Leper

Mark 1:40-45 : The Leper. Then and Now.       

The Rev. Julia W. Messer
2.12.2012

~~~

When I was studying to become a priest, I met with some opposition, not only because of my age, but because of my gender. I got everything from, “What is wrong with you that you want to be a priest,” to “Why don’t you just marry a minister?” And the one that stood out in my mind was when I was down in New Orleans doing some mission work following Hurricane Katrina.  I was to stay at a conservative/’Anglican’ parish but I was warned before I went down not to tell anyone I was in the process to become a priest. However, the moment I got there I was introduced as a seminarian, to which several people stated “You know we don’t believe in you.”  To them, I replied, “That is your choice. I’m down here to work, not to be your seminarian.” At that time, I really didn’t understand what my presence meant to them and how troubled that presence made them. The good news is that by the end of the week the church had invited me to be the first woman to serve behind the altar, to read Good Friday’s Gospel, and to be a chalice bearer.  I believe this change happened because the church got to know me, not the hypothetical crazy female whom they feared was out to destroy the Episcopal Church.  Regardless of age or gender, I was one working with them to assist, in the small ways that I could, as they healed after Hurricane Katrina. The Holy Spirit moved them and they came to see me as not someone to fear but as a person who believed in and worshipped the same God in the same way.

This memory stands out in my mind when I read today’s Gospel.  I realized that I was someone that people viewed as not fully fit to serve God, they saw me as an “other” and that got me thinking about what in our lives do we feel makes us an “other”, a leper, and what ways do we view others as lepers. This circular thinking sent me to reflect on how people, including me, view “others”.  I know that in some ways I can be viewed as a dork. Let’s face it, I’m officially a Church Dork. And on top of that, when I turned thirteen, all of a sudden—at least it seemed that way to me—I got curly hair, braces, glasses and acne.  I like Jane Austen to Star Wars, I like sports and being slightly preppy. Growing up I did not fit into a stereotypical stereotype, so dork covered it all.  I was the same “me” inside but I was so dismayed with all the awkwardness that I was sure others saw me as “other”. How often do we all—I know I do it-- see someone who looks or acts differently and label them with our own 21^st century label of leper?

Today, leprosy is known as Hanson’s disease, but in Jesus’ time, leprosy was a word that encompassed many diseases.  The label, leprosy, would have been used for anything that made a person look deformed, especially any disease that affected the skin, and particularly anything exposing raw flesh.   These people were considered unclean, not necessarily because they committed a sin, but because they were viewed as not fit to worship God. The culture saw them as unclean and therefore they were treated as such, and came to believe that they too were unclean.

In today’s Gospel the leper went up to Jesus, and I can almost hear his voice sounding deflated, begging Jesus, he said “If you choose, you can make me clean.” The leper did not ask Jesus to heal him; it is almost as if he did not think he was worthy of it. And Christ was moved with pity, not because of the man and the burden he bore, but I believe Jesus was moved with pity because the leper despised himself and felt he was worth nothing, not even worth asking Christ to heal him. 

The leper had to deal with his own internal struggle of not only the disease, but how he viewed himself. And on top of that, he had to deal with how others felt about him--how they turned from him, rejected him, and how they viewed him as not even worthy of God.

To not even feel worthy enough to worship God is an absolutely horrible place to be.  Yet there are people who have been in this position because they have done something or they are viewed as not worthy.

Today leprosies and their manifestations can come in many different forms. People with self-esteem issues can feel like everyone is watching them and that they aren’t worthy enough to be heard or cool enough to be in a particular situation. There is also the leprosy of social rejection from the want to separate us from the people who are different from us, especially from the homeless, who are the unclean of today. Leprosy today can be dismissing someone because of a mental or physical illness or disability. Or it can take on other forms—such as the animosity and bitterness between Democrats and Republicans today who won’t listen to each other, but reject, out of hand, based on political affiliation.

Modern day leprosies can be self-inflicted or they can be placed there by other people. Yet what I love in today’s Gospel is that in one second, Jesus made the leper clean. Can you imagine being able to be healed of our burdens, to put down the burdens that we have been carrying for a long time… and just be healed? It’s miraculous….and in most cases miracles don’t work like this. To put down the leprosy that we have been carrying for years is not something easily done.  But it can be done.

What the leper did was he acknowledged the issue he was carrying. In a week and a half Lent begins…the season of conscious acknowledgement of the areas in our lives that pull us from the love of God.   Now is the perfect time to begin to look at the areas in our lives that need to be cleaned, to be healed. What do we do or what burden do we carry that makes us feel unworthy of God’s love? What opinions, or whose opinion do we hold that keep us from reaching out to others?  What areas and reasons do we find to judge others as less-than ourselves?

We are ALWAYS worthy of God’s love and forgiveness.  All we have to do is approach God and be honest with Him and ourselves. It is that easy but it can be a challenge to lay down the burdens we have carried with us thus far. Today, all we have to do is to see the “us” that God sees and loves, and to see the person in our neighbor that God sees and loves.           

