This week’s readings are a good example of how important it is, when reading the Scriptures, to separate historical events from the faith events which happen in the course of them. Take today’s first reading from the book of Leviticus, a kind of manual for priests in Israel towards the end of the seventh century BC. Practically nothing it says is of any relevance to us today - unless, of course, you have a special interest in late seventh century priestly manuals – but what it tells us forms the background without which it is not possible to appreciate the full impact of this morning’s gospel story.The purely historical events described in the bible belong to the past, to their own time. But scattered among them are events of an entirely different kind. These events transcend time. They are not trapped in one particular moment in history. Instead, they have a universal significance, a meaning that goes far beyond the limits of time and space. They become eternal truths, truths that go the very heart of who God is and who we are. They are, in a word, faith events, and today we have a wonderful example of one.
The whole of chapter thirteen of Leviticus, from which today’s passage is taken, is about leprosy, a disease which filled people in those days with horror and dread. There was no compassion whatsoever for those who suffered from it. As soon as it was diagnosed all the rules we heard about earlier were rigidly imposed. Sufferers became outcasts, living away from other people, partly through the community’s fear of the disease itself and partly because, as time passed, the physical appearance of the individuals concerned became completely repulsive both to themselves and to others, a situation that continued well into more modern times. In the Middle Ages, priests prayed the funeral rite over lepers while they were still alive, and would remain so for several years. And one of the things we learned at the Church History Course last month was that the part of Glasgow we now know as the Gorbals was originally an area outside the city where lepers lived. And its against this background that we have to understand the significance of what Jesus did today.
The whole point, of course, is that Jesus did the unthinkable and touched the leper, an action, the full meaning of which, goes far beyond the act itself. It speaks of a God who is not afraid of what is dirty and messy in life; an incarnate God who, from Bethlehem to Calvary immersed himself in the human condition; a God who, in Jesus, has embraced, without turning away in disgust, all that is ugly about the world; and, most importantly of all, a God who invites us to do the same. Leprosy in the narrow sense may have been brought under control in today’s world. But throughout the Scriptures this truly horrible disease, in all its stomach-turning ugliness, was always seen as a symbol of human sinfulness. And what we, as men and women of faith, are called to do now is look at the leprosy of sin in the world without turning away and touch it without flinching. We, too, are called to immerse ourselves in the human condition, to feel the pain of it, to confront its ugliness and, by the way we live, transform it from within. Except that there are all kinds of things today which make this difficult.
And the first of these is the general process of dumbing down which most serious commentators would agree has been going on in our society for years. In a world where all kinds of terrible things are happening to people, our capacity to read serious newspapers or watch serious programmes on TV about them diminishes all the time as our ability to concentrate for more than ten minutes lessens. Our News Bulletins are filled with trivia and we spend hours watching soaps or cheaply made TV programmes where people will do or say almost anything for the proverbial fifteen minutes of what passes for fame in an empty and shallow society. Just think of the number of serious current affairs programmes we used to have but which have now disappeared, giving way to low-level rubbish, a tactic used to good effect by many governments throughout the world to keep people’s minds off things that are wrong and stop them getting out of their chairs and doing something about them. And just think about how unwilling we are in this country to actually look at the horrors going on around us. Time and time again we are warned that some images in the following report may be disturbing, giving us, if we want, the chance to turn away and not have to look at starving people or see the full effects of violence, perpetrated, sometimes ,in our name, in case it puts us off our tea or we choke in our glass of Rioja. So much for touching the leper or looking ugliness in the face. And how often have we crossed the road, looked the other way or complained about the presence of poor people in the street here in Kilmarnock? So much for the Jesus who reached out to and touched those whom no-one wanted anything to do with.
And there is one other effect of all this that I invite you to think about. In the gospel, St Mark tells us that Jesus felt sorry for the leper. But an alternative translation would have it that Jesus felt angry, not at the man himself, but at the sinfulness the leprosy represented. And in this we have one of the most harmful effects of the dumbing-down process we are speaking about: our growing failure or inability to get angry about what goes on in the world. Many people did get angry at the time of the invasion of Iraq and millions took to the streets in protest. But generally speaking, that has been the exception to the rule in recent years. When last did you feel strongly enough about an issue of injustice even to write a letter on the subject let alone do something about it.
And yet that’s what it means to follow the Jesus who did the unthinkable and touched the leper. It means having the capacity to feel empathy for the plight of others. It means getting angry when terrible things happen, angry enough, hopefully, to take some kind of action. It means taking the trouble to watch serious programmes or read serious newspapers to become more aware of what’s going on in the world instead of dulling our minds with trivia and rubbish. OK, it’s not easy. It requires effort. It’s not comfortable. But when did Jesus ever say that following him would be easy or comfortable?
BIDDING PRAYERS
The world of our time is as full of lepers as it has been at any moment in its history; men and women, our brothers and sisters, whom we push to the margins of society and exclude from normal life. On a world scale, these are the very poor, those who have no power to influence events or lift themselves out of the poverty they were born into. And so we pray for the courage and generosity we need to reach out and touch them in some way...........Lord hear us
There are also lepers living on the margins here in Kilmarnock, and, like those in Jesus’ day, they are often unattractive to the eye. The way they look, the way they dress, the way they conduct themselves, can frighten us the way they frightened people two thousand years ago. And it is true that they can be a danger to us. And yet, if we are to be faithful to the gospel, somehow we must develop ways of touching their lives. And so we ask God to show how................Lord hear us
If, as men and women of faith, called to be signs in the world of the Jesus we saw touch the leper in today’s story, then it is vital that we resist the dumbing-down process currently going on all around us. Whether it be through television, the newspapers, the internet or private study and reading, it is vitally important that we become more aware, not only of what is going on in the world, but why. And so we pray for this very modern grace.........Lord hear us
One of the great signs of the times today is the crisis in the world financial markets. The Spirit of God is at work deep within history and the events we are living through have much to tell us. The danger, however, is that we create scapegoats out of bankers, politicians, foreigners and others, turning them into modern-day lepers, rather than face up to our own greed, our own mistakes and our own responsibilities. And so we ask God to save us from this very human error................Lord hear us
Even on the margins of society there are those who are pushed further to the margins. These, today, are the sex-offenders, the paedophiles, the child murderers and others who, even in our prisons, have to be protected from those around them. And yet many of them are deeply disturbed and mentally ill people. And so we pray for the grace we need to reach out in some way, at least within our hearts, to the most despised and hated people in our society.................Lord hear us
This coming weekend sees the third part of the Church History Course. This month, our topic is the Reformation. And so we pray that God will bless our gathering and guide the person who will be leading us through the weekend. But we pray, too, that our study of this tragic episode in the history of the Church will stir in us a deep determination to play our part in the long and difficult process of healing the damage done all those years ago...................Lord hear us
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