| The Foundation of Lady Katherine Leveson at Temple Balsall | ||
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St
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Trapped by the System, but freed by the Outsider Mark 1. 40 - 45 Sermon preached on 16 February 2003 by I wonder what it must feel like to be a leper? The only place I have encountered lepers in significant numbers, is in India. Part of the distressing response to those begging for help, is to shut them out, and distance their connection with us. "I can't help one and not the others - it's impossible to deal with the system that produces so many beggars" is one of the ways in which we distance and protect ourselves. Perhaps a more common experience for us in this country, is the predicament of the increasing number of homeless people. How often have we passed a young woman or man in a doorway of a shop asking for some spare change? How often have we made a decision to give or, more often in my case, to walk briskly on. As a society we do keep people trapped in and by our systems. We construct systems to keep the good in and protected, and to keep the bad out. In the Gospel reading the leper is an outsider for good reason. He is a real threat to the good order of God's creation, an affront to a decent, clean, safe way of life. The leper has no choice or no freedom. Perhaps, perhaps, this is true of those who find themselves homeless? I think the Gospel challenges us to look at our lives in the light of the pity shown by Jesus. This is ultimately bad news. For to remain untouched by Jesus is to remain unclean, and to remain unclean is to be a certified outsider forever, both in relation to society and by God. It is easy to fooled by present day perceptions. But are there attitudes within us that remain unclean - limits to our pity and compassion -trapped by a system that keeps control by drawing the boundaries and leaving some on the inside and some on the outside? The leper is freed by the outsider by choice. Strange as it may seem, the hope of the outsider does not rest on them figuring out how to get 'in' with the system. That is an impossibility. Rather, their hope is secured only as Jesus chooses to go out to them. And of course, by going out to them, he also becomes an outsider. Once Jesus chooses to help the outsider, the leper, then Jesus becomes an outsider by choice. And that is now where Jesus chooses to be found, on the outside, so that those who are cast out may be in the proximity of his compassionate touch. This is about salvation, ours, and how we live within the good news of Jesus. Perhaps the good news of Jesus becomes good news for us only as Jesus' choice for us results in becoming also our choice for Him. There is an old adage that says 'beggars can't be choosers'. While that is true with regard to life in the system, life within discipleship is different. Jesus came precisely so that beggars like the leper, beggars like us, can be choosers: choosers of Christ, because Christ first chose us. In traditional Biblical and Christian language, that choice is called Faith; and it is nothing short of a life-changing confidence with regard to God. Because of Christ's choice for us and our choice for Him, we should
be thoroughly people of choice: free to live as Christ lives - for others.
That fact is demonstrated by the paradoxical ending of the text. We,
who are cleansed by Christ, are free either to keep or not to keep the
commandments, depending on what is helpful. Therefore, we Christians
are not automatons, even though our life is based on one who utterly
opposed and discredited the law as a basis for holiness through his
death and resurrection. Christians are perfectly free to choose to keep
and support the work of the system when it is helpful to others. On
the other hand, Christians are also free not to keep the commandments
when it is not helpful, especially, when the issue is the cleansing
of outsiders. When that is at issue, we (the cleansed) are perfectly
free to touch and embrace the others regardless of what the law may
say. That's what the leper chose to do in our text. He chose to proclaim
Christ freely. But as he did - and as we do - we need to realise that
we are acting outside the system, and that those who are trapped in
the system will more than likely confirm their bondage by treating us
as outsiders, as Jesus himself was treated. But for us outsiders, cleansed
by Christ, that is precisely our freedom, our cross - by choice The Reverend Dr James Woodward |
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