Have you ever been on one of those quick fix diets?
Though I know it is one of those imperceptible signs of aging, but I find ‘scale creep’ sneaking up on me. I started the winter at about 175 pounds. It then jumped up 2 more pounds. And then another. On Thursday, I stepped on the scale and found it in that 180+ realm. And I started to think: Time for a new scale! 😉 Okay – I started to think: Diet. Perhaps like many folks in my predicament, I wish there was an ‘easy fix’ – a simple pill that I could take, a drink I could imbibe, and the pounds would melt right off of me. It is the great dream of anyone who has been on a quick fix diet. Just drink this stuff three hours before going to bed and hola!
But it doesn’t work like that, does it. Dieting always takes work. Shedding those pounds is a result of eating less, exercising more, and being smart about when and where you intake food. You can’t expect a change on the scale unless you are willing to change your behaviors.
Now you are probably beginning to ask yourself – What does this possibly have to do with today’s story of the cure of a leper? I am always struck by the end of the story. Jesus warned him sternly – see that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priests… It is an interesting conclusion to a miracle story. “See that you tell no one…” Some scholars will make this part of the “Marcan secret”, as their way to explain this pattern of healing and then telling people to be quiet, until they really understand what it means to be the Messiah – there upon the Cross. That certainly was the prevalent interpretation when I was in the seminary. But I wonder if there is something else going on.
Why does Jesus tell him this? Because if he blabs the healing to everyone, then all the “fad dieters” of religion will come his way! All the people who want religion as a quick fix will be at his door, looking for the magic pill. And, they will never understand what discipleship really means. They’ll come for the touch, the cure, the high, the marvelous experience – and it will stop right there. There will be no depth to the relationship, no integrity to the living, no discipleship that will make it to the cross. For as soon as suffering steps back in, that will be the end of their following.
“Tell no one of the cure…” until you’ve had the chance to let it sink in. Until you’ve had the realization that to be a disciple will cost you all that you are and have. THEN –you can speak of me. Because you will have come, not for the touch, not for the moment, not for the experience, but for the duration. THEN you’ll know what it means to be a disciple.
At the end of one of our retreats at the Newman Center, a young man named Pat who was giving the final talk said: “You can leave this experience of retreat and be angry at the world because it will never be this close or loving or caring. Or you can leave committing yourself to the work which this retreat demands of you.” The same is true of this community this evening. You can leave this mass glad for the prayer, glad for the music, glad for the chance see your neighbors and friends, glad to let Jesus touch you with his grace, and still be on the search for a fad religion. Or you can leave here, committing yourself to what our communion demands – that we embrace the leper, reach out to Dreamers, embrace those with different skin color, love the enemy, and do what Jesus would have us do – be his presence and his love to the world.
Specifically, our Archbishop, in response to the aftermath of Ferguson a few years ago, and the more recent unrest after the Stockley verdict, has asked us to take a long, hard look at the issue of racism in our city. (More about this next weekend.) The Faith in Action folks have a series of conversations scheduled – perhaps it is one of the invitations we might heed for this Lenten season.
It is a seductive dream to people who experience ‘scale creep’ that there might be a pill, a drink and it all goes away. It’s why fortunes are made on “quick fix diets’ – take this pill and hola! And this Eucharist can be just as seductive for us as well – eat this bread, drink this cup, and hola! – all the world is fine. May we heed Jesus’ command to the leper: “See that you tell no one anything…” – until… the journey has taken deep root in your heart and life… Let it sink in, Lord. Let it sink in…