28th Sunday C

It’s a pity that the first reading today did not give us a fuller version of the story of Naaman. A well-to-do Syrian, suffering from leprosy – the link with the Gospel passage – he hears from an Israelite slave girl about a prophet who lives in Samaria. This is Elisha, and willing to go to any length to find a cure, Naaman gets the king of Syria to write a letter to the king of Israel asking him to arrange for him to see Elisha. All the prophet does, however, is send a message telling Naaman to go and bathe seven times in the Jordan, something which angers Naaman. He had expected to be treated like the important person he was in Syria and complains that there are plenty of rivers at home he could have bathed in. But, persuaded by his servants, he goes to the Jordan, bathes there seven times, and, of course is cured. As a result, as we heard in our much shortened version of the story, he gathers as much soil from Israel as two mules can carry and vows that he will no longer offer sacrifice to any god except the Lord. This, of course, is the whole point of the story: to demonstrate the absolute superiority of the God of Israel over the gods of the surrounding nations, an important message in its own day, but one which is, nevertheless, a classic example of religion over faith, an attitude that still, sadly, goes on in the world today as religions continue to compete with each other in ways which often overflow into violence.

And we see signs of it in the Gospel passage too, especialy if we read between the lines. Generally, Jews did not associate with Samaritans. We know that. Ever since they had been invaded from the north in the eighth century BC and had inter-married with the gentiles they had been despised by the Jews of the south around Jerusalem. They lacked religious and racial purity and so were treated as outcasts. It would appear, however - since nine of them were Jews and one was a Samaritan - that being lepers together had enabled this group to overcome these ancient prejudices. Suffering has always brought people together and it would appear to have done so here too. Once they were cured, however, all that togetherness seems to have disappeared and the Samaritan, no longer joined to the others by their common suffering, finds himself an outcast again, the reason, I would suggest, why he alone comes back to give thanks. Religious prejudice is deep in all of us and is one of the great tragedies of history. Which brings me to something very important that has happened here in the parish recently.

It began earlier this year when I answered to the door to find a young Pakistani man standing there. My initial thought was that he was looking for help. Most young people who come to my door are. And indeed he was, except that it wasn’t the kind of help I am used to. He told me that the Moslem community in Kilmarnock was having great difficulty finding a place in the town to meet for prayer and wondered if there was any possibility of them using our hall. Well, for me, it was one of those moments when ‘the child in my womb leapt for joy.’ I knew at once what my answer was and assured him that they would be most welcome. Within two weeks they were meeting at lunchtime on a Friday for prayer, and for the last month, during Ramadan, they have been coming in every night around 9.30, something that came to a climax yesterday morning when the hall was packed with men, women and children celebrating the Islamic festival of Eid, a great day in the Moslem world which brings Ramadan to an end and commemorates the sacrifice of Abraham. And as the prayer finished, they invited me into the hall where they gave me an Eid gift, their equivalent of a christmas present, and both the Iman and myself said a few words. He thanked me for allowing them in. I assured them that they were most welcome. And we both talked about our hope that this would lead to closer links and closer cooperation in the future.

But, of course, this involves you too. Religious and racial prejudice of the kind which lies behind today’s readings from both the Old and the New Testaments is widespread in this country, especially against the Moslem community. The gutter Press encourage it and some politicians, sadly, pander to it. But it has no justification and can have no place in the heart of any of us here. Far too often today, people in Britain see a Moslem or Asian face and they think ‘terrorist.’ We must resist this at all costs. The people who come here to pray every Friday are good decent people, no more terrorists than we are. Or, to be more accurate, no more terrorists than we were in the days, not so long ago, when, to be a Catholic or an Irishman was, in some people’s minds, to be an IRA terrorist. We must resist this like the plague, remove every trace of it from our minds and stand up against it whenever it rears its ugly head around us. And I hope and pray that this whole community will do that and join me in welcoming the Moslem community of Kilmarnock here to St Matthew’s.

That’s not to say, of course, that there are not differences between us. We worship the same God but not all our beliefs are the same. For christians Jesus as God living among us. Moslems see him as no more than a great prophet. And there are cultural differences too. The world from which Islam comes, to give one obvious example, has a very different attitude to women than we do and it is difficult at the moment to see how these two views can be reconciled. But the important thing is to try to understand and respect individual people even when they think differently from ourselves. And, of course, there are those on the fanatical fringes who use religion as an excuse for violence and terrorism. There always have been, christianity being no exception, but we must never fall into the trap of tarring everyone with the same brush.

A few days ago 138 top Islamic scholars wrote a letter to christian leaders saying that the future of the world depended on the world’s religions working together. If they are right, then I invite you to thank God today that this parish is part of that process. But even more importantly: look into your own heart and your own attitudes. Are you yourself part of it?



BIDDING PRAYERS


Prejudice and bigotry are deep within human nature. Since the beginning we have defined ourselves by who we are not rather than by who we are. We are not the people from the next village, so we fight them. We are not the people from the tribe over the hill, so we make up stories which justify our hating them. We speak a different language from others and so we decide we don’t like them. And so we pray that, in the third millennium, the world will finally move beyond these fundamentally primitive ways of thinking………………………..Lord hear us

Prejudice and bigotry has always been particularly bad whn it has taken on a religious character. Down through the ages religious prejudice and the persecutions which have gone with it have caused immense suffering to millions of people. The history of our own country, Scotland, has been riddled with them. And so we ask God for the grace we need to recognize signs of this still at work in ourselves so that, as individuals and as a nation, we can begin to break free from of it……….Lord hear us

The most serious religious conflicts in history have involved at least two of the great world religions we know as Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Sometimes all three have been involved and sometimes only two, but the suffering and pain caused down through the ages has been immense. Much of it has centred on the Middle East, especially Jerusalem, and we pray that all those involved will finally find a solution to the problems which have bedevilled that city for so long……………...Lord hear us

One of the consequences of our imperial past is that we have a large Asian population, many of whom are followers of Islam. Many of them, especially here in Scotland, are second, third or even fourth generation immigrants and so are as Scottish we are. A number of us here are also the result of immigration in the past, especially those of Irish or Italian origin. And so we pray for the grace to be open to new immigrants and rejoice in the richnes they bring…………………....Lord hear us

In Jesus’ time, those who suffered from leprosy were the social outcasts of the day. They were not allowed to live in the towns and had to survive in groups away from where people lived. Everyone was afraid of them and tried to avoid coming into contact with them in the same way we do with the outcasts of our own day. And yet Jesus reached out to them, even doing the unthinkable and touching them. And so we pray for the grace we need to be more like Jesus in this respect………….Lord hear us

Only one of the lepers who was cured came back to thank Jesus. And so we ask God to stir in us, through the power of the Spirit, a deep sense of gratitude for all the good things we have received. We pray especially for the insight we need to recognize and appreciate the people in our lives who love, help and support us so that, from time to time at least, we can show our gratitude to them………………………....Lord hear us