First Reading Ruth 1:1-19a
1In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. 2The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. 3But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, 5and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband. 6Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food. 7So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. 8But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. 9The Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband!” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. 10And they said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” 11But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? 12Turn back, my daughters; go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, 13would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.” 14Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. 15And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” 16But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 17Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” 18And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more. 19a So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem.
Psalm Psalm 111
1Hallelujah! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, in the congregation. 2Great are the deeds of the Lord! they are studied by all who delight in them. 3His work is full of majesty and splendor, and his righteousness endures forever. 4He makes his marvelous works to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and full of compassion. 5He gives food to those who fear him; he is ever mindful of his covenant. 6He has shown his people the power of his works in giving them the lands of the nations. 7The works of his hands are faithfulness and justice; all his commandments are sure. 8They stand fast forever and ever, because they are done in truth and equity. 9He sent redemption to his people; he commanded his covenant forever; holy and awesome is his Name. 10The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; those who act accordingly have a good understanding; his praise endures forever.
Second Reading 2 Timothy 2:1-13
1You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. 3Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. 5An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. 6It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. 7Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. 8Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, 9for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! 10Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. 11The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; 12if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; 13if we are faithless, he remains faithful — for he cannot deny himself.
Gospel Luke 17:11-19
11On the way to Jerusalem {Jesus} was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. 12And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance 13and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 14When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. 15Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; 16and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. 17Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? 18Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”
THEY CRIED OUT TO GOD
In the cartoon strip Ziggy, Ziggy and his dog Fuzz are lost in ski country. Ziggy pulls out a book and says to Fuzz, “We won’t get lost hiking in the woods this time, because I brought the cross-country skiers trail guide book . . .“Matter of fact, Fuzz, this area here doesn’t look familiar so I’d better consult the guide. See, right here it says there are three methods of finding our way home. First, there’s the ‘coin flip method.’ I think we’ll skip that one. “Two is the eeny-meeny-miney-mo method! Uh . . . that doesn’t sound too good . . . Ah, here we go!! “Three is the auditory method.’ Sounds impressive, doesn’t it? Let’s see what it says to do. A. Check for a cell signal. If you have a cell signal, problem solved, pull up Waze and find the quickest route home. However, if you don’t have a signal, then proceed to step B: Get comfortable. Step C: Take a deep breath. Step D: Yell “Help” as loud as you can!’”
In our gospel passage for today, we hear the familiar story of ten men with leprosy who had no way of saving themselves. As we’ve learned from past encounters with this lesson, their disease affected these men in three distinct ways. It afflicted them physically, with inflammation, severe nerve damage and as the disease progressed, disfigurement. Second, it affected them socially. Because the disease was communicable, by law, it cut them off from contact with others. Finally, it affected them spiritually by cutting them off from worship in the Temple. Someone with leprosy was literally an outcast from all but their own self-created community, separating them emotionally, physically and spiritually and the only option and hope for these men was to cry out for help; thankfully Jesus heard them.
This passage reminds me of the story of a cruise ship that passes a small desert island once each year. As the ship nears the island, those on deck watch as a ratty-looking bearded man runs out on the beach and starts shouting and waving his hands. “Who is that?” asks one of the passengers. “I have no idea,” replies the captain. “But every time we sail past, and he goes nuts.” Jesus is traveling along the border between Samaria and Galilee when He encounters a group of men with leprosy. Lepers were accustomed to having others “sail past” them all the time, since society considered them unclean, an anathema.
By Hebraic law, they were unclean and were avoided. Because of their malady, they were exiled, quarantined and forced to stay away from their community. Everywhere a leper went, they were required to stay at least six feet away from a healthy person and they were required to shout a warning to anyone who passed by, “Unclean! Unclean!” Can you imagine seeing people flinch and run away from you as you shout, “Unclean! Unclean!” Their disease quite literally became the identity. This is why it didn’t surprise to me that these desperate men were shouting at Jesus.
They were so desperate for help, they quit shouting “Unclean,” and instead, they started shouting, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” I’m certain they had heard the rumors and stories. They had heard of Jesus’ ability to heal and control demons, so they cry aloud, Jesus, Master, shop us your mercy. From reading this story and others, we know what they were hoping for from Jesus; healing, wholeness and restoration. But more than that, He could give them their lives back. So, let me ask this: What do we expect when we cry out to Jesus?
Do we expect healing? Do we expect comfort? Do we expect an answer? I think these leprous men, at a minimum, just wanted Jesus to see them, to acknowledge them as something more than a disease. Of course, they were hoping for more, they wanted Jesus to heal them. To offer them the hope of restoration to their life and their community. They had been cut off from normal life, making them desperate, isolated and hopeless. Even if Jesus could only offer them some kind words and the presence of God, even if it were just momentary, I think these outcast and dying men would have at least been comforted. But Jesus, as we know, has so much more to offer.
