February 9, 2003

Ian Lawton

Epiphany 5

Today is one of those days when the suffering seems overwhelming. There seem to be so many in our midst who are struggling, so much sickness, so much anxiety. And yet alongside this we have a family who have risen from the brink of losing their baby through hope and have a healthy baby with us this morning. As always hope and despair sit alongside each other in fragile balance. The challenge for all of us is how do we best love each other in the midst of this balance.

The phrase which is in my mind is one from Helmut Thielicke who said 'Tell me how much you know of the suffering of your neighbour and I will tell you how much you have loved them.' Today's gospel is the story of the healing of the leper. Lepers of course are still with us, as are the social divisions of the first century.

The leper colony in Bihar, India, is like many others; just outside a major city, awful living conditions, people waiting to die because they have no access to adequate medical facilities, pus oozing from their sores. The residents exist on the fringe of society, rejected by family and banished into exile, refused even by the slums of the city.

Curious about the strangers touring their leper colony, villagers came out of their huts and followed Brother Hari and his team from the Leprosy Mission. Knowing how outsiders reacted to those infected with the dreaded disease, the residents kept their distance. But suddenly something so unexpected happened that they would never forget it for the rest of their lives. Brother Hari and his coworkers approached them in greeting, with absolutely no reluctance … and reached out to shake hands.

At first the lepers were hesitant to place their hands-many deformed, or covered with sores and soiled bandages-into the outstretched ones of the brothers. But when the missionaries insisted, they responded. That's when something wonderful took place: They felt the same touch of compassion the lepers of 2000 years ago experienced when Jesus touched them.

The world of 2000 years ago was little different. It was a world like ours; religiously and socially divided. A prayer of the fundamentalist Pharisees in Bible times was to thank God, "I thank you God that I was not born a Gentile, a slave, a 'leper' or a woman!" In their ignorance and in a society dominated by patriachal prejudice, they believed that God had placed a "curse" on these four groups of people! In fact, one form of leprosy hit men in their manly regions, and was seen to be a curse as it made a man like a woman. So, lepers would live separately, eat from garbage dumps and cry out whenever anyone was in their vicinity- 'unclean'.

This was a religious world still influenced by The Levitical purity code which said, "The one who bears the sore of leprosy shall keep his garments rent and his head bare, and shall muffle his beard; he shall cry out, 'Unclean, unclean!' As long as the sore is on him he shall declare himself unclean, since he is in fact unclean. He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp" (Leviticus 13:45-46).

We can only imagine that the physical pain was nothing in comparison with the social dislocation, and especially the lack of compassion from religious leaders.

It was into this world that Jesus reached out and literally touched lepers. In so doing he reached past the very limited stereotypes of his day, and touched their humanity rather than their withered skin. With this simple yet radical and profound act, Jesus declared these people to be just that; people with physical ailments. The human contact they no doubt craved made them no doubt feel more fully human than they ever had before. Surely this is the greatest healing any person could know, to feel more fully human.

I made a fascinating connection this week. In the Prophet Isaiah it stated that the coming Suffering Servant would be "Smitten of God and Afflicted". In this passage, the Hebrew word "Leprosum" is used. It is the adjective form of the word "lepra", translated "leprosy". There is no evidence that Jesus had leprosy, yet he certainly knew the pain of ultimate abandonment and rejection. It is here that the healing power of Jesus is expressed in its most powerful form; the ability to feel and take into himself the pain of another person.

So often evangelicals will say to me, if you don't believe in sin and souls, heaven and hell, what is the point of the cross? Here it is - on the cross Jesus bore in his body all the agony of human suffering and despair. In bearing this pain in his body he showed the way to new life; the way of compassion and acceptance, the way which breaks through social divisions. The social pain of leprosy was one of the afflictions which Jesus bore in his body.

There are many modern day leprosies. AIDS is one of them. Mental illness is another. Jim was the first person I knew well who contracted the AIDS virus. He was wasting away, struggling for breath and for hope, in his rapidly shrinking body and world. It was in the late 80's and the prophets of doom were declaring that people like Jim were suffering the wrath of God for their sin. They were calling for the quarantining of people with Aids. There was lack of understanding, lack of compassion, stigmatising, scaremongering. To them, Jim was his disease.

While I could see how superficial and judgmental this was, I have to say I was still struggling. I knew that HIV couldn't be transmitted by touch, yet still I felt squeamish around Jim. I couldn't shake the inner thought that he was unclean. When I stopped to think about it, it struck me that people like Jim must pick up on this attitude in their friends. What an awful way to feel and be treated!

The healing of lepers is not so much for us a lesson in miraculous cure. It is far more a lesson in human solidarity and the very ordinary acts of kindness where we feel the pain of the other, sense the connection between physical pain and social dislocation and work at acceptance.

In so doing we will break away the stigmas, tear down the stereotypes and avoid scaremongering. It is the way of compassion and very much the way of Jesus. The more we know of suffering, the more we love.

So, here we are, about to lose our friend, Les Baldwin. He has offered something unique to our church and community. His constancy and heart for people have made such a difference. He has so often taken in his body the pain of others. Now it is time for us to bear a small piece of his pain and Margy's. In taking some of this pain Les will know our solidarity as he faces death and as Margy faced life without Les. We know their suffering. We feel it in some small ways. The more we know of suffering, the more we love.