“LEPERS THEN AND NOW”
SERMON PREACHED BY THE REVEREND DR. HAROLD T. LEWIS, RECTOR
CALVARY EPISCOPAL CHURCH, PITTSBURGH PENNSYLVANIA
IN RODEF SHALOM TEMPLE, PITTSBURGH
FRIDAY 24 APRIL 2009
“Thus you shall keep the people of Israel separate from [the lepers’] uncleanness.” (Lev. 16:31)
It is always a great privilege to return to Rodef Shalom. The bonds of affection between our two faith communities continue to be a source of great joy to all of us. Our Mitzvah weekend brings us together in deep and meaningful ways and serves as an outward and visible sign of the commitment we share to be of service to others. I am grateful, too, that our relationships have extended beyond the weekend itself. My wife and I had the honor of participating in a Seder at the home of Rabbi and Mrs. Bisno. Aaron began the dinner by addressing the theme of release from slavery, for which the iconic event is the liberation of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt. Imagine my surprise --- and delight --- when Aaron handed me the Easter meditation I had written for Calvary’s newsletter, and asked me to read a portion of it to those assembled for the Seder. I had written about how so many of us, despite our freedom, live in spiritual bondage of one kind or another, and Aaron believed that this spoke to the meaning of Passover. We would look in vain, I think, for a more poignant example of our common heritage. I reflected on that Seder on Easter morning as our choir sang the great chorus from Handel’s Israel in Egypt, whose text is the song of Miriam in the Book of Exodus: “Sing ye to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously, the horse and rider he hath thrown into the midst of the sea.” And Handel’s score enables us to hear the galloping of Pharaoh’s horses!
I called Rodef’s office to find out what the Torah reading was for tonight, and to be honest, I grimaced when I learned it was from Leviticus. The Episcopal Church lectionary has lessons from the Hebrew Scriptures appointed for every Sunday, but seldom if ever are we treated to verses from Leviticus. Why? That book is not known to be especially inspiring. Its first 16 chapters make up the Priestly code, with rules for ritual cleanliness. The next section contains the Holiness Code. The book is full of abominations, which turn out to be dietary and sexual restrictions. In sum, the book seems to be a cross between legal code and medical journal. And it is difficult, I should think as much for Jews as for Christians, to find spiritually uplifting discussions of such topics as bodily discharges, incest, bestiality, and the rules and regulations for the sacrifice of animals.
That said, I don’t believe the preacher has the prerogative to dismiss any part of God’s holy writ as intrinsically unedifying, and to that end, wish to hold up for you tonight the big chunk of Leviticus dedicated to leprosy. I will spare you the extensive medical descriptions of the disease outlined in some detail by the author of Leviticus. Suffice it to say that it is a disease characterized by ulcerous eruptions and what doctors call the desquaination of dead skin. There is a neurological aspect of the disease. I remember speaking to a monk who worked in a leper colony in Liberia. He told me that in extreme cases, lepers could suffer from severe burns simply because they were unable to feel the effects of a fire, and wouldn’t even know they were being burnt unless they actually looked at the fire as it was eating away at their flesh.
But the Biblical view of leprosy was that it was a social condition as well as a disease. Segregation of lepers was regarded more in the light of a religious ceremonial than as a hygienic restriction. Leviticus 16:31 reads: “Thus you shall keep the people of Israel separate from [the lepers’] uncleanness, lest they die in their uncleanness by defiling my tabernacle that is in their midst.”
Leprosy, too, was considered a disease inflicted by God upon those who transgressed God’s laws. Every leper named in the Bible had been found guilty of an offense against the community. Miriam was smitten because she uttered disrespectful words against Moses. Joab was made leprous because he cursed David. Uzziah was smitten with leprosy for his alleged usurpation of priestly privileges on the golden altar of the Temple. For this reason, lepers were considered cleansed only if they presented themselves to the priest. The procedure for sacerdotal examination and the curative process are outlined in the 13th chapter of Leviticus.
