Powerful Good News By Karen Kennell (2/12/12) Read today's message…

I love the gospel of Mark because it is packed full of action and information.

This morning we get to walk around in the story of a rather extraordinary man with leprosy. He was perhaps desperate, definitely courageous, and in the presence of the Holy, this man was willing to challenge what had become his place in life.

Leprosy in Biblical times did not necessarily refer to what we know as Hanson’s disease — it could refer to any kind of skin condition, generally something cracked and flaky.

Those with a skin condition were seen in society as ritually unclean and thus were not people with whom one would want to interact or touch. Lepers, as they were called, were expected to wear torn clothing as a marking of their impurity, to let people know that they were not to be touched.

People in Jesus’ time had no explanation for these kinds of skin conditions, so they concluded that they were the result of people falling out of relationship with God. This state would keep people away, as well as do a number on a person’s self image, having fear reflected back to them in people’s eyes.

This story is about possibilities, the possibilities that arise when the power of God becomes present here among us. Jesus had a powerful ministry — powerful enough to change lives in an instant and, by the 45th verse of Mark’s gospel, be well known enough by the authorities that it is unsafe for him to go inside the city walls.

And still, people are drawn to his healing power, and they find him in the most remote places.

The earthly possibilities were slim for lepers during this time. They were basically handed their lot in life and were expected to stay there.

This leper, whose name we never know, was moved by something. Did he sense the presence of the holy and seize an opportunity? I wonder if the presence of God’s power helped the leper ask for what he needed. In a state of despair and brokenness one seldom experiences clarity — instead big emotions and internal darkness often create a fog, making any kind of alternative path or possibility impossible to see.

In the presence of God’s power and grace, the fog may lift from us, the darkness may clear and it is possible to see a clear path out.

Was this the experience of the man in this story? He must have felt something powerful to step so fully out of the place that society told him to be and take a risk with Jesus for the sake of his life. He called out the truth that he knew: If you choose, you can make me clean! I see you, Jesus! The healing power in Jesus held possibilities of new life and it came from action, from seizing the moment and engaging with God to create new life, and a new reality.

Jesus responds with strong emotion, whether it is anger or compassion or pity, about which the text itself couldn’t be less clear, he had a strong reaction to the leper’s proposition. Jesus — who is never bound by earthly law, particularly when it oppresses God’s people — does the unthinkable: he reaches out and touches the leper.

Jesus crosses the earthly line, the social boundary, and bridges the divide that makes people feel unworthy of simple, human needs, like healthy touch, friendship and community.

The story of the leper reminded me of the story of Che Guevara, the Argentinian revolutionary from the 1950’s and ‘60’s.

The movie “Motorcycle Diaries” tells the story of Che Guevara (or Fuser, as he is called) and his friend Alberto as they travel through South America down to work in a leper colony in Peru while Fuser was in medical school. When they arrive, they find that the leper colony is located on one side of a river, and the medical facility and staff were on the other side of the river.

There was a physical boundary of flowing water separating them. And even though it was clear that leprosy was not communicable by touch, all medical staff were required to wear gloves while on the “contaminated” side of the river.

When Fuser walks off the boat the first time he opts out of wearing gloves because, as he says, it is simply symbolic of the separation between “clean and unclean” and offers his hand in greeting to a man on shore, who introduced himself as Papa Carlito.

As I watched the film my eyes were fixed on Papa’s face, which showed fear and disbelief as he asked the resident doctor if he had explained the rules of glove wearing to the new arrivals, knowing that the nuns in charge were quite strict. With a nod of encouragement from the resident doctor, a wave of emotion and acceptance flashed over Papa’s face as he accepted Fuser’s hand.

A handshake makes equals, it is an offering of relationship. From the very beginning Fuser called out the humanity in people.

Later in the film Fuser crosses the boundary between contaminated and clean in a more dramatic way. Just like Jesus, who after he cleansed the leper, could no longer go into the city because his profile with the authorities was too high, Fuser angered the medical staff and even his own friend with his actions of radical boundary crossing — a boundary that oppresses.

What Fuser did was extraordinary, crossing the Amazon river with asthmatic lungs, but it was also very pure and as simple as cleansing one’s self in a river. He simply went across to be with people. Simple, yet symbolic of love, companionship and solidarity.

Healing does not need to be complicated and difficult.

Naaman learned that lesson from Elisha, a man of God, translated to him by his own servants, people who would have known more than Naaman about the power that simplicity can hold.

Healing can be as simple as extending one’s hand to another.

When we open our hearts to another, like Jesus did with the leper, and Fuser did with a community of lepers, the creativity — it is creation — that is the living God is unleashed and the possibilities are endless. Extending a hand — extending friendship and love — is the power of creation. This is Christ among us. This is the good news.