Naaman, the commander of the army of the king of Damascus, was a leper. He was
advised to seek out Elisha, the disciple of the Hebrew prophet Elijah, who bade
him wash seven times in the river Jordan in order to be cured. Naaman did so, in
spite of misgivings, and "his flesh was restored as a little child's" (II Kings
5:1-19). As a reward Naaman offered Elisha many gifts, which the latter refused,
explaining that the cure had come only from Heaven.
advised to seek out Elisha, the disciple of the Hebrew prophet Elijah, who bade
him wash seven times in the river Jordan in order to be cured. Naaman did so, in
spite of misgivings, and "his flesh was restored as a little child's" (II Kings
5:1-19). As a reward Naaman offered Elisha many gifts, which the latter refused,
explaining that the cure had come only from Heaven.
“The Kingdom of God has come near! Repent, and believe in the Good News.”
In the first six weeks
of this new calendar year in the Liturgical Season of Epiphany we have been
reading from the Gospel of Mark. In Mark
we find a sense of – the urgency of Jesus’ message and the need to spread the
Good News and promote the Kingdom of Heaven for God’s children. Jesus tells us
and shows us what the kingdom of Heaven is like through his words and
deeds. Starting at the last Sunday in
Advent we heard John the Baptist’s declaration that he, John, was only
the precursor, someone great and powerful was coming. The first Sunday of Epiphany is Jesus’
baptism in the Jordan and God’s announcement that Jesus is his Beloved Son and
that all should listen to him. This sets the stage for the reading in the weeks
to come from the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament about the coming of
the Kingdom and God’s call to God’s people to service. The second Sunday of
Epiphany we read about Samuel in the Hebrew Scripture readings: He is a young
priest-in-training, living in the temple.
One night he keeps waking up his mentor, Eli, who was also sleeping in
the temple. Samuel thinks he hears Eli calling him several times in the night
until Eli realizes that it is not Samuel’s imagination, but God calling to
Samuel. So finally Samuel listens and he
hears God speak to him. And he becomes a trustworthy prophet of the Lord. In
the same group of readings Jesus sees Nathaniel standing under a fig tree and
declares him to be an Israelite in whom there is no deceit. Nathaniel says,
where did you get to know me? And Jesus promises him that he will do more than
see Nathaniel, he will show Nathaniel the heavens opening and the angels of God
ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. In these readings we begin to see
the theme of God calling and people hearing; God creating servants and servants
obeying God’s call to service, all the time being assured that God knows each
of us and in that knowing, calls to us, with the promise of the Kingdom of
Heaven in the background.
On Epiphany 3 we heard
the story of Jonah serving God by going to Nineveh and asking the people, great
and small, to repent of their sinful ways, to put on sackcloth and to
fast. And so surprisingly they did and
they were saved from the calamity that Jonah had warned them about, which God
had threatened. God called to his
servant and his servant Jonah reached out to the people in response and in the
end, everyone was saved from impending calamity. Meanwhile, back in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus
is gathering up his disciples and preparing for his ministry here on earth: making
fishers of people.
Two Sundays ago,
Epiphany 4, we met our first demon, also known as an unclean spirit, in Mark’s
Gospel. They were in the synagogue on the Sabbath and an unclean spirit cried
out that he knew who Jesus was “the Holy One of God” and Jesus rebuked
him. Now I looked up the word “rebuke”
because I wasn’t sure of its origins. In
the present era rebuke comes from a French word that means “chop down”. The translators of the Gospel intended to
imply that Jesus “chopped down” the demon – he didn’t just reprimand the demon
or ask him to step out, he didn’t criticize or admonish the demon. He chopped it down. The demons want Jesus to be quiet and Jesus
wants them gone. Of course this casting out of the unclean spirit makes Jesus
newsworthy and the story spreads throughout Galilee.
Last week we visited
Simon, one of the disciples, at home with his mother-in-law and family and some
other disciples. Jesus came there right after Synagogue and AT ONCE they told
him that the mother-in-law was sick in bed with a fever. “He came and lifted her up. Then the fever
left her and she began to serve them.”
