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How many of you here this morning have flown on a plane this past week?
Anyone here been this week on a bus or a subway or a train?
How many of you this week entered a public building and had to push or pull open the door?
Let me try this: anyone recently ridden an escalator or taken a stairway, and held the handrail?
How many of you have pushed a grocery cart this week?
I think we got just about everybody, and some of you we got multiple times.
All of these actions, just normal everyday living, put you up close and personal with the same thing: dirt, germs, microbes, bacteria, or the stuff that really might make you sick.
Before people figured out that it is bacteria and viruses that spread disease, getting sick was a scary, unknown, unexpected event. Who got sick, why they got sick, why they got well, or didn't . . . it all was a mystery. The ravages of leprosy, the bubonic and pneumonic plagues, influenza, tuberculosis, polio, and most recently AIDs, have all infused us with fear, even after we figured out the cause, the effect, and the even the cure.
The only way to way to ward off infectious disease before the discovery of bacteriology was isolation. Today we practice isolation by keeping our children home from school or making ourselves stay home from work. We also isolate ourselves through the wonder of chemicals.
I want to do a little experiment this morning. How many of you have a pack of antibacterial wipes in your pocket, or purse? Take them out. Yes, if you have a little squeeze bottle of "Purel" on you, that counts as well. Can you hold them up? Let's see what percentage of us are "isolationists."
It looks like some of us are isolationists. I know of one church where the pastor had to ask the people please NOT to use the Wet-Wipes after the Passing of the Peace. It was too disruptive of the liturgy that followed, and too disparaging of the liturgy that preceded it.
With all this isolationist bathing in anti-bacterial products, why are we still so "germy"?
Environmental scientists are now beginning to admit that it seems the more we try to isolate ourselves from bugs and baddies, the more we end up making ourselves more susceptible to them. In fact, some pediatricians now are actually recommending that parents let their kids eat dirt regularly. When you see your child playing in the kitty litter, eating in the dog bowl, don't jump up and rescue them. Let them get "down and dirty."
Too many antibiotics for sniffles and plugged ears . . .
Too many hermetically sealed households that don't let air in and don't let air out . . .
Too many antibacterial, antimicrobial, antiallergenic substances . . .
All end up making us bulls-eyes for bugs.
You heard it right: Wet-Wipes are making us bulls-eyes for bugs.
What's that about?
We are really healthy, until we aren't?
Until one stray bad bug enters the atmosphere.
Suddenly an immune system that has been coddled and protected, kept clean and pristine, encounters a real, live bad guy. Without a stockpile of immune responses to draw from, without the kick-back reflexes of a body that has regularly come under assault and learned to fight back against day-to-day germy stuff, we make ourselves sitting ducks.
Our Bible story today is the story of a powerful man with a socially unacceptable disease.
Imagine if General Colin Powell took a break from his briefings about Iraq to announce that, on a personal note, he was sorry to announce that he had AIDS. What a scandal that would be! Once upon a time, the commander of the Army of Syria, General Naaman, made such an announcement. At the peak of his career he contracted a deadly and socially unacceptable disease called leprosy. Naaman traveled a hard road to get his healing. He had to take advice from a slave girl from another country. Naaman needed healing from the scourge of leprosy.
The prophet Elisha was not on General Naaman's radar screen until his name was mentioned by a slave girl as a prophet who could heal Naaman's leprosy. To Naaman, Elisha was an unknown prophet from another country. Elisha did not share Naaman's religion. Elisha did not worship Naaman's god. After Naaman humbled himself and visited Elisha at the prophet's home, Elisha insulted Naaman by refusing to come out of his house and talk to him. Elisha wouldn't even shake the General's hand. Instead, Elisha sent his servants to Naaman and told him to go take a bath in a dirty river. In essence, Elisha suggested Naaman stank and needed to take a bath.