~~~

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. AMEN.

Happy New Year to EEC and all our readers!

Happy 2012!

May this year be filled with joy, love, best of health, good luck, and unlimited possibilities for you and those you love!  And may the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you , and remain with you always. Amen.

Go in peace to share in the joy and power in life in Christ! Alleluia, alleluia!

Christmas Day 2011

Christmas Day Sermon
The Rev. Julia W. Messer

Merry Christmas!

Some of my fondest memories happened on Christmas; there is nothing more magical than this time of year. I especially remember and cherish two very special Nativity Crèches! My Swiss Grandfather was a civil engineer by profession, but loved nothing more than creating things from wood.  He built a swing set for me and a train table for my brother.  But the thing we treasure the most that he built was a crèche.  It is wood, fits nicely on a table, and has a little bit of a Swiss look to it.  For the next many years as my grandparents traveled, they would find wooden figurines to fill the crèche. W hen I was older my godmother started sending me for Christmas exquisite Hummel figurines for another crèche.   I can’t explain the joy as each of the figurines would come in as a present, year by year, and they got to be put into the crèche. For me when I got these figurines, they were like getting a piece of a greater story. I loved hiding little baby Jesus until Christmas day, or having the wise men cross the room until they made it the manger on the day of Epiphany.

And with today being Christmas, everyone has their own favorite Christmas memories. Christmas memories and traditions help to make today a powerful day. When Jesus came into the world He did not come as a full grown being and made a difference, he was born into a family. A family that had its own traditions and created new memories together. God sent his son not only into the world as a part of a family, but also into the larger human family. So no matter what family you were born to or what life you have experienced, we can all try to find grace in our lives. We are all a part of the story of Christ’s birth and therefore a part of a greater family.  In a season where we are acutely aware of traditions, I want to invite you to think of your family Christmas traditions and briefly share your most favorite one with us. Or share with us one of the great moments of grace you have felt during a Christmas season.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Christmas Pagents Advent 4 2011

December 18, 2011
Advent IV
The Rev. Julia W. Messer

‘Tis the season of Advent and Christmas pageants!  There are many ways to tell or share the story of Jesus’ birth.  One way is through nativity plays or Christmas pageants, and another would be nativity scenes or crèches.  Since we are having our Christmas pageant at the 11:00 service, today is a perfect day to examine nativity plays.

Emmanuel, along with perhaps thousands of other Christian churches, will present their versions of a Christmas pageant sometime in December before Christmas day.  Why do we do it?  Where did they come from?  Where does this tradition come from?

I bet most of us remember either being in one as a child or being the adult on the hunt for the perfect bathrobe to represent the king’s robes….or perhaps both are memories.

By a show of hands, how may of you have been apart of a Christmas pageant? … I can relate.

Since I can remember, some of my earliest memories of church were being in a Christmas pageant. I can remember almost every Christmas pageant I participated in as a child.  There was almost a rite of passage as my brother and I grew older because we took on more responsible roles with lots to memorize.  I started as a lamb and grew to become a little angel, then a reader, and finally, the archangel Gabriele and narrator. But I would like to point out that my brother began on a similar path.  He started as a lamb, then became a shepherd, and ended as the donkey—a point I’ve reminded him of on several occasions.  Despite my ribbing him about his role, we both realized that our roles were to be taken seriously.  That’s the amazing thing about nativity plays-- we are a part of the greatest story ever told!  We get to interact and be a part of the story of the Messiah coming into the world.