Now a grasp of these chapters in Leviticus is absolutely essential if we are to understand a story about leprosy in the New Testament, in the 17th chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel. Jesus meets ten lepers, as he was going into the village --- that is, outside the village gates --- the only place he could meet them, since lepers were forbidden to enter the village and associate with others. In fact, we are told that lepers sometimes even wore bells to warn others of their presence. The lepers, St. Luke tells us, “stood afar off.” They maintained their distance, or otherwise put, they stayed in their place. They ask Jesus to have mercy on them, and Jesus, working within the system, and himself a Jew, tells them, “Go and show yourselves to the priest.” Well, actually, there is a slight variation. Leviticus provided that lepers thought to be healed go to the priest to be declared whole; whereas Jesus sends the lepers to be priest before their healing.
Now the punch line in this story is that after all ten lepers were cleansed, only one returned to give thanks. Some people think that the moral of this story is that nine out of every ten people in the world are ingrates. That may or may not be true, but is not what Luke had in mind. The key phrase is that Jesus says of the thankful leper, “He was a Samaritan.” Now Samaritans were considered to be unclean. They did not keep Kosher. They were theologically suspect, because they believed that the Torah comprised all of Scripture. They were of questionable origin owing to repeated intermarriage. So despised were the Samaritans that Jews avoided Samaria like the plague, traveling around it just to avoid setting foot on Samaritan soil. So the point is that the Samaritan leper was the only one to give thanks because he already knew what it was to be shunned, ostracized and avoided. He was a leper before contracting the disease.
I would like to suggest to you this evening that leprosy as a disease has virtually disappeared from medical journals, but leprosy as a social condition is alive and well. This is why the second definition of “leper” in every dictionary is something like: “a person avoided by others, a pariah” or this: “a person to be shunned or ostracized, because of fear of moral contamination.” Jews need not be reminded that they, at various times in history, have been considered leprous. Blacks and other racial minorities have been deemed to be lepers --- as has various immigrant groups like the Irish. Feminists have certainly made a good case for the contention that women as a class have been considered to be lepers ---- fill in the blanks.
Lepers have existed at the global level. I would contend that at various times in its history, the United States of America has had the hubris --- or perhaps I should say chutzpah --- to declare other nations and certain religious groups to be leprous. The institution of slavery and the existence of intern camps for Asian Americans come readily to mind as examples. But more recent examples have been the dehumanization of all Muslims as a consequence of the 9-11 attacks, and by extension Iraqis unfairly blamed for the atrocities. And, lest we forget, dehumanization, of groups, makes it possible to inflict harm on such groups with impunity. (It was easier, for example for GI’s to kill the enemy in World War II if they were described as “gooks” instead of Japanese.) Hence, a high-ranking official of the previous Administration can with a straight face defend the cruelest forms of torture on the grounds that it was effective, with no concern at all for the fact that it was grossly inhumane. Despite such mistreatment of and contempt for certain groups, our nation has all too often feigned incredulity and indignation when the leaders of other nations condemn our policies.
I would like to suggest that what we are beginning to see unfold before us is a “deleprosization” of the world at the hands of a new Administration. An olive branch has been extended to the Islamic community; a handshake has been extended to sworn enemies. Torture has been condemned. In so doing, we are witnessing, perhaps, a commitment to the real message of Leviticus. You see, the third book of the Torah has a reward. If we manage to get through the boring laws, tedious rituals, and clinical descriptions of diseases, we arrive at Chapter 19, in which we are read words that form the very foundation of our Judeao-Christian heritage. We are told to leave part of our harvest for the sojourner. We are told not to take vengeance or bear any grudge against others. We are told to do no wrong to any stranger who sojourns among us. And, above all, we are commanded by Yahweh, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Let us pray:
O God, look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth, that in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony among your heavenly throne. Amen.