Were any of you disappointed about the lack of the good news of the Gospel message in today's bible readings?
I missed this Gospel message in today's readings. Perhaps it was the same for you. Instead we heard in the Collect how weak we are. In the Psalm we heard the Psalmist complain about how God has forgotten him and how difficult his life had become. In the Epistle we heard the apostle Paul talk about how he had to punish and push himself so that he would win the race of life. For me none of this sounded like the good news of the Gospel as we heard it from Jesus.
I must admit that I was hard pressed to find any of the good news of the Gospel in today's readings. I did, however, find such good news after much searching. I found that good news in the story of the healing of the leper by Jesus. And even in this story I had to dig deep to find what I consider to be the good news.
The good news I found there was that Jesus healed a leper who was considered unclean and who was shunned by most of the people of his day. Jesus went further by touching the leper to heal him. This was definitely a no-no at that time. It was also a no-no because people thought that lepers along with those who were possessed by demons had sinned in some way to cause their illnesses. Jesus showed his love and compassion for these outcasts in spite of the accepted understandings about and by the people of his day. Jesus healed these unfortunate people. Jesus also made great efforts to show his love and concern for sinners, for the dispossessed, and for the despised of his day-the tax collector, the prostitute, the Samaritans, and the women of his day. Women at this time were considered to be second-class citizens, as they still are in many places today.
For me then, this was the good news of the Gospel in today's readings.
This was the good news that Jesus, as an earthly image of God, showed his love for all the people of his day as his brothers and sisters and as God's sons and daughters.
In reflecting further on these things, I came to the conclusion that most of the human relationship problems in the world today between individuals, groups, societies, or nations are caused by a lack of understanding or the lack of application of these teachings of Jesus.
Perhaps what human beings have learned too well as they have struggled to survive over thousands of years in a hostile environment, is that anyone who is different or who does things that are not understandable is not to be trusted. Such others instead are to be feared and shunned.
Such others are to be guarded against if they threaten us or are perceived as a threat to us. Such others are typically not welcome in our group, in our society, or in our nation. And the irony here is that these same views of the different others are shared by both sides where such differences occur. Violence or war is often the result of these unresolved differences.
Such negative behavior by us humans in the past has helped us to survive in a hostile environment. But today such behavior may be the cause of our mutual destruction. Perhaps today especially is a time for looking to the ways of Jesus as a basis for our human survival as well as the basis for a better world.
It seems to me then that we are facing the same dilemmas today on a larger scale that humans have been facing throughout the ages. And there are no easy answers to these dilemmas.
But it seems to me that we should consider the following behavior, at the very least, keeping in mind the way Jesus dealt with those around him who were different or who were perceived as a threat to the others in the society of that day.
First, I think that all the people of the earth should be viewed respectfully as children of God regardless of their race, color, creed, sex, religion, nationality, sexual preferences, or any other difference from the rest of us. Our Constitution as well as Jesus supports this point of view.
I also believe that we should never have another conflict, as individuals, groups or as nations, about who is right about God. I believe that every human being has a right to choose whatever beliefs about God make sense to them while respecting the beliefs of others. I firmly believe that God does not want or need to have us fighting about such things.
Of course I believe that we as a nation, a people and a world need to defend and protect ourselves against extremist leaders and their followers who attack us or who plan to attack us. But I also believe that we need to do much more to focus our resources on addressing the basic causes for such aggressive and hateful behavior in the world. These causes include ignorance, greed, hunger, injustice, exploitation, poverty, and disease. Perhaps by using more of our resources in addressing these root causes of violence and hate in the world we will be able to reduce the costs of defending ourselves and others. By doing these things we may be able to bring about a better world-a world where we treat all others as brothers and sisters and as children of God.
In reflecting on my own long life I have seen major changes in my views and prejudices against others whom I perceived as different from me. As a southerner I was born into and lived in a segregated south prejudiced against African Americans. After I graduated from college I moved to this area where many were prejudiced against Asians and Chicanos. I was ordained into the Episcopal Church at a time where women clergy were not accepted.
I have lived in a time where a person's sexual preferences have been a basis for discrimination against them. And from all of these experiences in my life and in my travels around the world, I have discovered what I believe is a major truth. And that truth is that all humans, at the depth of their being, are very much alike, with similar needs, desires, and goals for their lives.
In spite of all our differences, our shortcomings, and our diversity I have concluded that we are all brothers and sisters at heart, that we all are children of God and that we are wonderful and amazing creatures. This seems to confirm what Jesus believed and taught at a much earlier time. Perhaps this will be the next step in our human evolution. This will be a time when all in the world reach this same conclusion and begin to treat each other accordingly.
All of these thoughts are summed up so well in a hymn we sang several weeks ago, entitled, January Carol. This hymn concluded with the words, God and man are one. God and man are one. I wish we had saved that hymn for today.
AMEN!