Sermon for Sunday February 15th, 2009

Tipping Points and Turning Points by Monty Newton

Mark 1:40-1:45

Title: Tipping Points and Turning Points
Text: Mark 1:40-45
Thesis: When people are in crisis the Caregiver ministers by the grace of God with compassion and help.

Introduction

I wish to begin by saying this story is primarily about Jesus. In the story a leper approached Jesus and said, “If you want to, you can make me clean or you can heal me.” And it is Jesus who said, “I want to and I will.” The story is about Jesus having compassion on a man and acting in his behalf. So it is primarily about Jesus.
In the context of identifying Jesus as the primary character and caregiver, we may choose to identify with Jesus and see ourselves as ambassadors or representatives of Christ in the world who see the desperate peoples of the world with heartfelt compassion and act in their behalf.
However, the story is also about a leper, who may be representative of any number of desperate people who find themselves in desperate circumstances. So secondarily, we want wish to identify with the leper… we may be feeling more like the leper than Jesus. We may see ourselves as desperate people who, having tried everything else, turn to Jesus asking if he wants to and will, intervene in our circumstances.
So primarily it is about Jesus, but it is also about a man who found himself in desperate straits. Perhaps who you are and where you are today will be the determining factor in how you apply the truth of the story to your life.
So let’s begin with a little review of the context from which our story emerges.
Following Jesus’ baptism and temptation, he began his public ministry by choosing his closest followers and establishing a routine of public teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum every Sabbath. In Mark 1:21-22 we read that the crowds who heard him teach were amazed by the authority with which he taught.
It was in the context of his teaching at the synagogue that a man possessed by an evil spirit disrupted his teaching. Jesus immediately exorcized the demon, which added a new dimension to his public perception, not only as one who taught with authority, but one who even exercised authority over evil spirits.
In Mark 1:29-34, the unfolding of Jesus’ public ministry continues that same day with the healing of Simon Peter’s mother-in-law and then that evening with the healing of a great number of sick people who were suffering from a different kinds of diseases… as well as the exorcism of many more demons.
The following day, Jesus escaped, so to speak, to a quiet place in the wilderness to be alone and to pray. But his disciples eventually found him, hoping to bring him back to Capernaum where many more had gathered to be healed. But Jesus told them that they would be moving on to other places because his calling was to preach in other towns as well. We are told in Mark 1:39 that Jesus traveled throughout Galilee preaching and exorcizing demons.
Our story today begins with an encounter Jesus had with a leper, Mark 1:40
A leper’s life was characterized by separation or isolation… separation from one’s family, friends, faith community, and society. The leper was designated an “unclean” person.
Isolation or separation or marginalization can take many forms, but not the least of which is a physical deformity.
Last December the New York Times reported on the first U.S. face transplant operation. The woman’s face was horribly disfigured… everything between her forehead and lower jaw was missing. Her life was marked by humiliation and name-calling. Her doctor said that children literally ran from her when they saw her face. The surgeon said, “You need a face to face the world.”
In a marathon 23 hour surgery, a team of transplant surgeons reconstructed her features and gave her a transplanted face. Surgeons anticipate that she will be able to eat, speak, breath, and even smell again. (Lawrence K. Altman, First U.S. Face Transplant Described, The New York Times, December 18, 2008)
The benefits for this woman are not just cosmetic… the significance is in the social consequences. She will no longer be a horrifically disfigured social outcast.
We define leprosy in terms of Hansen’s Disease, which is a dreadful illness that affects nerve endings which makes the victim insensitive to any pain… which in turn eventually results in the rotting away of injured body parts when left untreated. The effects of leprosy can be hideous.
In biblical times leprosy was broadly defined and would have included what we know as Hansen’s Disease, but also things like psoriasis, acne, eczema, cellulites, and even dandruff. Any blotchiness or rash or flakiness or discoloration could be cause for literal social isolation.
In Leviticus the Israelites were instructed: “Those who suffer from any contagious skin disease must tear their clothing and allow their hair to hang loose. As they go from place to place, they must cover their mouth and call out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ As long as the disease lasts, they will be ceremonially unclean and must live in isolation outside the camp.” Leviticus 13:45-46
The leper was considered a social outcast. He or she had to live outside of the village in a leper colony. They could not interact with the general population. Whenever approaching or being approached by someone, the leper was required to shout “Unclean! Unclean!” to warn passersby that they might be exposed to the dreaded disease of leprosy.
Desperate times call for desperate measures… the man in our story had reached a tipping point.
I. Tipping Points push us over the top.
A man with leprosy came and knelt before Jesus, begging to be healed. “If you want to, you can make me well again.” Mark 1:40
In The Tipping Point, author Malcolm Gladwell describes a tipping point as the little thing that can make a big difference. It has obvious applications for both good and bad. In keeping with the theme of the day, we all understand that a virus is contagious. A virus may move at a seemingly leisurely pace through a population until a tipping point is reached when the virus explodes into an epidemic. (www.nytimes.com/books/00/03/05/reviews/000305.05wolfet.html)
When we look back in history we can read about great pandemic plagues or epidemics that swept across continents… but they did not start out in pandemic proportions. They began with a single outbreak. A tipping point happens when one child brings a cold into a classroom and passes it on to another child and as the germ spreads from child to child, there is a point when the germ runs amok and suddenly all the children have the cold.
The man who approached Jesus in our text was a desperate person. He had reached a tipping point. His disease and the isolation had reached a point in his life that put him over the top, so to speak. On the day he came to Jesus he had experienced the weight of the straw that broke the camel’s back. The last straw was the straw that drove him from living in despair to acting out of desperation. He was so desperate that he was willing to break the social code and come out of his isolation in order to get help.
Four things are immediately evident:
1. The leper knew he was unworthy. He was a leper… he was unclean.
2. The leper knew he could not heal himself. All the salves and home remedies in the world had not cured him of his illness.
3. The leper knew Jesus could! Jesus was his last hope… if anyone could help him, it is Jesus.
4. The leper knew Jesus did not have to heal him.
The leper’s request was simple, “If you want to, you can make me well or clean again.” Mark 1:40
The leper’s request clearly focused on two things:
1. Jesus’ willingness to make him clean. He said, “If you want to…”
2. Jesus’ power to make him clean. And then he added, “If you want to, you can…”
Mark 1:41 gives us insight into the heart of Jesus Christ. The text says, Jesus was moved with pity or compassion and that he touched him. And then Jesus said, “I want to, be healed!”
What makes this story so compelling is that the gospel writer lets us see Jesus’ emotions. Jesus was moved with pity or compassion.
What does it mean when it says Jesus was moved with pity?
To be moved is to be touched in the very seat of one’s emotions. Those who witnessed this exchange understood that Jesus was moved in his gut. We understand what it means to have a gut feeling or to feel emotionally in ways that we can only describe as being deeply moved gut feelings. But in our culture we are more likely to understand the seat of our emotions as being the heart. We are touched and moved in our hearts.
Of course we know that neither the intestines or the heart are capable of feeling anything… but we also know that as “body” people, what we may see and hear and feel in our minds is felt in the gut and in the heart. So something happened inside of Jesus when he saw and heard the leper. He had an emotional response. We might say that Jesus’ heart went out to the man… Jesus felt deeply for the man.
There are at least two ways of understanding the idea of being moved with pity or feeling deeply in one’s emotions.
1. Some suggest that what Jesus felt was anger… deep in his gut he was outraged by the social stigma that ostracized people when they most needed to be cared for. You could say that Jesus was angered by the circumstances that made this man an outcast in his community.
2. However the more common understanding of the text is that Jesus felt compassion for the man. In other words he was angry about the situation but he felt compassion for the person.
We can get something of a sense of how we can feel both anger and compassion in a given circumstance. The birth of the Suleman octuplets has been front and center on the news for a couple of weeks now.
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine, which is the association of fertility doctors, adopted guidelines in 2008 that encouraged the transfer of only one embryo at a time for woman under 35, and no more than two except in extraordinary circumstances. We are told that Ms. Suleman’s doctor implanted 6 embryos, two of which divided into twins resulting in 8 babies. (Stephanie Saul, Birth of Octuplets Puts Focus on Fertility Clinics, The New York Times, February 12, 2009)
The medical community has raised its eyebrows, so to speak, in regard to the fertility doctor’s disregard for ethical guidelines. And the residents of the state of California are rightly concerned and even outraged that the hospital where the babies are being cared for has requested payment for their care from Medi-Cal. The California taxpayers are being asked to pay $164,000 per child for the 7 – 12 weeks they will be hospitalized… that means Medi-Cal will pay over $1.3 million dollars, and that is just the beginning. (AP writers Alicia C hang and Michael R. Blood, Comcast.net, Taxpayers May Have to Cover Octuplet Mom’s Costs, February 12. 2009)
There is legitimate reason for the public to be feeling outrage over what appears to be some pretty irresponsible decision making on the part of Ms. Suleman and her fertility doctor.
However, however great one’s outrage may be for the circumstances in this situation… how can one not feel deeply for the plight of the 8 babies who are in desperate need of loving care and protection?
Jesus demonstrated the process of compassionate action:
1. First you feel.
2. Then you touch.
3. And finally, you help.
Jesus was deeply moved by the plight of the man. So what did Jesus do?
How did being deeply moved affect Jesus or what did he do? The text says that Jesus “touched” the leper. Compassion does not recoil or run from people… compassion, as Jesus demonstrated compassion, touches people.
And last, we see that Jesus expressed his desire to help the leper. He said to the man, “I want to, be healed.”
When Jesus encountered the leper he was moved emotionally to feel deeply for the man, to touch the man, and to help the man.
Application:
1. In this story we can easily see that Jesus is a model for the way we see the outcasts or alienated people in our culture. Even the fact that the man was breaking the law did not deter Jesus from feeling for and helping the man. And neither should we…
As followers of Christ, we would do well by being deeply moved by the plight of people, so much so that we actually reach out and touch them, becoming involved without regard to contagions (and I don’t just mean germs), inconvenience, or consequence. Who are the lepers in your life who cry out for your compassion?
2. The story can also be understood from the perspective of the leper, i.e., we may place ourselves in the place of the leper. How many of us have reached a tipping point… a point of desperation? How many of us know the feeling of that last straw that breaks the camel’s back… that thing that pushes us over the top?
Who among us cannot endure another day of sadness or pain or isolation or rejection or self-destructive and habitual behavior or marital conflict or fear or abuse or stress and worry or sin and lostness? We would do well to come to Christ and pray, “Lord, if you want to, you can make me well again.”
Tipping Points bring us to Turning Points.
II. Turning Points are moments when decisive change occurs.
After the leper was healed Jesus said to him, “Go right over to the priest and let him examine you. Take along the offering required in the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy, so everyone will have proof of your healing.” Mark 1:44
Jesus had done his part. The leper was unquestionably healed. But Jesus expected him to do his part to prove that the healing had actually taken place. The man was instructed to go and show himself to the priests so there would be evidence that he had been healed.
I am not talking about works salvation or works healing. I am talking about demonstrating that change has truly come to one’s life.
Perhaps you remember the story that ran late last year of a 13 year old girl who was raped by three men in Somalia while walking to visit her grandmother. She sought protection from the law following the attack but instead of being protected, was convicted of adultery according to the Shariah, which is the legal code of Islam based on the Koran and stoned to death. The U.N. said she was twice victimized: First by the perpetrators and second by those who administered justice (or injustice in her case). (Reuters, Rape Victim Stoned to Death in Somalia Was 13, New York Times, November 5, 2008)
The good news is, God is not moved to punish us… God is moved to have pity and compassion on us.
In contrast we look to the story of Jesus and the woman who was actually caught in the act of adultery in John 8 and was in danger of being stoned to death by her accusers. After shaming her accusers, Jesus told the woman that he did not condemn her and then he instructed her. “Go and sin no more.”
Grace was the turning point in that young woman’s life… she was forgiven and now it was time for her to go and demonstrate or give evidence to the change that had come into her life.
You could say that the Apostle Paul experienced a turning point when Christ confronted him on the road to Damascus in Acts 9. Following that life changing encounter Jesus said, “Now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you are to do.”
Turning points are when you follow through on the work that God is doing in your life. The person who attends AA meetings is giving evidence of a turning point that is resulting in ongoing sobriety. All kinds of support groups exist for people who are doing their part to overcome addictions to food, sex, gambling, pornography, drugs, etc. People who seek marriage counseling are demonstrating they are trying to follow through from tipping point to turning point.
Application:
1. How many of us have reached a turning point… a point when we are at a moment of decision? How many of us have reached that point when we are willing to change or do what we need to do to ensure lasting change.
Do you remember when light bulb jokes were the rage? One that is particularly memorable is the one that asks, “How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?” And the answer is, “Only one, but the bulb has got to really want to change.” Another variation is, “None. The bulb will change itself when it is ready.”

