| The Rev. Catharine W. Montgomery | 20 Pentecost |
| Grace Memorial Episcopal Church | Year C, RCL |
| October 14, 2007 |
I remember a group of children in my bible study class decided to act out this story of the ten lepers. We dressed them in old clothes and tied rags around their hands and feet, messed up their hair and gave each of them a cloth to hold over their upper lip to hang down over their faces. They were told they could not go home again, and every time they saw another person they were to cry out, “Unclean, unclean.”
Well, they giggled a lot as the ten who were the lepers stayed at a distance and shouted out, “Unclean.” The other children made fun of them and ran from them and would not talk to them. After awhile, the ten lepers got quiet and huddled together in a corner. Later I asked them to talk about how it felt to know they could not go home and to be teased and avoided by the others. “It felt bad, scary.” “I was sad.” “It made me feel mad,” were the answers. After the class, they were very relieved to get rid of the rags and go back to playing with their friends.
We knew how to act out this story by reading from Leviticus…When a man is afflicted with leprosy, he shall be brought to the priest; and the priest shall make an examination and if he determines that it is leprosy he shall be declared unclean…(13:9, 11) The leper who has the disease shall wear torn clothes, and let the hair of his head hang loose , and he shall cover his upper lip and cry, “Unclean, unclean.” He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean; he shall dwell alone in a habitation outside the city. (13:45-46.)
Jesus is on the road between Jewish and Samaritan territory when he sees a group of lepers – a common sight in those days. “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us” cry the ten lepers from a distance. We are told that one of the nameless men was a Samaritan. How odd that a hated foreigner - who would be seen as having less than even a mustard seed of faith, would be with Jews who were known for their great faith. But then being sick and outcast brings groups together. What is that old saying… “Birds of a feather……?”
Jesus heard the cry for mercy. Jesus saw the ten lepers – but did not go near them. He did not touch them. He did not pray over them. He did what a good Jewish rabbi who knew his scriptures, would do… he sent them to a priest. “Go”, he said, “Show yourselves to the priest.” Obediently off they went. And incidentally…on the way they were healed….can you imagine the joy they must have felt when they were able to go back to their families, be seen in public, share meals with their friends? So does the answer to their prayer for mercy finish the story?
Apparently not …the tenth leper – the one who was a Samaritan turns back and falls at Jesus’ feet thanking him and praising God. “Where are the other nine?” Jesus wonders. “Why did they not come back to praise God?” We might wonder why Jesus blames them for not returning. They were obedient and faithful to the law and did exactly what he told them to do and they were healed. Isn’t that enough? Jesus says to the Samaritan “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” Jesus seems to say that the tenth leper has been healed and saved in a way that has nothing to do with being healed of the skin disease, after all the other nine were also made clean. What made him different? Was he the only one who saw the power of God at work in Jesus? Was he the only one who was filled with praise and gratitude?
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, was in New Orleans two weeks ago meeting with our House of Bishops in an effort to preserve unity in the Anglican Communion. His opening sermon was in response to some of what he saw in New Orleans….the devastation and rebuilding and his remarks reminded me of today’s gospel. He spoke about gratitude and what we owe to each other and Jesus. He said and I quote, “Every city and every community at some point must ask itself what do we owe to one another? People speak about respect and the recognition of dignity, but most of all, he said, we owe each other gratitude. The church is a community which lives from and in gratitude. And if the church does not live by thanksgiving, I don’t know what the church lives by. And when the church fails as it so often does, to live from thanksgiving, I wonder whether it lives at all. Why is it that the central and most important action we do as Christians is called the [Great] Thanksgiving? That is the well spring of who we are and what we are.”
He went on to say, “So as Christians we recognize our indebtedness to one another. My indebtedness to you for just being there. Never mind anything else. ….the gratitude we owe one another is exactly what we owe to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ who gives us life, Jesus Christ has given us a new creation, humanity renewed, restored, and reset. Jesus Christ gives us hope. He is the one who gives us the capacity to move away from our fears. Who gives us strength and the joy to (go on.) We owe Christ big time as they say.”
“The gospel tells us it is that level of owing, that level of indebtedness, that we have to introduce into our relations with one another. Because the other who waits for us, especially in the stranger, in the naked, in the sick, in the imprisoned, the stranger who waits for us, the neighbor who waits for us, waits for us with a gift of life given within them. Without them we will not live.” (Archbishop of Canterbury, Sermon preached at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, New Orleans LA, Sept. 2007)
“Without them we will not live.” Without those who need us we will die. Is it possible that Luke told this story about Jesus healing the lepers because the people in the churches in Luke’s day had begun to take God’s grace and blessings for granted? I wonder if they thought of themselves as true believers and shut others out? I wonder if they got lazy about worship and complacent. Maybe they got too busy to show gratitude to God. If so, Jesus once again shows that it is the outcast, the outsider, the one on the margins who teaches the people of God about faith, about praising God, and most of all about gratitude.
The great Reformer, Martin Luther, was asked to define true worship. He answered, “The tenth leper turning back.” May God help us to turn back. Amen