Sermon 10/10/04
One or The Others- Luke 17:11-19
(view lectionary notes for this text)
Today, we read one of the healing stories of Jesus, a story where he physically and spiritually brings about new life and restoration in someone. Today, we read of ten lepers, who approach Jesus as he is traveling in a region between Samaria and Galilee. We read that these lepers keep their distance from Jesus, aware, no doubt, of the cleanliness codes that would get them in trouble for touching Jesus, that would make him unclean like them. But still, they cried boldly, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." Jesus responds quickly, saying, "go and show yourselves to the priests." Presenting yourself to a priest after you had been made clean from a disease was a sort of verification process put in place to certify that a person really had been made clean. So as the lepers go on their way to the priest, we read that they are made clean, healed of their disease. But one, seeing that he is healed, comes back to where Jesus is, and falls at Jesus' feet to thank him. And he, we read, was a Samaritan, one of those despised by most of the Jews because of his race, his beliefs, and his ethnic background. Jesus questions him: "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" No one responds to such a statement. And Jesus speaks again to the Samaritan man, saying, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well." This story has many lessons that we can learn - many layers. So let's take a look at some of them. This text shows up today on a so-called ordinary Sunday for us - the 19th Sunday after Pentecost - what a title. But it also shows up at another time of the year, which clues us in to one of the first lessons we can take from the text.
This story of the ten lepers shows up at Thanksgiving, once every three years. This is a story of thanksgiving. Jesus asks the Samaritan who returns to give thanks and praise God what has happened to the other nine. But we shouldn't start of by blaming them or shaking our heads at them for their absence. After all, they are only doing what Jesus has told them to do - to go and show themselves to the priest - if they do not, they will not be "official", so to speak, not officially cleansed or healed. We do not know if this Samaritan who returns ever makes it to the priest, but it certainly sounds like he didn't make going to the priest his top priority on this day - he doesn't listen to Jesus because he just can't wait to give thanks and praise.
When was the last time your were so filled with gratitude that you couldn't wait to share with someone the good blessings that had fallen your way? Perhaps some of you have experienced physical healing in your lives - others of us may have more experience with other blessings suddenly showered on us - good news about a job or school, something wonderful happening to a family member. Something that stops us in our tracks and forces us to thank God, right then, right there, all-out-thanks and praise. Unfortunately, though, it seems that it takes more and more for us to be moved to this kind of gratitude, this kind of thanksgiving. Most days, we seem to just go through the motions of living, without stopping to examine the rich and abundant blessings that fill our lives. It seems to take more to even satisfy us, much less overwhelm us with praise.
This fall here at St. Paul's, from October through December, we will be celebrating A Season of Giving. Our emphasis is on our own giving, for sure: as we prepare for our Stewardship Campaign, we are asked to consider our financial giving to the church. As the weather turns colder, and our food pantries in the community are already being hit with record numbers for this early in the season, we are givers of food and canned goods. We are asked to give of our time as we form the committees that serve our church. We give as we support the missions of the CROP walk and the Heifer Project. We are asked to give of ourselves for God's ministries, and to give over ourselves to God's plans for us. But we not only focus on how we can give in these next months, but we are also reminded of how God has given, is giving, continues to give to us, giving beyond what we can count. God gives us graces, gives us love, gives us God's presence, and, as we will celebrate with the culmination of our season of giving at Christmas, God gives us God's own self in the human form of Jesus Christ. These gifts alone, this knowledge that God loves us no matter how many times we screw up, no matter how far we wander off the path, no matter how often we fail to love God back and love our neighbors as God has commanded - these gifts alone - are they not enough to cause us every day to give thanks and praise to our Creator?
But beyond reminding us to give thanks as completely as the Samaritan gave thanks, I think this story, this encounter with Jesus calls us to even deeper reflection and transformation. Jesus asks, "were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they?" We can speculate, perhaps. After finding themselves healed, and presenting themselves to the priest, after being declared clean, and fit to be part of society again, what do you think these nine might have done? Jeff Krantz and Michael Hardin of Preaching Peace write, "where did the other nine go? They made a beeline back to the social matrix from which they had been thrust, back to families they may have missed, back to the world of social respectability. They made straight for . . . the priest, who would declare them socially acceptable. They failed to see that God, in cleansing them, had already accepted not only them, but also their fellow leper, the Samaritan. A new sociality had been given in the miracle that they failed to grasp and so they took this gift from God and walked right back to the system that had previously extruded them without seeing or understanding that something indeed was 'bent' about the system . . . Jesus brings healing to each of us and all of us in order that we might be one in Him. Do we see any clearer than the nine?" (1)
We have a choice to make when we encounter Jesus. We can live as the nine lepers who were healed. No doubt, their lives were different, and I'm sure they thanked God for their healing. But the Samaritan, whose faith made him well - I bet you couldn't recognize his life after he happened on Jesus, after he experienced God's whole healing, after he fell down before Jesus to praise God. I was talking with a young person from the congregation this week, who shall remain nameless, to protect the innocent . . . As a young woman who is searching and growing in her faith, she is still a young woman who must attend school, interact with her peers, and face the normal pressures of life. But in the midst of this life, as her relationship with God grows, she wants to know why she can't just be normal. It is a sincere question - we as humans so desire to fit in, to be part of the group, to feel safe and loved and like others. But once we meet God face to face as the Samaritan did, it's harder to live a normal life without shutting out our experience of God. How can we live like others, when we know that we have received this grace from God? How can we live a normal life, when we hear what God calls us to do, and how God calls us to live and love? How can we live a normal life, when we have so much to give thanks over, when we have the chance to have our lives so radically changed and transformed when we let God in?
Sarah Dylan Breuer writes, "Jesus' praise for the Samaritan underscores something for us. Jesus heals us, cleanses us, and brings us into community. But the journey doesn't end there, if we intend to follow Jesus. Jesus declares us worthy to stand at the center, but then Jesus always calls us back to the margins. It's where he is, after all. What good are we to Samaritans if we stay in Jerusalem?" (2) The others - the nine - just want to get back to life as they perhaps once knew it. But Jesus doesn't want to touch our lives so that we can get back to normal and be just like everyone else. Jesus wants us to join him in his mission to reach those who don't know about God's love, who haven't felt God's healing touch yet. Life with Jesus, if we choose it, is anything but normal.
The others - the nine others - I don't know if they realized ever what they were missing. Maybe it is too easy for us to go through life, an average, normal, everyday life. What I do know is that we are offered something more. Something, yes, that will take us out of our comfort zones, something that may make us more different than others than we wanted to be. But this something that Jesus offers can bring us something we can't seem to find elsewhere - not just healing, but wholeness, not just a quick fix, but a complete transformation. What kind of life will you choose? The one, or the others? Amen.
(1) Jeff Krantz and Michael Hardin, Preaching Peace, http://preachingpeace.org/proper23.htm
(2) Sarah Dylan Breur, Dylan's Lectionary Blog, http://www.sarahlaughed.net/2004/10/proper-23-year-c.html