6 Ordinary: February 10/11, 2024

“If someone has on their skin a scab or blotch which appears to be the sore of leprosy, they shall be brought to Aaron the priest and declared unclean.”
    This is just one of many rules to be followed in the Jewish Law when it comes to the disease of leprosy.
    Why would the writer of Leviticus and others make such a big deal of leprosy?
    Because leprosy WAS a big deal in Old Testament times.
    Not just because it was thought to be a contagious disease, but because it was also thought to be make one unfit to worship God.

    Because those with leprosy had to live apart, had to isolate themselves because their disease could effect others – not just physically - but spiritually as well.
    Leprosy was a big deal because it was a sour apple — and one sour apple can effect the whole barrel.
    And for these reasons, one had to keep their garments torn, their heads bare, and their beards muffled – or covered.
    By their dress and by their cry – lepers declared themselves unclean - and so had to live on the outskirts, in order to avoid infecting other people.

    Lepers were forced to live in exile, forced to live alone outside the towns and cities, away from their family and friends.  They joined all the other sour apples of the day – the possessed, the paralyzed, Gentiles, Samaritans, and all other unclean folks.  All living far away from the warmth and love of the community of the physically fit and the spiritually strong.

    It is important to understand the severity of the isolation which came with leprosy to truly appreciate the miracle of today’s Gospel.

    For Jesus’ miracle is not just a cure of leprosy, but Jesus also heals the wound of EXILE.
    This leper approached Jesus with the request to be cured.  And Jesus freed him from a disease which the leper had no control over.
    It was a disease that deprived him of his home, his family, his job, his neighbors – and his identity as a Jew – as a member of the chosen people of God.
    Jesus touch of healing was NOT just a physical cure - it was also an  act of liberation:  one which restored the leper’s identity and his membership in the chosen people of God.
    Jesus’ miracle removed the barriers that kept the leper apart from his community and support systems.

    In healing the leper – Jesus declares that in God’s kingdom there are no outcasts, there are no exiles, there are no sour apples:  ALL ARE WELCOME.
    It was not until the 1940s when a cure for leprosy, or Hansen’s disease as it is properly known, was found.  BUT DON’T THINK THAT WE NO LONGER HAVE LEPERS AMONG US:
    People who are forced to live apart, to isolate themselves because their problems may become our problems – they might effect us physically or spiritually - so we better stay away from them.
    It seems to me that today we have two types of lepers, two types of outcasts.
    We have the “untouchables” and we have the “forgotten.”
    The untouchables are seen to be socially inferior.  They carry a stigma – something that makes them stand out in the crowd.
    The untouchables for some are those who belong to certain ethnic or racial groups, they are our LGBTQ brothers and sisters, they are convicts and ex-cons, alcoholics, unwed mothers, the divorced and remarried.
    The other group of lepers, the forgotten – includes the homeless, the poor, the elderly, the widowed, the institutionalized, the lonely, the grieving.

    As Jesus miracle removed the barriers that kept the leper apart from his community – our compassion and understanding, our gentleness and kindness –  will remove the barriers that keep us apart from the untouchables and the forgotten.
    What does keep us, though,  from showing our modern day lepers the compassion and understanding that they need?  OUR FEAR.
    Not our fear of physical or spiritual disease so much as our fear that in reaching out to those exiled in our society – WE will become exiles – that we will suddenly lose our status with our family and friends – because they won’t understand what we are doing. . .
    Our fear of being different, our fear of being dropped out of the social circles we are used to being in –  keeps us from reaching out to the untouchables and the forgotten.
    There is no more appropriate time for us to ask – but what would Jesus do??
    Jesus would tell us to get over it.  To start seeing people with His eyes  – without the blinders of fear or distrust, without the names and labels that limit generosity and set up boundaries around those who are in – and those who are out of the kingdom of God.
    The Gospel writer’s language even suggests that we should have a healing of perception.
    This story comes at the end of a whole serie of healing miracles.
    Those who have previously been healed are identified by their diseases:
    There was a “man with an unclean spirit.”
A mother-in-law “sick with fever.”
Those who were “sick or possessed by demons.” And today “a leper.”
    Finally at the end of all of these stories, St. Mark uses the phrase, “people kept coming to Jesus from all sides.”
    NOT the diseased, not the outcasts, not lepers or the broken – but people,
    It may be a little thing – but I think it is a big distinction. 


    For our task today is not just to recognize that we are all somehow diseased and in need of healing – but our being diseased or broken makes no difference to our identity!
    We are all people, God’s people, members of God’s kingdom here on earth.
    And just as there is no limit to the reach of God’s acceptance and mercy and love – there must be no limit to our embrace.
    God’s kingdom embraces all - -not just those who are physically fit, spiritually strong, who wear the right clothes or sit in the right place. . .
    No one is excluded.  All are welcome at this altar – for all are equally healed by God – and hopefully by us –  of whatever divides us.
    We have all been lepers, exiles, outcasts, sour apples.  But we are no longer to the extent that we do not permit others or ourselves to be branded, labeled, categorized or put into a box.
    If we do not deny our freedom – if we accept God’s healing – if we do everything for the glory of God--
Then we will not be afraid to reach out and touch the u ntouchables and to remember the forgotten.  For no matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey – all are welcome.
    
    
    

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