Date: 9/28/2004
Time: 8:32:26 AM
As I read Jeremiah it seems to me that what he says to the exiles is that they must embrace the Babylonians, for this is now their home, they must settle into a land which is defiled by Gentiles.
Is this not the same as Jesus, who wandering around in a defiled land, heals/purifies the lepers, and even acknowledges the response of the goy.
tom in ga
Date: 9/28/2004
Time: 12:02:15 PM
I'm new to this site, but really value the wonderful reflection and dialog I've seen over the past few weeks of reading. The version of this reading from Luke that I'm using uses 3 different words to refer to what happens to the leper(s). "as they were going they were cleansed", "one, realizing he had been healed", "10 were cleansed, were they not", and finally, "your faith has saved you." This seems significant to me in that Jesus seems to be saying "cureing your ailments is easy, but to attain everlasting life is what I want you to focus on." And I see here that what happens is that the one who is compelled to come to God/ Christ in thanks giving and of his own will is the one who is saved. Jesus extends the invitation, provides us strength and encouragement to act, but ultimately we need to take steps to make it work. I think that in two weeks I will preach in the area of Gifts from God that we have and ofter ignor (don't use) or dont give thanks for. It is often the new commers, the outcasts, those we might call unbelievers who call our attention to these gifts and our need to give thanks to God for them. Thank you for this great forum. Tom in Cleveland
Date: 9/29/2004
Time: 7:04:13 AM
There is an interesting contrast between "duty", "obedience", "fulfilling the Torah, which is something Jews do well and for which we must respect. Indeed the Torah is the outward and visible sign of their relationship/covenant with God.
But in the Samaritan there was something else "gratitude" which comes from not expecting to be treated the same because of being an outcast, not sure of one's standing before God. The Samaritan says thanks for he is overwhelmed by the generosity of God who leaves no one out of the circle of grace.
tom in ga
Date: 9/29/2004
Time: 1:40:49 PM
This Sunday we will be having "Harvest Home Sunday", and our worship service is followed by the community "CROP walk for World Hunger". I'd be grateful for any suggestions for tying these things into a sermon using this text. Thanks! -ss in PA
Date: 9/30/2004
Time: 8:12:47 AM
A Samaritan leper becomes a model for thanksgiving. This one who was healed does not take for granted the kindness shown to him but offers thanks to Jesus and glorifies God.
Date: 9/30/2004
Time: 8:13:30 AM
Conventional wisdom says there aren't many atheists in foxholes. The same goes, no doubt, for hospital emergency rooms and any place a newly diagnosed cancer patient collects his or her thoughts. In times of danger our instincts override whatever theology we may not affirm, and we hurl toward heaven a plea for mercy.
When disease threatens, we pray for healing, but we really want cure. Sometimes we get cure, sometimes not, no matter how fervent our prayers. The patient petitioner always receives healing, however. Even if disease wins and death comes earlier than we'd like, turning one's case over to God means we do not die alone, our humanity crushed. Whether we live in God's care, or die in God's embrace, we have healing and wholeness.
Ten desperate lepers once begged Jesus for mercy. All ten received cure. As far as we know, only one found healing. Not only his disintegrating skin changed, his heart filled with thanks, and he couldn't help but return to express his praise and gratitude as directly as he'd once launched cries for help.
A heart full of thanks is a sign of wholeness. It appears often on a deathbed where cure has never arrived. The teacher says also to that one, "Go on your way; your faith has made you whole."
For Christians, the secret of this healing story, and all others as well, lies in the paths crossed out there in the desolate region where lepers lived out their days. Jesus had set his face toward Jerusalem. There he would show himself to the priests, who would judge him unclean, far from whole. He would pray for God's aid, but he would die broken. Yet, "by his bruises we are healed" (Isa 53.5).
First, though, Jesus sends these ten to Jerusalem and the priests. If the nine found healing, they got it as Jesus and the Samaritan did—with arms outstretched in the ancient posture that fits both crucifixion and thanksgiving.
Frederick Niedner
Date: 9/30/2004
Time: 8:13:52 AM
As in the story of the Good Samaritan, found exclusively in Luke, this story features a Samaritan. Samaritans were Jews who centred their faith in Mount Gerizim rather than Jerusalem. Samaritans were not accepted as "real" Jews by the Jerusalem believers. In one sense, Samaritans were part of Judaism in that they revered holy scripture. In another sense, however, they were outside of Judaism when it is defined as the community of allegiance to Jerusalem and its authorities. In the case of the man who was robbed and left by the side of the road, the Samaritan is the only passerby out of several who extends mercy to the hurt man. The others, who are officials in the temple, hurry past to their important duties. In this story, only the Samaritan returns to Jesus to give thanks for the healing. The others go on to the temple to follow the ritual of being certified as clean by the priests, which was necessary for them to be accepted into the life of the community (Lev 14.23). The temple was not the centre of worship or community for the Samaritan, and so he does not go there. He does respond faithfully to what has happened to him, however. He returns to Jesus to give thanks and Jesus affirms his faithfulness.
A subtle but important detail in the way this passage from Luke is translated in the New International Version is the reference to "ten men who had leprosy" instead of the "lepers." In this gospel that emphasizes seeing or recognizing, this translation asks the reader to recognize the full humanity of all people, even (or perhaps especially) those on the margins. Luke invites us to see as God sees: with mercy for all.
Date: 9/30/2004
Time: 11:02:03 PM
neat quote from Martin Luther "What is worship? One leper turning back
revgilmer in texarkana
Date: 10/2/2004
Time: 4:43:38 PM
Now here is a strange story. What do we have? 10 Lepers! How may return to Jesus to give thanks? 1 healed Samaritan! Now there is a tithe.
Though we are not faced with possessions, money, or mammon, we have here the heart of the one whose life has been transformed by Christ and who offers, the freeist gift of all: Gratitude.
I am not sure how this will preach but it is facinating.
tom in ga
Date: 10/3/2004
Time: 4:36:21 AM
Tom in Cleveland
Astute observations. Thank you. You have at least served to begin my week's meditations on the passage.
JG in WI
Date: 10/3/2004
Time: 2:48:36 PM
physical health does not always mean wellness. the other nine were made physically well, jesus gave them what they asked.
today the disciples asked for more faith, now these lepers are asking for mercy. jesus reprimands the apostles telling them they already have enough faith. this week jesus hears a cry for mercy and answers it.
could it be that jesus determines our real needs?
i've been preaching stewardship and giving these last weeks.
i see a pattern occuring as jesus makes his way to jerusalem:
be shrewed... be generous... do your work... be thankful... be persistant in prayer... be honest in prayer...
what is jesus trying to tell us as he makes his way to the cross?
on his way to death, is he giving us the way to live?
God's peace, christine at the shore
Date: 10/3/2004
Time: 2:55:26 PM
tom in ga~ brilliant example of tithing. love it.
all~ what was a samaritan leper doing with 9 jewish lepers? did their disease break down the religious barriers, what happens after jesus heals them all... do they go back to religious racism?
God's peace, christine at the shore
Date: 10/3/2004
Time: 3:00:27 PM
one more post. missed church today, woke up to finish off my sermon and wound up hugging the porcelin god (and i only had 1 beer last night at our stewardship oktoberfest dinner)
thank God for my council president who led worship and even preached while i went back to bed.
anyway, i wanted to share this quote (my favorite) which i thought that i would be using this morning:
faith is not belief despite the evidence; faith is a life lived in scorn of the consequences. ~anon
God's peace, christine at the shore
Date: 10/3/2004
Time: 6:10:34 PM
Location! Location! Location!
We are on our way to Jerusalem. And here we are in some "no man's land"! The land between. The inbetween place. Where "human trash" lives as a colony of lepers.
This is the place Jesus comes! And turns lepers into humans complete with restored ethnic identities: no longer "leper x" but "a Samaritan"!
Glory!
Date: 10/3/2004
Time: 6:49:56 PM
What a great text for a message of THANKFULNESS!
Maybe my points will be...( v.1) Aniticipation!!! of Thanksgiving...(2) v.14 Process!!! of Thanksgiving. ...(3) V.15 Humility!!! of Thanksgiving... ((-or perhaps, Barriers to Thanksgiving...)) (4) v.19 Blessing!!! of Thanksgiving...
....Galveston Teacher
Date: 10/4/2004
Time: 3:25:15 AM
Galveston Teacher, I think we are neighbors.
So glad i have jumped on reading the post early as I am preaching for the next few Sundays and really must get back in the sermon preparing mode. What a great text for the congregation I am preaching at. A church hurting and we get to hear about healing and I get to preach about gratitude in the midst of adversity. I have learned this through our experience. It is much easier to face life with a thankful heart!!!!! Just beginning Tammy in Texas
Date: 10/4/2004
Time: 5:36:36 AM
ss in PA -
an idea you might adapt is one i got from a friend for last week's world communion. encourage people to take their shoes off and just be there at worship with no shoes ... 1/3 of the world does not hve shoes (something like that). We take our shoes for granted; removing them, in their absence, reminded us of their usual presence. I introduced it with the children's sermon and then the children and i took our shoes off and invited everyone else to do the same. I preached, did the offering, holy communion, the benediction ... everything else in the service - shoeless! Shoes are just one thing we really take for granted.
Health is another = as in the healing of the lepers.
Sally
Date: 10/4/2004
Time: 6:11:40 AM
I'm preaching this week also. Several reflections
What about Jesus response to the leper with gratitude. Does this give us a picture the Divne's response to gratitude, and a view of how we should respond?
What experience of the samaritan leper could have lead him to return with gratitude?
By speculating on the 9 other leper's need to follow procedures (keeping distance If possibly healed, show themselves to the priest.), does this give a window to us of the things that can keep us from gratitude for the blessings from God?
If leprosy then was not the Hansen disease we know today, but anything that was a possible contamination for the rest of society, what are today's societal's contaminations i.e., terrorist acts, gang activities, Bi-polar and other mental states?
Shalom
bammamma
Date: 10/4/2004
Time: 7:21:42 AM
October is a mixed up month for us--we have Children's Sabbath this Sunday, but all the resources are written for next week's texts. Then next week I preach a stewardship sermon, and I'm thinking of using these texts! Then the next week we have our Consecration Sunday speaker, so I'm not in charge of that.
The tithe example is a good one--this congregation has a lot of retired big business people who are remarkably committed to the life and health of the church. They already give generously, but this will be the first year for them to approach stewardship from a spiritual rather than budget-oriented perspective. So encouraging them to look at what God has done for them and to lift up the generosity they already clearly feel should be a good tack to take.
Laura in TX
Date: 10/4/2004
Time: 7:36:21 AM
Dear friends,
I once again begin sermon prep in confusion.
The story relates that this one Samaritan DID NOT follow Jesus' directions. Yet there are other instances in scripture where people were condemned for not following the directions.
Also, Jesus says the faith of the Samaritan made him well. What made the other’s well? I am not so sure there is different level of healing going on. I am a Greek idiot. Does it really imply that all received healing from the leprosy but this guy because of his action received salvation? It doesn't come through in the English if it does.
Grace and peace, Mike in Sunshine
Date: 10/4/2004
Time: 7:43:35 AM
i have ideas, but am unsure of where to begin...
there is much to say about the internal and external forms of healing that have taken place in the life of this Samaritan, and also the subsequent response...
i have had it on my mind to preach about physical, mental, and spiritual health at some point in time, and it seems to have come to a head with this text...
therefore, in some manner i will talk about these things in relation to the Samaritan whose wholistic healing has harangued my thoughts recently...
i also saw the tie in too tithing and think it is an admirable interpretation, but i would ask about the process of the pericope and what occurs as a result of the relationship between this leper and this Jesus fella...
niebuhrian in va
Date: 10/4/2004
Time: 8:01:46 AM
Dear friends,
In a previous post I wrote, "The story relates that this one Samaritan DID NOT follow Jesus' directions. Yet there are other instances in scripture where people were condemned for not following the directions."
Let me clarify. I have always assumed (you know what that does) that the Samaritan turned around BEFORE he reached his destination and examination. I don't know why I did that, just did. The text is really not clear on the matter. None of my commentaries are real clear. They assume he did get his examination.
I have not ever made a big deal out of this point but it is stuck in my head this go round. Can anyone shed light on this subject for me?
