Wednesday, July 17, 2019

“A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. ‘If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean,” he said…Instantly the leprosy disappeared, and the man was healed.” (Mark 1: 40, 42, New Living Translation)

[We will be on a summer hiatus for three weeks. Be back on August 14.]

                What is it with the human proclivity, especially those with political or religious power, to “leper-ize” those who are different? To make then wear bells as a warning in they are in the vicinity. To force them to keep to their own kind? To declare them to be unclean and unfit for ordinary society?

                But it is as old as time. Pharaoh enslaved the Hebrews because they were deemed “more numerous and powerful than we” (Exodus 1:9) and fearing they would the join Egypt’s enemies and fight for them. It didn’t matter whether it was true or not but the propaganda worked.

The Biblical Jews, at times, were no slouches either in demonizing other cultures and often exercised their own strict rules and even progroms to maintain racial and religious purity.

                But we never learn from history. Modern examples leap to mind. Indigenous people hived into reservations and residential schools. Japanese internment camps in Canada during WWII. The slaughter of minorities in many East European, Asian and African countries. The stigmatization and persecution of the LGBTQ community. And worst of all, the terrible and undeniable horror of Nazi concentration camps for Jews.

                So, when the American government started rounding up immigrants this past week I am, sadly, not particularly surprised as much as I am disheartened and dismayed.  The stories of the horrendous conditions of their detention camps are alarming, including separation of children from their parents, little food and poor sanitation, little medical treatment, and the nauseating list goes on. But hey, they came to the USA uninvited and are now officially deemed as unclean, unfit to reside in America, a threat, a menace, a blight, an expensive influx of “those people”. The official words of explanation sound so sensible, reasonable and practical but scratch not far from the surface and one finds that all-so-human trait of disliking anyone who is really different from us and our kind. They are not welcome!

                I am not picking on just the States as I have little to no doubt that there are many in Canada who would welcome a more stringent, exclusionary, prejudicial action taken against new immigrants and refugees here. Populism which has an anti-immigrant component is rampant across many countries.

                Therefore, I am always struck by Jesus’ very personal, hands-on approach to real lepers of his time. He did not shun them. He did not avoid them.  He met them, talked to them, and by the grace of his power and love Jesus brought many of them back into community, restoring fellowship and family, and gave them back their dignity, self-respect and well-being. He included them in his life when everyone else had tried to fence them in and keep them at a safe distance. Lepers, gentiles, women, Romans soldiers, Samaritans, prostitutes and tax collectors – all the people on Jewish society’s “no-fly” list - were embraced by Jesus in word and deed.  Jesus opened up the borders that so often divide us from one another.

                If we were really willing, we could do a lot to help heal and make acceptable those who are fleeing one bad situation only now to end up in another one.  We can speak up for them. We can sponsor them. We can challenge unfair policies.  At the very least (?) we can be more inclusive, welcoming and gracious when meeting them. If we were willing, we could make a difference both here at home and in these other places where the need is so overwhelming.

                If only we were willing…

Dale