The Sixth Sunday after Epiphany
Year B

I am a Leper

Readings: 2 Kings 5:1-14 & Mark 1:40-45

Namaan is a great and powerful man.  He is a general in the Syrian army and the Syrians are occupying Palestine.  He is famous, well-respected, rich, a man of position.  He is used to being obeyed.  But like every one of us, he has a weakness.  He suffers from leprosy.  His is not the terrible disease that would have seen him banished from society, but nevertheless it hampers him.  He knows that some day he may be forced to live in seclusion.     

He has been told by one of the captive Hebrew girls that there is a prophet named Elisha in Palestine who will cure him.  He gets his retinue together, gets a lot of gifts and appears at the prophet’s door expecting an amazing cure. 

But the prophet doesn’t come out to him.  He sends a messenger instead.  Here he is, expecting bells and whistles and what does he get?  A mere messenger!  And what does the messenger have the nerve to tell him to do?  “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times.” The muddy, polluted Jordan! He thinks of the beautiful sparkling rivers of Syria and becomes enraged.  He turns on his heels to go home. 

His servants speak to him.  “What if he had told you to do something difficult?  Would you have done it?”  They finally talk him into it.  Down he goes to the Jordan, immerses himself seven times, and comes out of that muddy water cleaner than he has ever been in his life. 

A leper comes to Jesus.  This is not the powerful Namaan coming with riches demanding a cure.  This man is one of the walking dead.  He comes groveling, on hands and knees, begging Jesus for a cure.  His only hope lies in the special intervention of God.  Jesus reaches out and touches him.  That touch is the healing touch of God.  He is made clean. 

What is our leprosy?  We all have strengths and weaknesses, gifts and wounds.  Where do we seek help?  Like Namaan we need to admit to our leprosy and do what we must to become whole.  We need to stop being so caught up in our own importance and start reach out for help.  We must acknowledge our need.  Once we have dealt with the leprosy in our own lives we will be able to reach out to the lepers in our society. 

There are lepers in our society, people we shun out of fear or ignorance.  I spent a summer doing a course in Chaplaincy during my theological studies.  During our orientation one of the hospital nurses explained how important hygiene was.  She told us that we should wash our hands carefully both before and after visiting a patient.  I went to make a visit on one of the wards assigned to me.  My patient was dying of AIDS.  I washed my hands thoroughly before I entered the room.  I went in and stood as far away from his bed as I possibly could.  I introduced myself, spent a couple of minutes talking to him and then fled the room.  That is when I really washed.  I scrubbed my hands.  No amount of scrubbing could make me feel clean.  Where did the fear come from?  I knew that I could not catch AIDS from visiting with him or talking to him.  But I was filled with fear.   

I spent some time in reflection about the visit.  I realized that I had hurt him badly.  I knew that I had to something about it.  I finally went back to his room.  This time I went over and took his hand.  I asked him to forgive me for treating him like a leper.  I listened to his story.   We cried together about all that he had lost –the love of his life who had already died, the friends who had deserted him during his time of need, the family that refused to acknowledge him even knowing that he was close to death.  We prayed together.  Over the course of the summer I got to know him as a friend.  We talked together about life and death and faith.  We laughed.  We cried.  We planned his funeral.  It was the first funeral I ever conducted.  I am grateful for what he taught me about my own weaknesses and fears.  I am grateful for what he taught me about compassion.   

Elisha did not touch Namaan, but God reached out in healing.  Jesus broke down the barriers and taboos as he reached out and touched the untouchable with love.  We too need to reach out and touch if we are to live out our mission statement.  It is the work of this church.  It may require risk on our part.  Openness means being willing to do things we cannot imagine doing.  Can we pray each day?  Can we spend ten minutes a day reading the Scripture?  Can we look at the horror in the world and then do something about it?  Can we touch someone’s live and in some small way make a difference?  We must, for how else are we to be effective healers in a broken world?  Like Namaan we allow God to touch us, to heal us.  Like Jesus we reach out and touch others.  God is there enabling us to bring healing to the broken lives that cross our path.  God is there strengthening us in love.  God is there renewing our lives by the presence of the Holy Spirit.  And God is there to empower us to face up to whatever challenge comes our way.