Grace and peace, Mike in Sunshine
Date: 10/4/2004
Time: 8:27:49 AM
A thought: The lepers ask for "mercy" and are "cleansed." Seems to me that the gift of cleansing is much more than the mercy that was requested. I like the poster who noted that Jesus knows (and I'd add that he MEETS) our needs.
For those lepers, accustomed to being ignored, any contact at all would have been merciful--even a short conversation. But Jesus gives healing--a return to fulness of health--and his grace-filled gift allows them to return to participation in society. Maybe this teaches us that grace is sometimes (often?) much bigger than mercy?
And maybe it's also true that the percentage of Christians alive today who recognize and actually prostrate themselves before the Lord in gratitude for God's grace is not much different from the 1 out of ten ratio shown here.
Good News: even though the other nine never seem to acknowledge the immense gift they've been given, God's gracious gift is not rescinded.
PB in PA
Date: 10/4/2004
Time: 8:30:54 AM
Thanks to JG in WI ... you seem to me to have hit the nail on the head. RE in NY
Date: 10/4/2004
Time: 8:32:57 AM
Thanks to JG in WI ... you seem to me to have hit the nail on the head. RE in NY
Date: 10/4/2004
Time: 8:34:24 AM
oops, sorry ... still figuring out how to work this set-up. RE in NY
Date: 10/4/2004
Time: 8:34:43 AM
oops, sorry ... still figuring out how to work this set-up. RE in NY
Date: 10/4/2004
Time: 9:02:17 AM
I think the point we are missing here is that Jesus did not minister to be thanked. He ministered because he was compelled by God to do so and he had a true heart for those in distress. If we are to follow in the Master's footsteps, are we not also to labor not for thanks but because we are compelled by God to do so and should seek to develop a heart for those in distress. GB in TX
Date: 10/4/2004
Time: 9:59:43 AM
Don't you just hate it when somebody thinks the world owes them something? That seems to be the attitude of the 9 lepers. I'm disadvantaged, you owe me __________. I won't take care of it, I won't make it work for my betterment, but you owe it to me anyway because I'm disadvantaged.
I've got a man like that in this church. He can't keep a job to save his life because he gives every excuse in the book why he can't show up for work on any given day. He had a terrific job a few years ago but he threw that away. Now he wants us to all keep our ears open for word of a good job with benefits for him. He won't go look himself, it's supposed to drop on his lap. Once he finds that job he'll be back at it, calling in sick, running late, or just not caring what the employer wants him to be doing.
We are often thankless for what we have. I don't properly appreciate my family, really. I don't properly appreciate my job. I don't properly appreciate my country. Or my faith. I can't be faulting these 9 lepers until I understand that I don't properly appreciate, in a life-changing way, what Jesus has already done for me. Until I start to live my life in thanksgiving, taking what God has already given me and making it glorify God, I have no room to talk about those 9.
KHC
Date: 10/4/2004
Time: 10:26:24 AM
Mike in Sunshine, a previous post partially answered your question. While the Samaritan was a "Jew" in the sense that he was a believer in the same God, the center of Samaritan worship was at Mt. Gerizim rather than Jerusalem (see Jesus' discussion with the Samaritan woman in John 4:19-26). The capital of the old northern kingdom of Israel had been Samaria. Since Jerusalem was the capital of the southern kingdom of Judah, it would have been politically and theologically advantageous for the kingdom of Israel to move the religious focus away from Jerusalem. A Samaritan wouldn't have gone to the priests at Jerusalem for inspection, he would have gone to his own priests. In his defense, the priests at Jerusalem probably wouldn't have inspected him as it might have placed them at risk of becoming "unclean." First century denominationalism. If the ten had been heading south toward Jerusalem when the healing occurred, the Samaritan would have had to turn around and go north to be inspected but he didn't have to seek out Jesus and show his gratitude. So, the beauty of the act of gratitude remains. Mike in Soddy Daisy
Date: 10/4/2004
Time: 10:43:47 AM
God can give us what we think we are asking for. We can get that dream job, or get healed of our eczema, or we can adopt that baby we fell in love with. But what we are really asking for is belief that all this is really a gift from God, something not to be relegated to the luck department or even the I worked hard to get it department, but the Grace of God department. We can't get that faith all full blossomed and complete from God, it must grow within us from the seed that is planted in our souls by God's mighty acts and unsurpassed grace.
Date: 10/4/2004
Time: 11:09:17 AM
Question for the experts" Would the Samaritan have to show himself to the priest? would he have been let in the place of Israelites? Pasotr Keg
Date: 10/4/2004
Time: 11:25:27 AM
"Kyrie, eleison," the church cries: "Lord, have mercy." In Jesus, God <i>does</i> have mercy--mercy upon lepers who are outcasts, mercy on apostles who are in chains.
Date: 10/4/2004
Time: 11:26:24 AM
I appreciate all the comments here. They got me thinking. I was concentrating on the one who returned. Perhaps this is a bit of an evangelism text. When we serve and heal the needy people of God, there will be those who return for more of the grace that they received. Not everyone we help will return to Christ for more. But there are some who will be so touched and changed by grace that they will not be able to help but return to the Jewish Rabbi; even the Samaritan.
I am also reminded by some of the points made by Steve Sjogren in his book, "Conspiracy of Kindness". Christian Service and Outreach tend to be evangelistic tools especially in a world that has all but tuned a deaf ear to other evangelistic efforts that the church has been known for in the past.
JDT in VA
Date: 10/4/2004
Time: 11:32:33 AM
Does any one know any detail on the cleansing ritual the 9 would have had. I'm not sure, but I think I read some where - but don't know where - that the cleansing ritual included a thanksgiving sacrifice. If that is true, then it would not be that the 9 did not give thanks. The point was that they didn't recognize Christ as the One to thank as the Son of God - as the One who healed them. While the Samaritan thanks the One who healed. That is the faith that Jesus refers to. So for us today, who do we have faith in & who do we thank for the healings we receive? Doctors or Christ? Who do we have faith in & who do we thank for the blessings - the gifts we receive? Ourselves or Christ? Who do we have faith in & who do we thank for our salvation? our idols - ourselves or the Son of God? Early thoughts on this passage. MZ in WV
Date: 10/4/2004
Time: 1:42:02 PM
I wonder if Jesus expected gratitude from any of them? Maybe he did, but since Samaritans and Jews didn't have two kind words to say to each other, Jesus may have figured they were going to grab the goods and run. He may have been shocked one actually came back.
We need to follow our Lord's example and show kindness even to those we don't expect any gratitude from. If they do show gratitude, tell them the kindness was done in the name of God. It's not about us, it's about us doing what Jesus would do.
This fits in with last week's text about the servant doing what is expected without looking for back pats.
Date: 10/4/2004
Time: 5:11:48 PM
I'm not one for too-closely-drawn allegories, but the conversation has got me to thinking of 2:
#1) The tithe - 10% return on the "investment" (for lack of a better word). It's fairly widely known that the best one can hope for in any overt investment in evangelistic events is about 10%. About 10% of every person you invite will come to whatever it is you're inviting them to. Encyclopedia salespeople have known this for years.
#2) I don't think Jesus ministered to be thanked ... and we can't hear the inflection in his voice, so we can't say for sure he was disappointed that only one returned. All received mercy, regardless. Only one was moved enough to say "thank you." Sounds like people today who receive mercy and almost never stop thanking God in any way they can ... they're about 10% of the people who are involved in church - they received the same mercy, healing, whatever ... but they're not demonstrative of their gratitude, if they remember their gratitude at all.
Of course, it raises its own caveat: if all we do our entire spiritual lives is thank God, remembering a moment that happened 40 years ago, then we're not growing.
It does, however, seem to hold true of the old rule of workers in the church - 10% of the people do 90% of the work (and of course, some are motivated by control issues rather than spiritual ones).
Still ... that gives me great pause for preaching; to preach it in this way accuses people for not being thankful rather than encouraging them to be thankful, or to reclaim their gratitude. And that's just plain old hard to do effectively. What can an ol' preacher say besides, "Gee, God's given you life; be thankful." It automatically sets up the "guity gratefulness" I was talking about.
Sally in GA
Date: 10/4/2004
Time: 5:14:55 PM
oh, my goodness; that post was confusing. Paragraph #2 should say that the REMAINDER of the people (90%) are not so demonstrative of their gratitude towards God. The 10% who are more demonstrative are also more likely to be identified as "faithful" or "devout."
does that help? (Hey, I'm cooking as I type - gimme a break!)
Sally
Date: 10/4/2004
Time: 5:23:01 PM
MZ in WV
Check Leviticus 14 on cleansing rituals.
KHC
I think you have hit on an important issue. We have these awful attitudes of entitlement. I share them with you, and would to God I had more of a heart of gratitude.
Thankfulness begins with a feeling of NON-entitlement. Whatever I receive as a benefit, I do not deserve. I am a uniquely blessed individual and I have no right to such blessings.
Like "ss in PA", we will also be taking up our annual world hunger offering this week. The thought that struck me is that although the nine did not turn to express thanks and praise to God, they were none the less healed. Often our actions toward the needy are unnoticed by those we help. While this may be discouraging for some, it ought not to be. We love, not to receive thanks, but because our Lord calls us to it.
An atheist (secular humanist) once said that if only we would feed the hungry people in our area, we'd have tons of new Christians within six months. I said, "I doubt that. I suspect they'd be wondering where the rest of it was." She had to laugh and agree.
"christine at the shore" wrote, "physical health does not always mean wellness" and she said a lot in those few words. (I do pray, Christine, that you are better by now.) Nine were healed of leprosy - one was made well.
Random thoughts.
JG in WI
Date: 10/4/2004
Time: 5:55:04 PM
jg in wi~
thanks, i am feeling better, i feel more like i have a head cold than anything else.
this text makes me think of the woman healed of her bleeding. (one of my favorites) in that story she tries to leave without being caught, but she's put in a position where she has to "come clean" with what she did (steal the power right out of jesus).
physical healing wasn't enough. she also needed the word from jesus that her faith had made her well.
this samaritan needed more than just the physical healing too.. he needed what can only come from giving thanks.
it is a profound story. jesus changed his life (the others too) but there is a real joy in saying thank you. as you said, thankfulness comes from a place of non-entitlement.
how many others did these lepers call to for mercy? jesus answered unexpectedly yes, here it is.
what a story... thank you luke for telling it and thank you jesus for living it.
God's peace, christine at the shore
Date: 10/4/2004
Time: 6:55:06 PM
Thank you, Frederick Neider, for your weekly thoughts! I always glean such theological depth from you. NC/DC
Date: 10/5/2004
Time: 6:10:30 AM
Okay, this thought is not fully developed, so this will be a little rough. If some can share insights, I'd be ... thankful.
Leprosy has the effect of destroying the sense of feeling in a person. A person with leprosy will grab a hot pan, carry it for a bit while oblivious to the damge being done, and set it down only to find layers of charred skin on the handle.
Pain killers can take away pain, but if used too much, can blind us to pain's warning system which keeps us from damaging ourselves.
Today, leprosy can be cured easily in its early stages with antibiotics.
Some, however, suffer from a spiritual/emotional leprosy. We fail to feel (this is particularly true in men) or fail to acknowledge that we feel. We don't tell people we love them. We fear weeping in public. Emotional leprosy keeps us from expressing joy, for just as we numb ourselves to pain, we also numb ourselves to elation.
A man with leprosy felt gratitude. Nine still felt nothing. Gratitude is a way to show we don't have spiritual leprosy.
Like I said - it's rough.
JG in WI
Date: 10/5/2004
Time: 6:26:18 AM
Beginning Tammy!!!...((sub.point:)) v. 14: Only a priest could certify that a person was truly healed and able to return to the community. --Jesus is saying: "Return to service!" ....Get back to work, deacon-ing or elder-ing.-- (The nominating comittee is hard at work in our church!!!... ) ...galveston teacher
Date: 10/5/2004
Time: 7:05:40 AM
SOmeone wrote: " But there are some who will be so touched and changed by grace that they will not be able to help but return to the Jewish Rabbi; even the Samaritan."
I think the point here is that it is ESPECIALLY the Samaritan, as is typical in the gospels,...all sorts of outsiders: foreigners, women, tax collectors...the probable point is simply that, that the faith, gratitude etc that OUGHT to be expected from the traditional Jewish congregation, came so often from unexpected sources!
