Sermon: 20th Sunday after Pentecost
Text: Luke 17:11-19, 2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c
There is an episode of the Simpsons where the family goes skiing in the mountains. While they are there Marge, the Mother, trying to avoid injury on the slopes by sitting in the lodge has a coo-coo clock falls off its nail and break her leg. She is told that she needs to stay in the hospital while her leg heals. While she is in the hospital her daughter Lisa finds herself as the one trying to control the rest of the family.
She organizes all the tasks that Marge used to do into a chore list and makes Bart and Homer work when they don’t want to. They do the work really, really lazily and badly. This infuriates Lisa all the more. She comes up with a plan to get revenge upon Bart and Homer, she takes green poster paint and mixes it with oatmeal and paints “sores” on the two while they are sleeping. When they wake up the next morning and run to Lisa to have her help them, she looks up the “disease” online and tells them they have leprosy from living in such squalid conditions.
Now Lisa hopes that they will then clean up the house and listen more to her commands. Bart and Homer however instead run to Ned Flanders’ house, their next door neighbor, asking him to help them. Ned panics and sends them to a leper colony in Hawaii, where they have to endure treatments in the electric needle hut, but get to live on an island in Hawaii. Marge and Lisa eventually join them after Marge is released from the hospital, and the episode ends with Marge an Lisa enjoying the sunset as Homer and Bart scream in pain in the electric needle hut.
Leprosy is an intriguing disease, especially in the ancient world. We have two stories of people with leprosy in our texts today, Namaan and the ten lepers. One interesting side point is that we are not really sure whether Namaan’s disease was what we now would describe as leprosy, he is not secluded like was done with people with leprosy in the ancient world and to some extent still today. There are cures, but in parts of the world where these cures are not available, leper colonies are still found. But, either way, we see in the text that Namaan’s disease causes him to suffer. The ten lepers show the more likely signs of leprosy, or at least act as people who are unclean under the laws of the Israelites. We find the laws in regards to leprosy in Leviticus 13. Here we are told that people with lesions or sores are to bring themselves to the priests and if it is found to be leprous or diseased enough he is to be declared ceremonially unclean. Those who are leprous are supposed to wear torn clothes and shout unclean, unclean when approached. They are essentially cut off from the rest of the community.
And that is what we find in our text this day. Jesus is travelling to Jerusalem, but takes a wind-about way through the border lands of Samaria and Galilee. There ten lepers approach and as they are supposed to, they call to Jesus from a distance. “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” They do not ask for healing, only mercy. And Jesus, instead of offering words of healing, or even words of mercy, tells them to show themselves to the priests. He does not tell them why, and they do not ask why. They trust completely in the words of Jesus. He tells them to go to the priests, to presumably show themselves to them again for analysis. But, what is amazing is what happens next. We would expect healing to happen when they reach the priests, after they do something. This is close to what happens in our Hebrew Bible text for today. Namaan complains about having to simply wash in the waters of the Jordan, and it is not until his servants convince him that he trusts enough to do this simple thing. Here the lepers all trust immediately, and they go. But before they get there, they are healed. “and as they went, they were made clean.”
We need to jump ahead briefly, Jesus tells the tenth leper who turns back to give praise, that his faith has healed him. Jesus is not talking about giving praise as faith, but the trust to go where Christ calls us to go as faith. The moment of the ten lepers turning to go to the priests is their faith. But often that is where our faith stops. We are too often like the 9 lepers, we have faith, but we fail to see where it leads us. We fail to give praise for what God has given us and we fail to do what God calls us to do.
To understand this we need to look at the verb to see. But first we look at love and faith. Martin Luther in his sermon on this text states that the two main themes here are faith and love. We have already seen the faith, it is in the trust that the lepers put in Jesus’s words. And we have that faith, we hear Christ’s words, we hear Christ’s commands. That is the easy part, we do not have to seek our faith, it is given to us in Christ. Love is harder, this is not to say we do not see our love for family, or friends, or see their love for us. Here we are talking about complete love. Laying down one’s life for another. Understanding God’s love for us, and for all.