Jesus healing touch directly led to her service. She didn’t linger in bed and revive herself
with some breakfast and tea. She didn’t
hesitate when she was healed of what was making her ill. She got up and starting serving “them”. Jesus heals the servant, and the servant begins
to serve.
Now today in our
readings we come to the hardest medical cases – those folks who suffer from
leprosy. Let’s move into the present day
for a moment to see how the stigma of leprosy is affecting us even today. I
have been watching a show called “House” on Netflix. Each week it features a narrative
about a person just going about their lives who is suddenly stricken with a
strange and hard to diagnose illness; which usually includes throwing up large
quantities of blood. I really like the
part where they show what is happening inside the person – like a tour ride
into their insides. I have been studying
biology, anatomy and physiology in preparation for acquiring a license as a
RD. So I am very interested when I
recognize the medical terminology on House and can figure out what they are
actually talking about. A while back I
was watching a show in the series about Hansen’s disease. House and the other doctors
discussed the symptoms of sores on the skin, breathing problems, trouble
controlling the legs and arms and eventual deformity of the fingers and toes,
as the cartilage was absorbed into the body. They called it Hansen’s disease. Hansen’s is known as Leprosy – named after
the doctor who discovered the source of this terrible infection. Leprosy is
very serious and deforming but it does not cause arms and legs to fall off
contrary to popular belief. It does cause terrible sores on the skin and damage
to the nerves. Leprosy is progressive if left untreated and the body’s natural
defenses are destroyed by the bacteria that have invaded it. Recent research suggests that there is a
defect in an individual’s immunity that causes susceptibility to Hansen's
disease. Less than ten percent of the world's population is capable of
acquiring the disease.[
Today
there is a global protocol for treating leprosy with various antibiotics, but
many still suffer because of late diagnoses and inadequate access to
healthcare. Leprosy has been around for
4000 years that we know of, and it has been only in the past century that there
was any way to treat it. Lepers have been segregated throughout history to
prevent the disease from spreading, and they lived short and miserable lives at
the mercy of an unknown bacteria. People
who had leprosy were severely stigmatized in the world of Bible times and are
still stigmatized around the world, frequently shunned from normal society.
Now the very interesting
thing about our Hebrew Scripture reading from the Second Book of Kings is that
Namaan, a mighty warrior, has leprosy.
Perhaps because of his status or power he doesn’t seem to be stigmatized
or segregated from the rest of the society.
Nevertheless, a servant girl, captured from Israel, knows of prophet Elisha
back home, who might be able to cure Namaan’s illness. So Namaan’s mentor, the king of Aram, heard
about the prophet who might be able to cure his beloved warrior in Israel and
so he sent Namaan and some servants off to the King of Israel for
treatment. The king of Israel doesn’t
seem to know anything about this cure and tears his clothes in frustration. He
finally finds the person who can help Namaan and Elisha tells Namaan to go wash
in the Jordan seven times be clean.
Namaan takes this badly, finding the prescription insultingly easy and
was set to go home when his servants convinced him it would be simple enough to
wash in the Jordan and why not give it a try?
So Namaan washed and was cured, clean and restored to the flesh of a
young boy. The servants in this story
are the catalysts for the healing power of God.
A young servant girl, captive from the land of Israel tells Namaan’s
wife about Elisha. When Namaan is about
to give up because he belittles the treatment offered the servants intervene to
push him on to try at least. God’s servant Elisha provides the healing
connection. God speaks to God’s servants
and guides them to healing action in the world.
And now to Jesus and
today’s Gospel. A leper comes to Jesus
(which is pretty brave, considering that lepers were required to stay away from
other people in Jesus’ time) and the leper humbly kneeled. Jesus is filled with
pity and compassion and reaches out and actually touches the man. Jesus touched
his deformed and sore ridden skin. And IMMEDIATELY the man was made clean.
IMMEDIATELY. How long did this
unfortunate man wait to hear the healing words and feel the healing touch? We can’t even imagine what it meant to him
and to his family. Jesus’ compassion
leads to healing service of a man who would be bitterly shunned by others.
Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him.
Today we still have
folks who suffer from leprosy in our world.
We don’t hear much talk about demons or unclean spirits, but they exist
now as well. The demons of today are the
same as the demons of yesterday – the powers opposed to God’s will still curse
the efforts of humane and loving people.
The powers opposed to God’s will disparage those who try to do good, sow
hate, feed on jealousy, greed and fear.
They split apart rather than build up.
The forces in the world on the side of God’s will and living in the
Kingdom of Heaven bless and do not curse, encourage all to a better life,
promote love, compassion and charity, draw all together in generosity. David Lose, a professor at Luther Seminary in
Minnesota says that Jesus “opposes the forces of evil which would rob the
children of God of all that God hopes and intends for us”. We listen to God’s
call to his servants and in healing the world we find our own healing.
On Sunday afternoons I
attend the worship service of Sacred Space Oakland, where a group of East Bay
Episcopalians meet to serve the people of a poor community, where people with
all kinds of illnesses – mental and physical, live separately from the rest of
the city. Many of them living on the street.
Stigmatized and shunned, maybe forgotten, in need and yet living, loving
and sharing with one another, supporting each other the best they can. One of the women in the Sacred Space last
Sunday was very drunk. Drunk and angry and
sick, too. This woman suffers from an
unclean spirit – the forces that oppose healthcare for the poor, the forces
that oppose housing and food for those who cannot provide for themselves. The
forces that degrade and deride those who are in extreme poverty or suffering
from addiction – blaming them for their own unfortunate circumstances. Tearing
down instead of building up. This drunken, sick and angry woman suffered a
seizure last Sunday afternoon in the Sacred Space and our Deacon John held her
while the fire truck and ambulance came.
He touched her and brought the healing forces of modern medicine to her –
I don’t know how it all turned out, but I do know that John and others like him
care. God has spoken to God’s people and
God’s servants will answer the call with action in the world to touch and heal,
build up and draw together God’s people so that all of God’s children can have
the life in the Kingdom of Heaven which God intends for us all.
“The Kingdom of God has come near! Repent, and believe in the Good News.”
Amen.
Mark 1:40-45
2 Kings 5:1-14
In the first six weeks
of this new calendar year in the Liturgical Season of Epiphany we have been
reading from the Gospel of Mark. In Mark
we find a sense of – the urgency of Jesus’ message and the need to spread the
Good News and promote the Kingdom of Heaven for God’s children. Jesus tells us
and shows us what the kingdom of Heaven is like through his words and
deeds. Starting at the last Sunday in
Advent we heard John the Baptist’s declaration that he, John, was only
the precursor, someone great and powerful was coming. The first Sunday of Epiphany is Jesus’
baptism in the Jordan and God’s announcement that Jesus is his Beloved Son and
that all should listen to him. This sets the stage for the reading in the weeks
to come from the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament about the coming of
the Kingdom and God’s call to God’s people to service. The second Sunday of
Epiphany we read about Samuel in the Hebrew Scripture readings: He is a young
priest-in-training, living in the temple.
One night he keeps waking up his mentor, Eli, who was also sleeping in
the temple. Samuel thinks he hears Eli calling him several times in the night
until Eli realizes that it is not Samuel’s imagination, but God calling to
Samuel. So finally Samuel listens and he
hears God speak to him. And he becomes a trustworthy prophet of the Lord. In
the same group of readings Jesus sees Nathaniel standing under a fig tree and
declares him to be an Israelite in whom there is no deceit. Nathaniel says,
where did you get to know me? And Jesus promises him that he will do more than
see Nathaniel, he will show Nathaniel the heavens opening and the angels of God
ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. In these readings we begin to see
the theme of God calling and people hearing; God creating servants and servants
obeying God’s call to service, all the time being assured that God knows each
of us and in that knowing, calls to us, with the promise of the Kingdom of
Heaven in the background.
