Epiphany VI, Cycle B

“What is your Leprosy?”

February 16, 2003

The Rev. Dr. David M. Wendel

Saint Luke’s Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Lessons:  2 Kings 5:1-14;  I Corinthians 9:24-27;  St. Mark 1:40-45

“What is your leprosy?”  We see in both our first, and gospel lessons, the accounts of two men who suffered with leprosy, and who were subsequently healed, made clean by the power of God.  In the Bible, from the number of times when lepers are mentioned, you’d think that leprosy had reached epidemic proportions, that it was rampant, touching every household and every family.  But the fact is, in biblical times, there was not one disease, called leprosy—but, leprosy was a term, a label used by priests to designate a whole variety of skin conditions that warranted seclusion and isolation from others.  In 1868, the Norwegian scientist, Gerhard Hansen discovered the biomedical cause of the actual disease, leprosy, but this scientific form of leprosy, was not biblical leprosy—or, not all that was classified as leprosy in the bible, was modern leprosy.  The issue in the bible, was not so much leprosy as an illness or a disease, but any kind of repulsive, scaly condition that rendered one, blemished, or imperfect, or ritually unclean.  In Leviticus 21, in laying out who can approach the Lord, it says, “For no one who has a blemish may draw near, a man blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, or a man with an injured foot or an injured hand, or a hunchback, or a dwarf, or a man with a defect in his sight or an itching disease, or scabs, or crushed testicles”!  Clearly, under the old covenant, the understanding was that one had to be holy—ritually clean and unblemished to approach the Lord, and to participate in the assembly of believers.  And unlike some of those, blemishes or abnormalities,  a skin disease was hard to hide.   When a rash or infection got to the point where the priest could see it and notice it, the person was declared to be a “leper”, and that meant they were now to live apart from the redeemed community, which meant apart from society in general.  The issue was not so much whether they were infectious, but polluting.  Because they were blemished and scarred, they polluted the covenant community, so they had to live apart from God’s holy people.  And not only were they not allowed to participate in the community, the community was not allowed to interact with them, either.  So that those declared lepers, were truly, alone, outcast—required to be apart from the human community, but also not considered worthy of approaching God!  Which brings us back to the original question, “What is your leprosy?”

     On the one hand, we rarely hear about leprosy today.  Most skin diseases can be treated or healed.  We understand, scientifically, leprosy, and skin irritations and infections.  On the other hand, today, as in biblical times, what separates us from God and from others, doesn’t have to be the textbook definition of leprosy.  Our leprosy can take many forms, leaving us feeling alienated and isolated, apart from our neighbors, but also, apart from God!  What are some forms of leprosy, today?

     The more I’m involved with people’s lives, the more I learn about the different forms of leprosy.  Being physically or  sexually or emotionally abused, is a kind of leprosy—that leaves us feeling so ashamed and wounded, that we have trouble being in relationship with others, and often, we feel unworthy of being in relationship with God.  Low self-esteem, for all the fun we poke at it, is truly a debilitating condition, that keeps people from healthy relationships with others, and with God.  When we feel guilty because of something we’ve said, or something we’ve done—it creates a barrier between God and our neighbor—a barrier that can be so great and so high, that nothing we do can get us over it. Guilt over unfaithfulness in marriage, sexual immorality, anger, drug or alcohol abuse, addiction to pornography.  Guilt over the accidental death of someone near to you, guilt over the suicide of a loved one, guilt over things left unsaid—over unresolved issues with parents or siblings or children…all of these can leave us feeling blemished—truly, unworthy—isolated and apart from God and our neighbors.  And why is it, that we lepers, who come to church regularly, still feel so isolated and alone?  Why is it that we feel unworthy?  Why do we sometimes leave church feeling as diseased and unclean as when we come in?  I heard it explained at our recent retreat, by Pastor Richard Niebanck, as the “I being lost in the We”.   I can’t remember, in the Gospels, Jesus ever healing a whole crowd, all at once.  I can’t remember Jesus looking out at a hundred demon-possessed people, casting all the demons out at once.  There were the ten lepers whom Jesus cleansed—but ten is a lot less from the two hundred or so here every Sunday.  Jesus’ approach, almost always, is personal.  The one leper came up to Jesus, and begged him, “If you choose, you can make me clean.”  And moved with pity, Jesus touched the man, and said, “I do choose.  Be made clean!”  And that one man was made clean.  When we come to church, we are but one among many.  When we participate in the general confession of sins at the beginning of each service, we are reminded of the call to repent and be forgiven—but often, “the I is lost in the we”.  Because we are acknowledging, together, our general brokeness and sin, my individual brokeness and sin, is lost.  And we may leave, shaking our heads and saying, “I know God forgives sin—but surely, not MY SIN.”  And so, we continue on in life, never experiencing, personal, individual forgiveness.  Never receiving, healing, myself.  Not being, myself, made clean, by the touch of Jesus, on me—restoring me to wholeness, restoring me, to a right relationship with Him, and so with my neighbor, my spouse, my family.  Which is why, right here, right now, in Jesus’ stead, I want to offer the touch, the cleansing, the personal word of forgiveness, to you—to you, not as part of the “we”, but as one who needs to be touched and forgiven and cleansed, so that you can leave, this morning, truly, made clean.  So that you can leave, this morning, no longer burdened by the shame and guilt and isolation—but full of the joy that comes, from being, truly, set free by the power of Jesus Christ.  Full of the joy that sends you forth, not sad and lonely and disconnected—but ready to proclaim, freely, the good news of God in Jesus Christ, as one who has himself, or herself,  been, cleansed.  As we sing the following hymn, consider, what is your leprosy, and then come forward, if you wish, so that the words of Jesus will be spoken to you, “Be made clean!”