Susanna in MO
Date: 10/5/2004
Time: 8:55:41 AM
Wasn't pretty much all disease considered a spiritual deficit in those days? Demon possession was a common diagnosis for what we now know is a physical or mental malady. So, would these people have believed they had been spiritually healed and the disappearance of the physical symptoms was a sign of their inner healing?
Somebody has already alluded to this thought, I'm sorry, I don't recall who it was.
Real life example that I've shared before. A man in this community was a church-goer, but pretty much in name only. His wife died, he hit bottom, began drinking to the point of destroying his life. He was reintroduced to Jesus by Pentecostal friends and he was "saved" in the Pentecostal sense of the word. He was full of the devil, he was told, and he chose to be released of that by accepting Jesus. He began to thank Jesus in every possible way for saving his earthly life and his spiritual life, a joy which continues to this day. His drinking disappeared, almost overnight, and he is now "healed" of the disease. (I know, there is only a recovering alcoholic, not a cured one, but he truly is an example of not being tempted to ever return to the stuff)
He is one who knew that his physical and spiritual healing were conjoined, and has not ceased to be thankful.
KHC
Date: 10/5/2004
Time: 9:07:01 AM
17:19 Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."
Now here is a strange saying of Jesus to the Samaritan. After all the other nine out of obedience, hearing the word, went and "showed themselves to the priests" and they were made clean.
Were not the other 9 healed?
So what do we make of Jesus' remark to the samaritan? It seems to me that this one leper saw something in Jesus that the other 9 did not, he recognized something more than sheer obedience to a command, here is experienced the Divine Glory, the light that shines in the darkness, here he reaches out to that light and offers his gratitude. Faith is obscure. It is unseen until expressed. God's presence in our lives is obscure. We experience his presence only when we trust and are able to recognize the love behind the command. Indeed, faith saved the samaritan for in him his heart leaped like a deer.
tom in ga
Date: 10/5/2004
Time: 9:38:36 AM
The main point of the passage was about gratefulness.
Why is it that only one of them coming back to thanks Jesus? Could it be because he was a Samaritan? It's funny that people coould not tell him apart when he were a leper, because he blended in well with other lepers. But now, after a healing, his foreign identity set him apart from others.
The other nine some how got assimilated so well into the culture, were welcome by family and friends, and went ahead to start a new life. This one man knew better; he knew that life is not that ready for him; he knew that the one who healed would also be the one who could offer him true life. In that gratefulness, unaccustomed by his cultured-assimilated friends, he found Jesus again, and he found the blessing and commission as well as affirmation from the Son of God.
Ten were healed, but only one found the healer; the one with a grateful heart.
Oh Lord, my God; we live in a society and culture which constantly seeking to better ourselves. We want our marriage to be mended, our health to be restored, our kids to be flourish, our wealth to be prospered. So we came to You and your church and seek for mercy. And what a merciful God you are, you gave us what we asked for. And we accepted the gifts, but seldom remember the Giver. We rushed off into the world with our new found health, wealth, and blessing, without even stop and being grateful.
Help me to be grounded in you and who you are and not just with what you have done.
Coho, Midway City.
(Still preaching off-lectionary this week)
Date: 10/5/2004
Time: 10:36:45 AM
tom in ga~
yes, exactly, jesus healed all 10 lepers. sometimes people we don't think are deserving of healing get healed.
jesus makes the choice (and always chooses what's best)
even if the other nine seemed ungrateful, we must believe that jesus felt it important to heal them as well.
the funny thing is, if this was a parable, the hearers would have been suprised that not only was the samaritan healed (along with those they believed deserving) but that he responded with gratitude.
if this was a parable you could imagine jesus asking the crowd: "which of the 10 was truely grateful?"
what was life realy like for samaritans? my guess is that samaritans were just as well off or not as jews. (remember in the parable of the good samaritan the samaritan had plentyof resources to care fo the man left for dead.)
what is significant is that samaritans and jews disliked one another and held major prejudices toward one another. it makes me wonder why this one samaritan was with a group of 9 jewish lepers. was he "passing" in order to be with them? did they know he was a samaritan? did they treat him differently because he was a samaritan and not a jew... even though their leprousy placed them on equal ground?
i read somewhere that even in concentration camps during the holocaust prisoners placed labels on each other and treated those of other ethnic groups with contempt even though they were all in the same horrible situation.
it makes me wonder... just how jesus changed this one man's situation. just what did jesus free him of by curing his disease?
i'd like to tell this story as my sermon... not just to "preach" on it, so i'm trying to get into their actual situation.
who were these 10 men?
God's peace, christine at the shore
Date: 10/5/2004
Time: 10:45:22 AM
Whole Food, Whole Life Insurance, Whole Systems, Whole Vitamins, Whole Family and Whole Wheat. Regardless of what we "look" like, it has nothing to do with what we are. Our looks and physical appearance might add confidence in certain arena's but under fire, it's what's on the inside that counts. I have been in homes that were neat as a pin, only to open the pantry door and have all hades break loose in catyclismic proportion. Everyting imaginable stuffed into the pantry to make the outside appearance more appealing. Christ is portraying the character of the Father, ask and you shall recieve, and sure enough, they all did. 10 cleaned up, but only one finished the job and cleaned out the pantry. Only one returned to become "Whole". Yes there are reasons not to be thankful, there are legal reasons the Samaritan probably didn't go to the Pharisee's, but don't overlook the basic instinct in every man to be thankful when gratitude is due. If someone saved my life, I could care, what color, race, religion or background he or she was...because for whatever reason, they stopped to help me. Not for gain, but just because. Forgo all the obvious reasons the 1 came back and the 9 didn't, and just assume the 1 knew it was the right thing to do. What is that worth? The gift of Wholeness. To be complete in life because Christ is in your pantry, and your house now in order. The parable is about being whole. Being complete, being everything God imagined you to be, and thankful... yes, but whole. It all comes around, dust to dust, ect. ect. Only in Christ can we complete the circle and come back to the Father. Rules or no rules, race or no race, men (and women) know what is right and what is wrong. Thanking God for healing is external, becoming whole because Christ has made you well is eternally internal. Now I count, because I have Jesus inside.
Paul
Date: 10/5/2004
Time: 11:25:48 AM
The conversation about thankfulness is instructive. When I surveyed the text several weeks ago that is what I remembered.
Today I caught a new emphasis: v. 14: Jesus tells the lepers to goshow themselves to the priests. Then: "And as they went they were made clean."
I wonder if that points to healing/cleansing/saving not so much as a single event, but a process. It sounds like the process of going was where the healing/cleansing occured. Our relationship with God in Christ is just that, a relationship. Relationships require movement. If we stay put and become satisfied, then we miss out on the process of healing. When we realize this then we can return thankfully.
World Communion Sunday we had a Swiss pastor/theologian as our guest. He shared the eucharistic prayer which contained a line about how God holds all people together. I can't recall the exact phrase, but he used the word "secular" to indicate that even those who refuse or ignore the invitation of grace are yet connected to it. Maybe not as would be described by the American context of "saved," yet in some mysterious way related to God. When we go as Jesus tells us then we find something new along the road.
Another thought: Did Jesus' question of v. 17: Where are the other nine? sound like something Columbo would say?
It's been a while since I contributed. I always appreciate the dialog.
Alvis is in the building
Date: 10/5/2004
Time: 11:26:43 AM
Picking up on Tom in Ga's thoughts -- The one who returned may have seen more in this one Jesus of Nazareth than in 1,000 priests, so opted to return to the One who truly had power over sin and disease.
KHC
Date: 10/5/2004
Time: 11:30:05 AM
Another thought. I wish we had follow ups on these people. I wonder if he remained thankful for the rest of his life, becoming a follower, or whether he quickly forgot once his life got back on track.
KHC
Date: 10/5/2004
Time: 11:51:50 AM
I don't know if this matters, but as I understood it, in Leviticus (13-14) it outlines the ritual of how to declare a person "unclean" and then the ritual for declaring a person "clean". But there is no ritual for healing itself. They had to rely on God's grace for that step. jw in tx
Date: 10/5/2004
Time: 11:56:01 AM
who says that these 10 were men only....
niebuhrian in va
Date: 10/5/2004
Time: 11:56:08 AM
who says that these 10 were men only....
niebuhrian in va
Date: 10/5/2004
Time: 12:06:42 PM
I love the point that healing and wellness are not always the same thing. Great thought.
Date: 10/5/2004
Time: 1:11:05 PM
I was woondering if we can make something of the parallel between this Samaritan and the perhaps better known "Good Samaritan". The latter showed 'love of neighbour'. This healed leper shows 'love of God' - the verse says that he turned back 'praising God with a loud voice'. And he fell at Jesus' feet recognising that God was in Jesus. So, putting the two together gives us love of God and love of neighbour, intertwined: "Go and do likewise / Go on your way; your faith has made you well" (So is 'faith' = 'love of God?). Not sure where this is going .......
P in L
Date: 10/5/2004
Time: 3:04:08 PM
P in L
I think the key thought in it being a Samaritan is the beauty of God's tremendous use of the "unlikely." It's always been one of my favorite themes since I'm about the unlikeliest person to ever be a pastor. In terms of formal education, I only have a high school diploma. I've done a lot of self-teaching, but that usually doesn't mean much to ordination councils.
I've often taught that God seems to revel in calling the unlikely. God makes a prince (Moses) into a shepherd, then into a leader of His people. He makes a shepherd (David) into a king. Jesus uses unschooled fishermen to deliver a message of theological significance. Saul of Tarsus, a full-blown racist, is called by God to be the apostle to the Gentiles! (I'll bet God is still chuckling over that choice.) Here, the one least likely to consider a Jew to be of any value, comes and worships the Messiah. God's marvelous use of the unlikely is seen throughout Scripture.
Frequently, I challenge the congregation that if they are unqualified to the task, they may just be God's choice. God's calling is by grace and grace alone.
JG in WI
Date: 10/5/2004
Time: 3:28:48 PM
I preached on this text in a seminary class. i called the sermon, "Faith is Physical." It seems to me that we as modern people are very comfortable with the healing with a word, but less comfortable with prostration as a vehicle for praise. My small congregation gathers for prayer on Sunday mornings in a park. One of the "elements" of our worship is the physical. We say we want to be "cruciform", so in the middle of prayer we stand, arms outstretched, and pray for the community we serve.
There are some who are uncomfortable with this practice. I am one of them. I value nice, smooth words that slide easily off my tongue, slip from my soul without a trace. This standing prayer, silent, harder and harder as time passes, leaves a mark not only on my soul, but in my flesh, as well.
Faith is physical.
Date: 10/5/2004
Time: 3:29:22 PM
I preached on this text in a seminary class. i called the sermon, "Faith is Physical." It seems to me that we as modern people are very comfortable with the healing with a word, but less comfortable with prostration as a vehicle for praise. My small congregation gathers for prayer on Sunday mornings in a park. One of the "elements" of our worship is the physical. We say we want to be "cruciform", so in the middle of prayer we stand, arms outstretched, and pray for the community we serve.
There are some who are uncomfortable with this practice. I am one of them. I value nice, smooth words that slide easily off my tongue, slip from my soul without a trace. This standing prayer, silent, harder and harder as time passes, leaves a mark not only on my soul, but in my flesh, as well.
Faith is physical.
Date: 10/5/2004
Time: 5:57:38 PM
We went over this passage this morning in my Pastors Spiritual Formation group. We do a group spiritual direction and lectio divina together. Besides the theme of gratitude was an interesting theme: the insiders and outsiders. Interesting that the lepers "Kept at a distance, but raised their voices to Jesus." How many people keep at a distance from the church, but still are hungry for Jesus and are crying out for him?
That the one who came back and prostrated himself before Jesus and gave thanks, was highlighted to the disciples, as a Samaritan. Again, Jesus elevating the surprise person as acting in holy ways, as opposed to the indsiders.
I also liked the part about Jesus telling the lepers to go show themselves to the priests, and that as they did as he asked of them, they were healed, and then the last statement to the leper who returned to give thanks, and Jesus said, " Get up and On your way. Your faith has made you well."
Susan in Wa.
Date: 10/5/2004
Time: 6:57:10 PM
Early alliteration.
