The Shepherd’s Voice

Readings for February 15^th
2Ki 5:1-14
Ps 30
1Cor 9:24-27
Mk 1:40-45

Life can be complicated for some people. Last week I visited Paul Clark in the hospital. He had awaken at night, went to the bathroom and on his way back to bed slipped on a throw rug, fell and broke his leg. Life before the broken leg was fairly uncomplicated, but now he was in La Palma hospital and all of a sudden life became very complex.

In our Gospel lesson today we have a leper; but we don’t even know his name. The Leper says, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” Jesus, says, “I do choose, be made clean.”

Jesus has the power to restore us to health. Jesus was in the region around Galilee and his fame had been spreading from town to town so many were bringing those that were sick to him so they could be healed. Remember last week he took Simon Peter’s mother-in-law by the hand, lifted her up and immediately her fever left her.

In our Gospel this week Jesus is confronted with a the difficult task of curing leprosy. In Jesus time lepers were outcasts. They were not welcomed in a normal community. They were shunned, oh it was for good reason, but never-the-less they were shunned. There was no cure for leprosy. One had to avoid contact with lepers for fear the disease would spread to everyone who came in contact with the person who had leprosy.

Let’s look at our story today and see what we can learn about God and about how God acts in our world. We see immediately (I like Mark’s sense of urgency) that this leper was not following protocol for a leper in society. He comes up to Jesus, doesn’t hold the required distance for safety and says to Jesus “If you choose, you can make me clean.”

What should we take away from this bold encounter, this move that did not follow the rules? We can say that this leper was perhaps desperate. Lepers were not allowed to touch people around them. They lived a lonely life, a secluded life, a life of desperation.

Have you ever been in a situation like this? Young babies can die from lack of touch. In my own life touch is extremely important. If my wife and I are fighting (of course, which we never do) for any reason and we deliberately avoid one another. It’s very hard on my psyche, my spirit suffers, my well being diminishes. It’s very tough for me.

I can relate to the leper. How about you? Can you find a part of yourself in this story?

Since no contact is allowed it seems illogical to be kneeling before Jesus and saying “If you choose, you can make me clean.” My own sense here is that in his heart he would be crying out to be healed, like the writer in Psalm 30:2 O LORD my God, I cried out to you, and you restored me to health.

This leper not wanting to make a spectacle simple asks this two part question of Jesus.

If you choose – there’s a decision involved here. Decisions are about the ebb and flow of life. We make simple decisions every day. Should I have bacon and eggs or Wheaties for breakfast? Should I go to church today or stay home and read the paper?

These are not decisions about salvation; these are decisions about how we live our life. God gives us free reign or free will to make decisions. Unfortunately, we often don’t make very good decisions. According to Luther our will is in bondage to sin. Left to our own devices we would not choose to love God or choose to love one another. Being in bondage to sin makes us incapable on our own steam of to choose God.

I know you don’t like to hear this, but it’s Christian theology, it’s Lutheran theology, it’s our theology. If people were good at their core there would be no greed. If people were good at their core we would see no one go without enough to eat, no one starving. If people were good at their core all people would live in harmony and love one another. Do we see that?

People over thousands of years have tried to come up with rules, laws in fact that help us make decisions for the good of humanity. You could say the Ten Commandments are a set laws put in place to or etched in stone in this case, to help us live better lives. The Pharisees through oral tradition and then the Sadducees in written form took this idea to a whole new level making up the Mitzvot or 613 commandments or rules which gave direction on making decisions about life.

Look at history, how well has this has worked over time?

The law is tough as nails and if we think we can come even close to keeping the law we have to be a little deranged. It’s impossible to keep the law. James in the 2nd chapter tells us if we break one letter of the law we are guilty of breaking all of it. (James 2:10)

The leper said, “If you choose – you can make me clean.” The first part is a cry for help, but the second part of this statement is actually one of faith. The leper’s belief was that Jesus could make him clean, could make him well. We have many other biblical stories where we hear Jesus saying, “Your faith has made you well.” Matt 9:22, Jarius’ daughter Mark 5:34, Mark 10:52, Luke 8:48, Luke 17:19 Jesus cleanses 10 lepers, Luke 18:42 Healing of blind Bartimaeus – It sounds like if we cry out to God and have faith, God can and will heal us.