Each year we do this to remember the story of the night that the Light of the world came into the world and the darkness did not overcome it. We remember the day over 2,000 years ago when a baby was born in a stable. He would go on to change the world forever. He offered God’s saving grace; He taught people to live their lives in a radical way --that we are loved by God and we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves.  This tiny baby boy was God incarnate, and it can be hard to imagine that when the Savior came into the world, He would come in such a common and uncommon way.

Jesus was born to a young woman named Mary; a woman visited by a messenger of God and told that she would bear the savior of the world.  Mary was betrothed to a man named Joseph, who made the decision to stay with her and raise this child as his own. Then Jesus was brought into the world, in a manger among animals, yet his birth was heralded by angels and a star lead wise men to his cradle.

It is an amazing and powerful story, which can get covered up in the hustle and bustle of all that we do around Christmas time. We may put more focus on what we will eat, what gifts we have bought others, and we may get so caught up in expecting the Christmas ‘magic’ to happen that we may forget the simple yet powerful story of Christ’s birth.

In that way we are no different than our ancestors hundreds of years ago. Saint Francis of Assisi is credited with creating the first nativity play on Christmas Eve, 1223. While St Francis was born to a wealthy family he gave everything up and led a life helping lepers and building monasteries to help the poor and sick of his community. St. Francis was said to be a wonderful preacher, but he wanted people to focus on and to remember the story of Jesus’ birth.  At that time when most people could not read, St. Francis wanted a way to convey the powerful story of Christ’s birth and he wanted people to feel even more a part of the Christmas story.  So some monks and he, along with an ox, donkey and a recreated manger, reenacted the Nativity.

