I Do Choose

Mark 1:40-45
40 A leper came to Jesus begging him, and kneeling he said to Jesus, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” 41Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!” 42Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, 44saying to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” 45But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Georgetown, Ky
Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany (Year B)
February 12, 2012
Mark 1:40-45
“I Do Choose”

Would you pray with me?

Once again God open our minds and hearts
that we might hear your word for us,
and hearing believe,
and believing be moved to deeds of compassion.
In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

I suppose it’s human nature to categorize. It makes life easier to understand. Female and male; conservative and liberal; U.K. fan and U of L fan. When categorizing becomes a problem is when we use it to create barriers. Some seem to think that you’ve got to have them, so you’ll know who’s in and who’s out, who’s right with God and who’s not. We’ve got to know who is different. We’ve got to be able to identify ourselves over against those who aren’t like us. If we don’t, then we can’t have a club of insiders.

It’s always been this way. In Jesus’ day, lepers were considered unclean, so they were the outsiders. This teaching came directly from Leviticus 13 and 14 in the Bible. Because they were unclean, lepers couldn’t pray in the temple, go to the synagogue, or eat a meal with relatives or anyone. Their illness separated them from everyone else. If you touched a leper, you would be put in the same category as they were.

In verse 41 of our reading, Mark tells us that Jesus was “moved with pity” when the man asked Jesus to heal him. The New International Version translates it as “filled with compassion.” The New Jerusalem Bible translates it as “feeling sorry for him.” None of these captures the essence of the Greek language that the gospel of Mark uses. Mark is referring to Jesus being moved from the gut. Jesus wasn’t simply having sentimental pity. He had an intense emotion because of this man’s condition. It was compassion multiplied times 1,000. It was the kind of intense feeling that propelled Jesus into action on behalf of this man.

What did Jesus do? In the story today, we hear that he touched this man. This was no quick little poke with one of his fingers. The word that Mark uses here means that Jesus caressed the man, indicating Jesus’ loving tenderness. By extending his hand, Jesus was crossing that barrier that religion had established between the man and those who were considered clean. Jesus was gathering followers who were the sick and the outcast. The truth is that we all fit into that category. It’s an old cliche, but no less true—the church is not a sanctuary for saints but a hospital for sinners.

Jesus followed the teachings of the Bible, but he realized that the Bible wasn’t supposed to be a rule book that was always to be followed to the letter. Jesus saw the Bible as pointing to the compassionate God who was concerned with the needs of people. Jesus didn’t take the Bible literally, but he did take it seriously. Anything in the Bible that wasn’t consistent with love of God and love of neighbor was a violation of God’s purpose for the world. People were above the letter of the law—that’s what Jesus taught and lived.

I invite you to look at our words of preparation that are printed in our bulletin. William Placher says that Jesus challenged some of his contemporaries’ most basic assumptions about God and how to live one’s life, and he continues to challenge many of the most pervasive assumptions of our culture. He particularly welcomed the outcasts and oppressed of his society into his company. He calls on those who would follow him to take risks. William Placher continues by saying that many imagine the Bible as a book that comforts those who want to preserve the status quo. But the Jesus it presents shook up his society and would shake up ours.

What do you think? Is William Placher right? Would Jesus speak out against the barriers that we have created to separate insiders from outsiders? If so, what are some of those barriers?

I believe that racism is still alive and well. But for the most part, it’s a pretty safe topic to talk about in church. It wasn’t safe topic until the 1970‘s, and in some instances until the 1980’s. In 1982, I saw a sign in Louisiana advertising a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan. But racism still exists thirty years since I saw that sign. It’s more subtle today, so in some ways it is more insidious. It can be heard in the what some people say.

I recently overheard someone talking about a U.K. men’s basketball player who is African American. This person said, “I hear that he’s a good student, but he sure doesn’t look like it.” What does that mean? You and I know what that means.

The “N” word isn’t used as much as it once was, but if we listen to the jokes that some people tell, there’s an undercurrent of racism. In some instances we may justify it by saying, “Oh he or oh she is just a product of their time.” That’s not a valid excuse. We should all know better.

But again, it’s pretty safe in the church to mention racism. And I’m happy to say that much progress has been made. But what are the pressing issues of our day? I could play it safe and only mention race. There are differences of opinion, but I wouldn’t be true to our calling as followers of Jesus if I didn’t mention the way that Mexican immigrants are talked about and treated. Again, I know that there are differences of opinion about influx of Mexicans in our country. It’s a tough issue. But at the very least we need to think about it and talk about it. What are our attitudes? How would Jesus treat immigrants? Are they the lepers of our day? Is William Placher correct? Would Jesus upset many of the political and religious establishment in our day?

