Healing the Outcast
A sermon in "The Other Six Days" series
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
October 14, 2007
Psalm 30; Luke 5:12-16

Psalm 30 A Psalm. A Song at the dedication of the temple. Of David. I will extol you, O LORD, for you have drawn me up, and did not let my foes rejoice over me. O LORD my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. O LORD, you brought up my soul from Sheol, restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit.  
Sing praises to the LORD, O you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name. For his anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.  
As for me, I said in my prosperity, "I shall never be moved." By your favor, O LORD, you had established me as a strong mountain; you hid your face; I was dismayed.  
To you, O LORD, I cried, and to the LORD I made supplication: "What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the Pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness? Hear, O LORD, and be gracious to me! O LORD, be my helper!"  
You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever.  

Luke 5:12-16 Once, when he was in one of the cities, there was a man covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he bowed with his face to the ground and begged him, "Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean." Then Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, "I do choose. Be made clean." Immediately the leprosy left him. And he ordered him to tell no one. "Go," he said, "and show yourself to the priest, and, as Moses commanded, make an offering for your cleansing, for a testimony to them." But now more than ever the word about Jesus spread abroad; many crowds would gather to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray."

I was just a kid in high school in the early 80's when most Americans became aware of the existence of AIDS.   We didn't know very much about it, and our ignorance showed.

In the early 1980s doctors began noticing rare cancers and infections striking otherwise healthy young gay men. Something was destroying their immune systems -- something fatal and possibly contagious. At first it was called the 'gay plague.' Then others began dying: Haitians, intravenous drug users, hemophiliacs and heterosexuals. Fear, confusion and prejudice reigned as the disease eventually known as AIDS grew from a mystery to an epidemic. [1]

There was ignorance about the disease: No one knew how it was communicated.   Could you get AIDS by kissing?   Could you get it off toilet seats?   It was a mysterious disease and it scared people.

Those who were suffering from the disease soon found themselves victims of an even greater disease: hatred and intolerance.

Columnist Pat Buchanan called AIDS "Nature's revenge on the homosexual" and Jerry Falwell said it was "proof of society's moral decay." [2]

Being an AIDS victim meant rejection by society, by friends, family, work.   We've all seen Philadelphia (or if you haven't, you should)--a fictional tale, but very true when it comes to how people with AIDS were treated by employers and others.

And so the AIDS victim became a pariah, an outcast.   Much like the person suffering from leprosy we read about in tonight's Gospel.

Once, when he was in one of the cities, there was a man covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he bowed with his face to the ground and begged him, "Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean." Then Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, "I do choose. Be made clean." Immediately the leprosy left him. And he ordered him to tell no one.

The story we heard read from Luke is a familiar one--if not in the particulars then in the generalities: Jesus was a healer.   There are numerous stories of Jesus healing someone, from Peter's mother-in-law to the Centurion's servant, to ultimately Lazarus back from the grave.  

We are used to this portrait of Jesus in the Gospel.   Theologians describe Jesus as "the wounded healer".   Preachers often lift him up as "the Great Physician".... It is such a central part of Jesus' identity in the Gospels that pre-eminent biblical scholar E.P. Sanders writes that healings are one of the activities of Jesus that we can say with absolute certainty took place.

And so we understand that an essential part of Jesus' mission was a ministry of healing.   It is one of the primary images we have of Christ--that of healer. And therefore, were we to be in the midst of our sermon series on Christian vocations, we could argue that doctors and physicians engage in Christian vocation when they engage in healing. That when we are seeking to be like Christ, we too concern ourselves with health, with well-being, and with healing.

And in the midst of the crisis--it was a sign of miraculous healing that we thought we had seen in our midst.

Iin the mid-1990's a researcher named David Ho invented a combination treatment for the disease known as the "cocktail" that when taken led to drastic reductions in the number of AIDS-related deaths nationwide. People who had been planning for their own deaths were given new leases on life--such that it was referred to as the "Lazarus effect"--like being brought back from the dead. [3]

There emerged a sense that many people had that the crisis was over.   People with AIDS could take medicine and everything would be fine.   The dreaded AIDS scourge turned out to be manageable.

That hasn't turned out to be true.

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now estimate that more than one million Americans are living with HIV. Up to one-third of them do not know they are HIV-positive.
• It's estimated that one in every 20 adults in the District of Columbia is infected with HIV.
• D.C. has the highest rate of new AIDS cases per 100,000 population in the United States -- a rate that is 10 times the national average.
• In D.C., the greatest increase in AIDS cases is occurring among people of color, women, injection drug users and through heterosexual contact.
• In D.C., 82 percent of all AIDS cases are among African-Americans.
• More than 15,000 people in the Washington metropolitan area live with AIDS. Tens of thousands more people are estimated to be infected with HIV.
• Nationwide, someone under the age of 25 is infected with HIV every 30 minutes.

The crisis has not abated. It has not gone away. And it had taken its greatest toll in the places that can the least afford it. [5]

• The HIV/AIDS pandemic remains a global disaster. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) harbours nearly 65% of the estimated 40.3 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the world in 2005. While general awareness about HIV and its causes is almost universal in most of SSA, transmission has not abated.
• 2005 saw yet 4.9 million new infections in the world, 3.2 million (65%) of them in SSA, home to under 10% of the world population. This was the largest number of new infections in a single year since the beginning of the pandemic. Among marginalised communities, new infection rates are even higher.
• The vulnerability of women in SSA is evidenced by the rising infection rates that have surpassed that of men at 57%. While new infections are now commonest among young people, especially those between 19 and 24 years of age, it is at least 3 times higher and in some instances up to 6 times higher among girls than boys of the same age.
• While the world has witnessed a rapid scale up of access to antiretroviral treatment in the recent past, less than 1 in 10 Africans in need of treatment received it by end of 2005, although this represents a four fold increase from previous years. There is therefore hope that scaling up access to treatment in Africa is indeed possible. On the other hand, prevention efforts have not resulted in appropriate behavior necessary to reverse the epidemic. [Emphasis added]

V. HEALING THE OUTCAST

So, how is it then, that in the midst of promising new therapies and treatments, the crisis nevertheless seems to be holding its own--even increasing?

We get so focused on Jesus as a healer that we sometimes ignore or fail to pay attention to who Jesus is healing. It is a long stated fact of Biblical interpretation that any detail that is provided for us is significant. The Biblical authors do not spend a lot of time telling us what color hair or eyes people have, or what they're wearing. Any detail provided is significant. And so we have to look at what we are told about the people that Jesus heals.

We read of Jesus healing women who are bold enough to ask him or to touch his garments.    Women who were not in positions of prominence. Women were not in places of authority in 1st Century Judea and so immediately we are taking about people who are not the powerful.  Jesus healed Gentiles, and the slaves of Gentiles. It's not that Gentiles didn't have power--the Romans were in control--but the gesture of healing showed that God's love was for all God's children. He healed lepers--people shunned by society, forced to live outside the towns, complete and total outcasts. Those whom Jesus healed were not the rich and the powerful, they were the people on the fringes, on the margins.

Perhaps the AIDS victim is no longer an outcast, per se.   Knowledge about communicability and the details of the disease has certainly increased. We see celebrities like Magic Johnson, who is HIV positive, and a successful basketball player and entrepreneur, completely integrated into society.

But it is the outcasts who continue to suffer the most. Those who are cast out of our attention spans.

Those who are still sick and suffering are the outcasts--who cannot afford, do not have access to the best medical care and the cutting edge treatments. The African poor. The urban poor.

These are the ones who are outcast--not by their affliction with the disease--but by their economic or racial status, or their inability to hold our attention against important competing news stories like Britney Spears' custody battle or the crazy astronaut stalker or.  These are the ones that Jesus was ministering to. These are the ones we are called to minister to.

What can we do?

Contribute money.   The United Methodist Church has fallen short of a goal to raise money for a Global Aids Fund. A tragedy since the fundraising goal would basically have required each individual United Methodist in the United States to have contributed 24¢ a year for four years. Twenty five cents. A completely attainable goal. And so, in response, we will donate the entirely of our collection tonight to the Baltimore-Washington Conference's Hope Fund, which will fund the Global AIDS Fund to combat AIDS in Africa.

We can raise awareness.  There is a sense that AIDS is "old news", that it is a problem that has been solved in large measure. But how many people know that by 2010, 18 million children in Africa will be HIV positive? How many people know about the situation here in D.C.? We have a duty to tell the world, to share the story so that others will have the chance to respond.

We can educate. Ignorance about communication and prevention is great.   Many people infect others not realizing they are infected. Many people are living lives of isolation and suffering because others are ignorant about the disease they have.

We can pray. In tonight's gospel lesson we read that after Jesus was asked to do healings, he would withdraw to pray. There is great power in prayer and it ought not be underestimated.

Healing is more than curing.   Anyone who comes to our Thursday Healing Service knows that we do not guarantee that you will be cured of your afflictions, but we do say that you should expect to be healed. Healing is restoration to wholeness. That's what the world 'health' means--"wholeth"--wholeness. As people we need to be healed physically, spiritually, emotionally, relationally.

Wholeness that includes coming to peace with one's illness.   Wholeness that comes from the reconciliation that is possible when one is no longer an outcast or pariah.   When one has been welcomed into the community and made to feel loved.   Curing is what takes place when medicine is applied and a disease is eradicated. Healing is what takes place when someone suffering is surrounded by a community of love.

This is the kind of healing that Jesus did. The kind that he modeled for us and that we imitate. This is the kind of healing that Christ--the healer of the outcast--calls us to do for one another.

Notes
[1] http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-70-413/disasters_tragedies/early_aids/
[2] http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-70-413-2376/disasters_tragedies/early_aids/clip3
[3] http://www.fda.gov/FDAC/features/1999/499_aids.html
[4] http://www.wwc.org/hiv_aids_services/statistics.html
[5] http://www.amref.org/index.asp?PageID=50&PiaID=2