There you have it; we are a part of a long historical tradition, which of course we Episcopalians are known to be proud of. By being a part of a Christmas pageant, we carry on one of the most interactive ways to be a part of the greatest story ever told -- the story of Christ’s birth into this world.  So on this 4^th Sunday of Advent at our 11:00 service, our children will perform a Christmas pageant, helping Emmanuel to carry on a tradition credited to St. Francis of Assisi almost 800 years ago.

~~~~

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Advent 2

Advent 2-B

December 4, 2011

The Rev. Marguerite Alley

John the Baptizer is one of my favorite characters in the Bible, but not for the reasons you might think. If we were looking for the perfect person to announce the coming of the Messiah, John would not be the one we would choose. If we were looking for a prophet to tell us where we were going wrong, John the Baptist would not be the model by which we would measure ourselves. If we were looking for someone from the religious establishment to help us understand the role of and the need for a Messiah, we would not ask John the Baptist. In short, JB would not be the kind of person we would want to have a conversation with, a meal with, or even be in the same room with!

First, he lived outside civilization. He lived alone in the desert. I am reasonably certain that he was hygienically challenged. I doubt any of us would want to sit near him. He separated himself from “socially acceptable” people in more than geographic ways as well. He wore nothing but a camel skin tunic. His hair was probably wild and matted. I would guess that on a diet of bugs and wild honey that his breath was disgusting and his teeth were rotting.

Second, he taught outside the religious establishment. He was not a trained rabbi, therefore he had no “right” to interpret scripture. He had no standing or office in the temple. He did not sit as a pupil at the feet of any of the great rabbis. His understanding of Jesus and Jesus’ pending role in the religious establishment of the day, came to him in a “non-traditional” way: directly from God.

And finally, John the Baptist had very poor social skills. He didn’t seem to be able to withstand the exchange of pleasantries. He would not last ten seconds at coffee hour in the Episcopal Church. If you asked him how he was, he would probably say that he was miserable, sick with worry and sin…and then go on to describe in detail how you were too. He didn’t pick up on social cues very well either. When folks suggested that his message might be somewhat subversive, he went right on preaching it. When he had the opportunity to re-cant he didn’t. Eventually, he lost his right to speak out at all when his head ended up as the first act in the royal evening’s entertainment.

So, if we were to look for someone to “follow”, someone to teach us, someone to be our spokes person…it would likely not be John the Baptist. He was creepy. He had no credibility. He told anyone who would listen that this person was going to build a new world. That’s just silly. We don’t need a new world. We just need one that works the way we think it ought to. He preached this “new world” idea to the religious establishment and I doubt they appreciated his comments. The establishment was all wrapped up in ceremony, rules and doctrine. The light was all but extinguished under the guise of “the law”. So God decided to step outside the temple and into the wilderness. Remember now that in Genesis, the wilderness is a good place. It is the garden where all good things grow! The light, out in the wilderness can grow and be tended by this wild man……this cast off from polite society. Dressed in animal skins with matted hair and bad breath, John tells us with such urgency and passion that someone is coming; someone so different from what we expect; someone so radical and challenging, that the announcement COULD NOT be made within the religious establishment of the day! John also told us that we cannot sit back and just wait for this amazing person to arrive. He said we have to work, to prepare, to make a pathway for him.

A gospel always starts off with a “message” of some sort. God always chooses someone special to deliver the message…whether it is a flaming angel appearing out of nowhere, a burning bush, or a wild man in the desert. God doesn’t usually choose someone “socially acceptable” as his delivery man. In this case, having chosen one totally removed from the “church” and from polite society as the messenger, only the ones who were willing to go “outside the lines” so to speak could even hear his message.

I imagine that we all know that this wilderness is both literal and metaphorical. There is a lot of empty desert space in that part of the world. One would not have to travel very far to find themselves in the wilderness. Today though, it might be more of a challenge if you are trying to think of it literally. Figuratively though, it is easy to imagine what our wilderness might be. Perhaps being more open minded, or community minded, or globally aware. Perhaps our wilderness might be heading off to college or to a new job or into a new relationship. It could be allowing ourselves to experience new things, to get to know someone better, to do something that makes us a little bit uncomfortable or to start up a conversation with a stranger. For each of us, the fear that the wilderness stirs up in us may come in different forms. We can also probably find a hundred reasons not to go there. We are quite comfy right here. We worked hard to get here. We deserve this. Why should we look for God anywhere else than right here in our favorite little church? I can’t imagine unless it is that voice from the wilderness that calls us. The one we can’t really hear over the din and clatter of our daily lives. It is that voice in the wilderness that holds the light for us and calls us from the darkness into the light. It is John the Baptist who reminds us that God uses the most unlikely people to deliver the most important messages and that we may have step outside the doors of our comfort zone to hear it. It is that crazy man in the wilderness who reminds us that we have work to do to prepare our hearts and our lives for the coming of the Messiah.

An Advent Meditation

A Meditation on Advent

In this season of expectation
We prepare to welcome Christ Jesus, Messiah
Into the bustle of our lives
and the hard to find moments of solitude
We prepare to welcome Christ Jesus, Messiah
Into our homes and situations
along with friends and families
We prepare to welcome Christ Jesus, Messiah
Into our hearts, and those often hidden parts of our lives
We prepare to welcome Christ Jesus, Messiah
For beneath the surface of your story
is an inescapable fact
You entered this world
as vulnerable as any one of us
in order to nail that vulnerability to the cross.
Our fears, our insecurities and our sins
all that can separate us from God
exchanged by your Grace for Love.
We cannot comprehend the reasoning
only marvel that Salvation comes to us
through a baby born in a stable,
and reaches out to a world in need.

In this season of anticipation