1) The Problem of Distance - There are people who believe they are "unclean" and cannot approach the church nor people in it. They call out to Jesus from a distance. We need to approach the "unclean" and extend the hand to them. The advice to them; go to the priest.
2) The Peril of Disinterest - Some come to the church who see themselves as "clean," but who are not yet whole for they have not come to Jesus. They'll come to church, sure enough, but not to the Christ in worship. Even some of those who come to Christ in faith do not maintain the worship and gratitude this encounter calls for. One issue that has been raised in this forum time and again is people who see themselves as "saved" and not in need of anything. As a Southern Baptist myself, I see this all the time.
3) The Preciousness of Devotion - The beauty is seen when a person knows he has been unclean sees he has had an encounter with Christ and has been made clean. They see this cleanness is by grace, not by their own merit. We pray that more will see this and turn their hearts to devotion - a devotion which includes (as in point #1) extending the hand to others who see themselves as "unclean" and say, "I once was lost, but now am found."
JG in WI
Date: 10/6/2004
Time: 5:24:38 AM
Jesus seems to junk the 10% rule. He wants 100%! He wonders what happed to the other 9. He is interested as to what and where the 90% went.
God's cut is 100%.
Date: 10/6/2004
Time: 6:35:23 AM
KHC wrote: "Whatever I receive as a benefit, I do not deserve. I am a uniquely blessed individual and I have no right to such blessings. "
Considering I'll have to cough up $600 after my "benefits" paid for my Mohs surgery a month ago, I'm less inclined to feel so uniquely blessed. Of course, it's better than coughing up the $2,500 for the surgery (I haven't gotten the bill from the lab yet). Benefits ... entitlement ... Yeah, I feel entitled to have decent coverage - how does a preacher on minimum salary get their skin cancer or teeth taken care of without benefits?
Then there are the millions of working poor with no health benefits at all - and part of the great debate is whether they're entitled to such benefits.
I realized I stretched KHC's meaning, but this begins with a skin condition - and, having just had a skin condition taken care of (basal cell carcinoma - not the scary kind), and having just received the notice of the paltry coverage from my insurance carrier ... well ... I can't help but personalize it.
Sally
Date: 10/6/2004
Time: 6:38:39 AM
oh ... 1,000 apologies!!!
it wasn't KHC that said that, it was JG in WI responding to something KHC had said earlier.
oops
Sally
Date: 10/6/2004
Time: 6:46:50 AM
Coho writes, "The other nine some how got assimilated so well into the culture, were welcome by family and friends, and went ahead to start a new life. This one man knew better; he knew that life is not that ready for him; he knew that the one who healed would also be the one who could offer him true life. In that gratefulness, unaccustomed by his cultured-assimilated friends, he found Jesus again, and he found the blessing and commission as well as affirmation from the Son of God. "
Hmmm... not sure I agree with that. THe Scripture does not say this. It may be true ... it may not be, either. This is reading a bit too much into it.
I love your posts, Coho, and usually glean devotion from them. This time, however, I submit that you dove off the deep end.
Sally
Date: 10/6/2004
Time: 6:57:41 AM
Maybe this text is also reminding us - as alluded to in some previous posts - that God is found in places other than the temple. Jesus told them to go show themselves to the priests - but only the one acknowledged "God" outside of the temple.
God is in each one of us. And when we receive a word of mercy or forgiveness or grace from another, are we willing to recognize God's hand in it? And if not, why not?
And similarly, when we extend a word of grace or forgiveness to another - do we acknowledge God's hand in that as well? And if not, why not?
One of the reasons we love Mother Teresa is because she saw God in everyone - from the dying laying 'neath a heap of newspapers in a forgotten street to the pastors who came to learn from her but were told to look instead beneath a pile of newspapers. Seeing and acknowledging God in each other is sometimes one of the hardest things we are challenged to do as Christians.
Tigger in MN
Date: 10/6/2004
Time: 8:38:37 AM
Sally, apology accepted. It's not easy keeping track of who said what.
You work for the benefits you receive, paltry as they may be. They are not something you put out your hand and expected somebody to give you with no output of your own. Somebody 'owes' you these benefits according to your agreement with your denomination or with your insurance carrier. Somebody is paying the premiums so the carrier has to pay out the bills. It's a contract. Anyway, whatever amount you receive, my bet is you are thankful for it.
As to the poor receiving benefits, they don't "deserve" them, but we give them anyway out of compassion, just as Jesus healed these 10 lepers out of compassion, not out of a contractual obligation or payment for work done.
KHC
Date: 10/6/2004
Time: 9:28:09 AM
OK...woke up at three o'clock this morning with this thought (and God has placed in my mind/heart/fingertips--for typing, of course--a sermon from it): What about the other nine lepers? It seems that all ten received the gift of grace but only the single one gets to actually HEAR Jesus' proclamation of salvation from death (the Greek meaning of the word Jesus uses).
And isn't this true for many of us? How often do we receive God's grace, fail to acknowledge it, and in doing so, never get the opportunity to have it named as a gift of grace?
But even when we don't acknowledge it, God's grace comes to Christians! God's grace comes because of God's love, not because of the human act of praising God. And I don't know about anyone else, but I'm sure glad! I could NEVER offer enough praise for God's gifts--and I'd never gain eternal life if it was based on MY ability to praise!
PB in PA
Date: 10/6/2004
Time: 9:59:58 AM
Having faith is only half the story one must also have a grateful heart - the story of the ten lepers is a story of follow-through-faith. It is the kind of faith that leads to wholeness. It is a story of a genuine understanding of grace. The Samaritan understood what it meant to be a cast-off. Sometimes we may feel that God "Owes us One." but the Samaritan understood that the mercy that was shown came grace and grace alone.
Date: 10/6/2004
Time: 10:00:25 AM
Having faith is only half the story one must also have a grateful heart - the story of the ten lepers is a story of follow-through-faith. It is the kind of faith that leads to wholeness. It is a story of a genuine understanding of grace. The Samaritan understood what it meant to be a cast-off. Sometimes we may feel that God "Owes us One." but the Samaritan understood that the mercy that was shown came from grace and grace alone.
Date: 10/6/2004
Time: 10:12:44 AM
To the last anonymous poster, I agree wholeheartedly. I have always preached that we receive a free gift from God and it becomes our job to live our lives as a thankful response to that gift. It's not a drive-thru where you pull up, get what you want then drive off, only returning when you want something else. Too soon we forget the blessings we received yesterday or last year, yet go to Jesus to tell him we're ready for whatever else he's got for us that's good. We have enough already. We simply don't know how to be thankful for it beyond the words of thanks we mutter on occasion. It takes a whole lifetime of living our thanks after we have spoken it.
KHC
Date: 10/6/2004
Time: 12:14:59 PM
I' like to agree with our anonymous poster and KHC also. I've tried to do a bunch of reading on this passage and many suggest to think of it as two: vs11-14 nd 15-19. The ten lepers did just what Jesus told them to do (without any touching or specific words, but they did obey and do exactly what he asked). All were healed on the way. The second part of the story is then concerning the one who returned.
One of the things that has struck me (and my bible study-mates this morning) is that there is more to SEEING in this passage than meets the eye, so to speak. Sight is not always a physical thing, but often is perception (as in "I see, I get it"). Jesus SAW the ten who had leprosy. Then, in the second section, "the one, when he SAW that he was healed, turned back ..." Again, only vision? Or -- perception perhaps.
The one who returned SAW and praised God (by coming back to Jesus). Someone earlier mentioned the "home" for God being at the two different places. I think that this Samaritan SAW what others didn't. He SAW God working through Jesus, and came back to praise God by coming back to JC specifically. He did not go to either Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim, but sought Jesus, to praise and thank God for his healing.
By doing so, he was not only healed, but made whole, made well, saved (in the Gk) ... He actually SAW who JC was, the others did not (yet, at least within the parameters of the story ... but then again, that's all we have to work with isn't it?). All ten were healed, as they had asked of the Master, yet one received much more than that, for his ability to see and act in praise and grateful response for the gift that was given.
Meg in PA
Date: 10/6/2004
Time: 1:05:10 PM
Very insightful post, Meg. I think you see! There is a connection between gratitude and some sort of spiritual ability to see. My wife awakened me to the beauty of flowers and nature. I see things now that I did not notice before. The golf course I play regularly is full of beautiful vistas, set as it is at the base of a mountain. I have a habit now of watching the guys I bring to play the course, to see if they "get it." Many do not, passing glorious flower beds, mountain views, and deer sightings without nary a word. The other day I took a first timer, and upon getting ready for his first tee shot, he looked down the first fairway toward the mountain and said, "wow, what a beautiful course!" He could see! Maybe one out of ten is our usual ratio. Often we are like the nine - entitlement attitude, in a rut, spoiled, whatever, and we have no gratitude. We are like those "last day" folks (2 Timothy 3:2). But every once in a while, we act like the one. A spiritual spark enables us to really see, and we realize our health, our gifts, our calling, our worth, and our God.
triple bogey (a good description of my spirituality)
Date: 10/6/2004
Time: 1:47:52 PM
Thanks y'all. Is my healing skin deep? Or deeper? As a healed leper, I am given a new opportunity to widen my social connections, but will I also deepen my spiritual connections? Will I just head off away from the healer to live my life or will I hook up with the healer in such a way as to live life to the full? In addition to the changes physically and socially, how will I be changed by the healing grace of God in Christ? Will I even be able to really enjoy community apart from a vital growing connection with the divine? The miracles of grace go much deeper than skin deep. It is important for me to be open to those deep miracles within that transform the heart and can help transform society.
Evan
Date: 10/6/2004
Time: 3:14:52 PM
Who, among us, is the Samaratain? For even after he showed himself to the priests, he was still unacceptable to them. Whose story of healing and salvation does the church reject? Mary in CT
Date: 10/6/2004
Time: 3:15:29 PM
Could the 9 healed lepers have been seeking proof of their miracle before responding to it, while the 10th trusted the miracle had happened and went ahead with the thanksgiving even before it was verified?
Many times we want to weigh the value or veracity of our blessings before we go to the trouble to give thanks for them. Many times we want to see how things will work out, take tentative steps with this new life situation, before we get excited about it. Who knows, it might be a temporary or phantom blessing.... we just don't trust God enough sometimes, do we? And isn't that a big part of faith - trusting has done his saving work through Jesus?
I'm sorry for the many posts, but I'm thinking in tidbits this week. Usually I don't think at all!
KHC
Date: 10/6/2004
Time: 4:50:48 PM
I'm wondering if the 9 lepers were still in Jerusalem when Jesus got there. Apparently Leviticus commands that lepers show themselves to the priest, and if they appear healed, come back again in 7 days to be checked again before being certified "healed." Could they have still been there when Jesus entered in triumph, and maybe still been there when Jesus was tried and crucified? And did they even think to lift their voices to defend him from the crowd?
Not sure that that would be relevant to a sermon, but just wondering ....
Susan in AZ
Date: 10/6/2004
Time: 5:33:16 PM
Gratitude is a virtue every Christian should posses, acknowledging our dire need for God's gift of healing, we must be thankful to Him always and ever.
Date: 10/6/2004
Time: 7:48:38 PM
Mary in CT, I was thinking along the same lines of the Samaritan being unacceptable to the priest even after he was healed of his 'leprocy'. It seems when he came back Jesus then had the opportunity to tell him and show those who might have been looking on that His love was wide enough to include those who the systems left out. If he had gone to the priest he would have still been outside thier interest or concern but by coming back to Jesus he is held within a community. A community of outcast-- granted but a community none the less. Afterall, Jesus was an outcast (in Samaria because he was Jewish, and among some of his own people as he traveled and then first by the authorities and then by others in Jerusalem) and he traveled with a buncho f outcasts. I don't why that keeps coming back to me but it seems related. Also I want to relate it to the Jeremiah text. In that text it seems like Jeremiah is going against what the Jews and then the Jews in exile had always believed, that it was in being set apart (the whole reason for the food laws etc) was the best way to be holy but Jeremiah seems to be saying, Be holy by living among the people rather than set apart. Their set apartness had been the way they lived the faithful life but their set apartness was chosen, not put upon them. Like Jesus, Jeremiah is trying to teach them something new about living in community. I can't quite put the idea together in my mind, not yet anyway. Avis in MA
Date: 10/6/2004
Time: 9:26:38 PM
tonight i am struck by what happens first: lepers calling out from a distance for mercy. (wasn't this was the rich man was doing a few weeks ago from hell?)
mercy from a distance, and then Jesus closes that distance so easily, with only a few words; a command to go. they probably had lots of people telling them to go, go away that is.
lepers were required by law to keep a certain distance and were supposed to yell constantly: unclean, unclean, unclean as a warning that no one get near them.
but instead of calling out "unclean" they called out "mercy."
sometimes my soul will call out "unclean, unclean, unclean" to those who pass by. it's a clear signal that i feel less than, undeserving, untouchable; when what i really want is someone to show me mercy.
who is this man, jesus, who changes our cries of unclean, to cries of mercy, to humble thanks?
may i always be the tenth leper.
may we all be that tenth leper.
