remark on the physical: physical disease, the nearness of death, athletic prowess and exercise, and restoration to health. And though they are truly concerned with the physical: the emotional, the spiritual, individually and communally cannot be completely separate experiences.

Personally, I have never been ill with anything that seriously threatened my life. But I know that that is a temporary situation—death is inevitable for all of us human beings. I've experienced pain—most severely, I've had back pain that kept me in bed for about 2 weeks a few years ago. I honestly couldn't move sometimes without tears. And I've experienced emotional pain when friends have hurt me; I've experienced mental pain and depression; I've known the pain of loneliness and unwelcome solitude; and I've experienced the pain that comes in a family where adulthood means marriage. I also know the pain of sexual discrimination within my family, my church and in the world. And I have been loved, truly and honestly, by people in my life and by God in Jesus Christ.

Disease and pain, suffering and deadly illness have historically been reasons for rejection, causing pain even beyond the illnesses themselves. The pain of rejection that has been connected historically with disease is still a painful part of our world. People with AIDS, and other communicable diseases, even people with some forms of cancer are blamed and rejected for their conditions. Ignorance and hostility, fear and hatred cause more pain to those already suffering.

In two of the scriptures today, we hear about people who have leprosy. Biblically, leprosy could have been any skin disease that caused discoloration—even buildings could have leprosy when mold or something like that caused the walls to change color. Disease on the outside of the body was often associated with some hidden sin, an immorality of the individual or even from the parents. Pure things, clean things came in one color or were of one substance—impure things, even things called abominations, could have simply been mixtures or unexpectedly odd. Skin diseases known as leprosy might cause discoloration or scaliness, so the person might look like they had fishy skin or scales like a lizard. Modern leprosy or Hansen's disease can be more serious than other conditions they might have called leprosy in the bible.

In the bible, folks whose skin was mottled, scaly, and those who truly had Hansen's disease, were kept separate from those without those conditions because they were considered unclean. It wasn't just a matter of real contagion, passing on bacteria or viruses—but the idea that sin and evil could be experienced as physical illness and would make other sinful or evil by association. In other words, an unclean person (such as a person with leprosy) could make a clean person unclean with a simple touch. Evil rubbed off and righteousness was no protection.

In the story of the good Samaritan—in Luke's gospel—we hear how the priest and the Levite, two people who had to maintain ritual cleanness wouldn't touch an injured man for fear that he was dead and would make them ineligible to do their duty because they would be unclean.

When Jesus was approached by the man with leprosy and begged for healing—an unclean man required by society to shout, “Unclean, unclean!” whenever he saw others coming near—Jesus was, the bible says, “moved with pity.” The words used, however, could also be translated “moved with anger.” And if Jesus was angry, can you imagine who was the target of that anger—the people who suffered from disease or the people who cast them out?

Jesus had a choice—to follow the prohibitions of his society and religious law or he could make him clean. Probably moved by pity and anger, Jesus touched the unclean man and made him clean. He turned expectation on its head—when Jesus took the time to touch him, the man was clean again. When Jesus touched him, he was a part of the community again. Jesus, by his courage and his belief in justice drew him back in, instead of keeping him out.

Though it's not the exactly same, sometimes folks who do not fit into a accepted way of living are treated as if they must declare themselves to be unclean to keep from contaminating others. One of these exclusions include people who have never married and are never quite accepted, in my experience, (and in my family) as real adults. Some people are legally or culturally excluded from marriage and the very real emotional, financial and societal benefits of marriage. Some families, churches, cultures, or traditions never accept that women in any marital state are fully and responsibly adults. Even milder mental illness are still suspect in some circles. Very young people and the elderly are often excluded from any participation in decisions and conversations. Racial prejudices can make us question the legitimacy of some folks' humanity and participation in decision making, government, family responsibility and other institutions.

The majority culture might not think of all of these folks as contagious exactly, but there is a fear that broad inclusion and the idea of real equality among all human beings will somehow weaken all people. What if we allow “that” person into our lives, then what? Where “will” we draw the line? Without rules about who is in and who is out, won't there be chaos?

On the other hand, it is likely that each one of us has experienced a moment, a time, a relationship where we have known friendship and love that has redeemed us, restored us to wholeness. When we experience that connection with God in Jesus Christ, we realize that we are loved—though we are aware of our imperfections—we still know and are known to be loved. And though we come to know that love primarily through Jesus Christ, someone, somewhere in some way welcomed me, welcomed you, invited me, invited you to know that kind of love. For some it may have been family and surrounding culture, for others that kind of welcome came from someone who knew that love and saw that you didn't know it yet.

It was Jesus' willingness to be present with the leper, that gave him the opportunity, the welcome and invitation to become a part of his community again.

After Jesus made him clean, he told the man to go to the priest—according to the law of Moses—and show him his skin so that he could participate fully in his faith. Jesus never left his Jewishness behind him—this was an important part of who he was. Jesus wanted the man to be able to go to synagogue, to go to Jerusalem, to participate in scripture readings, times of prayer and community mourning. Full participation in all of those things: weddings, births, etc. required the priest's declaration of cleansing. Not to mention, that would have been a testimony to God's healing power, even without the hand of Jesus. And Jesus told him to keep it a secret, too.

This is another little quirk of Mark's gospel—Jesus told people several times in Mark not to tell anyone about their unusual experiences with Jesus—and every time, they told anyway. Scholars speculate about the reasons. Perhaps Jesus was aware that unless people had faith in what God was doing in Jesus, the action would be misunderstood as a kind proof instead of a revelation of what God was doing in the world.

But the excitement and passion that came from those encounters with Jesus seem an almost irresistible temptation. The excitement and passion that our initial experiences of God can give us a hint about the charisma of the physical presence of Jesus might have meant.

And we are meant to bring that presence with us in our lives, to carry Jesus Christ with us—imperfectly and with the brokenness of what it means to be us—but into all the lives that we touch. We can reveal in ourselves the welcome and love, the healing that we have received. When we know Jesus, we can remember and realize that the God's love, known in him can take us through all kinds of situations. We won't escape death, but we'll do it as beloved children of God. We won't escape hardship, disease, pain, betrayal, suffering and life in general, but we won't do it alone. We do it as a community of faith, welcomed here by the presence of Jesus Christ and in the power of the Spirit. We do it as redeemed and restored patients, in various states of brokenness, age, sinfulness and healing. And we do it because we are loved, all of us—all the time.

To God's glory and in God's infinite love. Amen.