October 10 Sermon (Proper 23)

“Love is unselfishly choosing for another's highest good.” ~ C.S. Lewis

Love, unselfish, & good, words that should describe followers of Jesus. But you would be forgiven if you watched the news lately and saw Christians and wondered if we are loving, unselfish, and good.

1st you had Fred Phelps & his Westboro Baptist Church before the Supreme Court arguing for their free speech as they picket soldier funerals with their hate filled rhetoric. They have picketed at the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, several times, and when it was in Philadelphia, I remember having to walk through them. Its amazing to me that Christians would argue that God hates others, and Phelps and his cult think they know God does. They believe they should be able to spew such nonsense wherever they are. There is no love of neighbor in their hate. Sadly, there is no room for God either in their ministry.

2nd you had some Christians arguing that the fire department was right, that the man who lost his house in that TN fire while the fire department stood by, because he had failed this year to pay his $75 fee, did the right thing because compassion is not the only Christian value. "In this case, critics of the fire department are confused…because they have fallen prey to a weakened …version of Christianity that is only about softer virtues such as compassion and not in any part about the muscular Christian virtues of individual responsibility and accountability." I did not make that quote up. Sadly, when faced with someone grieving the loss of much of what he owned, instead of compassion , some feel its right to wag their finger at them. Where is the love in that?

And finally, when an anti-bullying bill came before congress in September, one Christian group argued against it saying it would limit their free speech. They warned their members that such a bill was following a radical agenda that would prohibit Christians from speaking the truth. Such worry does not help the students that are harassed and bullied at school; and no kid at any school at any level should fear going to school; bullying is Not a Christian value and we should be less worried about our free speech and more worried about the victims. The tragic case of the Rutgers student who took his own life is just one more sign that we have failed to take bullying seriously in this country.

It is no wonder that when one survey asked young adults (age 18 – 30) to use words to identify Christians they used words such as: Hypocritical, too focused on getting converts, bigoted, sheltered from reality, motivated by one political agenda and judgmental.

Love is unselfishly choosing for another's highest good.

We are challenged in our lives, to be the loving, unselfish good that God expects us to be, especially when the world sees others Christians acting in ways that hurts our loving witness to the world.

When the 10 lepers approached Jesus asking for mercy, Jesus sent them to be seen by priests, for priests were the ones who designated someone a leper or not, and en route, they were healed. Only one came back to thank Jesus and praise God. And lo and behold, it was a foreigner, a Samaritan. Jesus told him to,

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

Faith once again was lived out in the other, the one not expected to be faithful. The Samaritan again did the right thing. What happened to the other nine? I wonder if we Christians are like the other nine, who have felt that healing power from God, who have beheld that deep love and peace from heaven above, but have failed to give thanks to God for it and to share that with the world.

Instead we quickly left Jesus, claiming hate in the name of God (be it for Gays/Lesbians, or Muslims or illegal immigrants, or you name it), we are more worried about ourselves than others, and we have left compassion at the door for responsibility. And we have done so because we are not always truly thankful to God for what God has done for us, because we can be so focused on me and my life, that we can’t see beyond our own box, to these needs of those around us.

An American relief worker who was visiting an orphanage in El Salvador, was offered a mango by one of the orphans who had found it on a tree near the orphanage. It was rare to have fruit at the orphanage - the usual fare was very plain and simple, such as beans and tortillas. And so the visitor said, "No, thank you" because she wanted the little girl to enjoy the mango. Later, the visitor's host, who had grown up at the orphanage herself, explained that in El Salvador, one does not refuse such an offer. The correct response is to receive the gift no matter the condition of the other person or the gift, because it is in receiving the gift that the recipient acknowledges the dignity of the giver. [Victoria Cavanaugh, Catholic Digest, October 2009]

To strive for justice and peace and to respect the dignity of every human being is part of our calling as Baptized Christians in our interactions with the world. And it is always done in gratitude for what God has done for us. As one author has put it:

“Gratitude, in the spirit of the Gospel, is not an expression of thanks for a single act of kindness but a perspective of seeing every human being as worthy of respect as a child of God.” (Jay Cormier)

The soldiers who have died serving this country deserve such respect. The man whose house burned in TN deserves such respect (so do the fire fighters). So do the victims of bullying, and all those who are abused, neglected, and in need. They need our respect and they need our love. We come together each week to offer our thanksgiving to God and we do so in our prayers, in the offerings we give, and from that gratitude & grace we leave this sacred space for a world longing for us to be the Christians that God has called us to be.

“Love is unselfishly choosing for another's highest good.” ~ C.S. Lewis

May we choose the highest good we can offer others through unselfish love following the example of Jesus. Amen.

Sermon: October 14

What would happen if you became sick?
You go to the doctor or maybe a walk in clinic…

But what if you had no health insurance, so no doctor could tell you what you had. And the disease that you believe you have is infectious, what about your family? Your neighbors? What would you do? Religious dictates are set for those with such a disease, you must live apart from the community so no one else is infected. You become an outcast…

It is in that hell, that place of living and yet being separate that many people who were believed to have leprosy, lived in. And we are not talking about just ancient times, the last leper colony in the US closed in 1969! The place is called Molokai, it is in the Hawaiian Islands and for over 100 years, was the place that lepers were sent too if there was any question of what they might have.