God's peace, christine at the shore
Date: 10/6/2004
Time: 10:36:31 PM
Hello, I'm new. I liked what Meg in Pa wrote. I think of the Centurion at the cross "seeing" Jesus as Lord and praising him. I think of Luke and themes of reversal with the tenth leper. I wonder if the tenth would have traveled with the nine? I wonder if Jesus sent them to Jerusalem or to the "Preists"? The Samaratin's preist would not have been in Jerusalem. Luke's reversal has the Samaritan's eyes being opened to Jesus as Savior. How easier is it to those outside the realm of Church to recognize the miraculous work of God? How hard is it for the Churched to do the same? Thanks for all of your posts Wayne in MS
Date: 10/6/2004
Time: 11:05:34 PM
I need a break from sermon preparation so I am taking the easy way this week and using a short story titled "Where are the Nine?" by Martin Bell in his book "The Way of the Wolf" an oldy but goody. any one else suggest this so far? Besides I have returned to graduate school and am in up to my eyeballs in reading.
Whoever gave the Martin Luther quote thanks it is good however a lot is attributed to ML do you have its source?
OMG
Date: 10/7/2004
Time: 3:28:30 AM
I really need to get on this sight more often but live is insane.
I like the idea of focusing on gratitude vs. entitlement. AS I am preaching to a wounded congregation I am reminded of a project we did at a youth ministry trainning I attened some years ago.(like 20) It is called project 25 and you select someone and write on the the top of a page "I like you because" and then you list 25 things you like about them and then you give it to them. It can be huge things or small things. I think I might just ask the congregation to do a similar project in church.
"I am grateful to God for this Congregation because" and list 25 things. It will help them remember all God has already done and not just the hurt they feel today. I may even challenge them to write such a project to the pastor who left abruptly. What a healing thing...hmmmm
Just a thought Tammy in Texas
Date: 10/7/2004
Time: 5:31:29 AM
KHC is thinking in tidbits this week ...
Welcome to my world!
Sally, living in the world of the short attention span theater.
Date: 10/7/2004
Time: 6:02:32 AM
christine at the shore--
Thank you, that was lovely. I may use your words as a benediction. "May we always be the tenth leper." Amen.
Peace,
Beth in Ga
Date: 10/7/2004
Time: 6:35:27 AM
My mom is a retired elementary school teacher (not retired very long). She did a regular Thanksgiving exercise with her students: they had to write five things for which they were thankful. Toward the end of her career, she said, children had a hard time thinking of five things for which they were grateful. She was appalled, and so am I. What are we teaching our kids? That they are entitled to everything?
A propos, a sense of entitlement is also one of the key personality indicators in bullying.
LF (who also thinks in short analogical snippets, and is easily distracted... hey, nice shoes!)
Date: 10/7/2004
Time: 7:32:38 AM
Wow! If you want to read about exile (Jer.), and leprosy (gospel), and cause for praise(Psalms), do what I just did...type kaluapapa into your search engine and read about the exile of sick Hawaiians (How do you spell that word?) and the life of those who have various skin diseases. I did so after reading a post on the Psalms thread. lkinhc
Date: 10/7/2004
Time: 7:34:21 AM
i love this site and all of you. so glad i have made coming here a daily exercise.
every once in awhile i take a break during the sermon and ask the congregation to break up into groups of 2-3 and share one way in which God has been active in their lives over the last week or month.
this week, i think i'm going to tell the story of the tenth and then have them do a similar exercise, but ask them to share one thing for which they are grateful to God or for the church.
in the process of dealing with stewardship and pledges it's hard to really imagine how long this church will continue to be viable if some changes don't take place.
this is also the time of the year when you start to find out who is really unhappy with things. and, i'm about to interview at another place which really complicates my emotions.
so, i am grateful for this community. thank you for the work that you all do and for your cyber-friendship; it is a healing presense in my life.
and omg... very proud of you! may God bless you in your learning!!!
God's peace, christine at the shore
Date: 10/7/2004
Time: 8:05:07 AM
Interesting tension between verses 7-10 and the grateful leper story. We shouldn’t expect to be thanked for our service (we are mere servants) but we are truly healed/saved when we are able to be the ones giving praise to God. Sermon focus for me will be the Decolores song story pronounced *day cuh-lor'-ess*) is a greeting meaning “the colors!”
Here's one story about the origin of the song: There was a group of cursillistas (those who've just attended a Cursillo weekend) in Spain riding home on a bus, singing and rejoicing, when the weather turned....a frightening storm with lightning and thunder had them huddling together in the bus on the side of the road, and even halted their singing. But when the storm was over, the clouds parted and the sun peeked through. As the tension lessened, one cursillista looked out the window at the farm they had parked in front of; and there saw a rooster, resplendent in color in the sparkling aftermath of the storm.
My personal memory of a similar event was in 1980 as we went outside to hose off the flower garden from several inches of Mount Saint Helens ash and seeing the world change from black and white into glorious color.
(My mind just jumped to the movie Pleasantville but I am not sure having sex to bring people into color is an easy image to work with.)
Steve in WY
Date: 10/7/2004
Time: 9:11:28 AM
The Emmaus Community, which is big here, uses the de Colores and rooster, both in rainbow colors, as their logos. I never knew the story before. Thanks.
Date: 10/7/2004
Time: 9:40:26 AM
Christine,
Thanks for the stroke, maybe it will take up too much time and I wont be able to OCD on the discussion board between politics and urban legend stunts! Notice I haven't even touched the two miscreants that continue their seething posts on how dumb we all are for not sitting at their feet and licking their heels! ugh! Don't even want to go there. Anyway, hope I can follow this through (school) so that I have some options before retirement!
OMG
Date: 10/7/2004
Time: 9:56:36 AM
Studying Luke 17, we learn from the Greek, that there are 5 sections ... the third being the story of the ten lepers. Reading the others, we obtain a definite flow of thought. God inserting the story of the lepers which stands out like a sore thrumb.
Briefly, the literal English (Marshall) ...
vs 11 And it came to pass as (he) went to go to Jerusalem and he passed through the MIDST of Samaria and Galilee,
One cannot pass through the midst of two lands at the same time. But, God, being omnipresent can. We must note that the disciples are not mentioned in this passage. They cannot pass through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.
In all Scripture, when God writes, the most important is always listed first. Jesus and his disciples. Peter, James and John. Judea and Samaria (Acts 1:8 and 8:1), Galilee and Samaria (Acts 9:31), Phoenicia and Samaria (Acts 15:3). Read the four lists of disciples and then read John 21:2, Here, God placed Samaria ahead of Galilee. The focus is on Samaria.
verse 12 and as he entered him into a CERTAIN village met [him] ten leprous men, who stood AFAR OFF.
A study of the word "CERTAIN" will convince us that this word must never be deleted from the test. (Rev 22:18-19)
AFAR OFF. There are three Greek words for this phase. One is a physical distance. The second one is a time distance. And the third one is a positional distance. The same Greek word is used in Heb 11:13 where this concept is well defined. God used it only two times. Porrothen. (The Concordance reflect what the translators have written.)
Verse 14. ... show yourselves to the priests.
The Jew can only see the priest on duty at the temple. If these ten men were Jews, Jesus would have commanded them to see THE priest. Singular. Compare with the same command for a identical command found in Mt 8:4, Mk 1:44 and Lk 5:14. All Jews. But, these were Samaritans. Jesus said so!
Would Jesus send a Samaritan to see a rabbi? Of course not ... that would be out of character.
The Gentiles, as we all know, have a plethora of preachers of all types. Priests.
Verse 13. ... and they LIFTED UP their voices ... It is unfortunate the translators do not stay with the Greek. There are many instances of the phase "lifted up". But the Greek word here, when used, always refers to a lifting up to God ... not lifting up things. In this parable, these Gentiles were appealing to God.
Verse 15. ... he was healed. Remember this. At this point the lepers were "healed". Jesus does not need a second chance to do the healing.
VERSE 19. The Greek SESOKEN, whenever enclosed in the phase, " ... the faith of thee has SESOKEN thee.", the person has been saved ... not healed, or made whole, or made well. SAVED!
Bill Stoddard Email: habist@olypen.com
Date: 10/7/2004
Time: 10:47:26 AM
Tammy in Texas, You said, "I have learned this through our experience. It is much easier to face life with a thankful heart!!!!!"
The grace, strength, and faith you possess and freely share continually inspire me. Thank you! It's great to be hearing from you again.
My prayers are with you.
Peace, Mike in SK
Date: 10/7/2004
Time: 11:20:45 AM
Can anyone find anyone else in the scriptures that Jesus healed that actually came back and thanked him? I can't. What would be the significance of this 10th leper if he's the only one in the Gospels that THANKS Jesus for their healing? Just a thought. PM in PA
Date: 10/7/2004
Time: 11:43:15 AM
A little thought connected to last weeks passage- Last week Jesus said that the slave should not expect thanks... this week, he expects thanks! Why the contrast?
I like the idea of the broken rules in this passage- the leper turns back instead of doing what Jesus said... also, since the leper is not 'officially' clean without the priests blessing, Jesus too becomes technically unclean because of the encounter with the one leper. The Samaritan should not be talking to Jesus... hear those rules shatter! All so God can be praised.
Finally, I like the contrast of the lepers keeping their distance and then the one coming close. Yes, the other 9 did get what they 'wanted' from Jesus but, if they had allowed themselves to come closer, how much more they could have had. God gives everyone life but only those who draw close know the new life.
TB in MN
Date: 10/7/2004
Time: 11:52:43 AM
In regards to healing... I thought this was good:
The Seventh Friend
A lady named Linda Mae Richardson, writing for The Victory in the Valley, a non-profit corporation dedicated to helping cancer sufferers, wrote the following statement, titled, the Seventh Friend.
Upon her initial diagnoses of cancer she wrote:
My first friend came and expressed shock by saying, "I can't believe that you have cancer; I always thought that you were active and healthy." He left and I felt alienated and somehow very different.
My second friend came and brought me information about treatments used for cancer and said, "Whatever you do, don't take chemotherapy. It's a poison." He left and I felt scared and confused.
My third friend came and tried to answer my "whys?" with the statement, "Perhaps God is disciplining you for some sin in your life." He left and I felt guilty.
My fourth friend came and told me, "If your faith is great enough, God will heal you." He left and I felt guilty.
My fifth friend came and told me to remember, "All things work together for good." He left and I felt angry.
My sixth friend never came at all. I felt sad and alone.
My seventh friend came and held my hand and said, "I care. I'm here. I want to help you through this." He left and I felt loved.
Rev NB
Date: 10/7/2004
Time: 12:03:48 PM
To everyone, I am a brand spankin new pastor in a sweet little tiny church in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and I have to tell you...I worried about being a pastor, and losing the opportunity to be the learner. I worried about not being able to be preached to. I find such inspiration here, among you all. Christine, you are a woman truly ordained by God... thank you for your passionate, clear, thoughtful faith. Your message that ended "may I always be the tenth leper" brought tears to my eyes! :)
Dawn
Date: 10/7/2004
Time: 12:06:51 PM
The lepers were mandated to stay away because of tehir skin disease. Why do we keep our distance? Phyllis from Nanticoke
Date: 10/7/2004
Time: 12:12:40 PM
To Mike in Sunshine:
I notice that nobody has responded to your question from early in the week.
"The story relates that this one Samaritan DID NOT follow Jesus' directions. Yet there are other instances in scripture where people were condemned for not following the directions."
