6 Epiphany -Year B I do will it Feb. 15, 2009

Mark 1:40-45
40 A leper* came to him begging him, and kneeling* he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ 41Moved with pity,* Jesus* stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ 42Immediately the leprosy* left him, and he was made clean. 43After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, 44saying to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’ 45But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus* could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.Why is it that we are more than ready to believe that we could win the lottery or we can take a pill and be skinny or watch a DVD and be rich but when it comes to God if it’s to easy we are skeptical. It appears from our old testament reading that humans have been this way for a long time.
The line from the Gospel pierced my heart today. The leper says if you choose you can make me clean. Moved with pity, Jesus reaches out and touches the man and says, “I do choose, be made clean”
I was thinking this week about the little things that we never even think about and how each of us plants seeds in each other. On Friday my daughter Ann came home and when she was telling about her day at supper said that Mrs. Johnson had given her a high five for doing so well on her packet. Annie’s toothless smile beaming from ear to ear jumping up and down as she told us. If Mrs. Johnson had given Ann a check for $1000 it wouldn’t have even come close to that high five. It meant the world to Ann. How many hearts do you think Mrs. Johnson touches every day without her even noticing? It was in 1st grade that I was held back because my teacher told me that I tried hard I just wasn’t as smart as every body else. Ann doesn’t think she is smart she knows she is smart, it took me almost 40 years to figure the same thing out. Now that’s impact. How many opportunities a day do we have to be uplifting, to be and extension of Christ love? It is in the little things and not just the big. Some are called to go to the Sudan and feed the hungry but most of us can impact the world no less by the gentle touches in others lives that are available to us every day.
I was reminded of the story of the man sitting on the beach where thousands of starfish had washed up on the beach and he sat throwing one at time back in the ocean, someone walked up to him and said you can’t possibly make a difference for all these starfish and he said no but I just did for that one.
Is the world impacted any less if we do seemingly insignificant intentional acts of kindness and love that extend the love of God into the torn and battered parts of peoples’ hearts, into the forming parts of a child’s heart? Does God smile on us more if we go to Africa and feed the hungry than if we fed the hungry here or feed someone’s spirit?
The love of God is easy, being held by Christ is easy, and seeking the Holy Spirit is easy. It’s living that can be hard.
Go then and give 7 high fives, go then and save 70 cents and give it to the food pantry, go then and collect in a couple Sundays 2 huge boxes of soup so hungry people can feel warm in their stomachs and their hearts. Go them and win the race because Jesus does choose for us to be made clean and he works through incredibly powerful relationships, he works through Mrs. Johnson, and your can of soup and your phone call or hug. God says to us today in the name of Jesus Christ be healed and then go into the world carrying His light and being his love.
In the name of God