andrewlittle
02-14-2009, 07:21 AM
This is the unpolished version so far of the sermon I will preach on Sunday.
Would you help me by giving me feedback?
The sermon:
She came out … just in time to see her young son playing directly inline of the gray, gaunt man who strode down the center of the well-worn path like a mechanical derelict.
For an instant, her heart quailed.
Then she jumped forward, gripped her son by the arm, snatched him out of harm’s way.
The man went by without turning his head.
As his back moved away from her, she hissed at it, “Go away! Get out of here! You ought to be ashamed.”
Thomas’s stride went on, … but to himself he responded, Ashamed? Ashamed?
His face contorted in a wild grimace.
“Beware!”, he cried out.
And he saw that the people he passed, the people who knew him, whose names and houses and handclasps were known to him –
- he saw that they stepped aside, gave him plenty of room.
Some of them looked as if they were holding their breath. ‘
His inner shouting collapsed.
These people did not need the ancient ritual of warning.
He concentrated on restraining the spasmodic snarl which lurched across his face, and let the tight machinery of his will carry him forward step by step.
Watching the startled, frightened or oblivious faces – there were many oblivious faces, though the town was small – that passed around him, he wished he could be sure that his face bore a proper expression of disdain.
Now, as women who had at one time chosen to flirt recoiled from him as if he were some minor horror or ghoul, he felt a sudden treacherous pang of loss.
His nearest neighbors, about a half mile away in either direction, had complained shrilly about his presence among them;
… and, when he refused to sell his property, they moved away from him.
This is not the account of a leper some two thousand years ago.
This is Thomas Covenant – a fictional character based on the very real experiences of rejection of real people.
Thomas is the lead character in Stephen R. Donaldson’s series, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, and he is a twentieth century leper.
Stephen Donaldson’s father had worked with lepers when he was young, and this was a re-telling of what he witnessed.
When I read the series many years ago I remember thinking, “People don’t react that way anymore. The world is not that archaic.”
But, perhaps it is.
As a culture, have we learned nothing from the Bible lessons about outcasts?
Let us now return to the Biblical stories – two, in particular, that contrast in a very telling way.
In the first story, Elisha responded in a very appropriate way – appropriate for his culture, anyway.
Elisha did not come out to see the leper, but sent a messenger to tell Naaman how he could be healed.
Elisha did not meet Naaman until afterwards – when his skin was as fresh as a child’s and he was disease free.
Contrast that with the way in which Jesus responded when the leper said faithfully, “If you choose, you can make me clean.”
Jesus, being moved – moved, it says – reached out a hand and touched the leper and said, “I do choose. Be made clean.”
Jesus – intimate and tangible – touching the thoroughly unclean.
Now, admittedly, Jesus may have had an immune system that was just wonderful – you might even say, divine.
But Jesus was fully human, though – capable of pain and death as we obviously know already.
Jesus was also capable of tiredness – the need for rest is what usually sent Jesus to Bethany to visit with Mary and Martha, who ministered to Jesus.
So, if Jesus was fully human, Jesus ran an extremely high risk in touching the man with leprosy – except for the plague, it was the most contagious disease in that time and place.
Jesus healed in the name of God, but it nonetheless took faith on the part of Jesus to touch in the name of ministry – to touch the untouchable.
Risky business this ministry of Jesus – dangerous stuff.
And later, when Jesus teaches the disciples to heal, touch will be part of the risk they take, too.
Then, of course, we have Paul giving instruction in ministry.
On the surface of it, there’s not much to tie these together.
On the surface of it.
If we dig a little deeper, we find the common ground.
Now, I’ve got to tell you that I am not a major sports fan, which some already know.
Just about the last thing you’ll hear from me, unless I can’t think of another way to put something, is a sports analogy.
But we have just that.
There are some very basic truths in the 1 Corinthians passage, that line up with the gospel reading.
First, let’s consider the leper in Mark.
The man says to Jesus, “if you choose, I will be made well.”
That is a profound statement of faith, which Jesus acknowledges by being so moved.
Jesus isn’t any more moved by the person’s leprosy that by all the other conditions of sickness, possession and oppression already encountered.
That does move Jesus, because Jesus heals, but it does not cause an emotional expression to the extent that it gets mentioned.
What moves Jesus is this person’s faith.
If you choose, it will be done.
Clear and simple.
That kind of faith is what is being discussed in Paul’s writing.
The kind of faith demonstrated by someone who enters a race in the first place.
When, in a race, only one will win, who trains and prepares and conditions themselves if they do not have some hope of winning.