When we stop and consider this story in light of our Christian walk, I think it offers us a great image of our faith journey, and what it means to be a Christian. The journey of faith often comes with three essential steps. First, we come to Jesus with a need, not knowing how He will respond, yet secure in the fact that He will hear us and answer. Jesus in Matthew tells us, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (11:28). Second, we receive new life and respond in gratitude. Paul reminds us in Philippians, “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me (4:13). Finally, we go out with a new mission, to share the message of Jesus and the promise of new life to others. The prophet Isaiah says to us, “I will tell of the kindnesses of the LORD, the deeds for which he is to be praised, according to all the LORD has done for us– yes, the many good things he has done for Israel, according to his compassion and many kindnesses” (63:7). The first step in the leper’s faith journey was that they came to Jesus with their need. Many start out our faith journey with what could be called a “tow truck faith.”
Many have found themselves stuck. They’re broken down. Their spiritual engine has failed them, and they want a quick tow back to their life. So, they cry out to Jesus with their needs. Henri Nouwen was a priest and a professor of psychology who taught at some of the most prestigious universities in the world. One day, he gave up his comfortable life of teaching and serving a prominent church in order to work at L’Arche community, a home for developmentally disabled adults in Canada. One day a woman named Janet, a member of that community, came up to Henri and asked, “Henri, can you bless me?”
Henri made the sign of the cross on her forehead and said a short prayer. The woman wasn’t satisfied. She said, “Henri, it doesn’t work.” Puzzled, Henri asked himself, what was she talking about? His blessing didn’t work? Later, at a worship service that evening, Henri tried again. He announced at the end of the service, “Janet wants a blessing.” He expected her to come forward for more prayer and anointing. Instead, Janet came forward and put her head on Henri’s chest. He hugged her and said, “Blessed are you, Janet. You know how much we love you. You know how important you are. You know what a good woman you are.” Janet’s face shone with joy.
This was the blessing she’d been looking for. The other worshippers got up from their seats and came forward too, all requesting the same kind of blessing Janet had received. They didn’t want a ritual anointing and a prayer. They wanted a hug and sincere words of love and acceptance. God’s first blessing on us is the blessing of seeing us and our deepest needs and lovingly accepting us. Throughout the Bible, we see that Jesus is always attentive to, aware of, even searching out those who are suffering and those who are left out. I’m convinced that even if one leper had stood by the side of the road and whispered to Jesus, He would have responded. This brings us to the second step in thefaith journey, returning to Jesus with thanksgiving. This is wherethis story becomes a cautionary tale for us.
These desperate souls cry out loudly for pity, and Jesus gives them a challenge instead: “Go, show yourselves to the priest.” In those days, priests were the only ones who could verify if someone had been healed of leprosy. A priest would inspect the patient and if he didn’t see any evidence of sores and swelling, he could announce that the patient had been healed, and would restore them to the community again. The caution here is that we need to be careful when we ask Jesus for something. Often, He will give you more than you ask. But before you can receive, you must believe.
God isn’t like turning on Waze. When God says, “Go” that’s a complete sentence. Throughout the Bible, God sends people out into unknown territory and expects them to walk in faith. In obedience, the leprous men did as they were instructed, and on their way to the Temple they were restored to health. And because God never goes back on His word, nine of the lepers doubtlessly returned to their normal lives. They were healed; the curse of uncleanness had been removed. I’m sure they were filled with excitement and joy and couldn’t wait to get back to their old lives. We all can identify with these men and with the elation they must have felt. However, one leper, a Samaritan man, returns to thank Jesus. Starting in verse 15 we read, “One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.” The one man who returned to thank Jesus wasn’t even a Jew. He was a Samaritan.
This Samaritan, when he saw he was healed, “came back, praising God in a loud voice and threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him.” Here’s another really good lesson in this verse: anytime we cry for help loudly, we need to let our praise be even louder! Bogger Jennifer Wiler tells of reading a powerful book, The Heavenly Man, by a persecuted pastor in China. The author, Brother Yun, suffers torture, beatings, starving, electrocution and being confined to a tiny prison cell.
One day, Brother Yun felt the urge to pray for a Bible. This was a suicide prayer because if the guards found out he had a Bible, they would have increased his tortures. But Brother Yun prayed anyway, and a few days later, a passing guard tossed a Bible into his tiny cell. Brother Yun writes, “I knelt down and wept, thanking the Lord for this great gift. I could scarcely believe my dream had come true! No prisoner was ever allowed to have a Bible or any Christian literature, yet strangely, God provided a Bible for me! Through this incident the Lord showed me that regardless of men’s evil plans for me, He had not forgotten me and was in control of my life.” “I knelt down and wept, thanking God for this great gift.”