The important thing here, I believe, is that no one ever was condemned for thankfulness and praise. And the Samaritan did not actually disobey Jesus anyway: while it is doubtful that this Samaritan ever went to the priests (which has been discussed on this list already), he did set out to go, knowing probably the futility of such an action. The reason we know he did at least start on the way to the priests is that the scripture says "and on the way, they were healed." Thus the Samaritan did, in fact, step out in faith. However, there are plenty of other instances in the Gospels where people disobeyed Jesus' command to keep their mouths shut about healings and whatnot...but not one of them was condemned because, again, no one ever, EVER is condemned for giving thanks and praise.
So, along these lines, I have some scattered thoughts...we know that the ten were healed before the Samaritan came back to give thanks. So, when Jesus says "your faith has made you well" he clearly means something other than physical healing. I read earlier posts about faith and thanksgiving being two parts of our relationship with God...but I'm wondering if faith IS the act of giving thanks and praise? Thinking thinking....
Dawn in the mountains ;)
Date: 10/7/2004
Time: 12:26:39 PM
The story of the ten with leprocy is not really about feeling gratitude - but expressing it.
Its not just about praising God, but who we need to thank.
Its not just about healing, but how the faith of foreigners (like us) put in the Jewish Messiah makes us whole.
Pastor Duke+ Church of the Resurrection, Toronto www.theRez.on.ca
Date: 10/7/2004
Time: 1:16:04 PM
I like to look at this text with the thought of an "attitude of gratitude". It preaches well during this season of stewardship for many and it allows us to move away from money to stewardship. I like the thought of the one who returned being made whole through his faith and his faith allowed him to return to Jesus because he was garteful enough to say thank you. Ah those magic words we learned as children.
I hope y'all do well in your thinking, writing and speaking this week. God has given us much. Let us give at least a little thanks in return.
Blessings,
RevJHC
Date: 10/7/2004
Time: 1:18:42 PM
Hey Duke, Rev JHC here. your Truro, guitar playing, seminary buddy now back in VA.
Jim
Date: 10/7/2004
Time: 1:31:56 PM
For some reason, I am getting a strange thought. I don't believe we are called to be the tenth person with leprosy who was healed. We need to go beyond that. We are to follow Jesus and extend grace even to those who are not thankful. Naturally, being the "tenth" is a step in that direction, but it is not the end - it is the way to the end. The end is to be conformed to the image of God's Son. (Romans 8:29)
JG in WI
Date: 10/7/2004
Time: 2:06:09 PM
Dawn in the mountains,
After a few years in my first church, I still feel like a newbie. We are all with you there. Never let anyone take away from you the potential of being a learner. You will be amazed at how much you will learn from the people you serve, sometimes you will wonder who is the teacher. You will also never stop being preached to because the sermons that will touch your people the most will also touch you. Sometimes it feels more like God is preaching to me and I'm just sharing what I'm learning with everyone else. Just a prayer from a preacher of a little church on a Georgia mountain that God will bless you and your little church in the mountains. Mike in Soddy Daisy, TN
Date: 10/7/2004
Time: 2:47:36 PM
Oh my lord, Mike in Soddy Daisy, is that ever the truth! Preach it, brother! :)
Dawn in the Mountains
Date: 10/7/2004
Time: 4:47:33 PM
PM in Pa (10/7/204 11:20:45)asks if any of those who benefited from the 40 miracles Jesus performed thanked Him.
To be sure, most all did. But, it was not God's purpose to show it in print.
However, there are two passages in which the recipients expressed the thoughts of being thankful.
In Mt 14:25-33, where Jesus walks on the water to the desperate disciples and caused the wind to cease: vs. 33 "Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, 'Truly You are the Son of God". Worship is thanks and praise.
Again in Mt 15:29-31, where Jesus went up the mountain and great multitude followed. Jesus healed "the lame, blind, mute, maimed and many others". Seeing these miracles, "... they glorified the God of Israel".
God's purpose in these verses is to show a contrast with the parallel verses in Mark. They are similar, but contains differences. The scholars call it the synoptic problem.
Since God wrote it, there is no problem. There is an answer and He wants you to find it for yourself.
There is one miracle where the recipients openly defied the command of Jesus not to tell anyone. Mt 9:27-31. The first pair of blind men to be healed. Why, we must ask God, did you write this? The purpose is to show a contrast of these two blind men in Mt 9 with the two blind men in Mt 20:29-33 where Jesus healed while leaving Jericho. What did they do upon being healed? "... and they followed Him.
(God writes pairs to show contrast, similarities or to hoist a flag.)
Here God was showing differences in believers. Go back to Mt 9. Jesus pointedly asked if they BELIEVED He could heal them. They said "Yes, Lord". (Know the different between KURIOS [Lord] and THEOS [God]. The first is superior in authority and the latter is supeior in deity. That is why Thomas exclaimed, "My Lord AND my God!) These men did not know Jesus as God. They got what they wanted and took off.
We mentioned that Jesus performed 40 miracles. Of course. 40. One well known study bible lists 37 miracles. Three short.
The scholars claim all the three blind healing in Jericho was the same. Wrong. The first two, were a contrast of believers, the latter followed Jesus.
The other two miracles are: (1) Mark 10:46-52, where Bartimaeus was healed and "FOLLOWED HIM ON THE ROAD. (2) Luke 18:35-43, where "a certain blind man" "AND FOLLOWED HIM, GLORIFYING GOD."
God has a purpose for every word He wrote ... for else why did He write Rev 22:18-19?
Habist of Sequim
Date: 10/7/2004
Time: 4:57:03 PM
dawn in the mountains~ welcome! glad you are here.
and all~ been a hard week, waking up sick sunday morning, long and difficult council meeting last night after an equally long and difficult day.
there is something about saying thank you that makes things right. i don't know how else to say it. it's like the final part of the healing process... to say thank you to the ones who were there, who held your hand, drove you to the doctor, said the kind word, made a cassarole, sent a card, etc.
sin, sickness, etc takes away our power, being thankful gives power back to us because there is power in being able to give to others.
we are not poor if we can give, we are healed when we can give thanks...
any of this make sense?
God's peace, christine at the shore
Date: 10/7/2004
Time: 7:27:46 PM
Dawn in the mountains -
I am also pastoring my first church and it's a church I was a member of before being a pastor. I was ordained "out of the pew" so to speak. I can relate to the feelings of "newness" you have even after seven years.
Dawn wrote - "So, along these lines, I have some scattered thoughts...we know that the ten were healed before the Samaritan came back to give thanks. So, when Jesus says "your faith has made you well" he clearly means something other than physical healing." The word in v. 19 is "sozo" which is the same word used to call someone "saved." Indeed, a spiritual event happened here beyond all physical manifestation. Amen.
JG in WI
Date: 10/7/2004
Time: 7:31:20 PM
Thank you all for your comments. I a lay speaker for this Sunday and plan to use this 10 lepers for the text. Our family is dealing with a difficult parent situation and this passage is testing my gratitude attitude. Your thoughts have provided a lot of guidance and encouragement for me.
dh in ks
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 7:23:51 AM
*light bulb moment*
The 9 followed directions - showed themselves to the priests because they were still stuck in the "Law" of the time. They saw Jesus as an agent of the Law, perhaps. Still thinking in terms of what they know, and fitting the "new into the old," - the new wine in old wineskins phenomenon. I don't know that they were just out to get what they wanted from Jesus ... they probably didn't grasp that Jesus was offering something new altogether.
the Samaritan, whom the priests would have held in disdain, likely didn't bother - he got something better. Whether he recognized Jesus as the son of God, is dubious - not in the scripture - but, he saw that he was healed and knew it was from God and was thankful enough to fully bow before Jesus. He might not have known *intellectually* that Jesus was the Son of God, but something touched him spiritually.
Sally in GA
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 7:27:41 AM
Something occurs to me as I read the Gospel lesson from Luke. Are we sure that the other 9 lepers were non-Samaritan and that only this one man was Samaritan? The reason I ponder this is that these 10 lepers seemed to be "hanging out" together, despite their possible ethnic, cultural or religious diversity. It makes me reflect that mutual "poverty" or misfortune or any sort of mutuality of situation transcends the above differences and draws unlikely people together. If the 10 had all been whole, would they have banded together? What was the "leveler" that created community? How does that apply to us and how can our understanding of that create spontaneous gratitude toward God?
Episcopal Pat
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 7:47:43 AM
episcopal pat~
i've been wondering the same thing. what brought these 10 men together?
God's peace, christine at the shore
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 7:58:14 AM
This text can also be used on the theme of illuminaton or enllightenment. Jesus "saw" the ten men who were lepers. The one who returned "saw" what had happened and returned. It is the same word in the Greek text. Obviously, seeing involves more than just physical sight in this development.
Bill
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 8:53:29 AM
I'm remembering a day when it was rainy and cold and I was disgruntled about many things. I had to go to the store, which disgruntled me further. As I parked the car and went into the store, I passed by a homeless man who was begging. Of course I'm never sure what to do about such people -- will they use my money to buy drugs, etc. -- so I passed him by and went into the store. When I came out he was still there. I walked by him again, then turned and came back. I asked him if he would like my umbrella. His face lit up, he asked if I was sure, I said of course, I have another umbrella in the car, and he took the umbrella. As I turned to go, he said wait, and he put his hand on my shoulders and gave me a wonderful blessing. As I turned to go, I was no longer disgruntled -- I was remembering my warm apartment, and my beautiful children, and the dinner I was cooking for that night. I realized that I had thought the homeless man was the one who needed to be healed. Instead, it was he who had healed me, of ingratitude. I was now blessed and grateful, and the world was right again.
All good things come from God -- and we are healed when we can accept them as the gifts they are.
Susan in AZ
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 9:15:26 AM
"Was none of them FOUND to return?"
If the lepers were hanging together in a clump before their healing, they may have been doing so because they could only find fellowship and acceptance from fellow lepers - sort of a misery-loves-company mini leper colony, easily recognizable on the street. But after their healing, they would have to be "found". Would that be because they would have broken their ranks, gone their separate ways, because there was no more shared misery? The 9 not only never returned to Jesus who saved them, but they also no longer had any use for each other, their erstwhile fellow sufferers, who had been their only support team.
It's just a thought, because I see that around me a lot. People come to get their personal crisis needs answered, people who understand befriend them and help them through it all, but once the crisis is past, they're gone like a shot. They no longer need the friendship offered here, and forget where they got their spiritual, emotional and sometimes monetary support.
Or is the term "found" more in line with the term "saved"? You know, the old I Found Jesus campaign from the 1970's.
Still figuring out where to take this text.
KHC
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 9:45:17 AM
Hey Dawn! Welcome to DPS! A classmate of mine from seminary started and runs this board. Great to see your name! Andy in San Anselmo
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 12:19:46 PM
Andy, no WAY! Really? I went to seminary at SFTS right there in San Anselmo! Whoa...small world :).
Thought I'd share something with you all that seems to relate to this text for me. There I was the other day, enjoying a glorious day off, watching a movie I hadn't seen in a very long time -- Pulp Fiction. Hardly, one would think, spiritually uplifting, and yet in it I heard one of the best sermons I ever heard. For those of you unfamiliar with the film, there is an event that happens early in the movie that one character calls a miracle and the other calls coincidence. The one who calls it a miracle turns his life around and focuses on God, much to his partner's irritation. As they talk about the incident one day, the believer says (in essence, I'm paraphrasing) "You're missing the point my friend. The point is not the event and whether it was coincidence or not. The point is, I felt the presence of God in it and THAT is what makes it a miracle."
I am feeling a connection between this text and that little unexpected sermon. The 10 were healed and that was great...the thankful one recognized the presence of God and THAT was the miracle in it. Thinking of Jesus' other healings along these same lines....hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....
Dawn in the Mountains :)
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 12:22:48 PM
Susan in AZ
That story is wonderful, and it speaks to us of the whole purpose of miracles.
Philip Yancey, in his book _The_Jesus_I_Never_Knew_ (I don't have my copy here so I can't directly quote it) says that the key reason Jesus did miracles at all is because He wanted to show how things were "supposed to be."
At the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus sighed deeply. Yancey speculates that at least one emotion that went into that sigh is, "This is not what I had in mind when I created."
The healing of a leper is not so much the restoration of a man to health, but a restoration of creation to the way Jesus intended.