Still, Elisha's insult held out the possibility of Naaman's healing. Naaman was infuriated at what he perceived to be the prophet's insult. But he finally calmed down enough to heed the advice of his hired hands. The hired hands convinced Naaman to give healing a chance. They told him that if the prophet had required him to go to war and bring back the scalps of 1000 enemies, he would have been willing to take the risk for healing. But the prophet required something much easier, the prophet required only that Naaman go wash himself 7 times in the Jordan River. Naaman heeded the advice of his hired hands and followed the prophet's orders. And guess what happened when Naaman gave in and did the simple, stupid thing? God healed Naaman from his leprosy
Naaman's healing is a story of the healing of one person by unlikely means. In the gospel reading today Jesus also heals a leper but his method is much more personal. Instead of telling the leper to go away and wash in a river for healing, Jesus does something more endearing, he touches the leper. Notice that Jesus did not stereotype the leper who came seeking healing from him. Jesus always met men and women on the level of their need, regardless of who they were or what they had done. This was not easy in his culture. Stereotypes were as powerful then as they are now. Once a label is placed on a person the human being vanishes. Many labels were given to people in the New Testament -- such labels as tax collector, Samaritan, Roman soldier, prostitute, rich young man, Pharisee, sinner or publican. They all appear in the gospel narrative, and every time Jesus completely ignores the label and deals with the person. This is certainly true of his encounters with Matthew, Zacchaeus, the traveler on the Jericho road, the centurion, Mary Magdalene, and Nicodemus. David H.C. Read points out that "Jesus knew the ugly side of society -- the brutality of the occupation, the corruption of the tax system, the racial prejudices, the economic injustice, the religious hypocrisy, and the sexual degradation. But never once did these factors blind him to the reality of the human being, the unique son or daughter of God he saw before him." (John A. Stroman, God's Downward Mobility, CSS Publishing Company) Jesus did not stereotype the leper. He reached out and touched the leper.
Many young parents today understand this principle and make it a practice to massage their infants. That's a wise practice. We all have a need to be touched. Studies have shown that touching has physiological benefits--even for adults. One researcher made numerous studies on the effects of the practice many Christians recognize called "laying on of hands." She discovered that when one person lays hands on another, the hemoglobin levels in the bloodstreams of both people go up, which means that body tissues receive more oxygen, producing more energy and even regenerative power. (King Duncan, www.Sermons.com)
Friends, church is a place where we come to be touched. We come to be touched by the Christian fellowship and support we find here. As Bruce Springsteen sings:
You might need somethin' to hold on to
When all the answers, they don't amount to much
Somebody that you could just to talk to
And a little of that Human Touch (Bruce Springsteen, Human Touch)
We are here this morning seeking that human touch from one another and from Jesus. We came here this morning to be touched and healed by Jesus. We all need physical healing. But we need spiritual healing even more. Each of us has some spot on our soul that needs to be healed. None of us are clean on the inside. We all need Jesus' touch.
How did Paul put it: ALL of us have "fallen short" of the glory of God. All of us. No exceptions. We're all hypocrites.
But it's more than that. We're all lepers. . . .
What's your leprosy?
In Mark's text Jesus let slip his divine nature by curing the leprous man of his disease. Only the divine, only God can cure leprosy. For leprosy is more than a mere disease. It is an unholy, uncleanness that must be dealt with by the Holy One.
That which is leprous within each of us can only be cured in that same way. By the Holy One. It takes the divine touch, the hand of God, to transform cratered flesh into new creation flesh.
Leprosy is a tough disease to eradicate. When Naaman, a mighty warrior and commander of King Aram's army, came to the prophet Elisha to be healed of his leprosy he was convinced that the prophet would cure him instantly. But Elisha commands Naaman to go to the Jordan river and wash in it seven times. The water would wash Naaman clean, the prophet promised, but only if he kept at it, he must bath seven times. At first Naaman rejected Elisha's simplistic "shampoo bottle" instructions. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
But it was only after the big, strong warrior did something so simple as to let the waters of the Jordan run over him again, and again, and again, did his transformation occur. The power of God's word ran through that water, washing, cleansing, purifying Naamun of his disease. (2 Kings 5).
What leprosy does God want to cure you of this morning? What part of yourself are you afraid of? What part of you are you hiding from?
You say "servant," but Jesus says "friend."
You say "leper," but Jesus says "lover."
You say "unforgiveable," but Jesus says "forgiven and cast into the depths of the sea."
May each of us experience the healing touch of Jesus, so that we also may say, "He touched me, and made me whole." And then may be we find our way outside these walls into the highways and byways of this great city to touch others in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
