Healing Foreign People in Foreign Lands

A sermon preached with the people of Christ Episcopal Church in Warren, Ohio on August 20, 2023.

“Even though it is curable, tuberculosis is the world’s deadliest infectious disease, killing 1.5 million people a year, according to the World Health Organization.” That’s because we have a lifesaving, effective drug for tuberculosis. It’s called bedaquiline.

And, if I were to contract TB, I would receive it. But, at approximately $272 for a six-month course of the drug, patients in low-income countries cannot afford to access it.

We have a cure. But it is for our own people. It is not for the healing of foreign people in foreign lands.

This morning we find Jesus has crossed a border into the foreign district of Tyre and Sidon, the land of gentiles; of Canaanites. And a local woman – a desperate mother with a sick child – shouts after him as she follows: “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.”

Jesus has healed many people along his path in his ministry. But he says to her, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

We have a cure. But it is for our own people. It is not for the healing of foreign people in foreign lands.

Last month, the famous author and YouTuber (and Christian) John Green wielded the power of his social media following, and took after Johnson & Johnson, the manufacturer of the TB drug. He demanded that they relinquish plans to extend the patent that keeps the cost so high by four years.

Green said, “During those four years, experts estimate that up to six million people who would have access to bedaquiline in a world of generics won’t be able to afford it, and most of those people will die …So if it sounds like I’m angry, that’s because I’m angry.”

And, after thousands of people responded by calling on J&J to do the right thing, they announced on July 13 that they would grant licensing to supply generic versions of the drug to low- and middle-income countries. It’s not far enough, but it is enormous progress, and it will potentially save millions of lives. Millions.

So. an American company made up, I am sure, of good people, just like you and me, who want to do good and be good in the world, had a chance to save millions of lives, or not. And it took a social media campaign (plus, I should say much more advocacy work behind the scenes in the months before Green took to Twitter and YouTube) to provoke them to choose to save lives.

 We have a cure. But it is for our own people. It is not for the healing of foreign people in foreign lands.

Just last week, John Green revealed why he became so interested in Tuberculous and access to bedaqualine: it was a desperate mother with a sick child.

The child’s name was Henry. John met him on a visit to a TB hospital in Sierra Leone in 2019. At first he thought Henry was the child of a nurse or someone who worked there, because he acted as a bit of a tour-guide – enthusiastically welcoming him, showing him around. But then John learned he was a patient, and a very sick one. A patient who was not responding to the old drugs his hospital could access.

His mother had lost her job and her house to support Henry’s medical care – thousands of dollars in treatment.

And all that stood between life and death for Henry was the newer drugs. I know that sounds like it’s overly-simplistic but it’s not. That is all.

We have a cure. But it is for our own people. It is not for the healing of foreign people in foreign lands.

A doctor from Ethiopia named Dr. Tefera arrived at Henry’s hospital a few months after Green’s visit. He also thought at first he must be a child of a staff member, the way he helped out and encouraged other patients – his joyful spirit and charm.

He sprang into action. Green says, “He called his colleagues at Partners in Health and the Sierra Leonean ministry of health, and he was like look, some of the drugs we need are in Liberia, some are in Lesotho, is there any way that we can get them here together to help save this kid. Yes, it’s only one kid. But, tell that to his mother.”

This is a story with a happy ending. The drugs were procured, and Henry is alive and well. He is a student at the University of Sierra Leone studying Human Resources management. Green got to see him on a recent visit, and I can’t imagine how emotional that must have been. And now, thanks to an online fundraiser, his mother will be able to start a business back up, so she no longer has to live in poverty, just because her son got sick.

I watched Henry’s YouTube channel a bit – there is one particular video of him dancing – joyful, silly, like any college kid with a YouTube account. This, more than any part of the story, made me tear up.

As Green said, “He gets to be here, he gets to have a YouTube channel and hopefully connect with lots of you and help you glimpse what his life is like. He gets to figure out Discord and take tests and hang out with his friends and try to help his mom. But none of that should require extraordinary efforts.”

Because what Henry had is not one of the many diseases we, unfortunately, still do not have a reliable cure for. What Henry had was curable.

And we know that Henry is just one child. Just one person. Millions around the world have died and continue to die of treatable disease.

And we – collective we – our society, our medical infrastructure, our economic system – allow it to happen.

 It is shocking.

It is shocking to hear ourselves say, “We have a cure. But it is for our own people. It is not for the healing of foreign people in foreign lands.

And it is shocking to hear Jesus of Nazareth say, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

But this too is a story with a happy ending.

After Jesus tells this mother that “It is not fair to take the children’s [Israel’s] food and throw it to the dogs [Canaanites].” She replied, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

And something in that moment changes. We cannot know the mind of Jesus – divine and human – and I do not recommend trying. But we do know he is moved by this mother’s deep faith, because he tells her so. “Woman, great is your faith!” he says.

And he heals this desperate mother’s daughter. This foreign mother’s foreign daughter.

And in that moment Jesus makes clear that his ministry has no borders and no boundaries. And he reminds us that God’s house “shall be a house of prayer for all peoples.” 

And rewrites the script:

We have a cure. And it is for all people. For us and for foreign people in foreign lands.

I wonder what this healed girl’s name was. I wonder what she went on to do. I wonder if she danced silly dances with joy, hung out with friends, helped her mother. Because she was healed, we get to imagine those things.

Healing foreigners across any kind of border – national, class, race, culture, religion, sexual orientation, and gender – is not our first instinct as human beings. We have a deeply embedded script in our heads that tells us this is not our responsibility. And this morning, it is made clear that God knows the words of this script, intimately.

But God tells us we can and we must learn the words of a new script. Because God’s love is for all people. And this is our mission: Following Jesus, healing ourselves and foreign people in foreign lands.