CEC News
… Father Riley will lead us in Holy Eucharist October 20. Vestry meeting October 20th after fellowship. Mrs. Jane Barnett will lead us in Morning Prayer October 27.
… We will celebrate All Saints Day November 3rd. Forms to list names of ones you wish remembered will be available October 20th. Please return the forms by Oct 27th.
…Heads Up! Daylight Savings Time ends November 3rd. Turn your clocks back one hour, sleep late, or get to church too early.
…It’s is time for our annual giving campaign. Pledge letters and cards will be mailed out soon.
…The Rt. Rev. Bishop Jacob “Jake” W. Owensby will visit us on Sunday, December 8th to celebrate with us. A pot-luck luncheon is planned for all to attend. More news later.
I venture to say that none of us here this morning have ever seen or been near a leper. It was a most dreaded disease in ancient times and still is in certain parts of the world today. Two to three million people worldwide suffer from the disease.
Until 1999, when it closed its doors, the one and only in-patient hospital in the U.S for the treatment of leprosy, or Hansen’s disease was located in Carville, Louisiana, some sixteen miles south of Baton Rogue. At one time, some 400 patients were in residence.
Lepers in the time of Jesus were social outcasts. There were not allowed in the Holy City of Jerusalem. Instead they banded together in small villages and were accepted there as long as they kept there distance.
Upon meeting another person, they were required to cover their mouth with the back of their hand and at a safe distance shout “unclean” as a warning to those approaching that they were lepers.
In today’s gospel, Jesus is on his way to
Luke does not tell us how they were able to recognize Jesus just that they did. Perhaps they had seen him from a distance in another location and witnessed his power to heal. Jesus does not touch them. He simply directs them to go and show themselves to the priests in
As they go, they discover that their leprosy is cured. One returns to Jesus praising God and falling at Jesus’ feet giving thanks. Jesus sends him on his way. His faith has made him well. He was a Samaritan.
What of the other nine? The nine were Jews and followed Jesus’ direction. The priests were the only ones according to the Mosaic Law that could pronounce one clean and thus re-admit that person back into society.
The Samaritan could not go to
The things that separate us in this life go by the boards when a crisis strikes that is common to all of us - a 9-11, a flood, a storm, a fire, a mass shooting. Ten lepers approached Jesus. They banded together regardless of their race, culture or religion. The things that would normally have kept them apart were no longer relevant as they shared their common condition.
One was a Samaritan whose religion alone would have prevented his associating with Jews and them with him. Jesus’ sending them to the priests was a kind of test. Jesus had spoken no word of healing. He had not laid his hands upon them. He had said nothing to them about faith. He simply told them to go, and they went.
Their going was a test of their faith, as were the words of the prophet Elisah to the Syrian leper, Naaman, in today’s first lesson. The nine Jews take it as a matter of course that they have to show themselves to the priests. They did not come back. After all, Jesus did not do anything so why should they return to give him thanks. They were cured. That was enough.
They showed themselves to the priests as the law required. They were pronounced clean and were accepted back into society. They went home to their families and friends and that was that.
They simply resumed the life they had lived before contracting the dreaded disease without giving their healing a second thought. Which is more surprising: the fact that one person came back, praised God, and fell at Jesus’ feet? Or the fact that nine did not?
There are times when we, as Christians are no better than the nine. We fail to thank God ‘always and for everything,’ as Paul puts it in Ephesians 5.20. Likewise, there are those times when God tells us what we need to do to be healed, restored and forgiven and yet like Naaman, we balk. We let our pride get in the way. We want to question God’s methods.
Christ came to heal all of fallen humanity, yet only a small portion receive him in faith and thanksgiving and give God the glory.
It is not that as Christians who have any faith at all, we fail to recognize that God is the giver of all things. Every mouthful of food we take, for example, every breath of air we inhale, every note of music we hear, every smile on the face of a child, friend, or stranger - all that, and a million things more, are gifts from God’s generosity.
It is that we forget to give thanks for we take God’s grace for granted. To remember to give thanks is a healthy thing to do, especially in a world where we too often assume that we have an absolute right to health, happiness, and every creature comfort.
The Samaritan returned to Jesus the source of his healing, as he could not go to
Today’s gospel reading is more than a story of healing; it is a story of resurrection. The one who returned to give thanks was as good as dead and now is alive again. Jesus brings new life, and calls out of us, as he did this one leper, faith we did not know that we had.
Faith and healing go hand in hand. Faith means not just any old belief, any general religious attitude to life, but the belief that the God of Love and Mercy, the Lord and the giver of Life is at work in and through His Son, Jesus Christ, here and now.
By his death and resurrection, Jesus has leveled the playing field. God’s love and mercy knows no bounds in relieving the common condition we all face, our sinfulness and lack of gratitude, which requires our continual turning to God in all humility and with genuine repentance.
The proper response, then, to the new life we now live is a rhythm of faith and gratitude. To live a life of faith and to give thanks to God for all things is what being a Christian is all about. AMEN+
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