In the same vein, by giving the umbrella, you restored, in some small way, the way things were intended. Jesus never intended for this man to be homeless but something went wrong in his life (not blaming anyone - sometimes things happen) and things are not as they're supposed to be. A man ought not to be sitting homeless in the rain.
As a fellow citizen of the Kingdom, I want to thank you for helping to bring things just a bit closer to the way they're supposed to be.
JG in WI
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 12:55:18 PM
Jesus was not speaking to the Samaritan when he said, "Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Jesus was speaking to his disciples. Only then does he turn his attention to the healed Samaritan.
I believe Jesus is not so much complaining that the other nine have not returned to give thanks, instead, he is saying that some people will receive the gifts and never thank you, a disciple, for being an instrument of that gift. After all, as disciples, the healing, the word of grace that we offer is only our duty. If one says thanks, that is a blessing to us. If nine do not, they may still be blessing others and thanking God for the healing grace.
Michelle
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 12:58:06 PM
KHC and others have wondered what brought the lepers together in the first place.
That might be a good pondering point to wander into the "meat" of the sermon. What brings any of us together?
My hunch is the mini leper colony, where their outcast-ness (how's that for a made-up word) is what brought them together. They don't have to worry about infecting each other - they're as "unclean" as you can get. No one's mentioned it outright, but I'm sure i'm not hte only one who sees the allegory to the current AIDS crisis.
Like anything else, though, subgroups develop. I consider the homeless men my husband worked with. You'd think they'd try to work together for a more common good - isn't that the stereotype of the bums hanging around the fire? Truth is, they become as delineated as anyone else -- perhaps more so.
Consider a man trying on a donated woman's coat one cold day. He was sooo pleased to get it!!! Other guys had turned it down. The difference: the one who took the coat gladly was newly homeless. The old-timers are back to preserving what dignity they have in their circumstances. There was a sub-societal grouping - the old-timers made disdainful remarks under their breath about this guy being a "new guy."
Likewise, wouldn't the lepers preserve whatever dignity they had - within their own society? Now that they're healed, is there any reason to hang together?
Where did they go? Back to the people who shunned them before? Maybe. Maybe not.
it's not a clear, clear point, but I think it's worth musing about.
And thank you for the "pulp Fiction" story. I've never seen the movie, but the story works!
Sally in GA
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 1:01:53 PM
and on a personal note ...
Dawn - welcome to the forum! I've really enjoyed your thoughts.
Tammy in TX - glad you're still around, girlfriend. God bless you.
Sally
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 1:19:47 PM
With regard to some of Jesus' other healings and the "your faith has made you well" thing...I'm thinking in particular of the healing of the woman who touched Jesus' garment and was healed of 12 years of hemmorage. There is a similar situation there: the woman is healed physically, and then Jesus insists that she come forward and announce herself healed. At that moment, he says "your faith has made you well." Pondering...but I am hearing a strong connection between thankfulness (? at least, recognizing where the healing came from?) and faith making one well. I don't have a greek concordance (nor would it be any use to me, since I promptly forgot all of my greek the moment i passed the final exam), but does anyone know whether the greek word meaning "saved" occur always in this phrase "your faith has made you well?"
Dawn
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 1:22:25 PM
Thank you all for your words of welcome :).
dawn
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 1:42:34 PM
Great story, Susan in AZ. So often these little events preach more than our words ever can.
My own story isn't as uplifting as Susan's (which brought tears to my eyes, it really did), but it makes me smile every time I think about it. I was a disinterested student in my early years of school. My 5th Grade teacher turned me around. I never saw her again after I left elementary school. One day, visiting my hometown as a Seminary graduate working as a Pastor, I decided to go find her. She was still in the school system so I was able to locate her and go visit. She remembered me! I told her what a huge difference she had made in my life by her persistence and encouragement, and that I could never really thank her enough. It took 17 years, but the impact of that encounter was tremendous on both of us. Saying thank you is a gift that runs both ways. And it's never too late. By the way, within 2 years she retired and moved somewhere where I would never have found her, so maybe 2 more years WOULD have been too late.
KHC
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 1:47:08 PM
Last week we were told not to expect thanks for the work we do. This week we are told to give thanks abundantly to others for the work they do. If everyone offered appreciation without anybody expecting it, it would be a brighter world.
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 1:53:49 PM
JG in WI
Thank you for your kind words. Actually, the miracle in it for me was that it restored me to where Jesus meant me to be in the kingdom -- in the kingdom of grace and gratitude. I was healed of ingratitude by the homeless man's blessing, just as much as the umbrella may have healed him of getting wet in the rain -- probably more. (What's the price of a good sermon anecdote -- priceless!)
I am trying to figure out how to preach this gospel to my wealthy, but stingy, congregation. It's stewardship time, and many of them are convinced that a tithe means $5 in the plate whenever you happen to be in church. And don't even try to talk to them about helping the poor! They'll explain that the poor don't deserve it. How can God heal them of this kind of ingratitude?
Susan in AZ
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 2:00:16 PM
Special to TBOD
As I posted on the discussions board about PTSS you may email me at OTommS@aol.com
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 2:52:10 PM
I want to let you all know that I have truly enjoyed reading each of your ideas. I hope that it is OK if I use many of your Ideas in my sermon this coming Sunday. I have taken some of your ideas and words and put them into a sermon titled "The Cured Nine" and will talk about the tenth one being healed not cured only. Thanks for all your wonderful ideas and thoughts.
Peace and Love to You,
SKF in MI
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 2:52:27 PM
I want to let you all know that I have truly enjoyed reading each of your ideas. I hope that it is OK if I use many of your Ideas in my sermon this coming Sunday. I have taken some of your ideas and words and put them into a sermon titled "The Cured Nine" and will talk about the tenth one being healed not cured only. Thanks for all your wonderful ideas and thoughts.
Peace and Love to You,
SKF in MI
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 2:54:47 PM
I want to let you all know that I have truly enjoyed reading each of your ideas. I hope that it is OK if I use many of your Ideas in my sermon this coming Sunday. I have taken some of your ideas and words and put them into a sermon titled "The Cured Nine" and will talk about the tenth one being healed not cured only. Thanks for all your wonderful ideas and thoughts.
Peace and Love to You,
SKF in MI
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 4:31:28 PM
I goofed.
Pushing eighty, one looses more synapes than his brain can manufacture. Two for one.
In my first post (10/7 9:56:36) I had gone way beyond the 3000 limit ... forcing me to hack it back unmercifully.
Relying on my memory, I had given the impression that the Greek word behind the phrase AFAR OFF, PORROTHEN meant a positional distance as opposed to a physical or time distance. It, PORROTHEN, is a time distance.
The Greek word MAKRAN (positional) appears three times ... the best understandable usage would be Eph 2:13. "now but in Christ Jesus ye the [ones] then being AFAR [MAKRAN] became near by the blood of Christ." This positional distance. MAKROTHEN, physical distance is used 14 times, but not in the story of the ten lepers. It is PORROTHEN, time distance which the Author used. How do we know this? As God often does in His Book, He uses a pair to support. The PORROTHEN can be found in Heb 11:13. Let's read it ...
"BY WAY OF FAITH DIED THESE [the descendants of Abraham] ALL, NOT HAVING OBTAINED THE PROMISES, BUT FROM AFAR THEM SEEING AND GREETING AND CONFESSING THAT STRANGERS AND SOJOURNERS THEY ARE ON THE EARTH" (Literal English from the Greek. Alfred Marshall.)
If, as we contend, the story of the ten lepers is a prophetic parable looking at the end times, then we can understand God using PORROTHEN in this text.
Please understand, the spiritual values many of you are finding in the story as written still stands. But, what we have underneath is a hidden parable in which God is telling us that the present day Laodicea church, with only one out of ten true believers, will be vomited out of His mouth.
habist of sequim
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 4:53:44 PM
This is a first for me, though I have mined the site quite often... Something that strikes me is that while they were lepers all ten were on equal ground, it seems. The stigma of being a Samaritan seems to have been inconsequential... misery loving company... and he/she was included in the group... leprousy being the common denominator-- "for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God!" Faith was found in an unexpected place. I wonder if the 9 ever allowed another Samaritan to be part of their life if, in fact, they were cleansed.. pehaps a word of inclusion for the church that would see itself as righteous.. forgetting the fact of grace and forgiveness
Shoreman
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 8:12:28 PM
dear Cleveland: May I suggest that healings are not easy but are important but not as important as eternal life (salvation). I know i am being overly sensitive to your statement and probably would not be if i had not spent yesterday morning with a precious young family with 3 children with the eldest being 7 and trying to explain to them why our loving God is not healing their mommie of this horrible, debilitating cancer. They had even asked why God was being so mean. It broke my heart, beacuse this church has prayed, I have prayed, and we have prayed and called for special prayer meetings for her to be healed..... and I am exhausted by my failure to participate in the healing of this wonderful precious young mommie. I love our Father. I know He is not mean. I know life is a vapor, and eternal life is the most important thing, but explain that to a 7 year old and her 5 year old brother. So pray with me that the Father will heal this friend. I know she is going to heaven. I just dont want her to go so soon. --tulsa liturgical baptist
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 8:26:18 PM
Wonderful observation by Fred Craddock:
It is often the stranger in the church who sings heartily the hymns we have long left to the choir, who expresses gratitude for blessings we had not noticed, who listens attentively to the sermon we think we have already heard, who gets excited about our old Bible, and who becomes actively involved in acts of service to which we send small donations. Must it always be so?
kbc in sc
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 9:03:17 PM
We all seem to assume that there were nine Jewish (or Judean) lepers and one Samaritan.... the text says that Jesus was somewhere in the area between Galilee and Samaria (that is, North Samaria, South Galilee) Who is to say this was not a band of Samaitan lepers....no Jews. That would make the point even sharper yet... 10 were healed (how do we know this? CNN wasn't along) and one even returned to say thank-you.
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 9:04:10 PM
This is a first for me, though I have mined the site quite often... Something that strikes me is that while they were lepers all ten were on equal ground, it seems. The stigma of being a Samaritan seems to have been inconsequential... misery loving company... and he/she was included in the group... leprousy being the common denominator-- "for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God!" Faith was found in an unexpected place. I wonder if the 9 ever allowed another Samaritan to be part of their life if, in fact, they were cleansed.. pehaps a word of inclusion for the church that would see itself as righteous.. forgetting the fact of grace and forgiveness
Shoreman
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 9:04:25 PM
This is a first for me, though I have mined the site quite often... Something that strikes me is that while they were lepers all ten were on equal ground, it seems. The stigma of being a Samaritan seems to have been inconsequential... misery loving company... and he/she was included in the group... leprousy being the common denominator-- "for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God!" Faith was found in an unexpected place. I wonder if the 9 ever allowed another Samaritan to be part of their life if, in fact, they were cleansed.. pehaps a word of inclusion for the church that would see itself as righteous.. forgetting the fact of grace and forgiveness
Shoreman
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 10:44:53 PM
Dear Tulsa liturgical baptist,
Date: 10/8/2004
Time: 10:51:57 PM
Sally,
I was working off-lectionary on a tough sermon assignment and didn't catch your post until now. Thanks for your feedback - I totally agreed. May be I will simmer something up better next time. Good call though, so that that other won't use the half-baked stuff.
Love ya.
Coho, Midway City.