Leprosy as we know it, Hansen’s disease as it is called today, is not the same as the leprosy described in the bible, the Hebrew word covered lots of different skin diseases or illnesses. But the truth whether then or now is that once diagnosed with any such skin disease, you became a leper and you were to join a colony to live apart from society until you were cured, if ever.

It’s the back drop for today’s Gospel reading. As Jesus entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" They kept a distance because they had to, no one was to touch them, they lived apart. Many saw them as cursed by God rather than infected with a particular disease.

But Jesus looked upon them with the eyes of mercy. When Jesus saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." To be declared clean or healthy, a leper was to show him or herself to a priest who would then make the judgment. So by sending them, Jesus healed them.

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. And Jesus would declare, Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Jesus knew they were healed, but what happened to them? Were they faithful? It makes you wonder.

The author Martin Bell, in one of my favorite books, wrote about them in a story entitled, Where are the Nine?... (excerpt from "Where Are the Nine?")

One of them was frightened – that's all. He didn't understand what had happened, and it frightened him. So he looked for some place to hide. Jesus scared him.

A second was offended because he had not been required to do something difficult before he could be healed. It was all too easy. He had expected months, maybe even years, of prayer and fasting and washing and righteous living before he could be healed. But he had done none of this. His motto was "you get what you pay for." Jesus made it too easy.

The third had realized too late that he had not really wanted to be cleansed. He did not know what to do or how to live without his leprosy. He did not even know who he was as a person without his leprosy. Jesus had taken away his identity.

The fourth leper did not return to give thanks because in his great joy he simply forgot. He forgot. That's all. He was so happy that he forgot.

The fifth leper was unable to say thank you any more to anyone. His life of leprosy and begging had turned his heart hard and callous. He just doesn't didn't say thank you to anyone any more.

The sixth leper was a woman – a mother who had been separated from her family for eleven years because of the leprosy. She was hurrying to the priests so she could to rejoin her husband and children. She did not return to give thanks because she was on her way home.

The seventh had doubts that Jesus had anything to do with the cleansing. He knew that healing had taken place, but why and how were his questions. Certainly he did not believe in hocus-pocus, magic, miracles – any of that. There was a perfectly reasonable and rational explanation of what had happened, and he wondered if it had anything to do with Jesus.

The eight leper did not return precisely because he did believe that Jesus had healed him – that the Kingdom of God was here and the Messiah had arrived. He didn't return because he was spreading the exciting, wonderful news about the Kingdom.

As for the ninth leper, we don't know, we just don't know, why he didn't return to say thank you.

Ten were cleansed and only one returned ... What shall I say now, that the real point is not that one returned but that ten were cleansed? You already know that. That condemnation is easier than investigation, that if we take time to investigate the reasons why people act as they do, we would find that they have to act the way they do and that such action in the light of the circumstances is quite understandable and totally forgivable and even completely reasonable and just as it should be? You already know that. What then shall I say? That it is good to give thanks? Yes. That it is understandable not to give thanks? Yes. That God does not heal people and then stand around just waiting for us to say thank you and then get angry and have his feelings hurt if we don’t? Yes, that’s true. Which is the same as saying: no, he certainly doesn’t.

But what of the nine? They are on the way home, hiding in fear, refusing to believe, offended at what they call cheap grace, so happy they forgot, lost without their leprosy, unable to say thank you ever again, publishing the news of the Kingdom. Who knows where they are! The point is this: Jesus does. He knows where they are.

[from The Way of the Wolf: The Gospel in New Images, by Martin Bell, published in 1970, you can find the book here: www.barringtonbunny.com]

Martin Bell has it right. God knows our hearts, our desires, our secrets and will seek to do us good even when we don’t deserve it or ask for it. God loves us and wants us to have our faith make us well and whole. We do have a choice in how we live and God knows where we are.

But Jesus notices the one who has faith and applauds the person. Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then Jesus said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well." The faithful one who returns to Jesus to praise God and give thanks for the healing, is a Samaritan, someone outside the Jewish faith, someone whom the disciples of Jesus or those who heard this Gospel in the 1st century would have been shocked to hear praised. And we are reminded of the parable of the Good Samaritan that those who do good or are faithful are not always Israelites.

We are to follow the good examples of Ruth the Moabite from the first reading and the Samaritan, who were faithful foreigners who have shown us what it means to live in faith and trust and thankfulness. And out of that faith, trust and thankfulness to follow Jesus’ example in healing those in need.

To bind up the wounds of victims, to care and visit the sick, to help those who have no insurance get it, to advocate for the children and the poor who do not have a voice for healing and wholeness. We are the Body of Christ to bring healing to those in need. Or to put it in the words of St. Theresa of Avila whose feast day is tomorrow:

“Christ has no body now, but yours. No hands, no feet on earth, but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ looks compassion into the world. Yours are the feet with which Christ walks to do good. Yours are the hands with which Christ blesses the world.” Amen.