Based on Mark 1: 40-45

My friends, will you pray with me?  May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable unto you, my God, my strength and my redeemer?  Amen

Today, we continue our story from the book of Mark.  Remember that Jesus was baptized by John, gathered his disciples from the lake shore, thought in the temple and began healing people in the city.  Next Jesus met a leper.

What the Bible calls leprosy is not Hanson’s Disease, modern leprosy.  We know this because Hanson’s disease did not appear in the Middle East until much later.  Most likely, it was some other skin disease.  It may have been rosacea, alopecia, even really bad acne.  You see, the purity code prevented anyone who wasn’t “whole and clean” from being part of the community.  These “lepers” had to dress in dirty rags.  As they passed through the city, they had to shout, “Unclean, unclean,” so people could avoid touching them.  Even touching these people would make one unable to enter the temple or participate in the community without first going through a ritual cleansing process.

So, when Jesus healed this man, he healed much more than a skin disease.  He healed the schism between the man and his family, between the man and society and, at least from the leper’s point of view, the man and God.

No wonder this healed person went through the city shouting the good news!  No wonder people flocked to Jesus to be healed!  They all wanted to be made clean, to be made acceptable to society.

You will notice that I haven’t said “cured.”  “Cure” is a medical term, meaning that a physical disease is gone.  “Healing” is different.  Healing can happen without cure.  For instance, people with HIV or alcoholism or cancer can come to acceptance, can live with the disease, can have healthy relationships, and can be spiritually healed while remaining uncured.  They can be accepted back into society.  More importantly, they accept themselves as a part of society.

Many of us, perhaps most of us, maybe all of us, are considered unclean by our society.  If you don’t have a job, you are unclean.  If you need a cane or a wheelchair, you are unclean.  If your native language is not English, you are unclean.  If you have been to prison, you are unclean.  If you have a mental illness, you are unclean.  If you dress differently, you are unclean.  If you like the wrong sports team, you are unclean.  If you are gay or lesbian, you are unclean.  In the gay and lesbian community, if you are transgender or bisexual, you are unclean.

In our society we have a purity code.  It’s not formal, but we have one.  We shun unclean people.  We ignore unclean people.  If we can’t cure our own uncleanness, we become ill; we accept ourselves as unclean.  We live with self-doubt.  We hide in closets.  And we become even more ill.

Jesus loved the unclean people.  Jesus shunned the purity code.  And people were healed.  They were healed because no one is unclean in the eyes of God and these people finally accepted that and themselves.

Most of us come to MCC believing that we are unclean.  We are filled with self-loathing.  We believe that we are not good enough for our families, for society, for the church, even for God.  Slowly, we are healed.  Slowly, we become good enough.  Slowly, we recognize that we are all created in God’s image.  Slowly, we accept that accepting ourselves and others makes us whole.  Finally we come to that acceptance.  We are healed.  We are not healed in the sense that we are no longer sexually or gender different.  We are not healed from being Hispanic.  We are not healed from being deaf.  We are not healed from being not abnormally tall.  We are healed from the perception that who we are, who we were created to be, is somehow fundamentally wrong.

This healing brings elation.  Like the leper, we have to tell.  We have to let others know who we are.  We have to share what we have so that others can be healed.  We know that we are not lepers.  And we need to tell others how our leprosy was healed.

So, don’t keep the secret.  Tell.  Don’t hide who you are.  Tell.  Don’t hide the acceptance that you find in this church community.  Tell.  Don’t stay in the Christian closet.  Tell.

The message of love is there for all of us.  We are healed.  Run through the streets of the city.  Tell.

Amen.