“How Would I Respond?” 2013

Psalm 103:1-14 Luke 17:11-19

Psalm 103

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits—who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. The Lord works vindication and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

He will not always accuse, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion for his children, so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him. For he knows how we were made; he remembers that we are dust.

Luke 17:11-19

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

The healing and response story in Luke 17 has always

reminded me of a scene from the 1965 movie, “Shenandoah”.

It starred Jimmy Stewart and was set during the Civil War

in the fertile Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

The actor played a stubborn and fiercely independent farmer,

who had a strong commitment to his land and to his family.

And although his late wife had been deeply committed,

he himself was not a particularly religious man.

BUT he was faithful to his word,

to a promise he had made to his wife on her deathbed...

that the family would attend church every Sunday,

and they would say grace before every meal.

In a scene early on, he offers this grace before a meal:

"Lord we came here and cleared the trees. We took out the stones and we broke the sod. We prepared the fields and sowed the seed. We tended the crops and fought the pestilence, and weathered the storms and draught; but we thank you anyway. Amen."

“but we thank you anyway” –

Those words reveal a significantly flawed perspective…

… a focus on self and an arrogance self-reliance

that fails to recognize or acknowledge as suchà

God’s gifts and blessings that surround him.

I don’t mean to say that he didn’t appreciate living in

the fruitful abundance and beauty of the Shenandoah Valley,

it’s just that he failed

to perceive it as the gift and work of the Lord,

and so he felt no sense

of gratitude toward the true giver…

* … which is similar to the issue at stake in the Luke 17 story.

This is not a simple etiquette, “you didn’t even thank me” story,

but that failing to express a sense of gratitude toward God

is a sign or symptom of a life view and perspective

that is not aware, or does not choose to notice,

God’s work and activity in blessing the world.

Luke begins by telling us it’s “on the way to Jerusalem”, (vs. 11)

That phrase is used to signify that the story

somehow connects with the coming events in Jerusalem,

and to help us understand both purpose and meaning.

The action begins when 10 lepers cry out to Jesus for mercy.

In those days, leprosy was a most feared and dreaded disease,

and stigmatized as a curse and judgment from God.

It meant living a terrible and hopeless existence of separation;

cut-off from family and friends, even worship in the Temple.

Incurable, they were the walking dead, under a death sentence …

… in a way, analogous to the effects of sin on a human life.

In the story, the 10 lepers kept their distance away from Jesus,

in keeping with the OT rules in Leviticus about leprosy.

The lepers may have come just begging for alms,

or perhaps they had heard about Jesus healing other lepers.

Luke doesn’t say why, but they did obeyed his instructions, vs. 14

When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean.

The instructions that Jesus gave

were to follow the OT prescribed priestly purity rituals,

as necessary for them to return to their communities

and to be allowed to worship God in the Temple.

Along the way they realized their disease had been cured,

and it seems that 9 of them continue on their way

to fulfill those OT priestly-ritual obligations.

But one of the lepers does something different, vs. 15-16

Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan.

Samaritans were extreme social outcasts,

but this one turns back from the way of priestly rituals,

to praise God, and he bows down at the feet of Jesus.

He recognized that God cured him, given him life through Jesus.

All the lepers were healed,

but Samaritan saw, noticed, let what happened sink in;

and in recognizing that in Jesus, God had healed him,

he changes direction toward Jesus, to praise God…

… and obviously what that outcast leper saw and realized

completely changed his life, changed his everything.

Now his priority is praising God by thanking Jesus who healed him,

because he knew that God had been at work through Christ.

This becomes a salvation story that ends with Jesus saying, vs. 19

“Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

“Forget the priest and ritual, that’s irrelevant now;

I’ll go directly to God through Jesus, whose gracious love welcomes and heals even an outcast, a Samaritan leper.”

Do you hear and do you recognize the familiar themes

in common with the life and ministry of Jesus Christ?,

- about God’s gracious love for the outcast and sinner?

Continuing, vs. 17

Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they?

Where are the others? – following the OT purity rituals!

All 10 were offered the gracious cure of their disease.

9 of whom continued in the way of OT priestly purity ritual.

