Welcoming Home the “Unclean”

The readings for this Sunday, the 6th of Ordinary Time, are terrific for meditation.  They are Leviticus 13: 1-2, 44-46, Psalm 32: 1-11, 1 Corinthians 10: 31 - 11: 1, and the Gospel of Mark 1: 40-45.  Remember, you can go to The Biblegate to read these scriptures in any version you prefer.  I suggest trying The Message version with its great contemporary language.  What you will find in these passages is all this stuff about being unclean, and what is unclean.

In another post, Another Creation Story, I wrote about the growing alienation between humanity and God, and how the early chapters of Genesis are stories about that alienation, not only with God but with each other.  It is God who comes looking for us when we hide from God out of fear, calling to us:  “Where are you?”  This is the message of the salvation story.  Being unclean is being alienated. 

In the readings today we see the way religion had taken over the social lives of the Jews.  The poor people who somehow contracted various infectious skin diseases (including but not limited to leprosy) were cast out from the community.  They were shunned.  They were not only cast out because they were infectious, but they had at the same time become “unclean” in a religious purity sort of way.  They were the marginalized who were avoided by good people everywhere. 

For the Hebrew people, (and I’ve heard this saying today), “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.”    The smooth and clean-appearance of your skin, and everything else, reflected your religious purity, not just your body’s cleanliness.  To be holy you had to do a lot of washing of hands and feet, foods and dishes.   There were all these ritual actions that had to be performed because people were considered to be so very far from the purity of God.  If you read the stories within scripture you will find an ever growing list of things that could make you unclean.  Leprosy was terrible however because this disease, and other skin diseases, cast you out of the community all together.  Only being cured, and proving that cure, could get you back into the community.  The book of Leviticus is sometimes called the “Book of Holiness Rules” because it lists so many rules about being holy, and the many ways you could become unclean.  One way to become unclean was to associate with, and even worse, touch someone else who is unclean. 

How awful to be cast out from family, friends and neighborhood; to lose your job, your place in society just because you were sick.  How awful to be told you were not acceptable to God because you had an illness.  It was bad enough to have a life-threatening disease, but to be made to feel rejected and unloved not only by your closest friends, but by God.  Don’t you just want to scream, how dare you make an illness into a “religious” issue?  At the stage when a person most needs loving compassion, to give them rejection — words fail me. 

The priest was very powerful in the community because he could decide who was “in” and who was “out” by declaring someone “unclean.”  I really dislike the way that sensible hygiene and healthadvice became rules of holiness.  Unclean meant so much more than you were physically dirty and had to wash.  It meant you were unholy, unworthy, unwelcome, untouchable in a religious way.  Your state of uncleaness was said to be hateful to God.  And so you were shunned.

In the second reading from 1st Corinithians, the concern is what you eat.  There were many rules about what you could and could not eat, and the early Jewish-Christians had a terrible time getting past these rules when it came to being around Gentile-Christians.  Coming together at a potluck would have been a nightmare for them, worrying about what kind of food would be on the table.  There were certain foods that were not supposed to be even near each other.  Issues around food would persist.  I’m sure that in the back of their minds would be that nagging concern that maybe the religious authorities were right, and eating certain foods would anger God somehow.  Paul in this letter was trying to help the Gentile-Christians be patient and considerate toward their more scrupulous Jewish-Christian friends, with all their food concerns.

In the Gospel, in the person of Jesus, who shows us what God is like, we see someone who is not concerned about being unclean.  He reaches out gladly to touch the leper who comes to him for healing.  ^“A leper came to him, begging on his knees, ‘If you want to, you can cleanse me.’  Deeply moved, Jesus put out his hand, touched him, and said, ‘I want to. Be clean.”‘  As we know, Jesus would get in trouble time and again for welcoming, accepting and touching those people who were considered “unclean” by the religious people of his day.  He shunned no one, and welcomed all who came to him.  Those who gathered around the table to eat with him were a motley crew indeed. 

With the touching of this leper Jesus not only healed the person, but also restored him to his life in the community.  This is why he told the person to go to the priest.  In that society only the priest could declare the person clean, and open the doors of acceptance, and allow that person to return home.  And in the touching Jesus became himself  “unclean.”  There must have been some people who drew back from him when he reached out to touch the leper.  They would know the rules.  It is very true that when you associate with those that others have labeled unacceptable, people will look at you with more suspicion.  You might be like those you sit with, after all.  Reminds me of those teen movies where you have the scene in the lunch room, and each young person has to watch out where they sit, because they are labeled by the company they keep.  Or they are labeled, and sent to sit with those “of their own kind.”  Jesus comes along and mixes up all the tables! 

The point of the readings for me today is that God, shown to us by Christ in Jesus, is still calling out:  “Where are you?”  God wants to heal us, not even so much physically, but heal us of our alienations with God and with each other.  God comes to us as Christ and brings reconciliation, forgiveness and mercy, and brings us back together.  There is no “shunning” in the realm of God.  All are welcome, even those who are named “unclean” by the religious minded. 

Have you seen the movie, Prayers for Bobbie, recently?  This movie is an excellent portrayal of the way religion and religious people can decide even today who is “holy” and who is “damned”, and who is “in” and who is “out.”  It is a heartbreaking movie because the mother is sincere and good intentioned, but her mind was completely made up and closed by her religious background — and these good intentions led to tragedy.  As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.  This mother created hell for her son, without knowing what she did.  May we do better, and not swallow everything we are told by religion without questioning.  May we remember that God is Love, and comes looking for each one of us with compassion and mercy.