On Epiphany 3 we heard
the story of Jonah serving God by going to Nineveh and asking the people, great
and small, to repent of their sinful ways, to put on sackcloth and to
fast. And so surprisingly they did and
they were saved from the calamity that Jonah had warned them about, which God
had threatened. God called to his
servant and his servant Jonah reached out to the people in response and in the
end, everyone was saved from impending calamity. Meanwhile, back in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus
is gathering up his disciples and preparing for his ministry here on earth: making
fishers of people.
Two Sundays ago,
Epiphany 4, we met our first demon, also known as an unclean spirit, in Mark’s
Gospel. They were in the synagogue on the Sabbath and an unclean spirit cried
out that he knew who Jesus was “the Holy One of God” and Jesus rebuked
him. Now I looked up the word “rebuke”
because I wasn’t sure of its origins. In
the present era rebuke comes from a French word that means “chop down”. The translators of the Gospel intended to
imply that Jesus “chopped down” the demon – he didn’t just reprimand the demon
or ask him to step out, he didn’t criticize or admonish the demon. He chopped it down. The demons want Jesus to be quiet and Jesus
wants them gone. Of course this casting out of the unclean spirit makes Jesus
newsworthy and the story spreads throughout Galilee.
Last week we visited
Simon, one of the disciples, at home with his mother-in-law and family and some
other disciples. Jesus came there right after Synagogue and AT ONCE they told
him that the mother-in-law was sick in bed with a fever. “He came and lifted her up. Then the fever
left her and she began to serve them.”
Jesus healing touch directly led to her service. She didn’t linger in bed and revive herself
with some breakfast and tea. She didn’t
hesitate when she was healed of what was making her ill. She got up and starting serving “them”. Jesus heals the servant, and the servant begins
to serve.
Now today in our
readings we come to the hardest medical cases – those folks who suffer from
leprosy. Let’s move into the present day
for a moment to see how the stigma of leprosy is affecting us even today. I
have been watching a show called “House” on Netflix. Each week it features a narrative
about a person just going about their lives who is suddenly stricken with a
strange and hard to diagnose illness; which usually includes throwing up large
quantities of blood. I really like the
part where they show what is happening inside the person – like a tour ride
into their insides. I have been studying
biology, anatomy and physiology in preparation for acquiring a license as a
RD. So I am very interested when I
recognize the medical terminology on House and can figure out what they are
actually talking about. A while back I
was watching a show in the series about Hansen’s disease. House and the other doctors
discussed the symptoms of sores on the skin, breathing problems, trouble
controlling the legs and arms and eventual deformity of the fingers and toes,
as the cartilage was absorbed into the body. They called it Hansen’s disease. Hansen’s is known as Leprosy – named after
the doctor who discovered the source of this terrible infection. Leprosy is
very serious and deforming but it does not cause arms and legs to fall off
contrary to popular belief. It does cause terrible sores on the skin and damage
to the nerves. Leprosy is progressive if left untreated and the body’s natural
defenses are destroyed by the bacteria that have invaded it. Recent research suggests that there is a
defect in an individual’s immunity that causes susceptibility to Hansen's
disease. Less than ten percent of the world's population is capable of
acquiring the disease.[
Today
there is a global protocol for treating leprosy with various antibiotics, but
many still suffer because of late diagnoses and inadequate access to
healthcare. Leprosy has been around for
4000 years that we know of, and it has been only in the past century that there
was any way to treat it. Lepers have been segregated throughout history to
prevent the disease from spreading, and they lived short and miserable lives at
the mercy of an unknown bacteria. People
who had leprosy were severely stigmatized in the world of Bible times and are
still stigmatized around the world, frequently shunned from normal society.
Now the very interesting
thing about our Hebrew Scripture reading from the Second Book of Kings is that
Namaan, a mighty warrior, has leprosy.
