Rev. Demery Bader-Saye
Sermon ~ February 15th, 2009
Cathedral Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem
Mark 1:40-45

The Lonely Leper

I was the second tallest girl in my sixth grade class. Annie was the first. She towered over all of the girls and all but one of the boys. As you may imagine, that grade being what it is, and kids being who they are at that age, she was sometimes the target of teasing words. She was somewhat of a leper, an untouchable, a misfit. But then most kids are at some moment in their lifetime ~ too short, too tall, too skinny, too fat ~ I was teased for my buck teeth and bony hips... “hippy,” I was branded that year. Which is why Annie and I got along OK. That, and we had a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Osborne ~ a big, tall, beautiful black woman with big hips and big lips... “all the better to kiss you with,” she responded when Emily Hubbel asked her about them one day. Mrs. Osborne would circulate about the room with smiles and squeezes and little hugs and winks for all of the outcasts in the sixth grade. She was a healing hand when we needed it, which guided us through a rocky time. She never talked about it to us, but I just know she was a Christian. She had that Church Potluck veteran look to her ~ that gospel-singing, amen-saying kind of spirit. And she just radiated with the love of Christ.

It was the healing hand of Christ which reached out and touched the leper that day in Galilee. An outcast, he came to Jesus, begging, and said, “If you choose, you can make me clean,” for it was thought that people with the contagious disease were not clean. And Jesus was moved, and tenderly, he first reached out and touched the man. And then, Jesus healed him, saying, “I do choose. Be made clean!” And, unable to contain his elation, his joy, the man showed himself to the temple priests as Jesus had commanded him, and went about the countryside telling everyone about the loving touch and healing hand of Jesus of Nazareth.

You see, the leper was healed in two ways that day ~ emotionally and physically. Because he was a leper we can be sure that no one had touched him for as long as he had the disease. Can you imagine? Not being touched, not even by accident ~ for surely people would go far out of their way to avoid even coming near a person with leprosy, which is defined as a “contagious disease marked by ulcers on the skin and bone and can lead to paralysis, gangrene and deformation.” The man had probably not been touched for years. And who knows what he looked like, or smelled like. And yet there he stood, desperate and bold, before a man he believed might bring healing to his lonely life. And the man, Jesus, reached out and touched the leper ~ before healing him ~ a touch without condition, a touch without hesitation, a touch without judgment. A touch that said, sick or not sick, you are worthy of love and acceptance.... and it is yours in the name my Father, God, the creator. Before Jesus healed the leper’s sores, Jesus touched him, and then, only then, did Jesus command his illness to be gone. The healing hand of Christ.
When in your life have you felt untouchable, unloveable, undesirable? .....

Have you ever been the outcast? ..... If, when you think about it you feel that loneliness again, or pain, or isolation, or sorrow, I invite you to imagine yourself coming before Jesus, asking to be made well and whole again, to feel his warm gaze upon you.... See the gentle smile on his lips, feel the warmth of his hand. Spend a moment in the circle of his grace... Know that sick or not sick, clean or not clean, all together or falling apart, you are worthy of emotional healing – of his love and acceptance right now today. And know that his intention, his choice, is to heal you completely ~ and if it cannot be today, then one day.... and forever.

Until that day, when every leper is healed, every blind eye given sight, every lame limb enlivened, the healing hand of Christ is at work in the world to touch the untouchables, give love to the unloveable, to recover the outcast as one who belongs. How, how can it be that his hand at work when he sits in heaven at the right hand of God and so many are lost and suffering, alone and in need of acceptance and kindness ~ where is the healing hand of Christ?
Take a moment, won’t you, and lower your eyes a bit and look at your hands... Be they older or younger, or somewhere in between, be they gently spotted with age and bent with a touch of arthritis, soft and firm, or weather beaten and dry ~ your hands, each of our hands, have the power to heal. We remember today that we, the church, are the body of Christ ~ imperfect but utterly loved and undoubtedly called to bring hope and healing to this broken world.

Who are the lepers in your own life? Who comes to you desperate and bold in your week, or hovers on the fringes of your life, quiet and afraid, in need of acceptance and kindness?
And, thinking of the broader community around us, which of society’s lepers will we (or could we if we chose to) come in contact with during the week? ~ the homeless? the poor? those with HIV or AIDS? prisoners? people with different skin color? people with different ways of thinking? people who are emotionally or mentally ill?

If we choose, others may experience the healing hand of Christ in our warm touch, in our kind smile or gracious words. Clean or unclean, sick or well, they deserve his love ~ and if his love is good enough for them, without a doubt ours is, too.