Sermon preached by the Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
The Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany
I saw an ad not long ago that caught my attention: ‘No matter what you’re searching for, Comcast can help you find it.” That’s comforting to know! I doubt, however, that what all people are searching for, in the most profound sense, can be entrusted to Comcast, as capable as that company may be. What all people are searching for is their Creator, Almighty God. As the psalm for today so beautifully puts it, “As the deer longs for the water-brooks, so longs my soul for you, O God.” St. Augustine put it this way: “Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.”
Our Judeo-Christian heritage, enshrined in Holy Scripture, tells us that that pursuit is not to be done in isolation, but in the midst of the community of faith, the people of God. In the beginning, it was to be found in the people of Israel. When our Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth, it would be from then on most fully experienced in his Body, the Church.
Yes, if you read the Bible on your own, as an individual, you could be converted, but once that conversion takes place, in order to be a Christian you must be baptized, incorporated into the Body of Christ, and from then on, faithfulness includes at least weekly attendance in corporate worship.
Not infrequently, someone who has fallen away from the Church will say something to me like this: “I don’t go to church very much any more, but I really don’t need it. I still say my prayers, and I seek to live a Christian life.” What that person obviously doesn’t realize is that it is impossible to live a Christian life when one chooses not to participate in the community of faith.
That has been the Church’s understanding, based on Holy Scripture, from the very beginning, and before that it was the understanding of our parent faith, Judaism. It was the context of our Lord’s earthly ministry. In fact, to be cut off from the people of God at that time was thought to be an experience akin to death. That’s why, in the Old Testament, to have a condition that rendered one unclean was such a terrible punishment. One who was unclean could not worship with the community, and therefore could not experience fully the presence of God.
For most people who experienced something that rendered them unclean, it was a temporary condition. After a period of time they could be restored. For lepers, it was a different story. Leprosy was thought to be highly contagious, and so to protect the community, the leper had to remove himself from all human contact, in addition to being ritually unclean. That condition was considered permanent. A rabbinical saying of that time sums up the prevailing attitude: “To heal leprosy was as difficult as raising the dead.”
Jesus’ reputation as a healer had spread, so that even a leper had heard of him. A leper approached Jesus, pleading to be healed. Jesus, moved with compassion for this person whom society considered untouchable and as good as dead, could have simply said, “Be clean,” and the man would have been healed. Instead, he actually touched the man, an act which made our Lord himself ritually unclean, healed him, and then told him to show himself to the priest, that he could be fully restored to the community.
Ever since that time, when she was at her best, the Church has seen her mission to include reaching out with the healing hands of Christ to people with all kinds of infirmities, including those with leprosy. Our mission is to reach out with the Gospel to all people, offering the grace and mercy of God to all.
But we haven’t always been at our best. Last Friday we celebrated the feast of Absalom Jones. “Absalom Jones was born a house slave in 1746 in Delaware. He taught himself to read out of the New Testament, among other books. When 16 he was sold to a store owner in Philadelphia. There he attended a night school for Blacks, operated by Quakers. At 20, he married another slave, and purchased her freedom with his earnings.
“Jones bought his own freedom in 1784. At St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church, he served as lay minister for its African American membership. The active evangelism of Jones and that of his friend, Richard Allen, greatly increased African American membership at St. George’s. The alarmed vestry decided to segregate African Americans into an upstairs gallery without notifying them. During a Sunday service when ushers attempted to remove them, the African Americans indignantly walked out as a body.
“In 1787, Black Christians organized the Free African Society, the first organized Afro-American society, and Absalom Jones and Richard Allen were elected overseers. Members of the society paid monthly dues for the benefit of those in need. In 1792 the Society began to build a church, which was dedicated on 17 July 1794.
“The African American Church applied for membership in the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania on the condition that they be received as an organized body, that they have control over their local affairs, that Absalom Jones be licensed as a lay reader, and, if qualified, be ordained as minister. In October, 1794, it was admitted as St. Thomas African Episcopal Church. Bishop White ordained Jones as deacon in 1795, and as priest in 1804.
St. Thomas Church grew to over 500 members during its first year. Known as the Black Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Jones was an example of persistent faith in God and in the Church as God’s instrument.” (from Lesser Feasts and Fasts).
Segregation in this country, which persisted well into the 20th century, treated our African American brothers and sisters much like lepers, separating them from the rest of society. As Absalom Jones and his friends painfully discovered, it even was enforced by the Church. The fact that we now have an African American as President, no matter what your politics are, shows that we have come a long way from that terrible period in our nation’s history, but there is still much to be accomplished in race relations in our country and in the Church, which still tends to be one of the most segregated bodies in society.
The healing of the leper reveals much not only about our Lord, but also about the nature and mission of his Body, the Church.