Date: 10/9/2004
Time: 12:15:07 AM
Dear Tulsa liturgical baptist, I am with you praying for this beloved Mommy and her children, both for curing and healing. Sometimes the heavens open and "things as they ought to be" come to earth. "Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come . . . on earth as in heaven" The Samaritan got the gift AND hallowed the name. The kingdom came. We can trust the God who gives healing in heaven and tosses it out liberally here on earth, like a lover throwing us a handkerchief. Or bread crumbs to lead us home. Healings are signs that point beyond themselves, opportunities to respond. Does that mean that the person who is not healed now has gotten the nose-thumbing from God? No. A Mom whose 12 year old daughter had a childhood cancer said, "The devil is taking away the most important thing (my daughter), but I will not allow him to take what I can still give her: my faith in her Savior. The doctors are not making her well. God will still answer our prayers in heaven." Stories like today's Gospel make me feel guilty. If we asked with faith would more people would be healed? But then we'd be thankful to ourselves for our spiritual perspiration. We are saved by God's grace. Appropriated by faith/trust, which is also a gift for which to be thankful. All healings I have witnessed have strengthened my faith, but all are a mystery to me. In all of them, I remember great love, hope, a sense of joy and anything God wishes, almost a playful feeling! I never knew when or who God was going to heal when I anointed people. It is trusting all of that to God. In a strange way, I have had my faith strengthened also by the prayers not answered by healing. It's not up to us. The deaths especially have been crushing when we have hoped for those surprising reversals we have seen. Humility is reinforced by these thorns in the flesh that will not leave. It is a miracle every time a healing happens, not a formula. Why some are healed here and now and others are not is a wonder and like Job, I must bow to God. Life IS a vapor, but we idolize it. "If you've got your health, you've got everything!" Keep asking and in this and every situation, trusting. He is able. The challenge when a person appears to be "beyond hope" is to continue to ask God on their behalf, to love them, to touch them and to see them as God does: perfectly restored, "all things new." And just as chemo and meds have to be repeated, sometimes it takes more than one prayer or one person's prayers. There does seem to be something about two or three (or more) "in my name" confirming the place of Christ in the midst of them. God is with them and loves Mommy so much that God gave his son Jesus for her. With Christ, death never gets the last laugh. It's still the last enemy he will destroy, but it will be destroyed by love.
Please forgive the premature earlier post. I don't know what I hit! Pat in NJ
Date: 10/9/2004
Time: 7:14:46 AM
What brings any of us togehter -= what brought the people together in our churches?
When you get right down to it, the lepers can be an allegory for all of our brokenness, illness, idiosyncratic neuroses, ... and it's where we find unconditional acceptance and an invitation to the table.
Sally in GA
Date: 10/9/2004
Time: 7:20:52 AM
Pursuant to my thoughts on what brings us together ... is what sets the one apart from the 9.
I think this will be the way I side-step preaching "you ought to be damn guilty and grateful for all Jesus has done for you." In other words, I won't "preach," I'll just "explain." :-)
Sally
Date: 10/9/2004
Time: 7:25:13 AM
habist of sequim:
thank you for that explanation. I'm not an end-time sort of preacher, but what you say has merit.
This incident speaks to a larger, eternal truth: that few (maybe only 10%) will really recognize the Messiah at the end.
Heck, we don't recognize the Messiah when he's right under our noses, most of the time!
Now I see what you're getting at. I'm still not ready to make it a defined rule, but thanks for pushing my envelope.
Sally
Date: 10/9/2004
Time: 7:34:54 AM
Finally ... a general story about thankfulness (real-life).
I took my younger daughter to gymnastics last night - for a 2-hour "open gym." We got home close to 9 PM, and when we got in the door, my older daughter was standing at the door ready to give me a hug. "Mommy!" she said.
I was a little annoyed because I had to go to the bathroom and my hands were full. I said, "Just a second."
Turns out, while we were at open gym, a woman from her school called to say that one of her her cross country teammate's mother had been killed in a car accident yesterday afternoon.
It's not really about healing, specifically, but it speaks to her being grateful to have me. Just the thought that it's possible to lose your mother was tragedy enough for her. This tragedy caused her to recognize her blessing.
Can we recognize God's blessings when they're right in front of us? The answer is, "No, not always."
This Samaritan calls us all up short ... he saw who Jesus was, whether or not he knew it intellectually.
Sally (ok, I'm done posting now)
Date: 10/9/2004
Time: 7:47:54 AM
Tulsa liturgical baptist,
You say, "I am exhausted by my failure to participate in the healing."
If that young mother dies, it will not be because your prayers are insufficient. The grace of Jesus Christ is sufficient, covering all our unworthiness. May God strengthen you and lift you up, along with this young family that you love, and may your hearts be healed.
I am praying for you, and for the mother, and for the children.
JKS
Date: 10/9/2004
Time: 9:16:35 AM
I went to India in January as part of my required seminary training. All week I had seen "beggers" with out-stretched hands or cupped hands moving in a continous motion to people's mouths. It is a universal symbol of begging for food or "begging for mercy." Later that week, as I stood in a semi-circle waiting to receive communion I found myself at the end of the "reception line." It was a common cup from which I would be asked to drink. I couldn't help but wonder what type of "leprosy" I would catch from all who were before me and would drink prior to me. I felt horrible for the thought, but couldn't help myself. I couldn't look as I stood waiting for the bread and cup. I hung my head to avoid looking.
And then I noticed my hand - it was in the same position of the street beggers I had witnessed all week. And then I realized that I too was a begger - nothing I had done or would ever do was deserving of the grace which I would receive in the bread and cup coming my way. NOthing! As I received the eucharist, I drank with thanksgiving and gratitude like never before. I sang and continue to sing thankfully for God's mercy.
In conclusion, regardless of our "outward" differences,(Jew or Samaritan as in this parable,OR American or Indian; male or female; red, yellow, black or white; etc) we are all the same because of our leprosy (sin!). We all need to cry out for God's mercy and then prostrate ourselves before Jesus in thanksgiving.
In verse 16, the word "thanked" comes from the Greek work "ecuharisteo" meaning "to show that one is under obligation, be thankful, feel obligated to thank, give thanks, render thanks or return thanks. It is where we derive our word "eucharist" from.
I'm not sure exactly where I am going with all of this!!!! But perhaps an outward response to God's healing (body and soul)is thanksgiving (as received in the eucharist- spiritual food for spiritual healing: John Calvin) Help me here somebody!!!!!
L in PA
Date: 10/9/2004
Time: 10:48:01 AM
l in pa,
don't think you need any help... i think you got it. thank you for that wonderful story!
and to liturgical baptist: God always answers prayer... do not cease, just remember to be open to his answer, whatever it may be. i will add my prayers for you, your friend, and her family.
God's peace, christine at the shore
Date: 10/9/2004
Time: 11:22:05 AM
There is a line in this week's Psalm (66:1-12) that opened a door for me into our gospel passage. The line from the Psalms is: "...you let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and water; yet you (God) have brought us out to a spacious place."
Spaciousness. I love that as a metaphor for salvation, healing, wholeness. Those of us who are parents likely have heard our children say at some point, "I need my space." Our church provides a child-care ministry for our neighborhood which is licensed by the state. One of the requirements for licensing is that there be a certain amount of space per child. The number of children we are allowed to accept into the Center is determined by the physical dimensions, the spaciousness, of our building because children, as all of us do, "need their space" in order to thrive.
Our souls need "space" as well in order to welcome the Big God of the Big Love. Gratitude creates spaciousness in our lives. Think of those for whom gratitude seems to be absent. They are not bad people, but their lives seem somehow smaller, more rigid, more self-centered than those for whom gratitude abounds. Generosity creates spaciousness. Hospitality creates spaciousness.
Faith as spaciousness. All ten lepers were cured of their disease. But the Samaritan leper- his "spaciousness" is making him whole, mature, well. Without spaciousness, we cannot as easily accommodate "the new thing" (Isaiah 43) that God is doing in us and among us.
My sermon title? "O Beautiful for Spacious Souls."
Hoping your Sunday is a good one, everyone!
Tom in Jamestown, New York
Date: 10/9/2004
Time: 11:40:04 AM
This text gives us a glimpse at what it might mean to be truly healed.
Jesus responds to the one who has returned "get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well." Were the other nine not made well? Physical wellness is a gift indeed - but without faith, without love, without gratitude...it is a gift poorly used.
Michael in NJ
Date: 10/9/2004
Time: 12:09:38 PM
Notice how Jesus is on the border between Galilee --his hometown area and Samaria an area of outcasts. He meets outcast people with no home and heals them Now they can go home as he goes towards Jerusalem to be glorified and finally go home to his father! How grateful he is to have the opportunity to heal them, how ungrateful they were, are we grateful today?
Date: 10/9/2004
Time: 2:46:39 PM
Dear friends,
I want to throw in my two cents before the buzzer goes off. Sorry for the late post...it's been quite a week.
Someone posted:
"Leprosy has the effect of destroying the sense of feeling in a person. A person with leprosy will grab a hot pan, carry it for a bit while oblivious to the damge being done, and set it down only to find layers of charred skin on the handle."
I traveled to China in 1993 and spent a couple of weeks at a leprosy colony. Here are some quick thoughts:
1) Leprosy shuts down the bodies nerve system. This includes the ability to blink. When an individual ceases to blink he or she goes blind. Their eyes dry out. The nurses at the center literally taught the patients a system for blinking. They literally have to remember to do so.
Forced tears and genuine tears are two different things. Healing brought them out of numbness. It gave these men the ability to feel...to cry again.
2) China forced all persons with this skin disease into colonies years ago. However, upon learning that it wasn't as contagious as they thought it was, they lifted the gate and allowed them to re-integrate back into society. Here's the interesting thing....they stayed in the colony. Those afflicted and healed chose to stay together...even though they didn't have to. They had found a sanctuary!
Many thanks for all of your help. God bless those of you still working on Saturday night.
grace and peace,
SS in Va.
Date: 10/9/2004
Time: 4:14:24 PM
Susan,
I'd like to use your story of the umbrella. Thank you. (Did you thank the man for the blessing, or are you merely thanking God?)
KHC,
I plan to use your story as well. Thank you.
And Sally,
Your story too, touched my heart. I will use it as well. Thank you.
Michelle
Date: 10/9/2004
Time: 5:13:48 PM
Lit. Baptist. Oh how I understand your "I know she is going to heaven but I dont want her to go so soon." I can't tell you how many times in 3 1/2 years I was told that if enough of us prayed together then... Trust me, there were ENOUGH people praying. But my girl is now in heaven. Maybe the healing is release from life. The side effects of cancer are so incredibly devistating that sometimes, surviving is not a blessing. You know how God healed my girl? He gave her the strength to end her treatment. He gave her the power to say I love you to everyone she wanted to say it too. He gave her the insight to plan her funeral to be the most amazing testimony of her life and God's grace. And God gave her the peace to know that He would take care of us when she was gone, so she could rest. God is with you and them. It is God's grace alone that will bring comfort. and healing.
sorry....on my soap box..email me if you would like...tjmort1964@yahoo.com
Peace Tammy in texas
Date: 10/9/2004
Time: 6:39:43 PM
Tammy in Texas,
No one could have said that as well as you did. Thank you. My mother also died from cancer, over 25 years ago. What agony it would have been to have lived all these years believing "if only we had prayed harder..." Yes, I agree. Death is the ultimate cure. How wonderful to keep our children and our parents here with us, but how much more wonderful for them to enter into new life, where cancer (and all other evil) is no more.
Michelle
Date: 10/9/2004
Time: 6:50:11 PM
All
Here's a poem that some of you no doubt have read, but reading it again has the same impact as the first time. It is the ultimate in faithfulness.
THE LITTLE DOG
I wonder if Christ had a dear little dog All curly and wooly like mine ... With two long, silky ears and nose round and wet, And two eyes brown and tender that shine.
I am sure if He had, that the dear little dog Knew right from the start He was God, That he needed no proof that his Master was divine, But just worshipped the ground where He trod.
I'm afraid tho', that He hadn't, because I have read How He prayed in the Garden alone... When all of His friends and disciples had fled. Even Peter, the one called "a stone".
And oh, I am sure that the dear little dog With his heart, so loving and warm, Would never have left Him to suffer alone, But creeping right under His arm.
Would have licked those dear fingers in agony clasped, And counting all favors but loss ... When they led Him away, would have trotted behind And followed Him quite to the cross.
Author Unknown
Does faithfulness and thankfulness come together in the same package?
habist of Sequim
Date: 10/9/2004
Time: 9:03:50 PM
thanks to all of you i luv this room. i dont always understand but i so feel what is said in here. your thoughts and prayers bless me ive tied a knot at the end of my prayer rope and im just hanging on ---tulsa liturgical baptist james 1:17
Date: 10/9/2004
Time: 9:44:53 PM
"Religion is about ritual, Faith is about relationships.
So all ten of those lepers were cured, but only one of them was made whole."
A quote from a very wise Pastor friend.
Susan in Wa.
Date: 10/10/2004
Time: 3:37:04 AM
Greetings Thank you all for your contributions this week. Here, north of the 49th parallel it is Thanksgiving weekend, so imagine how powerful the "leper" reading is as a basis for worship. The quote on the article "7 friends" was especially powerful for me. I am going to become "Levi the leper" and talk of all my friends in the sermon. Shalom Ralph in Ontario