We prepare to welcome Christ Jesus, Messiah

Happy New Year--Advent 1

The Rev. John A. Baldwin
November 27, 2011
ADVENT 1 Year B

This morning, the first Sunday of Advent, marks the beginning of the Christian year. Our New Year begins not with toasts of champagne, watching a huge ball descend in Times Square, or the singing of Auld Lang Syne, but with Advent wreaths and purple hangings; scripture readings with themes of longing, anticipation and expectation; and above all, a mounting excitement as we move forward toward the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Advent may not have the glitter and pizzazz of New Year's Eve, but it lasts for four weeks, not just a single night. It moves us spiritually deep down inside, rather than the surface fluff we experience on December 31st. Unlike the media's penchant for getting nostalgic and looking back over the significant events of the past year on January 1st, Advent is forward-looking - not simply to the event coming up in four week's time, Christmas Day, but far beyond that to the fulfillment of human history, the Second Coming of Christ, the reign of the Kingdom of God.

It may have startled you a bit this morning, if you were listening closely to the scripture readings, to hear such vivid and powerful images of chaos and turmoil. Isaiah implores God to tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains might quake and the nations tremble at his presence. In our Gospel reading from Mark 13, Jesus seems uncharacteristically dark, somber, even scary in his portrayal of the coming of the Son of Man. “in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.”

Both Isaiah and Jesus are pointing towards the birth of something new. For Isaiah, God's intervention in history; for Jesus the coming of the reign of God.

Birth events are filled chaos and turmoil. Far out in the cosmos, the birth of stars in whirling storms of particles is beyond our capacity to fathom. The birth of an island in the eruption of a volcano scatters everything in its path. Closer to home, despite the very best medical practices we are capable of, there is always an element of uncertainty and breath-holding as a child comes into the world. So too, the passing of a human soul from this world into the next is filled with uncertainty and turmoil. Things that are new bring uncertainty to the human heart, which is perhaps why so often there is such great push-back and resistance to new ideas, and threats to the status quo.

It is appropriate, I believe, as we move into a new Christian year, and begin again the journey of faith that will lead us to the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, and beyond it to his life and ministry, culminating in his passion, death and resurrection, that the year begins with a warning: “Keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.” Listen up folks...pay attention, things are about to happen.

Although the Christian faith asserts that the Creator of the universe is filled with love, forgiveness and grace, God is also awesome, powerful beyond our wildest imagination, and beyond our capacity to fully comprehend. While there is reassurance aplenty in the teachings and message of Jesus, there is also an element of uncertainty. “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come.”

This heads-up and warning by Jesus has led through the centuries to myriads of religious leaders, mostly on the fringes of mainstream Christianity, to issue imminent predictions of his Second Coming. These go way back in time, but are also very much with us even today. We experienced this ourselves, for example, earlier in the year, when American Christian radio host Harold Camping stated "beyond the shadow of a doubt" that the Rapture and Judgment Day would take place on May 21, 2011, and that the end of the world would take place five months later on October 21, 2011. Camping, then president of the Family Radio Christian network, claimed the Bible as his source and said the Rapture would occur at 6 pm. local time on May 21st, with the rapture sweeping the globe time zone by time zone, while some of his supporters claimed that around 200 million people (approximately 3% of the world's population) would be 'raptured', that is taken up into the air to be with Jesus (while the other 97% would remain behind to suffer the agonies coming at the end of the world).

Kooky though this all seemed, some people at least breathed a sigh of relief when the day came and passed without incident. Following the failure of his prediction, media attention shifted to Camping's response. On May 23, he stated that May 21 had been a "spiritual" day of judgment, and that the physical Rapture would occur now on Oct. 21, 2011, simultaneously with the destruction of the universe by God. However, Oct. 21 also passed without Camping's predicted apocalypse. Whew....thank goodness for that!

I wish that someone in the media had gone up to Camping on May 22^nd or Oct. 22^nd and congratulated him, “You were absolutely right. The Rapture did occur on May 21^st and the redeemed were saved. But wait a minute. How very curious. You are still here!”

Most of those proclaiming the imminent second coming of Christ, are acting under the assumption they are one of the redeemed. “I will be saved, but you poor wretches will be lost.” How arrogant and judgmental, is that!

Lest we simply dismiss these folks as “Kooks”, let me point out that they at least have taken seriously an important part of Jesus' message that we all to often forget or take lightly, “keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come”.

What if we all kept awake, and lived as if today was indeed the last day of our life, no matter whether that be due to the Second Coming, or more likely our own physical death. How might your life and mine be very different if we lived as if today is our last day on Earth? We might choose to live in dread, fear and anxiety. But if we are people of faith, believing in life beyond life in the glory of God, might we not treat others around us with tenderness and compassion, savoring our moments with our loved ones, close friends, children and grandchildren? Might we not notice and drink in the beauty of the world around us that we so often rush past? Might we not remember with thankfulness all that we have been blessed with?

I suspect that if we lived as if today is our last day on Earth, we would find to our utter surprise that we are, in fact, actually living as if it is the first day of our life....our senses heightened and acute, our capacity for love and compassion immeasurably increased, our appreciation of every moment richly treasured.

The season of Advent calls us into a new beginning. It looks forward one to the celebratation of God entering into humanity in the Incarnation, the birth of Jesus Christ. It also points ahead to the future for which "all creation is groaning” filled with justice, peace and mercy, in which we fully love the Lord our God with all our heart, and our neighbors as ourselves.

_______________________

First Sunday of Advent
Year B RCL

Isaiah 64:1-9, Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18, 1 Corinthians 1:3-9, Mark 13:24-37