Perhaps because of his status or power he doesn’t seem to be stigmatized
or segregated from the rest of the society.
Nevertheless, a servant girl, captured from Israel, knows of prophet Elisha
back home, who might be able to cure Namaan’s illness. So Namaan’s mentor, the king of Aram, heard
about the prophet who might be able to cure his beloved warrior in Israel and
so he sent Namaan and some servants off to the King of Israel for
treatment. The king of Israel doesn’t
seem to know anything about this cure and tears his clothes in frustration. He
finally finds the person who can help Namaan and Elisha tells Namaan to go wash
in the Jordan seven times be clean.
Namaan takes this badly, finding the prescription insultingly easy and
was set to go home when his servants convinced him it would be simple enough to
wash in the Jordan and why not give it a try?
So Namaan washed and was cured, clean and restored to the flesh of a
young boy. The servants in this story
are the catalysts for the healing power of God.
A young servant girl, captive from the land of Israel tells Namaan’s
wife about Elisha. When Namaan is about
to give up because he belittles the treatment offered the servants intervene to
push him on to try at least. God’s servant Elisha provides the healing
connection. God speaks to God’s servants
and guides them to healing action in the world.
And now to Jesus and
today’s Gospel. A leper comes to Jesus
(which is pretty brave, considering that lepers were required to stay away from
other people in Jesus’ time) and the leper humbly kneeled. Jesus is filled with
pity and compassion and reaches out and actually touches the man. Jesus touched
his deformed and sore ridden skin. And IMMEDIATELY the man was made clean.
IMMEDIATELY. How long did this
unfortunate man wait to hear the healing words and feel the healing touch? We can’t even imagine what it meant to him
and to his family. Jesus’ compassion
leads to healing service of a man who would be bitterly shunned by others.
Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him.
Today we still have
folks who suffer from leprosy in our world.
We don’t hear much talk about demons or unclean spirits, but they exist
now as well. The demons of today are the
same as the demons of yesterday – the powers opposed to God’s will still curse
the efforts of humane and loving people.
The powers opposed to God’s will disparage those who try to do good, sow
hate, feed on jealousy, greed and fear.
They split apart rather than build up.
The forces in the world on the side of God’s will and living in the
Kingdom of Heaven bless and do not curse, encourage all to a better life,
promote love, compassion and charity, draw all together in generosity. David Lose, a professor at Luther Seminary in
Minnesota says that Jesus “opposes the forces of evil which would rob the
children of God of all that God hopes and intends for us”. We listen to God’s
call to his servants and in healing the world we find our own healing.
On Sunday afternoons I
attend the worship service of Sacred Space Oakland, where a group of East Bay
Episcopalians meet to serve the people of a poor community, where people with
all kinds of illnesses – mental and physical, live separately from the rest of
the city. Many of them living on the street.
Stigmatized and shunned, maybe forgotten, in need and yet living, loving
and sharing with one another, supporting each other the best they can. One of the women in the Sacred Space last
Sunday was very drunk. Drunk and angry and
sick, too. This woman suffers from an
unclean spirit – the forces that oppose healthcare for the poor, the forces
that oppose housing and food for those who cannot provide for themselves. The
forces that degrade and deride those who are in extreme poverty or suffering
from addiction – blaming them for their own unfortunate circumstances. Tearing
down instead of building up. This drunken, sick and angry woman suffered a
seizure last Sunday afternoon in the Sacred Space and our Deacon John held her
while the fire truck and ambulance came.
He touched her and brought the healing forces of modern medicine to her –
I don’t know how it all turned out, but I do know that John and others like him
care. God has spoken to God’s people and
God’s servants will answer the call with action in the world to touch and heal,
build up and draw together God’s people so that all of God’s children can have
the life in the Kingdom of Heaven which God intends for us all.
“The Kingdom of God has come near! Repent, and believe in the Good News.”
Amen.
Mark 1:40-45
2 Kings 5:1-14
