Losing my innocence

Well, my preaching one anyway. I was going to use another word, but my husband pointed out some ISP filters may not let it through.

I didn't feel too nervous - well maybe just a little. More that people wouldn't get or appreciate what I was saying. Also, there were 2 ministers listening to my first go - linked charge, so the worship team covered both services - no pressure then!

I get away with it though. Everyone who spoke to me seemed to really enjoy it and thought (and I quote here) it was excellent. I've also just received an e-mail from the session clerk of my home church and his wife. They thought it was excellent and many people who had spoken to them thought the same.

My mother-in-law and her friend even came to hear me preach and really enjoyed the service and they don't do church. Must have been okay then.

Silly comment of the day was from one of my ministers - "Are you sure that was your first sermon?". Lets think blast, yes there was this one time at band camp... Yes, it was my first time. "Oh, it didn't sound like a first sermon - it was excellent and I really got a lot out of it." Thank goodness for that, at least I hadn't made a theological faux pas.

So, I thought I'd post it. It's based on Psalm 30 and Mark 1:40-45.

When have you ever been told something and it was too good news to keep to your self?
A friend's just told you their getting married, but doesn’t want a fuss.
Your Mum's been given the all clear from the consultant, but doesn't want the world to know as it might tempt fate and the cancer will come back.
Your son's told you your going to be a grandparent, but it's the first trimester and they don't want too many people knowing in case; just in case.

Each time, the person telling you’re their good news has a really good reason for a limited number of people to know.
Try as you might, you just can’t keep it to yourself. No, you don't want to keep it to yourself - you want to tell the world.

Shout it from the roof tops.

Yet, we hear Jesus told the man he had cured to tell no-one.
This wasn't a flippant gonae no' tell anyone - I'll cure you quietly and move on, the whole world doesn’t need to know what I did for you (well, not yet anyway).
Its just between you and me, isn't it?
No this was a strong warning.
DO NOT TELL ANYONE.
The Greek word Mark uses is a very strong warning word and would have made it very clear to the man Jesus wanted no-one, not even the man's nearest and dearest to know.

Now, this man was a reject of society. With his skin disease, which may not necessarily have been leprosy, as some translations have it, he was deemed unclean by his society.
Anyone coming into contact with him would also have been unclean according to the Moses' law.
Because of this, this man would have known almost everyone would turn the other way when they encountered him. They won't have wanted to have anything at all to do with him.
And here he is, going to Jesus.
Asking for healing.
If Jesus wanted to.
Perhaps he'd heard Jesus didn't turn people away, even those the unclean.
But he was taking a huge risk he would be rejected.
Everyone else had, why wouldn't this Galilean?
But Jesus not only didn't turn the other way, he healed the man.
Because he wanted to.
He felt sorry for him.
He had compassion for him.
Although the passage doesn't reveal much about this encounter, perhaps Jesus was angry at the way society had treated this man:
Making him an outcast,
unloved
good for nothing.
Perhaps that's part of the reason Jesus didn't want the man telling anyone what he had done for him.
How would society have reacted - a carpenter from Galilee curing a leper?
Not being worried about making himself unclean, potentially excluding him too from society for helping one of the unclean.
Challenging the norms of society.
Although Jesus was doing this throughout his ministry, he often told his disciples not to tell others, as the time was not right. Maybe that was the case here?
But, who can blame the man for wanting to tell the world?
Presumably, as Jesus told him, he visited the local priest to be deemed to be clean. This was necessary in order to begin re-integration with society.
The priest may well have known the man well, may even have declared him unclean in the first place.
And he, no doubt, would have wanted to know how this healing happened.
Right, so that was probably the first person the man told about his healing, but realistically, would he have able to keep this healing to himself.
Place yourself in his sandals. A position of uncleanliness and rejection from society.
Then, suddenly cured, wouldn't you want to tell the world?
You are no longer a reject.
People want to talk to you.
You are loved again.
You can have a relationship with God.
According to the Jewish tradition, the man's skin disease meant he couldn't have had a relationship with God. Not a direct one.
He wouldn't have been able to enter the temple and get the High priest to make offerings to God on his behalf.
No entering the temple, no offerings, no relationship with God.
Yet, Mark tells us Jesus took pity on him and healed him.
There and then, although the man may not have know it, he had a direct relationship with God the son.
A relationship he may not have had for years and wouldn't have thought he would have again.
No doubt, as a result of this encounter, the man's entire life, both physically and spiritually was irretrievably transformed.
Just like the psalmist, he just wanted to sing God's praises of what Jesus, God's son, had done for him.
No longer was God hiding his face from him.
He had seen God through Jesus and wanted to proclaim that to everyone he met.

He had been healed!

So, what can we, as church, take from this?

Who in our society is unclean?
The teenage mother
The repeat offender.
The gang member.
All shunned by society and, too often, by the very people who should be reaching out to them.
Us, God's church.

Look at what they've done.
They don't deserve another chance.
They can't sit beside us.

We, as a society often throw their wrongdoing and past back at them.
We don't always treat the unclean gracefully, with compassion.
We're watch them, looking for them to make mistakes that we feel will justify our shunning of them.

Probably the same mistakes we sometimes make, but we're clean, we can make mistakes!

Sometimes, the very people our society deems unclean feel the need to approach God for healing.
This must be extremely difficult for them.
Imagine, plucking up the courage to come to church, to approach God, as something inside you is drawing you to it.
You may feel unworthy.
That the people in the pews will turn up their noses at you
They will turn their back on you.
Just as Jesus' society turned away from their unclean.
Just as every society turns away from their unclean.
But we're not like that, are we?
Because, just as Jesus healed and transformed lives so we, as his church, can offer our act of love to the world.
To heal and transform lives.
Not within these walls, but out there.
Helping the homeless,
Giving a safe place for young people to hang out with their friends
Loving those others reject.
But we do all of this not only because it is the right thing to do, but because we are followers of Jesus and he showed us the way.
He had pity on the man with the skin disease.
He healed him and showed his compassion for the man.
When those society rejects call for help, we do have compassion for them.
We offer our healing to them.
And why do we do this?
To show God's love.
God's love which will heal them.
God's love which healed us too, as we were all unclean in God's eyes until he gave up his son, Jesus, God incarnate, on the cross to cleanse us all.
Amen.