RIPPING OFF LABELS

RIPPING OFF LABELS

 2 Kings 5;1-15; Luke 17:11-19

18th Sunday after Pentecost — Sunday, October 9, 2022

The Rev. Dr. Ritva H. Williams

1st half of “Ripping off the Labels” a prayer by Pastor John van de Laar

We love labels, Jesus. We parade them on our clothes and on our possessions to make sure everyone knows who we are and what we’ve accomplished. 

They’re so useful, Jesus. We use them to divide ourselves up so that everyone knows where they fit in where they belong and where they don’t.

But, the truth is, our labels are heavy, Jesus. We have to live up to them, and maintain the status quo they create, we waste so much time working out who’s in and who’s out, who it’s OK to like and who we need to shun.

The problem with the way we “label” people both positively and negatively is that labels put people in boxes. Labels don’t breathe or change. Labels give the false impression that we know everything about the other person, so we can stop listening to them or asking them questions. When we label someone, in many ways they become “dead” to us. Labeling people is not life-giving. 

Our scripture readings today show us that God and Christ pretty much ignore human labeling.  Let’s start with the story from 2 King where we meet Naaman the Syrian. He’s a powerful and influential man. A mighty warrior, and a victorious general. He’s a really big deal! But Naaman has a problem. He is a leper. He suffers from one of several skin disorders the Bible labels leprosy These included psoriasis, scabies, impetigo, various forms of dermatitis and fungal infections (but not Hansen’s Disease).

We learn that Naaman’s household includes his wife and a young Israelite slave girl captured during one of his raids. It is she, captive and enslaved in a foreign land who sees Naaman suffering and courageously speaks up about the prophet in Samaria who can heal leprosy. Naaman’s wife remarkably listens and shares this information with her husband, who even more remarkably tells the king. 

Naaman sets off for Israel armed with a letter from his king, wagonloads of silver, gold and ten sets of costly, handmade clothing. His arrival at the palace in Samaria almost causes an international incident as the Israelite king misinterprets the Syrian king’s request. The prophet Elisha sends a message to the king, telling him to send the Syrian leper to him. Naaman arrives with horses and chariots outside Elisha’s house, but the prophet refuses to come out and meet him. Instead Elisha sends a message: go and wash seven times in the Jordan. Naaman is outraged by Elisha’s lack of hospitality and respect. Finally, his servants persuade Naaman to wash in the Jordan as instructed. He does and his flesh is restored. 

Naaman the Syrian warrior and leper is much more complicated than those labels suggest. God grants the Syrian general victories over Israel. The mighty warrior is helpless to heal himself. The powerful commander follows the advice of an Israelite slave girl. Naaman is a man of power who thinks and acts like a man of power, seeking to access health care by virtue of his status and wealth. But the prophet is not at the king’s court. When he does find Elisha, the prophet refuses to deal with Naaman as if he is a big deal. The general’s servants finally persuade him to wash in the Jordan. Naaman is humbled by his experience. He learns to see and hear, listen to and follow the wisdom of the slaves and servants he would normally ignore.

Jump ahead 800 years to the life of Jesus. The kingdom of Israel has been conquered multiple times, and divided into the regions of Galilee, Samaria, and Judea. The relationship between the Samaritans in Samaria and the Jews in Galilee and Judea is marked by religious, ethnic, and social tensions that occasionally turn hostile and even violent. 

We meet Jesus this morning in the borderlands between Galilee and Samaria, in a space that is neither Jewish nor Samaritan. Such borderlands are inhabited by the prohibited and the forbidden. Here, just outside a village, a group of ten leprous men approach Jesus.

In the world of Naaman the Syrian, it was possible for a leper to serve in the military, enter temples, and participate in the worship of Syrian gods (2 Kings 5:18). In the worlds of  ancient Jews and Samaritans, lepers were regarded as “unclean,” unfit to live in close relationship with God and God’s people. Lepers were relegated to lives of physical and mental suffering, isolation and economic deprivation (Francisco J. Garcia, 2022, workingpreacher.org). 

The ten leprous men constitute an ethnically and religiously mixed company — some are Jewish, at least one is Samaritan, others may have been too. Their common ailment bridges their differences, and enables them to cobble together an existence on the margins of normal village life. Then. they see Jesus, approach him but remain standing at a distance, and cry out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” Like the young Israelite girl enslaved in Naaman’s house, these marginalized persons do not allow their circumstances to silence them. They speak up, express agency, and so become catalysts for their own healing. 

Jesus does not come near the men or touch them. He doesn’t ask for their credentials. Like Elisha did with Naaman, Jesus gives the leprous men a simple instruction, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” The men do what Jesus commands. As they go they are made “clean." One man, noticing that his skin has been healed, turns back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrates himself at Jesus’ feet and thanks him, thus demonstrating that he has no way of repaying Jesus’ kindness (Social-Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels, 2003:297).  Jesus wonders out loud how it is that only this Samaritan foreigner turned back to praise God for their healing. He then sends the formerly leprous Samaritan off affirming that the man’s faith that has made him well. 

Today’s scripture readings answer questions such as “who is worthy,” “who has access to God,” and “who can claim healing”? What we learn is that all are worthy, unconditionally, regardless of what labels are attached to us — Syrian or Israelite, Samaritan or Jew, Christian or Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu. All have access to God, unconditionally, regardless of what labels are attached to us — slave or free, refugee or citizen, male or female, straight, gay or trans.  All can claim healing for physical, mental, emotional and spiritual ailments — regardless of what labels are attached to us. Our scriptures show us God’s mercy is not defined or limited in any way by human labeling of some persons as insiders and others as outsiders. Both illness and healing transcend geographic, political, religious, ethnic, and social boundaries. In these scriptures we see the agency of suffering and marginalized persons who refuse to be silenced by their circumstances, and insist on being actively engaged in their own healing. Let them be an example and a model for all of us to follow.

Please pray with me 2nd half of “Ripping off the Labels” a prayer by Pastor John van de Laar

So, there’s only one thing to do, Jesus. It’s what you’ve wanted us to do all along, We’re ripping off the labels, throwing them to the wind and allowing the freedom of “labellessness” to claim us. We need you to help us to do this, Jesus. Not just for us, but for all people, To help us forget our fascination with labels, our need to classify and divide ourselves, our fear of those who are different, strange, surprising, challenging. So that we can all find a way to live and lovein peace and freedom and equality. Amen