18 Pentecost/Year C
October 13, 2019
Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7; Psalm 66:1-11; 2 Timothy 2:8-15; Luke 17: 11-19
It is good to be home again and to be here with all of you again. I had the opportunity to travel to MA and NYC to be with family and old friends when I attended my high school reunion. It was good to visit new places and old places…. I attempted to recall what it was like growing up in Cape Cod, MA…trying so hard to re-capture the familiarity and comfort of growing up in a place where I was surely blessed by family, friends, a beautiful landscape of oceans, and endless opportunities that I was given throughout my life there. I am grateful for the people and this place that I called home for so many years. And in my heart, will always be home.
My time in NYC with my son and his wife, was also a blessed time, and at the same time there were those moments of uncomfortableness, and being overwhelmed by the sights and sounds of a city that is not familiar to me, in a city that I’m not sure I could ever call home. But my son, his wife, and millions of others…thrive in their city…love their city and call it home. And they are grateful.
I also had the opportunity to attend the diocesan convention in Anchorage, for a few days after my vacation. It is always a blessed time to gather with others from across the state, to hear about what’s going on in their homes, neighborhoods, and worshipping communities. It’s always a reminder to me, of the diversity of God’s people, and the places we call home, and the comfort we receive, in being welcomed into a circle and a community of love, that we had not yet intimately known.
Travelling is a joy, but it can also be a mix of joy and anxiety in not being in our usual place of comfort. We miss the comfort of our own beds, the foods we like, the familiar smells in the air we breathe, the places and people who give us joy in our neighborhoods, and our own routines that keep us grounded to this place we call home. We count ourselves blessed to have a place we call home. And we are thankful.
But, after a time, once we are back home, we fall back into our routines and back into our circle of comfort….and perhaps forget….the uneasiness of what it felt like to be an “outsider” for a time…what it felt like…to be on the outside of a community, looking in…what it felt like to live with some uncertainty and uncomfortableness for a time… and perhaps, we forget…to give thanks to God… for the blessing of being in relationship with God, and others, who see us, invite us, welcome us and ground us in this place…we call home.
In today’s gospel reading…we hear about the 10 lepers, outsiders, untouchables, who approach Jesus when he comes into a village…but, they keep their distance…they are used to being on the outside…looking in…on the outside, perhaps…just waiting for someone to notice them, and invite them, to be part of the community gathered….
And they summon up the courage to call out to Jesus…I wonder why? What had they heard about him? Maybe they have been following Him, and watching him closely from a distance…from a perspective that others on the inside could not have known? Or perhaps from a perspective that others had forgotten…what it meant to be an outsider…
The 10 lepers call out to Jesus, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” Jesus sees them…he hears them…he understands them…he responds to them… “Go and show yourselves to the priests”. 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. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan.
He was not only a leper, but a Samaritan. He was a foreigner. He was made clean. He was healed. And he turned back to thank Jesus. No one else did. Just the Samaritan in this story.
In Jesus’ time, Samaritans were the natural foe of any story because they were considered as Gentiles. This Samaritan’s behavior is a reversal, where the outsider expected to behave poorly becomes the model disciple. (Helena L. Martin)
It is the outsider who reminds us of who it is that loves us, welcomes us, heals us, makes us whole, restores us, and reconciles us to God, and one another…into a community of love, God’s love…God’s home. It is the outsider, the leper, the Samaritan, who reminds us all…to return to God to give thanks for everything…and in doing so…our faith makes us whole and well…
It is by the Samaritan’s example…that we get a tiny glimpse of what God’s kingdom, God’s beloved community looks like…a home, a community for all God’s beloved children….where there are no more outsiders looking in…where there are invitations extended, welcomes celebrated, love shared among everyone…and when we remember to give thanks and praise to God, for welcoming us all into God’s forever home.
In Jesus’ time, and in this story, we know the outsiders as lepers…
What about in our time now…who does our society label and treat as outsiders now? The poor, the homeless, the addicted, those with behavioral health and mental health disorders, those with physical conditions that are hidden from our eyes, those who don’t act like us, or believe what we do, those who are in prison, those who are tucked away in facilities, the children who are caught up in a system of abuse and neglect, those who are foreigners and refugees…
We have a long list of people that live on the margins, and on the outskirts of a welcoming and loving community…
We’ve been on the outside, looking in, too…many times…and we’ve been called to return, many times, to give thanks to God, for welcoming us home once again…we know the comfort and joy in this…
Might we tap into that remembrance of being on the outside, looking in and tap into our thankfulness and gratitude for God’s blessing, often - and offer and share the same love, comfort and joy and assurance of our faith that has made us well…and invite others to know the same?
Might we reach out, not in fear, but with love…join hands with one another…and welcome someone home, once again….and with all of our hands joined together – lift them up, praising God together:
Song: My Tribute (the Purple Maranatha Praise Chorus Book)
To God be the glory, to God be the glory, to God be the glory for the things He has done!
With His hand He has saved us, with His pow’r He has raised us, to God be the glory for the things He has done!
Rev. Julie Platson
St Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church
Sitka, Alaska