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A conversation about this week's lectionary Bible passages

In Jeremiah 29, the prophet addresses the Judean community in exile following the first fall of Jerusalem in 597 B.C.E. Jeremiah's words do not necessarily provide hope that the exile will end in some future deliverance, but rather encourages them to live fully in the present situation. The image of "exile" may not fully fit the experience of many lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people (or abuse survivors, those who grew up in addicted households or children of war), who have never experienced a safe homeland from which to be exiled. Yet "exile" does speak to a deep longing for a safe, secure "place like home." The challenge Jeremiah places before us is to make a fruitful living as life, in all its complexity and tragedy, keeps on happening. Far from calling the Babylonian exiles to hunker down for the duration, he challenges them to positively engage the community with which they find themselves. The place where "all will yet be well" may not be where we might expect.

Both Luke's story of the healing of the lepers in Luke 17 and the 2 Kings 5 account of Namaan's healing speak to those who experience double stigmas. From the point of view of the Israelites, that Namaan was a foreigner was bad enough, but being afflicted with leprosy made him doubly unfit for the community. The one leper who came back to Jesus was not only a leper, but also a Samaritan, which placed him in a vulnerable position even in the exiled community of lepers. Despite multiple human barriers, God brings healing and restoration.

It might be easy for LGBT readers to identify themselves as the "heroes" of these stories, as people who have suffered various oppressions and received gracious healings. But we need to place ourselves so the text addresses us with challenges as well as comforts. Communities often define themselves in terms of who they are "not"; even oppressed communities set such boundaries for themselves. LGBT communities are no different. Who has not quietly scoffed to their friends at someone who dressed differently ("fashion-challenged"), drawn sharp distinctions based on education ("rednecks" or "snobs"), or dismissed someone whose mannerisms we didn't like ("too femme … too butch")? Not to mention obvious prejudices of race, age, health or gender!

In these passages, the voice of God comes from unlikely people. Namaan listens first to a slave girl, and later follows the advice of his servants. Jeremiah is locked in conflict with other prophets who are foretelling a short exile and imminent divine deliverance for the people, his lone voice seeming traitorous to his own country. A Samaritan leper shows saving faith. The apostle Paul is himself in prison, yet his gospel is spreading "unchained."

Each of these stories occurs in an "in-between" place for the primary participants. Jesus meets the lepers on the border of Galilee and Samaria. Jeremiah writes from an as-yet-undestroyed Jerusalem to exiles in Babylon. Namaan is asked to bathe in the foreign — and muddy — Jordan. Paul is chained "like a criminal." In these edge-places, people are freed from their usual conventions to receive God's faithfulness in unexpected and extravagant ways. Even the nine lepers who did not return to Jesus were healed!

Working with this theme of an "in-between place" may help to resolve the tensions inherent in the last verses of the hymn cited in 2 Timothy. The possibility of a believer denying Christ and being denied by Him could strike terror to a tender conscience. Who is always faithful? We live in between faithfulness and faithlessness. This frightening edge is counterbalanced by the promise that even "if we are faithless, Christ remains faithful."

Christ reconnects the exiles with living community. Jesus sent the healed lepers to "show themselves to their priests" (Luke 17:14) to certify their healing and restoration to the community. (Presumably, the Jewish lepers to a Jewish priest and the Samaritan to a Samaritan priest.) We are unwilling to push the necessity of priestly verification of a person's acceptability for community. However, if the priest is seen as a spokesperson of the welcoming community (rather than a gatekeeper), Jesus' command fits.

There are times when a welcoming community should make public its welcome, to counteract layers of condemnation outcasts may have suffered. Public celebrations such as pride festivals, holy unions and marriages, Coming Out Day and individual coming out or renaming ceremonies all provide opportunities for communities to make their welcome explicit.

When our community is functioning at its welcoming best, how do we restore those who have been outcast and exiled to wholeness?

	Our Creator beyond us,     Yet you dwell among us,     We praise you.     We pray for the home of promise         (which we've never fully known)         as we work to be your welcome in the world.     Grant us this day abundant life.     And forgive us our exiling         as we pray for the peace         to forgive those who exile us.     Lead us out of our need to create boundaries,         and delight us in the diversity of life!     For you are the Keeper of Community,         the Source behind our deepest longing,         and the One who provides an eternal Home.     Amen.
Bible passages are selected based on the Revised Common Lectionary, copyright © 1992 by Consultation on Common Text (CCT). All rights reserved. Used by permission.