King Uzziah had leprosy until the day he died. He lived in a separate house—leprous, and banned from the temple of the LORD. Jotham his son had charge of the palace and governed the people of the land. – 2 Chronicles 26:21

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 23, 2016): 2 Chronicles 26

One of the least understood aspects of religious life is shunning. As a formal structure within religion, shunning is intended to put incredible pressure on any individual to conform. After all, the act of being emotionally and physically rejected by a community can be a cause of incredible pain for the person. In the Hebrew Bible, this was often the purpose of shunning. And to be shunned was often a fate that was “worse than death.”

But shunning was also a way of protecting the community from dangerous ideas. It separated the radical with his thoughts of reform away from the main body of the community. The infection is kept away from the body so that it cannot spread. Shunning effectively provides a protective cushion for the status quo against all those who would want to change the way that the community acts. Isaac Watts and his music were initially shunned by the Christian Church. And apparently with good reason. A survey of any contemporary hymnbook shows how deeply Watts has changed the music within the church. Today, we try to shun more modern authors, like Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman. But they are just the current versions of Isaac Watts and Bill Gaither. And eventually, it might be inevitable that the changes that they want to bring to the fabric of the Christian Church will become a reality – indeed, in many churches that is already a reality.  

Sometimes, as is the case with King Uzziah, the shunning has a more physically protective purpose. This is shunning by not taking your sick child to school, but rather keeping them home so that they don’t infect others. For most kids, staying home is not really a hardship - unless, of course, the sickness occurs on a significant day for the school community. There is nothing worse than for a school athlete to get sick on the day of the big game, or for the aspiring actor to be replaced by an understudy on the day of the big performance because of an illness.

For Uzziah, the shunning due to sickness was permanent. And it was painful. Interestingly, the apparent reason for the illness (leprosy) was because he dared to overstep his bounds in the Temple – he lit incense at the altar, a task that was only to be performed by the priests on duty. The leprosy was his penalty for the act, and the leprosy meant that for the rest of his life, he would live outside of the temple community that he had violated.

Today, shunning is often more informal, but it is still as painful and life-shaping as it was in the day in Uzziah. And it needs to be prayerfully understood because shunning shapes both who we are, and who the people are that we shun. And it would seem to have no place within a community which declares with Jesus - “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink” (John 7:37).

   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Amos 1