Bearing Compassion for the Lepers of our Day John 10:1-11

Bearing Compassion for the Lepers of our Day April 1, 2009

Isaiah 61:1-4
The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; 2to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3to provide for those who mourn in Zion— to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory. 4They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they

John 10:1-11
Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. 7So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Today we reflect on the last of the Lenten passages before we enter Holy Week. Jesus’ public ministry is coming to an end. The showdown in Jerusalem and the garden of Gethsemane is upon us. Can you feel the suspense and how high the stakes are? These three years of public ministry are coming to the end, will the center hold? Can the disciples stay awake and stay faithful after their shepherd is taken from them. Will the sheep scatter and scurry? Will they ever find their way back to the fold?
We will be looking at another MDG (Millennium Development Goal) set by our world leaders at the UN. To halve the number of people living with HIV/AIDS but still do not have access to the essential medicines. The lepers of our day are not only people with HIV, but also our brothers and sisters living with TB and Malaria. The term often used is for this trinity of tragedies is “Diseases of Poverty.” Our UN leaders in New York and Geneva have joined the church in our sacred calling to work for an abundant life to be known by all of God’s children.
Yes, we are our brother’s and sisters’ keeper. Any time a fellow child of God dies of a disease because of poverty this abundant life has been denied to them. Who are the thieves and robbers climbing over the fence to scatter God’s flock? What are the ways and means of the power and principalities of this world that deny our brothers and sisters the abundant life Christ call us to live into being? We must release the drug patents and fully fund the public health ministries so these living saving medicines are accessible to the billions of people who live on one and two dollars a day.
Several years ago in Accra, Ghana I attended the World Alliance of Reformed Churches gathering. Worldwide, there are 74 million Christians who trace their heritage to Calvin’s Reformed tradition. I saw a beautiful tapestry of God’s humanity. Several days in Accra reinforced the reality that the Church of Jesus Christ is growing in leaps and bounds in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In many respects, the face and voice of Christ’s church will be transformed by this new day that is dawning. Will North American and European Christians be open to this new reality? Are we ready and willing to listen to how the Holy Spirit is speaking through our brothers and sisters in the Southern Hemisphere? God’s Spirit will blow where it will. Will we flow with it and soar like an eagle or will be like a stubborn salmon working against the current?
Access to medicine for people living HIV/AIDS is one of the issues where we need to open hearts to the testimonies of our brothers and sisters. All of God’s children should have abundant access to HIV prevention and treatment services. Our Good Shepherd calls us to love our fellow sheep. “If you love me you will feed my sheep.” As Jesus said, "there are sheep of many folds", but we all one have one Good Shepherd, who calls us to our common calling to help secure the abundant life for all of God’s sheep.
This was the theme for WARC conference “I have come that they may have life, and have it in abundance.” HIV/AIDS and the diseases of poverty were critical points of concern. Here in America, the issue of HIV/AIDS has become passé. We are complacent because we think the crisis is over. Isn’t this just a chronic illness now? “Just take your pill and life will go on.” We think we are off the hook of having consciences pricked because of President Bush’s emergency plan. Yes, we have made some progress, but we are far from that marker or mile stone that would justify a reduction of our sense of urgency.
People living with HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria are the lepers of our day. We remember Jesus’ healing ministry and the powers bestowed upon his disciples to heal and cure the sick. Embracing the lepers and restoring them to a more abundant life is at the core of our mission. We look back to another era when our churches sent out doctors and nurses to the four corners of the world. Some of the fruit we see blossoming in the global church comes from these historic mission hospitals and schools our ancestors in the faith established.
We can’t be satisfied with a token representation of the people we canonize. A few Mother Theresas are not enough for the millions of our brothers and sisters in Africa, Asia and yes here in North America who continue to die from HIV/AIDS. This crisis of humanity is far from over. The media cycle has runs its course, and they have moved on to the next “If it Bleeds it Leads Story.” As disciples of the Good Shepherd, we must keep our eyes and ear’s open to all the sheep of Christ’s fold. We need to remain connected to the Christ’s global church and commune with them in their struggle to bring abundant life to their communities ravaged by the scourge of AIDS.
We need to open our eyes to the new face of AIDS. Here in North America, the leading cause of death for African American women is HIV/AIDS. Many folks in our pews think of AIDS as primarily a concern for the gay community and Africa. Last fall, the CDC acknowledged that they had underreported the infection rates in North America by forty percent. Last Month, the CDC reported that the infection rate in our Nation’s capital has reached 3 % of the population. In America, the land of milk and honey, we have a community with an infection that is eqaul to many countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The face of AIDS has changed. Will we open our eyes to this new reality and respond accordingly?
The face of AIDS has changed, do we see it? African American and Latino American women are part of the new face of AIDS. Will we rise up and speak out for an abundant life for all of God’s sheep? Our Black and Brown sisters are bearing the burden of this enduring tragedy. Will we love and embrace them with compassion? Why do they not receive adequate prevention services? Why are they struggling to secure the essential medicines they need? Why are so many of our sisters living in silence and isolation because of the stigma that still exists?
We are not sent out from the shelter of the flock to judge others who have contracted HIV. It’s irrelevant how the virus entered their body, what matters most is how we love our fellow sheep enduring the modern day leprosy. We are not sent out to judge or condemn. There is only one Good Shepherd. We are merely fellow sheep. We are called to love all of God’s sheep and ensure they can find life in abundance.
Last week I saw the musical Rent at the Orpheum in Minneapolis. If you have seen the play or movie, you will have a sense of what my first encounter was like with someone living with HIV. My senior year in college I moved to NYC and worked in a private psychiatric hospital. I helped counsel heroin addicts in recovery from their addiction. Many IV drug users contract HIV because they share needles.
One day, I saw first hand the stigma and discrimination that people with HIV endure. One of my nurse colleagues was not discrete about his HIV status, and I saw how the other clients on the unit shunned this fellow child of God. For several weeks, I walked with my brother as he went from doctor to doctor learning how low his CD 4 count was dropping. Soon the cancer would come, soon pneumonia would take its hold. He is no longer with us. But his story is seared in my heart and mind.
There is a scene in Rent when Roger, Angel and Tom join a HIV support group. When I hear this song, tears flow for my brother lost long ago:

“Will I lose my dignity, will someone care, will I wake tomorrow from this nightmare. (4x)

My journey with HIV positive IV drug users was a conversion experience. Deep in my bones, I know that no child of God should have to go through this. We must love and embrace all of God’s sheep. We must do everything in our power to secure and preserve abundant life for all. This means everyone should access to healthcare. This is a basic human right. Anyone working to deny this to a fellow child of God is a thief and bandit trying to climb over the fence. The Good Shepherd has a large hook and in God’s time, God’s judgment will be known. Did you love my sheep? Or did you rob them of the abundant life they were entitled to?
Our Good Shepherd stands at the gate. Jesus is calling us on our greed and complacency. How is that we can put a man on the moon, and rovers on mars, but we still cannot provide prevention and treatment services for people living with diseases of poverty?
In Luke’s gospel, when Jesus began his ministry he opened the scroll to Isaiah 61

“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; 2to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn.”

Our brothers and sisters living with the leprosy of our day need to the know the year of the Lord has come! They need to be released from their captivity! Yes, we will do all we can to love our fellow sheep and to help secure an abundant life for them. Jesus, we will show our love for you, by loving your sheep, near and far. We will confront the thieves and bandits who would try to climb in over the fence and deny our brothers and sisters their access to life saving medicines. As faith partners, we will do our part to achieve the UN MDG of halving the number of people who do not access to these life saving anti-retroviral medicines.

We will not just stop there. We will proclaim your reign of peace and wholeness until the day you come again to bring us all into your great banquet. May we all sit together with you and hear those precious words, “Well done good and faithful servant. You have loved and fed my sheep.” Our Good Shepherd stands at the gate. Through our hearts and hands, may the Holy Spirit use us to bring abundant life to the lepers of our day, our brothers living with HIV/AIDS.