Height – 5 Feet, 6 Inches. Weight – 135 pounds. These measurements are great if you want to be a lightweight boxer or perhaps a gymnast. They are not, however, the ideal measurements of a football player, not even a high school football player. Nevertheless, these were my measurements as listed in the football program my senior year in high school. Yes, I too played football, but alas no college scholarship like our pastor. Part of the problem could have been that my listed measurements of 5’6” 135 pounds were not true. The 5’6” was probably an inch generous, but hey, we wear helmets, right? The 135 pounds? Well, let’s just say a 135 pound frame could have filled out the football uniform better than I did. Because I was not quite the physical specimen I am today, I stuck out like a sore thumb on the sidelines. I looked like a kid wearing his father’s uniform, and to be honest I didn’t feel much like a part of a team. First, I stuck out physically. Second, I was the place kicker. Most of us know that place kickers are second rate members of football teams. Third, I was on a team of guys who had played together for anywhere from three to five years. I joined them during our last year of high school. I felt like an outcast. I felt a bit like a leper.

Now there are numerous other stories from my life where I felt like an outsider, an outcast who didn’t fit in. Some are too personal to share, and some are too painful. But I don’t think I am alone in my outcast experiences. True, not everyone had a hard time filling out their football uniform, but others of us have stuck out for other reasons. Who of us hasn’t entered a room full of strangers and felt as if everyone was mumbling and puzzled about who had just walked in? Or who hasn’t been the one who misunderstood what business casual meant? Or thought the party they were attending was a costume party, when in fact it was not? There are numerous instances in our lives where socially we feel as if we are on the outside looking in. We feel like outcasts. We feel like lepers.

Sometimes our feelings of being an outcast are due to our physical appearances, things beyond our control. Like being 5’6” and 135 pounds. We are self-conscious of how others view our perceived imperfections. We are too tall or too short. We have too little hair or too much. We are shaped like a toothpick or like an orange. We just don’t feel like we fit in, and to be honest, those around us don’t help us feel anymore included in the community. We see the looks, we hear the whispers. We feel like lepers.

Jesus encountered a man who was a social outcast for reasons beyond his control. He was an actual leper. Now leprosy in the ancient world is different than the leprosy of today, which is also called Hansen’s disease. Leprosy in the ancient world was an umbrella term that covered many skin diseases. Ailments as minor as psoriasis or as serious as Hansen’s disease could fall under this umbrella. What is important about this man’s being a leper is not the proper medical diagnosis but rather the social ramifications of being a leper in the ancient world.

According to the Levitical laws, lepers were expected to act in such a way that indicated their unfortunate situation. They were to wear torn clothes and cry, “Unclean, unclean!” for all to hear. Lepers were considered unclean, impure and as such anyone who came into contact with them would also be unclean. Those affected with leprosy were cut off from normal social interaction and left to fend for themselves with like kind. Lepers in the ancient world experienced a social death as a result of their disease because society feared contamination. So society cast them aside. This is the reality of the man Jesus encounters.

It would be nice to think that in our world today we would not condemn someone to a social death because of a disease. Since this was the practice 2,000 years ago, we would like to think we have lessened our concerns with purity and cleanliness. Yet, even today the thought of leprosy makes us squirm. Doesn’t it? Think about it, would you shake the hand of a known leper who walked into Wilshire for worship?

For the most part we rarely, if ever, encounter the disease of leprosy and consider it something to be feared only when one travels to other parts of the world. But, leprosy is not the only condition that causes us to treat and view others differently. Consider those with port-wine stains or some type of scars on their face. It is hard for us to talk to them without some bit of uneasiness and trying not to stare. Or what about people who are obese? We all hope to not sit next to them on an airplane or at the movies. Or how about the individual with chronic bad breath? Who cares to engage them in casual conversation? These are harsh realities, and are even harder to speak out loud since I have thought them myself.

We are a culture obsessed with health and our obsession has heightened our awareness of those who are not visibly healthy. The ancients attributed diseases to sin; we attribute them to faulty lifestyle. Our immortality, our purity lies in daily exercise and large helpings of green vegetables. We protect ourselves as the ancients did, from those we deem to be unhealthy. We fear their illness will leak onto our lives and infect us. Or even worse, we judge that some are not pretty enough to be around us and that they will drag down our social status by virtue of being too close to us. We fear the whispers of being associated with one who is not a picture of health and prosperity. We fear being around lepers.