What did Jesus say here, “I do choose, be made clean.” When it comes to being made whole, God is the one who calls us our of darkness, God is the one who goes after us like a hound chasing a fox through the countryside.

God is on the chase. God is calling you to new life. The hound of heaven has the scent and continually tracks us down where we live, where we work, where we play, God is always there.

When we look at our Gospel text we quickly see why this hound of heaven stays on the trail. Verse 41, it says Jesus was “moved with pity.” Now I don’t think this word does justice to the sentiment or feeling that is being expressed or conveyed here.

The Greek word here is σπλαγχνίζομαι (splagchnizomai): meaning filled with compassion. Some translations us the word compassion, one translation used the word anger, but even that still seems a little weak to me. Splagchnizomai is rooted in feelings involving the intestines.

A couple of days ago, my daughter Wendy called us around midnight our time. She said she had been throwing up for two hours, she couldn’t stop. It was terribly painful. She went to the ER and got some medicine to make it stop. She called yesterday and sounded much better. She had an intestinal bug that doubled her over. She said the next day after her all night vomit festival she was sore throughout her chest and whole upper body area.

Jesus, when he saw the leper was filled with compassion. It was powerful. God is filled with the same sentiment when we sin. God’s love for us is great and it’s deep, it’s fill of compassion, Splagchnizomai – the result is a miracle for us.

Just like Jesus said, “I do choose, be made clean.” God’s love for us is beyond anything we have or experience or know here on earth.

When we cry out to God, God sees our pain, sees our frustration, sees our difficulty, and has chosen to make us clean, well, healed by the power of love for us. Paul in his letter to the Romans said “But God proves his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.”

We pretty much have the whole Gospel narrative encapsulated in today’s story from Mark. The leper, still unclean, comes to Jesus and Jesus touches the unclean leper and says be made clean. Jesus touched the unclean leper, Jesus touches us by showing us God’s unending love even before we are made clean.

It’s unfortunate as sinners, as hypocrites, as people still in bondage to the will we don’t always see, or feel or sense the love that God has for us through others.

Years ago, when speaker of the house Sam Rayburn heard that he had terminal cancer, he shocked everyone when he announced that he was going back to his small town in Bonham, Texas. Everyone said to him: They have got the finest facilities in Washington, D. C., why go back to that little town. Rayburn’s words have been quoted so often that some of you have probably heard them. He said: “Because in Bonham, Texas, they know if you’re sick and they care when you die.” When we are a community we care. God’s love should be evident.

In our Psalm we read together this morning we said O Lord God, I cried out to you and you healed me.
God has already made the decision to heal us. Based on Lutheran theology and doctrine, when someone asks us when we were saved we should respond – 2000 years ago when Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the dead. God already has a plan in place. In this community of faith can we say to each other be made clean as well. When we surrender our will to God’s will we must also learn how to surrender our hearts to one another in love.

Again, I return to our story from Mark. Jesus sternly tells the leper to say nothing to anyone, but go show the priest. It’s what the Mosaic law requires, but the leper can’t contain himself and he begins to proclaim his healing to everyone.

Friends, when we cry out to God, God changes our heart, heals us, and makes us whole. That’s a miracle. So what did you do when you realized this miracle in your own life? If you haven’t realized it, if you’re having trouble understanding God’s promise of grace and hope – come by, let’s talk.

Sharing God’s grace and compassion is not just for the spiritually mature. Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose was to determine the most caring child. The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman’s yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, “Nothing, I just helped him cry” What will you do with God’s love this week?

Help a neighbor cry, share your story about how God has changed your heart and healed your life.
God has been our help in ages past let’s also honor him in the present and future as well.

Amen.

The Shepherd’s Voice – Sermon Audio

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