To the leader. A Song. A Psalm.
1 Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth;
2 sing the glory of his name;
give to him glorious praise.
3 Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
Because of your great power, your enemies cringe before you.
4 All the earth worships you;
they sing praises to you,
sing praises to your name.” Selah
5 Come and see what God has done:
he is awesome in his deeds among mortals.
6 He turned the sea into dry land;
they passed through the river on foot.
There we rejoiced in him,
7 who rules by his might forever,
whose eyes keep watch on the nations—
let the rebellious not exalt themselves. Selah
11 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, 13 they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16 He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? 18 Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”
How many here were without power? Did your life get rearranged because the simple things we take for granted like hot showers, washing our clothes and ways to cook and store our food were interrupted? I went to Chamber breakfast on Thursday morning shortly after the power went out and several people had dressed in the dark or skipped showers because they were without power. Severino’s severed us breakfast with generator power. The church and preschool were closed because our campus did not have electricity. Many are still without power. I ask you how did you feel when the power came back on? Joyful! Grateful! Celebrating being able to charge our phones, get the news or see at night!!! This outage makes us more grateful for the energy we use to live. If you were not affected (my home has power), I think we are also grateful because we see our friends and neighbors adversely affected. We each get a choice about how we respond to this outage- anger and frustration like the person who shot at a PG&E truck or we have the ability to be grateful when the power is restored.
Our Psalm today expresses joy for all that God has done and encourages us to make a joyful noise to our Lord. I can only imagine the unjoyful sounds and grumbling when the power went out. But we, like the psalmist, can count our blessings in the midst of trials. He remembered when God parted the sea for their liberation from slavery. Today we are grateful for all the awesome things God has done!
First and foremost, the joy we have in Jesus Christ being our Savior, offering us a connection to God and guidance for our lives.
I am also grateful for Iglesias de Dios, and Little Learners Preschool on our campus.
I am grateful for your faithfulness and generosity.
I am joyful in our mission activities.
I am forever joyful in YOU, the heart and soul of this congregation.
Joy is the theme for our stewardship season- The Joy of Giving. I trust you received the mailing showing our Joy of Caring, Compassion and Community. I hope you will pray about the joy you have in St. Andrew and the gratitude you have for this faith community. Please make your gratitude known to us in your pledge commitment by November 3.
You can return your commitment card in the offering plate or to the office no later than November 3. Amazingly the lectionary passages are about Joy and Gratitude. I love when God works behind the scene!
At first you might think the gospel passage is about the Samaritan being the only one to return to say thank you. That is true. Jesus is making a point that the good news of the gospel is for all people including those who were outcast in that time. But if it was only about that, then it is focusing on what separates us rather than what unites us.
Let’s recap the parable.
Ten lepers yell to Jesus for mercy.
He directs them to go and show themselves to the priest.
On their way all are made clean.
Only one returns to say thank you.
There are a couple things I want to explore.
First, the difference between clean and well.
Secondly, gratitude.
Finally, Jesus’ parting words.
The difference between clean and well. All ten lepers took action and were on their way to show the priest. They heeded Jesus’ words and they were made clean.
Clean means they can return to communal life; they are no longer quarantined because of their ailment. Clean is a wonderful thing.
But that is not the point of the story, it almost happens without mention.
Yet clean is what the lepers were seeking. They wanted to be reunited with family, be able to return to the temple. Jesus gave them what they wanted by making them clean.
Ten were made clean but only one was made well. Why? Gratitude.
The Samaritan leper, the grateful one, turned back, praised God, prostrated himself and thanked Jesus!
Turn back is to repent, praising God is honoring the giver, prostrating is a way of humbling oneself, and thank you is simply; thank you! The one made well is the one who showed gratitude. The one who stopped what he was doing (walking to priests) so that he could be appreciative of God’s gifts.
A friend of mine says thank you every morning to God for sleep, even when that is elusive and for hot shower water mindful of the many people who do not have it. Gratitude woven into her day.
All 10 lepers were made clean, but only one was made well; because of his gratitude.
Your offering, your tithe, your pledge is a concrete way to say thank you to God, to show your gratitude. Not just once. But every week, every month, so that gratitude becomes a practice. Saying thank you to God becomes who we are as Christians.
Being “well” means spiritual wholeness, not just clean and looking good on the outside. There are people who go through life wanting to be made clean, never realizing they could also be made well, have spiritual wholeness, if they would only humble themselves and thank God. Make God a priority in our lives and in your giving. Gratitude is a demonstration of faith. Saying thank you is a sign of faith. Giving to God is a way to show our gratitude in a tangible way.
Finally, Jesus’ parting words to the thankful leper are worth noting. “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well” (19). When the first phrase “get up and go” appears in Luke-Acts it suggests that a significant (even wondrous) change is about to occur.
After the annunciation, for example, Mary “gets up and goes” to Elizabeth (Luke 1:39).
The prodigal son decides to “get up and go” back to his father (Luke 15:18),
and God tells Paul to “get up and go” to Damascus (Acts 22:10; cf. Acts 9:11; 10:20). His gratitude is an impetus to get up and go and do good things.
Which is how it works with us. My day goes better when I start it off with a time of prayer and gratitude. We too are returning to God and saying thank you and good things follow. For the grateful leper that means he was made spiritually whole. I believe we get closer to that when we start our day with gratitude.
Jesus also says “Your faith has made you well” in other places in Luke’s gospel; to the hemorrhaging woman (Luke 8:48) and to the blind beggar (Luke 18:42). All three times a life has been transformed. The woman declared her healing, the beggar can now see; following Jesus and glorifying God. The leper was made clean and well. My guess is that he will do wondrous things himself.
For us the difference between clean and well comes down to this.
Jesus forgives our sins and wipes clean our heart.
You are made clean by Jesus dying on the cross for you. That is a wonderful gift.
But the added gift is when we are made well in our faith. When we have spiritual wholeness, and we forgive ourselves, not just have a clean slate. When we live our lives in gratitude for the gift of God’s love. When we show our gratitude in how we live and how we share our gifts, saying thank you to our God.
There truly is a joy in being able to give to God. To say thank you to God in tangible ways. To take action and make our giving a spiritual practice we do over and over again. That is when we are living well. That is when we are made whole. That is when our faith is blessed! Amen.