Fortunately, Jesus did not fear being around lepers. The man approached Jesus and said, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” Jesus chose, and did so with an act that challenged the status quo; he touched the man. He touched a leper. This act challenged the laws of purity and the social norms. If anyone were to touch a leper, they would be considered unclean. Instead, the leper, the unclean, became clean. In that touch, in that act of grace, Jesus pulled an outsider to the inner circle. He showed that the grace of God, the touch of God, knows no boundaries.

The story of Naaman is another example of the boundary-less nature of God’s grace. Naaman is not a Jew. He is a Gentile and from the enemy camp. He is recognized as a great warrior and is a commander of the army in the court of the king of Aram, which is ancient Syria. His wife has a servant who is an Israelite, no doubt a spoil of wars won. His list of disqualifications piles up quickly. It’s difficult to imagine a person lesser qualified to experience God’s attention and saving grace. Yet he does. He too is healed of his leprosy. Now his healing is not as dramatic as Jesus touching the leper, much to Naaman’s dismay, but he is made clean nonetheless, despite his hesitancy to follow instructions. The stories of Naaman and the leper Jesus healed are proof that God’s grace, the touch of God is not limited to any particular group. All are eligible, including our enemies and those we deem unclean.

This is good news for all of us. God’s touch, God’s grace is available for everyone. We are all of us lepers of a sort. Still, some of us are more aware of our leper status than others. Leprosy as a disease is foreign to us, but the social ramifications are not. We know how it feels to be on the outside. We know how it feels to placed beyond the boundaries of acceptance and labeled as unclean. If you feel like a leper today, for whatever reason, be it because of your physical appearance, or your emotional scars, or even your past experiences, you don’t have to stay on the outside. God is here for you, today. God wants to bring wholeness to your life with a grace-filled touch that pulls you into God’s kingdom.

God’s touch brings healing and wholeness, but it is also an invitation. It’s an invitation to cross boundaries and to embrace those whom society has labeled unclean. The opportunities are numerous: unemployed people, street children, those who have broken the law, strangers, homeless persons, lonely co-workers, the scapegoats in our families. The opportunities are numerous.

One such opportunity is the KidsHeart Africa mission trip scheduled for this summer. KidsHeart is a joint project of Buckner and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Wilshire will be joining the efforts in Kenya to help care for children orphaned by AIDS or at risk of being orphaned. At the end of 2003, 6.7 percent of the adult population in Kenya was believed to be infected with HIV. The country was home to 650,000 children orphaned due to AIDS. These children need the loving touch of God that will come through the hands of those who are already in Kenya and those of us who are able to participate in this mission trip.

But the opportunities to touch are not simply abroad. There are many in our community of Dallas that need the healing touch of God, and we, Wilshire, are the vessel for that touch. This past Friday numerous members of Wilshire participated in community needs assessment interviews with various businesses and individuals in the area. Among those were Darren DeMent and Tiffany Wright who interviewed Gil Flores the director of the AIDS Resource Center. Darren and Tiffany were struck by the variety of services provided by the resource center, and by Mr. Flores’ statement that one of the greatest strengths he sees in the people he serves is their sense of community. Each of the them has been ostracized by their various groups, yet they bond together and learn to lean on each other. When asked what Wilshire could do to help the AIDS Resource Center, Mr. Flores responded that anything we can think of would be welcomed. If you have an idea, call them, and they will help make it happen. We are only limited by our imagination.

Mr. Flores’ words speak to all of us as we wonder how we can reach out to the lepers around us. We are only limited by our imagination. Call the Sunday School member who has missed the past couple of Sundays. Write the encouraging note to the friend or family member who has fallen on hard times. Have lunch with the isolated co-worker. Speak to the homeless man you drive by every morning. Buy him breakfast. Cry with those who are grieving. Don’t abandon the sick. Many of us still shun people who bodies are ravaged by illness even when it is not contagious. So reach out to those who are recovering from illness, to our homebound, and also to those who are on hospice. Write them notes, call them, sit in their homes and listen to their stories. Hold their hands. Hug them. Reach out. Touch them.

Jesus’ liaison with the leper is concluded with the curious command to keep silent. Jesus knew that the publicity would lead to popularity, and that popularity would lead to audiences. He wanted congregations, not audiences. Wilshire, we are his congregation. We are not to be silent. We are to look at the lives around us and we are to reach out and touch them, just as Jesus touched the leper. We need to seek out liaisons with lepers. The opportunities are numerous. We are only limited by our imagination. Amen.