18 Pentecost/Year C – October 12, 2025
Track 2 Scriptures: 2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c; Psalm 111; 2 Timothy 2:8-15; Luke 17:11-19
Rev Julie Platson
Opening Prayer: (Feasting on the Word: Worship Companion)
God of our salvation, you are the source of wisdom and joy. Your love and mercies are not limited to one time or to one people. You continue to heal and to save, transcending the artificial boundaries and barriers we set. For such expansive love, we offer you all of our thanks and praise, now and forever. Amen.
Fall has always a busy travel time for me throughout the years: For work, church meetings, conferences, and some family visits mixed in too. But, this year, it feels even busier, because there’s a lot of extra details and variables mixed in to my reasons for travel this fall…
Travelling is a joy, even though exhausting at times. And no matter how enjoyable the purpose for the travel is, there’s often a bit of anxiety in the mix too…an anxiety with not being in our usual places 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 tend to 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 when we were travelling…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 in a place that wasn’t quite familiar… and perhaps, we forget…to give thanks to God… that no matter where we are, we are in the hands of God who sees us, loves us, welcomes us, heals us, and grounds us in a place we can call home…home with God…and one another…
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…how it felt 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, considered an outsider. He was made clean. He was healed. He was noticed, acknowledged, his human dignity was respected and honored. And, he turned back to praise God and thank Jesus. Only the Samaritan in this story turned back to praise God and thank Jesus. The other nine did not. We really don’t know why the others didn’t.
As we pay attention to the small details in this story, we can see that 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 in today’s story…to return to God to give thanks for everything…and in doing so…our faith makes us whole and well…in all times, and in all circumstances…
It is by the Samaritan’s example in today’s story…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, forgiveness and mercy offered, love shared among everyone…and when we remember, in all times and in all circumstances, 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 we can think of who live on the margins, and on the outskirts of a welcoming and loving community…
We can all most likely recall some times in our own lives when we’ve been on the outside, looking in, too, and how lonely and isolated that felt …and we can look back and remember how we were nudged to return and give thanks and praise to God, Jesus for welcoming us home once again…we have experienced 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…joining hands with one another…and welcome someone home, once again….and with all of our hands joined together – lift them up, praising God together:
Hallelujah! Let us give thanks to the Lord with our whole heart! (psalm 111)
O Lord my God, how great thou art!
Prayer/Hymn: How Great Thou Art