Monthly Archives: October 2013

Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost: Despite Our Leprosy

Readings

2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c

Psalm 111

1 Timothy 2:8-15

Luke 17:11-19

 

Devotion

Peace be with you!

What does it mean to really see someone? Not just the parts you want to see, but the parts of the another person that make you uncomfortable and downright scared. It is unnerving to get to know another person’s darkness, and it is even more unnerving to let someone else to see your darkness. Getting to know someone and letting him or her get to know you is scary business.

Jesus is travelling between Samaria and Galilee when ten lepers approach him while still keeping their distance and call out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us” (Luke 17:11-13). The ten lepers are suffering from skin sores, nerve damage, and muscle weakness that only progresses over time with no cure or real relief. The lepers are segregated from society in Biblical times because of their unpleasant, deformed appearance.

Today our lepers are the homeless, the child molesters, the drug addicts, the alcoholics, the physically disabled, the mentally challenged, or [whoever “it” is] that make you uncomfortable or scared. These are the people we label as dangerous and cast away as unproductive members of society. At some point in our lives, we probably have all been treated as lepers. Perhaps we had a different opinion than society as a whole or perhaps we suffered ostracism of a popular clique in junior high. Whatever the case, we all know what it is like to be excluded.

The ten lepers call out and plead with Jesus to heal them (Luke 17:13). They are seeking someone to really see them for who they are – who God planned them to be, not just deformed individuals who are unable to tend to their own needs. Many of the individuals who are physically disabled that I meet (and even myself) are frustrated with how society as a whole treats them – as individuals unaware of the world around them. Individuals tend to think the wheelchairs, walkers, and other adaptive devices mean the person using them needs extra care and is less intelligent. When people tell my friends how saintly they are for helping me get out of the house, my friends usually exclaim, “Erin is the one getting me out the house!”

Jesus tells the ten lepers to go and show themselves to a priest. They all go and are made clean (Luke 17:14). Jesus recognizes the ten lepers as individuals in need of being made clean and healed. They are individuals who are suffering unnecessarily; they came to Jesus out of faith that he will make them whole. The ten lepers listen and put their trust in Jesus when they follow his command to go and see a priest. Today we see Jesus in others when we make pleas for healing, forgiveness, and grace. Doctors tell us to take medicine when we are sick; personal trainers push us to exercise when we want to sit down; friends and family members catch us when we fall after a mistake. Jesus uses individuals to see our darkness and to show us the light.

Out of the ten lepers, only one leper, a foreigner, comes back to see and worship Jesus (Luke 17:15-18). All ten lepers were made clean and healed, but only one realizes Jesus has made him whole. Jesus says to him, “Get up and go. Your faith has made you well.” (Luke 17:19). Jesus sees and recognizes the healed individual as the one who has leprosy; the individual who was previously a leper sees and recognizes Jesus as the Lord who has made whole. The individual who is now clean experiences a change in his life’s direction. He is no longer the unpleasant, disabled person shunned by society, but he is an active member of society. Not only that, but his own sense of worth has increased and has made him whole.

We do not need to experience a physical healing to be made whole. A battered woman who finds the courage to end an abusive relationship experiences being made whole when she reclaims her life. She stops allowing someone else to controls her every decision and movement, and she decides what she needs and wants and who she is as an individual. The power of making decisions and claiming your voice and personality gives a person a sense of worth to live in the world.

Photo Credit: Amber Sue Photography, www.ambersuephotography.com

Photo Credit: Amber Sue Photography, www.ambersuephotography.com

In reality, we are all lepers with no business entering the Kingdom of God. We all have dark places and secrets that we dare not share with others, because they are outright damning. These places and secrets are things we ourselves would like to forget, and they hold us back from feeling whole and having relationships with others. Thankfully God comes into the world through Jesus Christ, dies on the cross, and conquers death in order to restore our relationship with him. We are made whole through Jesus Christ.

Thanks be to God!

 

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for seeing us as individuals able to carry out your plan despite our “leprosy.” Help us to feel whole and give us a sense of worth to be in healthy relationship with others and you. Allow us to see each one another as we really are without passing judgment. Remind us to have faith that you will care for us, despite our darkness. Thank you for making us whole through Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

Reflective Questions

Please answer the following reflective questions in the comments below.  Please agree to disagree and be respectful to each other. (If you have not already done so, please also take a moment, to sign the comment covenant.)  You can answer as many questions as you would like.

1.How are you a leper?

2.How has your faith you whole?

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost: Faith Exploited

Readings

Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4

Psalm 37:1-9

2 Timothy 1:1-9

Luke 17:5-10

Devotion

Photo Credit: Amber Sue Photography, www.ambersuephotography.com

Photo Credit: Amber Sue Photography, www.ambersuephotography.com

Peace be with you!

