This
fall, the scripture readings have revolved around being lost and being
found. From a lost sheep, a lost coin,
to a lost brother, we had celebrating once the lost were found. We also had stories of lost people, a rich
man and a poor man, both of whom were lost in their own way. Today, we have ten more people that are lost,
lost to society due to leprosy. As we
have journeyed through these passages, I have viewed them through the lens of
what it means to be self-focused versus being community focused, transitioning
from population me to population all.
Ten
lepers, completely lost to society, caste away, thrown away, outcastes. They must live away from others, in this
passage it describes the place as between Samaria and Galilee. It’s a border region, and some commentators
point out that this is a dangerous place.
Border regions were not protected in the same way as the fortified
cities and towns. Wars often took place
on the borders, since these are weak places politically.
So,
here Jesus is, in a weak place, in a dangerous place, in a place that is
neither Galilee or Samaria and he is approached by those that no one
wants. People that due to their leprosy,
no longer belong to Samaria or Galilee.
They know their place and don’t even approach Jesus. Rather, they keep their distance and call out
to him: Jesus, Master, have mercy on
us.
As
people caste away, stricken with a disease where they have no hope of
recovering, they cry out for the possibility.
Maybe, just maybe, this one named Jesus, just might be able to help
them. And so Jesus tells them to go and
show themselves to the priests. This connects
back to the laws and rituals of Moses, it is the priests that have the
authority to offer cleansing to those that are unclean. But along the way, the lepers are
healed. They are healed. This is different than the rites and rituals
associated with being made clean. They
are healed, their leprosy is gone, their isolation is over, they are no longer
outcastes. They can go home and return
to their lives, and reconnect with their family, friends and community.
But
one, one out of the ten, takes the time to return to Jesus to thank him. He
returns to say thank you, not because he was raised with good manners, not
because he is obligated to do so, he returns because he completely knows to the
core of his spirit, that he was lost and now he is found. His healing touched him deeply, it is not
something to be taken for granted, he cannot just go back to his normal life,
he has to stay connected to the one that brought him this healing.
Every
once in a while, we hear this heart touching stories of people that connect
over time due to organ donations or bone marrow transplants. Recently there was a story of a mom that had
lost her son, but his heart was given to someone in need. A few years later, the mom was connected to
the person that received her son’s heart, and she was able to hear it
beat. These families were connected by
tragic life events, and now they share a bond that out of death comes
life. The leper understood this, he knew
that out of death, Jesus brought him new life and he had to express his
gratitude.
The
cleansing of the ten lepers is a story of healing, it is a story of transformation,
it is a story of gratitude, it is a story of being lost and being found. I love the hymn: God of the Sparrow, How does the creature say
Awe, How does the creature say Praise.
We turn around from what we are doing, we remember the one that has
healed us, the one that meets us where we are and transforms us, we take a
moment to be present to the awesome, the divine, the sacred, and we say
thanks.
How
do we do this in our ever so busy lives?
Is it setting aside Sunday morning as a time to gather in worship? We could be on our way, we could be out and
about instead of gathered here in this place, but we gather, we have stopped,
we have come, and this is the time to give thanks. We give thanks by singing praises to God, by
offering ourselves in prayer, by seeking to connect our soul to the scripture
and the sacred time that we set aside here in this place.
Ten
lepers were healed but only one returned to give thanks. Each of us have been touched by God in
different ways. Each of us may feel healed
in different ways. Perhaps we are still
struggling with feeling healed, whether it be physically, emotionally, or
spiritually. We gather seeking that word
from God that will meet us where we are, seeking something that will give us
the spiritual connection that we need to make it through the next week. The lepers came to Jesus, they did not say
heal us of our leprosy, rather they cried out – have mercy upon us. Jesus, Master, have mercy upon us. And God’s mercy flows out, and still flows
out today in a multitude of ways. Can we
name it? Can we feel it in our own
lives? Answered prayers, a moment of
much needed peace, laughter with a friend, hugs from a grandchild, an old
grudge forgotten, an apology given, a moment of pain named allowing healing to
begin. And when that moment occurs, to
we name it as a God moment? Do we say a
silent or even an out loud, Thank You?
How do we express our gratitude to God?
Ten
lepers were healed but only one returned to say thank you, one out of ten,
these do not seem like good odds do they?
One out of ten. At another level,
this story reinforces the Biblical tradition of the tithe. The people that heard this story, would know
that one tenth of their harvest, or one tenth of their livestock’s offspring,
were to be given to the priests. Since
the days the people entered into the Promised Land, they were to set aside the
first fruits of the land and ground and present them to the priests as a form
of thanksgiving, as a form of praise to God as a way to remember to be thankful
for what God had given them.
Returning
to God a portion of what one has received was a part of the people’s faith
practice, it was a part of life, it was what they did. So, when one out of the ten lepers came back
to give thanks, Jesus is showing that this rich tradition of his Jewish
heritage is still an important piece of what it is to practice one’s
faith. Tithing is an extremely
challenging spiritual practice. When we
see it as this story, one out of ten does not seem like very much, but when we
translate it to our income, one out of every ten dollars starts to add up. But when we think about how we give back to
God, not because we were taught to, not because we are obligated to, but when
we start giving purely from our heart, because we are able to name and explain
and celebrate the ways in which God has touched our lives, perhaps it becomes
less challenging.
As
we enter into the Stewardship season of the church, I want to invite us to
think about the ways in which we say thank you to God. We offer ourselves in worship and study, we
give of our time in service, we dedicate a portion of our treasure for God’s
work in the world. We often think of
stewardship season as how are we going to pay the bills for next year. This year, I want us to think about
Stewardship season as how do we respond to the mercy of God in our lives by
saying Thank You and then to ask the question – is this church through this
congregation, living out God’s mercy either through our own spiritual growth or
through our mission outreach to the greater community around us? If we can say yes, then we can celebrate that
our gifts to God’s ministry are indeed bringing forth God’s love in this
world. If we cannot name God’s mercy at
work through us, then we must spend time discerning how, together, as the body
of Christ, can live more fully into God’s purpose.
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