Journey's Weekly Homilies

Sixth Sunday of Year B
February 16, 2003
‘A Community of Prophets’
Homily by Sam 

Leviticus 13:1-2
I Corinthians 10:31-11:1
Mark 1:40-45 

Recently Peter, my 10 year old nephew wrote this poem entitled, “Angels in My Life”.

Angels in my life are special to me.
Special to you, special to all of us.
The Angels in my life are important to me.
They guide me, protect me, tell right from wrong.
They show me God’s path and way.
Angels are always in my life.
Without Angels God’s light would be hidden from us. 

Without Angels God’s light would be hidden to us.  I recently heard that children like Peter will witness 1500 murders on television by the time they become adults.  They will grow up in a virtual war zone.  We are all exposed to injustice and pain in our world to the point where it even seems normal.  And so the light of God indeed becomes hidden from us.

But we have prophets in our world, angels who penetrate our blindness and deafness.  They speak persistently of justice, mercy, and peace.  Prophets challenge us to live completely for the reign of God.  They cry about things others don’t care about.  They become angry about things it would be easier to accept.  And they inspire us to work for things that seem impossible.  Without them God’s light would indeed be hidden.

The people of Jesus’ time thought that the world was beyond hope, not even worthy of prophets, and none would be sent until the very end of time.  The Gospel of Mark announces that the community of prophets has been revived.

John the Baptist appears on the scene dressed as Elijah and baptizes Jesus as his successor.  Jesus in turn calls disciples to continue his work.

After gathering this band of prophets Jesus exposes the corruption and apathy of the powerful and raises the hopes of the poor.  First he invades the synagogue to cast out the demon that possesses it.  Then he raises an ill woman to a place of honor.

And today Jesus weeps over a leper, touches him, and heals him.  Greek manuscripts of this Gospel describe the scene even more vividly than our lectionary suggests. 

We hear today that “Jesus is moved with pity”.  My Greek New Testament uses stronger words.  One of those words is ‘anger’. And the other is a word for intestines or stomach.  We might say, “His stomach was turned”.  Jesus is dramatically upset, even nauseated by the sight of this leper.  Our reading says that after healing the man Jesus “sternly charges the man not to say anything” and “sends him away”.  The Greek texts say that he rebukes the man and throws him out.

This is an example of prophetic lament, a public display of God’s displeasure.  In Jesus’ time a desperate person might gain the attention of bystanders or a powerful ruler through an extreme display of distress.

Prophets use these tactics to great effect. Jeremiah tore off his clothes and wandered the streets screaming at the top of his lungs.  Today Jesus grieves publicly over the fate of a leper as we have agonized over the victims of terrorism and the heroes of the space shuttle.  For Jesus every life is precious.  Through prophetic lament Jesus expresses God’s outrage over injustice no matter who the victims are.

It is one thing to express God’s pain over systems of injustice.  It is another to do something about it.  People were not supposed to touch lepers.  When the clean touch the unclean they too become unclean because a rotten apple spoils all of the others.  Jesus risks his own reputation by contact with the unclean.  Today he touches a leper.  And the leper becomes clean!  The clean apple has transformed the rotten apple so that it is now beautiful!  The laws of the universe have been reversed.  People can now embrace the unclean without fear.  Through God’s grace lepers can even be cured by mere contact with the clean.

In our time another prophet announced a revolution of values that is as radical as the healing of lepers.  Thirty-six years ago Martin Luther King announced that he could no longer be silent about his outrage over the war in Vietnam.  He went on to criticize the concept of war itself and call for a new way of confronting our enemies.

Martin Luther King said, “We must see our enemy’s point of view, hear his questions, know his assessment of ourselves.  From our enemy’s point of view we may indeed see the basic weakness of our own society, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of those we call evil.”

He said that we must confront a hostile world with a message of peace, denouncing poverty, racism, and militarism.  And finally he said we must shed our preoccupation with our own tribe, race, class, and nation and replace it with an embracing concern for humanity.

Of course it seems that this would never work.  Compassion towards our enemies would only further expose us to their hatred.  But touching lepers was supposed to be dangerous too.

Today we will express our concern for people we have been told to fear.  At hospitality you will see bags of rice.  And each of them will have a note that says, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him.”  Romans 12:20.  (We can quote the Bible too).  And you will be invited to send that bag of rice to George Bush to demonstrate your desire to feed rather than kill.

This tactic supposedly worked in the 1950’s.  People were urging President Eisenhauer to use nuclear weapons against China.  Every time his advisors spoke of bombing China he would ask how many of those little bags he received.  And he never authorized the invasion that people expected.

Martin Luther King said that the most persistent and enduring question in our life will be, “What can I do for others?”  Paul in our second reading proclaims is commitment to the welfare of all people before self-interest.  And he calls us to follow him as he follows Jesus.

Today we share with Paul, with Martin Luther King a baptism as prophets.  We devote ourselves to the welfare of humanity before our own safety.  We cry about the pain that is hidden to others, rage about ‘collateral damage’ that others accept, and we hope for things that might not be possible.  When we keep faith with our angels and join that band of prophets the light of God will not be hidden.