In the name of God- Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today
we are presented with readings that deal with issues of healing and compassion.
So that we’re all on the same page, healing in both our reading from 2 Kings
and Mark means “to make clean or pure.” Note that the language here is about
ritual purity, not medical healing, nor is it the language of salvation. The
other word which we run into is compassion. The word itself doesn’t actually
show up in either reading, but it is implied throughout. Compassion is a
compound word in Latin, with the com
meaning “together” or “with;” and the passio
means suffering- so “suffering with.”
Here
at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Greensboro, we have as our core values-
simplicity, compassion, and hope. So today it is good for us to consider the
value of compassion, reflecting on the way that we can take compassion from a
slogan to being a way of life.
The
way I’ve structured this sermon is to take a look at the three people involved
with these healings in 2 Kings and Mark. First we’ll consider the healed
person, then the agent of the healing, and finally the healer.
In
both of our readings, the presenting issue is leprosy. The deeper issue really
isn’t the actual medical diagnosis, perhaps they had Hansen’s Disease, perhaps
it was some other skin condition. What mattered is that they were both unclean,
they were contaminated. Society viewed them in the same way that we viewed the
first HIV/AIDS patients in the 80s. These are people that were kept away from
others, they were quarantined, lest they infect others.
We have the
benefit of modern science and we now know that leprosy is not very contagious
and is transmitted not through touch, but by breathing in the cough or sneeze
of an infected person. Furthermore, about 95% of the population is naturally
immune to this disease. What plagued Naaman and this man was not leprosy, but
it was a cultural stigma. They were deemed to be unacceptable- not for who they
were, nor for what they said or did, but they were cast out because of fear.
The fear of compassion. People were afraid that if they spent time with these
people, that they would literally be suffering with them. And as I mentioned,
this fear was misplaced. Had people taken the time to minister to these lepers,
they would have seen that they themselves would not have been infected.
And the same is
true of those people whom we avoid like the plague. If you minister to the
homeless, you don’t lose your house. If you have same-sex marriages in your
church, you don’t erode the sanctity of marriage or family values. If you visit
someone in prison, you don’t become a felon. If you pray with a Muslim, you
don’t become a terrorist. If you’re a Republican, by talking to a Democrat you
don’t become a socialist. If you’re a Democrat and you converse with a
Republican, you don’t become a ruthless capitalist. If you drive your car
through a Hispanic or African-American neighborhood, you don’t have your
windows shot out. Maybe we don’t run into lepers on a daily basis, but we sure
do treat a lot of people like they have leprosy.
The reason why
I’m making this point so that we don’t do what many people do when they read
the Bible. They say “I’m so glad that we now understand leprosy and don’t treat
people like that” or “this story is 2,000 years old and has nothing to do with
me.” Modern day leprosies exist because of prejudice, our own actions of
pre-judging people, our insistence that we know what the other side will
respond with before we even say anything.
We do treat
people like lepers, but sometimes we need to be healed too, and these readings
have something important to say to us, who needing healing, as well. The first
thing to notice is that healing takes a while. Naaman has to bathe seven times
in the river. He even had to go through a process. A modern translation of the
story would read a bit differently. Naaman would have started by seeing his
primary care physician, and then he went to the local specialists, but they
didn’t have an answer. So he had to call his insurance company and go back and
forth with them for a while about being allowed to see an out of network
specialist at a large university hospital the next state over. But the dean of
medicine there decides that he doesn’t have a clue what’s wrong and doesn’t
want to deal with it. And eventually he gets healed by some faith healer on the
outskirts of town. I know many of you are facing health struggles, and if you
aren’t, I’m sure you know someone who is, a parent, a sibling, a friend, a
neighbor. As a priest, I’ve gotten to know my way around Greensboro nursing
homes, Cone and Long hospitals, even Baptist in Winston; there is a lot of hurt
in our lives Don’t we all wish it was as simple as a quick healing? But as we
see in Naaman’s case, sometimes it takes a while.
And for the man
in Mark, it wasn’t any easier. He had likely had leprosy for years, he had
likely give up hope. But he heard of a new drug trial, he heard that this man
was going throughout the region healing people. Now Jesus wasn’t the first
messiah figure to be running around Israel, he had probably heard of other such
“faith healers” and had been disappointed by their robust promises. But this
man had a lot of trust in God. He didn’t come up to Jesus and greet him the way
that most sick people in the Bible did. He didn’t say “have mercy on me, Son of
David,” he didn’t even call him Lord. He just said, if you choose, you can make
me clean. What faith!
What if Jesus
though didn’t cure him? A lot of people have hope and faith that rivals this
mans, and yet they die of cancer or other diseases. Mark wasn’t exactly a
doctor, he really didn’t know if this man had leprosy or not. Maybe he did,
maybe he had some other, more serious skin disease. Again, remember that in the
text of these readings, Jesus didn’t technically heal anyone, he just made them
clean. And in being made clean, these people were allowed to rejoin society.
Maybe this man died 2 weeks later of a more serious ailment. But what Jesus did
for him allowed him to live those two weeks fully. Jesus took away the stigma,
Jesus made it so that he could rejoin society, so that he could again see his
family and friends. And the same is true for us in our dealings with disease
and death. Sometimes people recover, sometimes they don’t. But what God offers
us is the opportunity to have a good life, and a good death.
We don’t have
to be alone in our diseases, we don’t have to face our fears alone. And now I’m
talking about more than medical diseases, I’m back to modern day leprosies. If
we follow Jesus in showing compassion, in standing up for justice, in seeing
the dignity in every human being, then we too can help to make sure that
everyone has a good life that ends with a good death.