You and I know another category of people who feel barriers. Just as it is with immigrants, there are differences of opinion, but again, I wouldn’t be true to our calling as followers of Jesus if I didn’t mention the way gays are talked about and treated in our nation and in churches. People disagree about gays in the military and about marriage versus civil unions. But as it is with immigrants, at the very least we need to think about it and talk about it. They are sons and daughters and sisters and brothers. They have the same emotions as all people. They have the same wants and needs. They vote and love our nation as much as anyone else. For this reason, they aren’t they; they are we.

Are there others who might be classified as the lepers of our day? Who would you include in this? I add to it the poor. There has been a lot of talk about the top 1% economically in our country, and how they control the vast majority of the wealth in our country. But I have a friend who recently read an article that points out that if we make $34,000 or more a year, we’re in the top 1% economically in the world. If we make that much or more, by the world’s standards, we’re wealthy.

One of the things that’s troubling is the way that politicians of all political stripes use all of these issues that I have mentioned in order to gain votes. They check the direction the wind is blowing, meaning they try to find out what the majority of voters feel, and they craft their words accordingly. They even justify their stances in the name of Christianity, again trying to gain votes.

One presidential candidate has said that he isn’t concerned with the poor. They are being taken care of. They have a safety net. It’s the middle class that he’s concerned with. (What he said would be echoed by many of the candidates, if not all of them. He just happens to be the one who thought of it first.) Why did he say this? The economy has hit the middle class hard. I hope that the candidates are concerned with the middle class. But I think he said it for a couple reasons.

First, the middle class is the largest group of voters, because they are in the middle. Those in the middle are always the largest group. Second he said it, because there are some people in our country who have the idea that the poor are lazy, and if they wanted to, they could get a job and quit living off of the system. The truth is that the vast majority of the poor in our country are working poor. They clean hotels. They care for other people’s children. Some are cashiers. Some do construction work. They struggle to get by. They sometimes have to decide between going to the doctor or buying food for their children.

There’s not much risk for a politician talking about the poor as this one politician did, because the poor don’t have political clout. Money means power. Plus, they don’t have many people going to bat for them. And the thing that should trouble us in the church is that politicians say that their stances are based on their Christian principles.

Stephen Colbert uses some strong language that counters kind of talk. It may be tough for us to hear. It is for me. Stephen Colbert says that if this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we’ve got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don’t want to do it. Ouch.

Does today’s story of Jesus reaching out to the leper tell us anything about how the poor should be treated, and does the story tell us anything about any of these issues that I have mentioned? How would Jesus treat anyone who is excluded? For the Christian, this question gets to the heart of the matter—how would Jesus treat anyone who is excluded? If we take that question seriously, and as followers of Jesus we should, then it ought to push us to examine our hearts.

I’ve already mentioned how Jesus was moved with the kind of compassion that comes from the gut when he saw this leper. But there’s another possibility that may best capture what Mark was trying to convey. The Greek word that Mark uses can also mean that Jesus was angry. It can be rendered this way: “When Jesus saw the leper, he was ‘snorting with indignation.’” Why would Jesus have been angry? Jesus was angry at a social and religious system that excluded people simply because they had been labeled as different.

Jesus was also angry at the religious leaders who should have known that religion was to serve people not the other way around. Our reading says that after Jesus healed the man, he told him to go see the priests who would have declared that the leper was unclean.

The story could be translated as Jesus telling the man to go back to the priests to show them what had happened to him. So the man had already been seen by the religious leaders before he was healed, and they had told him that he was unclean.

And Mark says that Jesus told the man to go see the priests as “testimony to them.” But this doesn’t simply mean that the man was to go show them this remarkable thing that had happened to him. It meant to go as a witness against them. Mark uses this Greek word several times in his gospel, and it means to offer a testimony before hostile audiences. Jesus was angry at the way this man was treated, and he wanted the religious leaders to know this.

What makes you angry? Think about something that has happened recently that has made you angry. What was it? In the big picture, did it deserve the emotional energy that you gave it? I know that when I think about some of the things that have angered me, they are petty when looked at from the perspective of what angered Jesus.

Does it anger us, like it did Jesus, that some people are excluded based on the arbitrary standards that are used? During this Month of Compassion, does it anger us that people are hungry in a world where there is so much, and in a world where we have so much? Does our anger lead us to reach out?

It’s interesting how Mark begins this story. The man came to Jesus, and he said, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” Jesus responded with three of the most powerful words in the English language—“I do choose.”

Will we say that? I do choose to do what I can to break down the barriers that exist between people, because I realize that with Jesus there are no outsiders...all are insiders. Most relevant to us this month, will we say, “I do choose to do what I can to make a difference for someone who has been the victim of a disaster”? During this Month of Compassion, will we choose to reach into our pockets and wallets and purses and give so that others may live?

Scott K. Cox

(Some of the biblical interpretation for this sermon comes from Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 1, Advent through Transfiguration, pp. 356-361, comments by Ofelia Ortega; P.C. Enniss; Gary W. Charles; Mike Graves.)