They may be satisfied with second or third place, or even just finishing the race, but there is that hope of possibly winning that drives the desire to engage in the process in the first place.
Paul is saying, “keep your eyes on the prize.”
Don’t run aimlessly, but condition ourselves to accomplish that which is hoped for.
It doesn’t matter, ultimately, whether or not the first place ribbon is attained, because in striving for the goal faithfulness is evident.
So, what about our race - this event into which we entered?
Did we enter with no expectation of winning?
What were your expectations before we began?
Someone on the pastor nominating committee, right up front in the first interview, said they were pessimistic about the possibilities.
Pessimism has a way of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.
If we expect to lose, then the likelihood is that we will lose – even if we take the prize, it will be considered a loss.
It will not be enough.
The expectation was to lose, and that becomes inseparable from the goal.
Paul is talking about preparation and persistence.
When you do that, all the little obstacles in the way become annoyances, not roadblocks.
They are things to be worked around, not the cause for turning back.
I annoy some of you.
To others, I am a leper – soiled goods.
Okay, I can accept that.
Is that so important that you are willing to give up on the race?
We entered what was anticipated to be a five year race.
Conditions over which we have no control have shortened the race to about three years.
At least, that’s how it looks now.
But, the last decision is that whether or not the race is finished, we will abandon the race after eighteen months – come June, we will make the decision to quit the race.
Some have already decided that June is the end.
Some have already accepted that we have lost.
If that is true, what is so special about June?
Why not make a decision now.
How many people here today thought, in the beginning, that even though we entered a five year race, we would win it in 18 months?
How many people – come on, show of hands – think that this church could become revitalized again by this coming June?
How many people thought this was a fruitless endeavor to begin with – that there was no possibility we could win this race?
Do not show hands on these question – okay – don’t put your hand up.
Just think about your answer.
How many of you are willing to walk away from the race before it’s done?
If so, why wait another eighteen months, twelve months or four months?
Leave the race.
How many are willing to see the race through to the end?
If so, we need to prepare, condition and conduct ourselves as if the race can be won.
We need to minister to this community as Jesus would - in intimate, personal and tangible ways.
I, for one, am not giving up.
If the race is another 4 years, 1 year or 4 months, I am running this race to win.
I will do that right up until the final day.
How about you?
Where are you in this race?
Would you help me by giving me feedback?
The sermon:
She came out … just in time to see her young son playing directly inline of the gray, gaunt man who strode down the center of the well-worn path like a mechanical derelict.
For an instant, her heart quailed.
Then she jumped forward, gripped her son by the arm, snatched him out of harm’s way.
The man went by without turning his head.
As his back moved away from her, she hissed at it, “Go away! Get out of here! You ought to be ashamed.”
Thomas’s stride went on, … but to himself he responded, Ashamed? Ashamed?
His face contorted in a wild grimace.
“Beware!”, he cried out.
And he saw that the people he passed, the people who knew him, whose names and houses and handclasps were known to him –
- he saw that they stepped aside, gave him plenty of room.
Some of them looked as if they were holding their breath. ‘
His inner shouting collapsed.
These people did not need the ancient ritual of warning.
He concentrated on restraining the spasmodic snarl which lurched across his face, and let the tight machinery of his will carry him forward step by step.
Watching the startled, frightened or oblivious faces – there were many oblivious faces, though the town was small – that passed around him, he wished he could be sure that his face bore a proper expression of disdain.
Now, as women who had at one time chosen to flirt recoiled from him as if he were some minor horror or ghoul, he felt a sudden treacherous pang of loss.
His nearest neighbors, about a half mile away in either direction, had complained shrilly about his presence among them;
… and, when he refused to sell his property, they moved away from him.
This is not the account of a leper some two thousand years ago.
This is Thomas Covenant – a fictional character based on the very real experiences of rejection of real people.
Thomas is the lead character in Stephen R. Donaldson’s series, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, and he is a twentieth century leper.
Stephen Donaldson’s father had worked with lepers when he was young, and this was a re-telling of what he witnessed.
When I read the series many years ago I remember thinking, “People don’t react that way anymore. The world is not that archaic.”
But, perhaps it is.
As a culture, have we learned nothing from the Bible lessons about outcasts?
Let us now return to the Biblical stories – two, in particular, that contrast in a very telling way.
In the first story, Elisha responded in a very appropriate way – appropriate for his culture, anyway.
Elisha did not come out to see the leper, but sent a messenger to tell Naaman how he could be healed.