I thought about just using Luther’s sermon for a little while. I then put it into a word document and found out that it was 30 pages long. I decided to not use it. But Luther has a good point about love in it. Christ has given his life for these lepers, and for us. That is complete love. Luther says,
“As though he would say: So completely have I done all my works for your benefit, that I also gave my life for you, which is the greatest of all love, that is, the greatest work of love. If I had known a greater love, I would have manifested it to and for you. Therefore you should also love each other, and do all good deeds to one another. I require no more of you. I do not say you are to build for me churches, make pilgrimages, fast, sing, become monks or priests, or that you are to enter into this order or rank; but you do my will and service when you do good to each other, and no one cares for himself but for others, on this all entirely depends.”
Before we can truly work in this world, we need to see God already at work in it, we need to be able to see God’s presence in everything and everyone.
Let’s return to seeing. The verb translated to see is used twice in our gospel this day. The verb can have the meaning to see, but it also means, to perceive, notice, to become aware of. The first time is after the lepers call to Jesus, Jesus sees them. He does not ask what is the matter, or how he can help, as soon as he sees them he tells them to go and show themselves to the priests. Jesus knows and answers their prayers before they ask them. Jesus sees them, sees the Children of God that they are, sees beyond their lesions and sores, sees beyond what the law says they are and sees who they truly are. And loves them.
That is true for all, all are seen by God and loved in this world, regardless of who they are, they are shown God’s mercy, grace, and love. We are shown God’s mercy, grace, and love.
There is another use of seeing in our text. It is the other side of this love. It is the recognition that one is loved. This is even harder. Of the ten lepers, only one “sees.” Only one becomes aware of the love of Christ in his life, and in the world. Only one turns back in praise and thanksgiving. All are healed of their illness, but only one has his eyes opened to the love of God in the world.
Luther has stated that our worship should be like the tenth leper, a uncontrolled need to give praise and thanksgiving in recognition of God’s work in our lives and in the world around us. David Lose, a professor of preaching at Luther Seminary says,
“Worship is not simply about hearing God's story or even praising God in response; rather, hearing the story through Scripture and sermon and praising through song and gifts is all intended to help us see God at work in our lives and the world. Perhaps this is even the key to the Christian life. Before we are called to believe or confess or help or do we are called simply to see...and to help others do the same. We are called, that is, to point out blessing, to claim mercy, to name grace wherever we are and with all the courage we can muster.
And it goes further. When we look to God, do we see stern judge or loving parent? When we look to ourselves, do we see failure or beloved child? When we look to the future, do we see fearful uncertainty or an open horizon? There is, of course, no right answer to any of these questions. How we answer depends upon what we see. Yet how we answer dramatically shapes both our outlook and our behavior.”
God calls us to see the love we have been given.
God calls us to see that love given for others.
God calls us to work to show others that God is truly at work in their lives.
We work because we have been shown God’s love, for the purpose of showing others God’s love.
But there is one final part to these texts. Who are these two healed individuals? Namaan was a leprous Aramean, the tenth Leper was a leprous Samaritan. They were the foreign, diseased outsiders, the outcasts of the outcast. And it is to these that God’s love is shown and it is their eyes that are opened, it is their voices who offer praise and thanksgiving to God. If God can work to and through these, we are certainly worthy to share God's love. It is hard to do so, but each day we need to ask God to open our eyes to the Love of God found in this world.
Let us pray,
God of faith and love,
We praise you for the love given to us, the complete love given to us in your Son, Jesus Christ. We praise you for our ability to trust, knowing that you do not break your promises, even though we constantly do. We praise you for your grace and mercy shown to those who are suffering in this world, help us to see you at work there and help us to use our hands to bring about your work in this world. For we know that it is your work, but our hands through which you work. Help us to be beacons of your love, including not excluding, welcoming not casting away, loving not hating.
In your Son’s name,
Amen
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