And one final
point on those who are healed. They took part in their healings. The man in
Mark answered Jesus by saying “I do choose to be made clean.” Naaman sought the
help of others and went through the ritual washing, which seemed ridiculous to
him. Isn’t that how healing is? Sometimes we do have to go to strange places
and take part in strange rituals. But what is important is that we take the
step in doing so. Healing would not have come to either of these people if they
had not been resilient.
Next, I’d like
to turn to the agent of the healing. Sometimes translators of the Bible get
things wrong, and they completely struck out in this Mark reading. Our
translation this morning says that Jesus was moved with pity, which really is a
nice sentiment and makes for a nice story. But the problem is that scholars
agree that the more accurate and historical translation is that Jesus was angered
or annoyed. Sure does change the story, doesn’t it?
Why would Jesus
be angry with someone asking for help? Have you ever had someone come up to you
and ask “I hope I’m not bothering you, but I just need…” Or about the letters that you get from various
charities asking for money? Or how about the church, do you get angry when you
hear a stewardship sermon or get that pledge card in the mail?
If you’ll think
back to our reading from last Sunday- Jesus did a healing, then went to pray
and said “let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the
message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” So here’s Jesus, all
excited about his mission, energized to go out and preach about the Kingdom of
God, and he can’t even take a step towards the next down without being held
back. Does that ever happen to you? You get set to do something, and then life
happens? If I had a dollar for every daily schedule that I’ve had to readjust
because of funerals and hospital visits, well, I couldn’t quite retire, but I’d
have a nice stack of cash. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t want
to minister to people, it’s just sometimes I have, in my mind, things that I
need to do. It’s when you have dinner reservations to a nice restaurant and a
friend calls to say that they really need you to come help with a bout of depression, a
lost dog, a sick child. Getting sidetracked isn’t something that most of us
enjoy.
This is really
where the etymology of compassion really comes into play. Showing compassion is
hard because it means to suffer with. When you are interrupted to do the work
of compassion, it does drain you. Being compassionate with your time makes you
busier and might add to your stress level. Being compassionate with your money
means you have less of it. I know it’s basic math, but if you give 5% of your
income to charity, then that’s 5% less to go on vacation with or put towards
debt. Everyone thinks homeless shelters are good things, but who wants one
built next door to their house? Jesus told this man not to tell anyone about
the healing. Why? Perhaps because Jesus knew that compassion would cost him
some freedom. As his reputation grew and grew, more and more people would
sidetrack him. Or maybe he was worried that word would get out that he had
touched a leper, and he himself would now been seen as unclean and he’d be
unable to do his ministry of preaching. Compassion does cost us- it will cost
us time, money, freedom, emotions, and energy.
So why do we
bother with showing compassion? Why should be concerned with healing others?
After all, shouldn’t we take care of ourselves? Frederick Buechner once said
“compassion is the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside
somebody else’s shoes. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any
peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too.”
Compassion is one of those God given gifts that we have. You know that queasy
feeling you get in your gut with you refuse to look at the homeless person on
the street, when you refuse to fill out your pledge card, when you don’t make
the time to call a friend in need? Some of it stems from guilt, but it’s a part
of feeling compassion. It’s you suffering along with them. As long as there is
suffering in our world, you too will suffer. It is our task to build the
Kingdom of God so that there won’t be any more suffering to suffer with.
And finally,
let’s take a look at the healer, that is the source of the healing. I hope that
we can all recognize this as God. One of the things we see in these readings is
that God’s focus and care isn’t too global to care about our local problems. A
lot of people think things such as “God doesn’t care about my problem, my
illness, my fear because there are genocides, famines, wars, earthquakes, and
dictators in the world. Those are real problems, and God should focus on them.”
And that’s half right. God is working in the hearts and minds of people around
the world on the “big” issues like war and hunger. But God too cares about your
being out of work or your nagging pain in your back. After all, Naaman was a
rich and powerful leader, his disease wasn’t a huge hardship for him, Naaman
wasn’t even a believer in God until after he was healed. But yet, God has
compassion for him, just as God has compassion for all of us.
God is the
source of our healing, the strength that allows us to embrace our brokenness
and hope for rebirth. But it’s important to remember that healing doesn’t
always mean a cure. Good things happen and bad things happen. That’s simply the
nature of the world that God created. We have free will, so does nature, so
does cancer. It is not that God chooses to heal some people and ignore others,
but rather that God loves us and trusts us enough to give us that free will.
But when that free will leads to suffering, when it leads to death, when it
leads to evil, God is a God of compassion, a God who will suffer with us. As I’ve
said before, what God gives us is maximum support, with minimum protection. The
glory of the Resurrection only comes after the suffering of the Crucifixion.
We’ve covered a
lot today in examining healing and compassion. Healing is a process that
requires us to take a part. Healing isn’t always about the cure, sometimes is
about being given the grace to live. Those who act as agents of God’s healing
find it to be a challenging task, as they are called to suffer with people in
showing compassion, but we do this work to make our world whole. We do all of
this knowing that true healing comes from our compassionate God, who deeply
loves and cares for each and every one of us.
It has been
said that if we don’t make a difference by trying, we’ll make a difference by
not trying, and the same is true in showing compassion. The way to healing our
own hurts, the way to healing our world, is in showing compassion; in taking
the time to be with others, to hear about their suffering, and to suffer with
them. Remember, our task is not to be healer, that is God’s role in this
process. But let us constantly seek ways to bring the grace and compassion of God
to those in need of healing.
Let our prayer
today be in the words of our Psalm today, verses 11-12, if you’ll allow me this
paraphrase- “be with me, O Lord, and show me your compassion. O Lord, be my
healer. You can turn my crying into dancing; you can relieve my suffering and
clothe me with the joy of redemption.” Amen.