A child’s faith is something special. Children do not question if the Biblical stories are true: Jesus loves me;  the Bible says tells me so. Out of curiosity they question what God looks like, how God made the world in seven days, or why God sent Jesus to die for their sins. Their imaginations fill in the blanks where we cannot find the words to explain it.

Jesus has been talking about the costs of discipleship with the crowds: make your earthly family second and God first (Luke 14:26), carry the cross (Luke 14:27), give up all of your possessions (Luke 14:33), and no going back (Luke 19:57-62). To follow Jesus, you have to forgive those who sin and seek repentance (Luke 17:3-4), even if they sin again. When you sin, someone will rebuke you; when you choose to repent, the other person is to forgive you no matter how many times you have sinned. We live in a vicious cycle: sin, be rebuked, repent, be forgiven, and repent again. To be Jesus’ disciples is to be called to make daily sacrifices. We have to make the choice daily to follow Jesus Christ because we are constantly being tempted by the Devil and we constantly have to say no to temptation. There is nothing simple or easy about being Jesus’ disciples; we constantly have to make the choice to follow.

Most days, the choice seems simple (though perhaps not easy). We make it without thinking, because we are devoted disciples who realize the consequences are only temporary and the reward is eternal life in the Kingdom of God. Children talk about what they learn in Sunday School without worrying that their belief in God might offend someone; they are overcome by the joy in knowing Jesus and feel an overwhelming need to share the good news. But as we get older, the choice to follow gets more difficult: how can I abandon my dying mom, how can I live without my cell phone, how can I share the good news with people who always reject it, how can I not worry about my mortgage payment, and [whatever “the consequence” is] that you have difficulty handling. Some days we are lost in the wilderness, overwhelmed by fears, and drowning in the darkness.

The disciples ask Jesus to increase their faith (Luke 17:5). The disciples are overwhelmed by the costs of discipleship because the costs seem unbearable. They have to put their trust in a man who claims to be the Son of God and give up everything to follow him. The task Jesus sets before them seems impossible.

Jesus is at his wit’s end with his disciples’ belief that faith can be measured. Jesus responds to the disciples, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” In the Greek, the word a‡n (an untranslatable particle “an”) indicates Jesus is criticizing the disciples for their lack of faith (Carey 2010).  All you need is a little faith, and Jesus will take care of the rest. Even when we struggle in the darkness, Jesus is shining the light for us to find our way to the Kingdom of God. Ordinary faith is sufficient to express our devotion to the Triune God; Jesus exploits our faith by calling us out of the darkness and into the light.

After Jesus heals someone, he says, “Your faith has healed you.” (Luke 3:48; 7:50; 17:19; 18:42). Faith cannot be measured. You cannot measure whether it changes how you perceive and respond to the world by transforming you into a child of God.

Jesus tells the disciples a parable. A slave serves his master by plowing the field or tending the sheep and then he comes in to make the evening meal (Luke 17:7-8). In Biblical times, slaves were devoted to their masters by doing whatever they were asked. The slaves were a part of the household and respected by their masters. However, Jesus points out how masters hardly ever ask their slaves to enjoy a meal with them or thank them for simply doing their job (Luke 17:8-9). Therefore, the disciples need to repent, because they do not do what they should do (Luke 17:10). All Jesus asks of them is to do ordinary acts of kindness to act out their faith.

As God’s children, we are his slaves. We are to devote ourselves to the Triune God and to spreading the good news throughout the world. Just as children live to obey their parents, we live to obey God’s commandments. Though children are born into sin, they have a certain innocence which allows them to live Jesus’ light in the world until someone or something takes it away. However, God the Father sends his only begotten son into the world to overcome the darkness with his light and to restore our innocence through his forgiveness – just as parents forgive their children. God is devoted to his children by sending Jesus Christ to die for our sins in order to restore our relationship with him.

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for exploiting our faith to serve you, even when we feel trapped in the darkness. Guide us to Jesus’ light in the darkness in order to lead others to your kingdom. Comfort us as we struggle in the wilderness, as we look towards heaven. Remind us that ordinary faith is sufficient for us to serve you. Thank you for devoting your message to us. Amen.

Works Cited

Carey, Greg. Commentary of Luke 17:5-10. September 24, 2010. http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=680 (accessed October 4, 2013).

Triune God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit

Reflective Questions

Please answer the following reflective questions in the comments below.  Please agree to disagree and be respectful to each other. (If you have not already done so, please also take a moment, to sign the comment covenant located here.)  You can answer as many questions as you would like. 

1. What is faith? How does it feel?

2. How has faith transformed you?