Elisha did not meet Naaman until afterwards – when his skin was as fresh as a child’s and he was disease free.
Contrast that with the way in which Jesus responded when the leper said faithfully, “If you choose, you can make me clean.”
Jesus, being moved – moved, it says – reached out a hand and touched the leper and said, “I do choose. Be made clean.”
Jesus – intimate and tangible – touching the thoroughly unclean.
Now, admittedly, Jesus may have had an immune system that was just wonderful – you might even say, divine.
But Jesus was fully human, though – capable of pain and death as we obviously know already.
Jesus was also capable of tiredness – the need for rest is what usually sent Jesus to Bethany to visit with Mary and Martha, who ministered to Jesus.
So, if Jesus was fully human, Jesus ran an extremely high risk in touching the man with leprosy – except for the plague, it was the most contagious disease in that time and place.
Jesus healed in the name of God, but it nonetheless took faith on the part of Jesus to touch in the name of ministry – to touch the untouchable.
Risky business this ministry of Jesus – dangerous stuff.
And later, when Jesus teaches the disciples to heal, touch will be part of the risk they take, too.
Then, of course, we have Paul giving instruction in ministry.
On the surface of it, there’s not much to tie these together.
On the surface of it.
If we dig a little deeper, we find the common ground.
Now, I’ve got to tell you that I am not a major sports fan, which some already know.
Just about the last thing you’ll hear from me, unless I can’t think of another way to put something, is a sports analogy.
But we have just that.
There are some very basic truths in the 1 Corinthians passage, that line up with the gospel reading.
First, let’s consider the leper in Mark.
The man says to Jesus, “if you choose, I will be made well.”
That is a profound statement of faith, which Jesus acknowledges by being so moved.
Jesus isn’t any more moved by the person’s leprosy that by all the other conditions of sickness, possession and oppression already encountered.
That does move Jesus, because Jesus heals, but it does not cause an emotional expression to the extent that it gets mentioned.
What moves Jesus is this person’s faith.
If you choose, it will be done.
Clear and simple.
That kind of faith is what is being discussed in Paul’s writing.
The kind of faith demonstrated by someone who enters a race in the first place.
When, in a race, only one will win, who trains and prepares and conditions themselves if they do not have some hope of winning.
They may be satisfied with second or third place, or even just finishing the race, but there is that hope of possibly winning that drives the desire to engage in the process in the first place.
Paul is saying, “keep your eyes on the prize.”
Don’t run aimlessly, but condition ourselves to accomplish that which is hoped for.
It doesn’t matter, ultimately, whether or not the first place ribbon is attained, because in striving for the goal faithfulness is evident.
So, what about our race - this event into which we entered?
Did we enter with no expectation of winning?
What were your expectations before we began?
Someone on the pastor nominating committee, right up front in the first interview, said they were pessimistic about the possibilities.
Pessimism has a way of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.
If we expect to lose, then the likelihood is that we will lose – even if we take the prize, it will be considered a loss.
It will not be enough.
The expectation was to lose, and that becomes inseparable from the goal.
Paul is talking about preparation and persistence.
When you do that, all the little obstacles in the way become annoyances, not roadblocks.
They are things to be worked around, not the cause for turning back.
I annoy some of you.
To others, I am a leper – soiled goods.
Okay, I can accept that.
Is that so important that you are willing to give up on the race?
We entered what was anticipated to be a five year race.
Conditions over which we have no control have shortened the race to about three years.
At least, that’s how it looks now.
But, the last decision is that whether or not the race is finished, we will abandon the race after eighteen months – come June, we will make the decision to quit the race.
Some have already decided that June is the end.
Some have already accepted that we have lost.
If that is true, what is so special about June?
Why not make a decision now.
How many people here today thought, in the beginning, that even though we entered a five year race, we would win it in 18 months?
How many people – come on, show of hands – think that this church could become revitalized again by this coming June?
How many people thought this was a fruitless endeavor to begin with – that there was no possibility we could win this race?
Do not show hands on these question – okay – don’t put your hand up.
Just think about your answer.
How many of you are willing to walk away from the race before it’s done?
If so, why wait another eighteen months, twelve months or four months?
Leave the race.
How many are willing to see the race through to the end?
If so, we need to prepare, condition and conduct ourselves as if the race can be won.
We need to minister to this community as Jesus would - in intimate, personal and tangible ways.
I, for one, am not giving up.
If the race is another 4 years, 1 year or 4 months, I am running this race to win.
I will do that right up until the final day.
How about you?
Where are you in this race?