Yes they were healed, but they didn’t notice the grace…

… just as in Jerusalem,

the conflict between Jesus and the religious authorities

would also be over OT religious purity and rituals;

as some won’t notice God’s truth and grace revealed.

But the one who did recognized his healing as a gift from God,

turned, to praise God, to come and be close to Jesus.

This story is a grace and salvation story

that parallels the gracious mission of Jesus Christ.

The cure of leprosy was freely available, given to all 10,

just as the healing grace of Christ is freely available to all.

And as we know, some reject and do not turn to Jesus,

but for those who do, “your faith has made you well.”

Theologically, this story is a foretaste

of what Jesus was going to accomplish in Jerusalem for us.

This story is intended to help bridge the gap

between an OT perspective – purity through priestly ritual,

and a NT perspective – grace freely given in Christ.

The point is that the Samaritan’s praise and thanksgiving

was a reflection of his faith-response to Jesus Christ,

that turned away from the OT priests and rituals.

The story is the Gospel, an outcast comes to Jesus in gratitude,

vs. 19, Then Jesus said to him,

“Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

The gratitude expressed by the Samaritan-leper-outcast

demonstrates the appropriate response to the grace of God.

So, how does this Luke 17 story speak to us, apply to us today,

especially where we are on our Lenten journey?

Ralph Waldo Emerson once pointed out,

if the stars only appeared just one night in a thousand years,

we would stay up all night to see and appreciate them.

and tell our children about them for generations.

But since we see the stars most nights, we barely look up,

or even notice, appreciate or recognize that much of

the beauty and wonder of God’s work all around us.

* And since so often God’s blessing pass by us unnoticed,

so too our sense of gratitude is often quite feeble.

The Luke story teaches about

recognizing the gracious works of God all around us ---

-- and if we do, then gratitude will naturally follow…

… which suggests that the level of my sense of gratitude may be

a reasonable indicative of my spiritual health & faith-walk,

or at least my awareness of God’s presence blessing me.

So I wonder when I am not feeling particularly grateful,

it’s certainly not that God’s blessing have ceased to flow,

--- so what could be going on?

The character in the movie, “Shenandoah”

was so focused on himself, his desires and self-reliance,

that he was blindly unaware of God’s love for him,

or that God had been providing for him all along.

Perhaps his desire for control

interfered with his ability to feel grateful to God.

Since he believed that by his labor and the sweat of his brow

he had earned and accomplished all they possessed,

then it followed that he deserved all that he had …

… and so he acknowledged no help or blessing from the Lord,

which left very little room or cause for any gratitude.

Gratitude may in fact be the best measure of our spiritual health,

because giving thanks shifts our focus off of ourselves

and onto the faithfulness, love, and goodness of God.

Our tendency is toward sinful selfish self-centeredness,

but when we acknowledge the sovereignty & blessings of God,

by our grateful submission, our humility before God

we are reminded of our dependence and need,

which strengthens our relationship with God.

Our gratitude, our efforts to thank God,

make us much more aware of the rich fullness of God's love,

as we increasingly notice God's power and presence,

God's hand at work in our world and in our lives.

I am constantly amazed by healing power of God’s grace and mercy,

and that as we begin to accept that the Good News is true,

then we can begin to actually experience for ourselves

how much God really does love us, even just as we are…

… as we learn to trust & recognize God’s blessings all around us,

that defines & reorients everything about how we live & perceive.

In my experience, when I have had my tough times and struggled,

my greatest help and strength has come through prayer,

in particular, when I am feeling “unblessed” & alone,

it helps me to start making a list

of all the blessings from God I have received,

as many as my mind can conceive.

Sometimes I’ve started with the mountain beauty around us,

or the delight of no hurricanes in Las Cruces, so far.

I may move on to friends and family whose love blesses me

or events of my life, where I know God was there.

Once you get started, it can go on for a very long time,

and so far,

I’ve never run out of blessings to write down

before I began to feel better and closer,

encouraged and ready to continue on…

… and that is the wonderful power of gratitude

as we notice and appreciate the abundant blessings of God.

So as a Lenten spiritual exercise

these last few days before Holy Week,

I invite you to take a few minutes each day,

and write down as many blessings as you can,

… and let that sense of gratitude fill and guide our days.

As the Psalmist wrote, (Psa 103:1-2)

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits—