The following is a copy of the sermon I preached today. I did ad-lib during the sermon, so this isn't exactly what I said, but it is close enough. I actually took the lyrics to the song and put some personal experiences and thoughts with each line.
Follow the Path
In Today’s Gospel, a man begs Jesus to cure his leprosy. Jesus was full of compassion for the man and cured him of the leprosy. Jesus then told him to go to the temple priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for the cleansing.
For information, by touching the man with leprosy, Jesus was considered defiled under law. Leviticus 5-2 states that anyone who touches an unclean person is considered unclean. Therefore, in one sense, Jesus defied the law, but at the same time, he sent the man to the priest to comply with the law. By sending the man to the priest, who would look at the skin and make a judgment of cleanliness, Jesus was asking the priest to verify the cure.
Jesus also told the man to keep the cure a secret. Why? When we look at the previous Gospel readings Jesus cured Simon’s mother-in-law in Capernaum. Then all sorts of people came to the house and it appears they kept Jesus up all night healing and chasing out demons. The next day Jesus, after seeking solitude to pray, told his disciples he needed to go to nearby villages to preach. Jesus told them his mission was to preach.
As happens so many times the cured man immediately tells anyone with an ear that Jesus cured him. Once again, the throngs of sick people would come to be cured of Jesus. For Jesus, a man full of compassion and love, the healing became a burden, and detracted from his mission to preach the love of God. “As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly, but stayed outside in lonely places, yet people still came to him from everywhere.”
Throughout the Gospels, we hear of Jesus curing people, chasing out demons, drawing the ire of the religious authorities in the process. The Pharisees were upset that he healed on the Sabbath, forgave sins, and most of all ignored the established norms and conventions.
What I find interesting is that Jesus said he was not sent to heal, but to preach. His main mission in life was to preach the good news of God, of the new covenant and the forgiveness of sins. In death, he saved us all. In death, he healed us all, not of our illnesses and infirmities, but of the stain of the original sin.
With his death, he created the promise of eternal life. With his death, he knocked down the gates of hell and released the prisoners. With his death, he opened the door to heaven. And with his resurrection, he promised eternal life to all who would follow his commandments.
The commandments that Jesus gave us were only two. Jesus tells us to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is to love your neighbor as yourself.”
The second commandment is easy to understand and very hard to accomplish. The first commandment is not easy, but I think easier to accomplish.
For the next few minutes, I would like to try a little exercise. I call it finding God.
Close your eyes imagine you are on a dirt path, surrounded by trees. Now listen to all the noise around you, coughs, sniffles, belly-rumblings, and think of the noise as the wind whispering through the trees, gradually the noise fades into the background. Now picture yourself walking the path, in peace, until you find a door in a mountain, a mountain that encompasses all that is.
Do you knock on the door? Are you afraid to open the door? Do you love your life so much that you would rather keep what you have? So many decisions, but what will you decide? Jesus said to seek and you shall find. But what is it you seek, Happiness, love, wealth, knowledge.
Now open your eyes. Practice this often, imagine the door, talk to God, let him know your fears, but let him know that you love him and he will let you know that he loves you. Seek and you will find the door and when both you and God are ready that door will open.
There is a hymn, Will You Come and Follow Me, which is very near and dear to me. The lyrics mean so much to me personally that I want to share them with you. Think about each verse as I read it and see if you can answer the question?
Will you go where you don't know and never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown? Will you let my name be known,
will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?
2. Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind and never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer prayer in you and you in me?
3. Will you let the blinded see if I but call your name?
Will you set the prisoners free and never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean and do such as this unseen,
and admit to what I mean in you and you in me?
4. Will you love the "you" you hide if I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same?
Will you use the faith you've found to reshape the world around,
through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me?
5. Lord your summons echoes true when you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you and never be the same.
In Your company I'll go where Your love and footsteps show.
Thus I'll move and live and grow in you and you in me.
In order to find God, you must first open your heart, gather your courage, still your mind, and let you soul lead you in love, to the creator of all.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen
