Sermon for the 4th Sunday after Epiphany, 2022

This week, my kids and I started to watch the old animated Batman series. In one of the episodes, Dr. Hugo Strange develops a machine that can turn people’s memories into videos, and he disguises himself as a psychotherapist and retreat director. Dr. Strange would talk to his patient’s about the moment in their past that brought them the most shame, and using his machine would record their memories. Later, he’d blackmail them with the video tape. Eventually, he even discovers Batman’s secret identity and tries to action off the video tape as indisputable proof to the Penguin, the Joker, and Two-Face.

It was a deep episode, because it illustrated how everyone is driven by shame in some sense or another. Oftentimes, as in the case of Judge Vargas, it was over something that she’d done as a child. Or perhaps, as with Bruce Wayne, the shame comes from not being able to stop something from happening. For others, the shame comes from an unshakeable sense that they are not enough, and every day offers new morsels to feed that monster. For some, like Bruce Wayne, it leads to a lonely, tortured life of revenge and vigilanteism. For others, a life of fear and anxiety. For others, depression or hate or destruction. These deep wounds in our soul can determine so much about our short lives. Shame.

This is the fourth week in an Epiphany sermon series. Week by week, we’ve been asking of the Gospel passages, “Who is Jesus? How is He being manifest to the World? What does it mean? What does it mean for you? And what does it mean for us at CTK? On the 1st Sunday of Epiphany, the Gospel passage showed us the boy Jesus in the Temple, the New Solomon. Jesus is the King of Wisdom and the Church is called to be a Temple where the nations seek Wisdom and that we are to be a wise people. On the 2nd Sunday in Epiphany, we saw Jesus anointed as the Davidic King, and we live in His monarchy. Jesus is the King of Gifts, and we serve Him within the gifting that He grants us. On the 3rd Sunday, we saw Jesus at the Wedding of Cana. Jesus is the Giver of Wine who adds delight to duty and who delights in the New Creation that He is making even now. This week, our Gospel reading shows Jesus healing a leper and the servant of a centurion, two men who acknowledge their uncleanness and their unworthiness before God. Yet, Jesus touches the leper, and offers to go into the Centurion’s house. As I hope to show, in this week of Epiphany, we see Jesus, Taker of Shame.

Shame is huge problem in the Church, and even more so in the World. We don’t often talk about shame. I wonder why… We will just scratch the surface today, but I’ll preface our examination of Scripture by saying that shame is in the background of most of our interactions, and that there is hardly anything more freeing than God taking away our shame.

First, our focus will be on understanding what’s going on in Matthew 8 with the healing of the leper and the centurion’s servant. Then, we’ll zoom out and look briefly at some of the requirements for cleanness in the Law, and then we’ll zoom out again to see how all of this finds its beginning in Adam and Eve. Only then will we see how the One who makes men clean is Jesus, Taker of Shame.

Our Gospel has two healings, back to back. First, Jesus is approached by a leper who says, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus says, “I am willing.” He touches the leper, and the leper is healed. Then, a centurion of the Roman army approaches Jesus and asks Him to heal one of his servants dying at the centurion’s house. Jesus agrees to go into the centurion’s house. Long story short, Jesus heals the servant. In both cases, the laws of clean and unclean are very much at play here. Both the leper and the centurion would have been considered unclean, meaning that Jesus, a Jew, would not be allowed to touch or be in the same house as them. The leper was unclean because of the disease that infected his skin. The centurion was unclean because he was a Gentile. They were unclean, and that meant distance between these two men and Jesus.

Let’s zoom out to see what the laws for Clean and Unclean were for. God instituted these requirements in the Mosaic Law. They displayed the Holiness of God to Israel and to the World. God is separate, holy. He was not to be equated with the political power-plays of nations, nor the gluttonous desires of men, nor the effects of evil upon society and the human body. Mankind was quick to make gods in their own image, but God was holy, separate. Mankind could not approach Him how he wanted, but how God prescribed. To presume or encroach would be to ignore the breach between man and God made at the Garden of Eden. In order to understand the origins of the laws of Clean and Unclean, we have to go back to Eden, the origin of Our Shame.

In the beginning, man had no boundary between him and God. But after sin, man’s nature was sullied in every part. Nothing was left untouched. His body, mind, progeny. And most importantly, His heart. The most immediate effect was a sense of distance and unworthiness between Adam and Eve. The Scriptures call that feeling shame. It didn’t just apply to man and wife. That same distance and unworthiness infected the relationship between humans and God. And it wasn’t just imagined, either. There actually was distance and unworthiness between man, woman, and God.

Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden and an angel with flaming swords was placed to keep them out. Ever since, every person carries within himself or herself a deep abiding shame, a feeling of unworthiness. And just like with Adam and Eve, this isn’t just an imagined construct. We have reason for shame; we are unworthy; we are distant from God by virtue of our fallen nature and because of are deeds. Mankind is unclean.

The Laws of Clean and Unclean were simply a way of structuring that Shame and Unworthiness. God let the tension sit for quite some time. On the one hand, mankind was unworthy to come into His presence because of their sin and the effects of their sin upon their humanity. On the other hand, God still invited them into His presence.

Going back to the Leper and the Centurion, what do we learn from them? We learn that Uncleanness and Shame is a universal problem. These two men are emblematic of the ends of a few spectrums. We see in them that Original Shame, which is the root of Uncleanness, affects the poor and the rich. Shame afflicts those whose uncleanness is obvious to all, like the Leper, and those whose uncleanness is not obvious. Centurions were powerful men, not only politically but also physically. Height and strength mattered a great deal in the Roman army. Centurions were big, beautiful, powerful, wealthy men. Yet in his own words, this man was unworthy that Jesus should come under his roof. Shame is in the Repulsive and the Attractive. There is no one that is immune to it.

And through this story, we also learn that Jesus came to release the tension. He brings in the leper outside the camp. He brings back together the Jew and the Gentile. He removes the angel from the walls of Eden. Jesus, Taker of Shame. The Gospel teaches us that Jesus is takes away their shame, healing their nature, and renewing fellowship. But He does this for those that ask of Him. He does not manifest that there is nothing to be ashamed about. As St. Paul says in Ephesians 5:12, “For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.” But for those who come to Him in Faith and Humility, to them He does make clean.

What does this mean for you? That is something for you to discern this week. Some need to acknowledge their shame, uncleanness, and unworthiness. Neither the leper or the centurion saw themselves as worthy of God, but asked if Jesus would be willing to make them worthy. This is very important for leading a Christian life. A Christian is always ready to acknowledge their own unworthiness. This is the reason why we begin each morning with the opening sentences from the Prayer Book. “Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.” “I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.” The moment between Jesus and the Leper is a perpetual emblem of our place within the Kingdom. We were unworthy, and we dirty ourselves everyday, yet God has made us worthy. He takes away our shame!

Some need to accept God’s healing. It is common for people to hold onto their shame, and to turn it into indignation. There can be deep resentment that they are not acceptable on their own. We see this seething pride in Cain. He couldn’t stand that God wouldn’t accept him, even when God came to him gently.

Some doubt the validity of God’s power to make them clean. This one is very common. People continue to live in shame. Do you ever feel an unexplainable distance between your soul and God. A lack of desire to go to God in prayer? A mysterious resistance to intimacy with Him? Consider if there has been a time when Christ said to you, “I forgive you. I am willing. I make you clean,” and you did not accept it, and therefore live in continual shame, pressed deep down so that it doesn’t feel like shame. It just feels numb. This is why spiritual direction is so important, to bring these things back up and to readdress them. What shame does Jesus still need to take away from you?

And, finally, we must ask what it means for CTK that Jesus is the Taker of Shame. There is much here, and there is only time for one thing. We have the Good News that Jesus is the Taker of Shame! We need to share it! We learn from the Leper and the Centurion that everyone is unclean. Everyone carries within them the deep, abiding shame of their humanity. For some, it is obvious to them and others. For others, it is hidden from others and possibly, over time, even hidden from the person themselves. Yet it is always there, and it is the seed of an eternal hell. For if distance from God is the everlasting punishment of the heathen, then the curse of uncleanness is its foretaste. What would keep us from freeing them from misery in this life and the next? Do we forget that we, too, were unclean? Covered in shame? Unable to approach God? Do we forget that they are still? Are we afraid that they will ridicule us? They might. Shame protects itself against any that expose it. Yet, Jesus is the Taker of Shame!

CTK, I long for us to be a church that deeply understands the forgiveness and healing that we have through Jesus, Taker of Shame. Can’t you see how powerful a witness that would be to a world drowning in shame, and drowning out their shame? To be saturate in the dynamics of our approach to God: our own unworthiness and the immensity of His love and compassion towards us. This is why Daily Morning Prayer is so important. We renew our healing, and remove our shame. We make the cry of our heart, “Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean,” so that the World can hear Jesus, Taker of Shame, say clearly, “I will; be thou clean.” Amen.