Turning points mark the moment when we decide change must take place. It really is true… when the grace of God is at work, tipping points lead to turning points and turning points lead to lasting change. Change is the evidence that God has worked and continues to be at work in our lives.

Conclusion:

When we lived in Red Oak, Iowa, I helped one of the men in our congregation pour a new concrete driveway. It was a large undertaking so he had recruited a couple of other men to help. We poured the drive in two long sections. Toward the end of the day we poured a section of sidewalk that led from the back door of the house to the garage. I floated the piece and had stepped away to let it set before continuing with the troweling and edging.
Suddenly the back storm door banged and the three year old son of one of the men came running full-tilt and plunged headlong into the freshly poured concrete.
The boy was covered from head to toe with fresh concrete. It was on his face, in his mouth, up his nose, in his hair, all over his clothes… he was a mess. He looked up with the most shocked look on his face and began to cry.
And then his father reached down, scooped him up into his arms and hugged him close as he carried him to the water hydrant, and began washing him clean.
That’s the picture of a leper and a compassionate caregiver who is not dissuaded by a little filth. That is the picture of Jesus scooping us up and the picture of us scooping up the lepers in our lives. It is also the picture of us being scooped up by a compassionate Christ when we have fallen and desperately need a helping hand.
It is the picture of a God who does not demand that we get cleaned up before he can touch us and it is the picture of the people of God who do not require people to clean up their act before we touch them. It has become something of an old saw now but the idea is readily understood when we see that neither God nor should we insist that the fish be cleaned before we catch them.
God does not clean the fish before he catches them and neither should we!
Perhaps I have made it too confusing but simply put, tipping and turning points are moments of grace for us to be Christ to someone who says, “You can help me if you want to.” And tipping and turning points are moments of grace for us to look into the eyes of the loving Christ and pray, “You can help me if you want to.”