Jennifer Wiler made the point in her blog that most of us wouldn’t have thanked God for the Bible. We would have begged to be set free from the prison, to be released from the tortures of the guards. But Brother Yun was overcome with gratitude because this Bible was proof that God had a ministry for him in prison, and that God would sustain him in his suffering. Loud, humble, enthusiastic, heartfelt, uninhibited gratitude is one of the defining marks of a Christian. That kind of gratitude naturally turns to joy, which is another one of the defining marks of a Christian.
Many Christians reach the first part of the faith journey, bringing their need to Jesus, and then never go any further. They fail to live in perpetual thanksgiving and praise: they seldom, if ever, return to Jesus and throw themselves at His feet and pour out their praise to God. Sadly, this means that they miss out on the greater blessing God could do in their lives when they take God’s blessings for granted. They return to their old lives without ever experiencing and expressing their overwhelming gratitude to Jesus for the salvation and hope He has given to all of us.
Now someone may be thinking cynically, “Well, if I had some of the blessings some other people enjoy, gratitude would come much easier.” But a more mature understanding of life tells us that our sense of gratitude doesn’t depend so much on our circumstances as it does on the condition of our heart. Dr. Tom Long tells about the time when he was having one of those frustrating days when he had more things to do than he could possibly accomplish. So, he was in a foul mood as he rushed through the store. It didn’t improve his mood to get behind a mother and her young son who were playing games as they strolled nonchalantly down the grocery store aisles.
After passing the mother and son several times, Dr. Long realized that the boy was intellectually challenged. As he watched them, he couldn’t help but notice that the mother had turned their shopping trip into a game, a game that allowed her son to participate in hunting down grocery items. They seemed to be having a wonderful time. A much-impressed Dr. Long decided to engage the mother in a conversation. “I was just admiring your relationship with your son,” he said. Dr. Long reports that at this, the mother beamed and replied, “Oh yes, he’s a gift from God.”
I wish every child could have a mom or dad like that. I wish every parent could think of their child as a gift from God. Our praise and thanksgiving are not dependent on our circumstances. They’re dependent on our heart and our relationship with God. They’re dependent on how much we know the power, sovereignty, provision and grace of the one, true, almighty, everlasting God whose love never fails and whose purposes are eternal. This brings us to step three.
The third step in our faith journey is to go forth from God’s throne of grace with a new mission. We come to Jesus with a need. We return to Jesus with praise and thanksgiving and then we go out into our communities with a new mission—the mission to spread the good news of God’s love, His grace, His care, His blessings and His promise of new life with others.
Look once again at the lepers’ story. While the ten lepers were on the way to the priests, they were cleansed. Nine presumably went back to their old lives. One returned to Jesus with loud cries of praise and thanksgiving. And Jesus looked at that one man and said, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” And the word Jesus used here for “made you well” can also be translated as “saved you.” You have healing. You have restoration. And now, you have salvation. We too have been recipients of God’s love, mercy and blessings and we too need to “rise and go”—others need to hear our story.
There’s a wonderful story about the famed actress of a few decades ago, Betty Hutton. Hutton was an award-winning movie star who also found fame on Broadway and in television and radio. Like so many who have found fame and fortune, she suffered from depression and an addiction to alcohol and drugs. In 1970, she had a nervous breakdown and attempted suicide. Through the spiritual guidance of a Roman Catholic priest and God’s strength, she gave up her addictions and gave her life to Jesus.
In 1980, Hutton returned to show business in the Broadway musical Annie. All the other cast members of Annie had detailed biographies of their lives and careers in the program guide. Betty Hutton didn’t include any of her major motion pictures in her cast biography. She didn’t include her awards, or her television shows, or her radio programs, or her starring roles on Broadway. Betty Hutton’s cast biography consisted of five words: “I’m back. THANKS TO GOD.” What a wonderful testimony, “I’m back. THANKS TO GOD.” That’s the leper’s story, isn’t it? And that should be our story too. “I’m back. THANKS TO GOD.”
God didn’t save us so we could go back to our old lives. God didn’t save us for our own comfort and satisfaction. God saved us in the waters of Baptism so that we would be adopted into the family of God and made citizens of His kingdom. God rescued us from sin, death and the devil so that we could pass on the message of hope, joy, love and new life in Jesus to everyone we meet. “Rise and go, your faith has saved you.”
Rise and go, in praise and thanksgiving to God. Rise and go; the world needs to know the hope that is in us. Rise and go because someone you know may be crying out in need. Right outside our doors, there are people in need, people who are dying, hopeless and cut off from the love of God. These people desperately need to hear God’s message of hope and love. Because God heard us when we were in need and answered, we need to, will joy and thanksgiving, “Rise and go.” Amen
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