On The Loose

“On the Loose!”

Epiphany 6B January 2012

1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. 25Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. 26So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; 27but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.

Mark 1: 40-45
40 A leper* came to him begging him, and kneeling* he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ 41Moved with pity,* Jesus* stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ 42Immediately the leprosy* left him, and he was made clean. 43After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, 44saying to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’ 45But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus* could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

On the Loose!


When I was teaching, my room was directly down the hall from the science lab. Since the science teacher was all about hands on teaching, her 5th and 6th grade classroom was filled with all kinds of, well, interesting creature. There were several guinea pigs, a snake or two, fish of all kinds, a pair of hamsters named Lunch and Snack, herds of mice, rabbits, and more. The children loved caring for these animals, and earning the opportunity to hold them during the school day.
It was not rare for an animal to break out of a cage--or sneak out of a crate that was inadvertently left open by an absent minded child. The whole hallway would be alerted by excited children and a worried teacher with a phrase like, “Lunch is on the loose! Watch out for him!” Being a little bit skittish about tiny furry rodents running loose, I kept on high alert.

On the loose! It’s kind of exciting to be on the loose ourselves, isn’t it? It’s the opposite of being leashed. When was the last time you were “on the loose?”

Was it a weekend getaway? Or maybe a giant shoe sale? Prowling around an antique store for no reason at all except for the sheer fun of it? Planning a no holds barred surprise for someone? Engaging with an activity with all of your passion and energy and joy and commitment?

On the loose.

Let me tell you this--Jesus is totally on the loose in Mark. After he is baptized, he goes into the wilderness for 40 days, comes back, calls a bunch of fishermen to follow him, throws out a demon in the synagogue, healed Simon’s mother-in-law, becomes instantly popular with the sick and demon-possessed, disappears to the wilderness to pray, travels through out Galilee as a healer, and then breaks all social boundaries and religious boundaries by TOUCHING a leper and choosing to heal him.
This is all in the first chapter of Mark. We could subtitle the chapter: Jesus Unleashed. But let’s slow down for a minute, and explore our text frame by frame. In doing so, we might encouraged to let loose more in our faith, and be bold in our calling.

First frame:
A leper* came to him begging him, and kneeling* he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.
What a way to approach the Holy. This leper, who is at the bottom of the social order, the one outside of any religious acceptableness, approaches the Holy, and believes--no , knows that the holy has the power to help him, and offers the holy the chance to do so.

I don’t think I ever have approached God in this way, but it’s something to think about. The leper approaches with confidence, and knowledge,and humbleness that is not groveling.

I am wondering, how do you approach the Holy? When you have a situation, a need? Do you believe the Holy is there? Do you believe in the connection?

Recently, someone I know, who was unemployed and searching, said to me:
"Finally, I just said, God, I know you have a place for me. I am tired of trying too hard to figure it out. I trust you. You know me. Just lead me." And you know? She lived much more calmly once she surrendered control. Eventually, she found a job. In the meantime, she experienced a kind of freedom that comes from letting go of that which you have no control.

Frame Two:
41Moved with pity,* Jesus* stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’

Scholarship has made much of the phrase, “moved with pity”  It can be translated as pity/compassion, or as anger. Literally, Jesus looked at the man, he ‘snorted like a war horse.’

Now that’s some kind of anger.  It’s deeply rooted, instinctive even.  As perhaps it must have been. I think both translations work--
Why couldn’t Jesus have had pity on the man who was suffering so and also be angry at a world that so labels and isolates and excludes those struck down by such ailments?  More than that, why couldn’t Jesus also be angry with a religious system which declared such a one as this utterly cut off from the love and care of God?

For that’s what it had come to be, of course.  Those who contracted this disease were forced to live with others similarly afflicted --- away from the stuff of normal life in community --- their families, their friends, their occupations, and yes, their places of worship.  The way it lived out, particularly in that time and place, it would have appeared that they were even abandoned by God.

Notice that Jesus does not talk with the man about repentance, but has pity and touches the man saying, “I do choose. Be made clean!”  (Mk. 1:41)  I venture that Jesus simply didn’t see anything unclean, sinful or deficient in this man with leprosy.  Unlike the prevailing attitude of his day, Jesus did not see illness as punishment from God.  Some things are simply misfortune, not judgment.  Bad things happen to good people.  The rain falls on the just and the unjust alike.  We wish that Jesus was around to reverse every misfortune, but God loves us in the midst of all things. .
 
The attitude that misfortune is the result of sin or punishment from God still prevails today.  In the rhetoric of presidential primaries, those who are poor are talked about much like lepers.  Candidates have said, “I don’t to make  black people’s live better by giving them someone else’s money, I want to help them earn their money, so they can go out and provide for themselves and their families.”  What if they held some of these debates with the 40% of Americans on food stamps who actually have jobs, but the low wage environment doesn’t guarantee a decent living that puts food on the table. We do not have over 8% unemployment and hunger in America because people are lazy, but because there are not enough decent jobs.
I wonder, who are the other “lepers” in our society?


Frame 3
43After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, 44saying to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’ 45But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus* could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

The former leper is on the loose!!! You might wonder why indeed Jesus tells the healed one that he needs to go to the priest and make the offering for his healing. Some speculate that Jesus was trying to ease the leper’s re-entry into society. If the priest acknowledges the healing, then the leper can go anywhere , talk to anyone, no restrictions at all. The leper, overjoyed, just begins to testify as to what happened. Why did he need the stamp of approval from the very institution that declared him unclean and outcast for so many years? His experience showed him that what he really needed was not social inclusion in an exclusive context, but instead an experience of the living God.

There is a You-Tube video that has been on the loose in the interwebs the past few weeks that has been a topic of great discussion in clergy settings. It features a young hip hop performance artist sharing a poem entitled, “Why I love Jesus but hate Religion”

The poet eschews religion for missing the point, for church being dead and ineffective, while at the same time professing a deep relationship with the living Christ. His message is convicting and freeing for many--you can tell by the 18 million viewings of the poem, and the scores of lively debate found in the comments sections that are underneath the video.

Religious professionals, as you can imagine, are threatened by this young person’s words that are striking a deep chord among the You-Tube youth generation. They assert that one can’t have Jesus without community, without the Church, without religion. Religion provides structure and holds people accountable to morals and mercy and justice. I do not disagree with these assertions.

However, the passion in the poet’s eyes and the sincerity of his art makes me pause. How are we different today that the religious institutions of antiquity that shunned the diseased? We all know that mainline denominations are on a decline, even the coolest of them all, our own United Church of Christ. How is it that the message of inclusion, of boundless love, of wholeness, of new life isn’t reaching the missing generations in our pews? Why isn’t it sticking?

I suspect it has something to do that the church--and we, as members of the church, --have forgotten in many ways how to be on the loose--free, risky, and unleashed in our message and unbridled in our living out the justice and love that we ourselves have experience, and that we are called to offer.

Three questions:
How have you experienced wholeness and healing through being part of God’s Church?

How can we be more “on the loose?”

May we be unbridled and courageous and unleashed in our dreaming and in our scheming.

Amen