 |
 |
       |
|
 S
P I R I T U A L F O R M A T I O N |
|
·
CHILDREN'S EDUCATION |
SERMONS The
Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost By David Christian I have a friend who works as a prison chaplain. He spends his life among society's rejects; our outcasts. He works in a maximum security prison. There he deals with the worst of the worst. If you talk to him about his ministry, he will tell you that the people he works with, on the whole, are not nice people. They are in prison for a reason. And most of them should stay there. Yet, my friend would argue, they too are children of God, created in God's image. So he goes through the gates every day, carrying to them the message of God's love for them, the offer of God's forgiveness, and the promise of new life in him. The lepers of Jesus' day were, in many ways, similar to the men and women who fill the jails in our country today. They were kept separate from the other people. They were dressed in a distinctive way. They were not allowed to associate with the larger society. No one talked to them. No one cared for or about them. They were unclean, impure. In today's gospel, as Jesus is walking through Samaria on his way to Jerusalem and his death, he comes upon ten lepers. When they see him they cry out, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." Jesus actually does nothing to them. All he does is to tell them to go to the priests. According to the Law, it was up to the priests to declare them clean. They follow Jesus' command, and as they obey him, their request is granted. They are made clean. Nine of them continue on their way to the priests, but one of them, "when he sees that he is healed, turns back, praising God in a loud voice." When he reaches Jesus he throws himself to the ground and thanks him. Jesus says to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well." We hear nothing more of the other nine. Presumably they went on to the priests, were declared clean, and returned to their families and previous lives. All were cured of their leprosy. Only the one who returned, the Samaritan, was declared well. This is, in some way, more than what happened to the other nine. Being made well, being whole, is something more than simply being cured. There are two things that distinguish this one from the other nine. First, Luke tells us, he sees that he has been healed. He is aware. He recognizes that something has happened. And it is in the seeing that he is, in fact, healed. Health-wholeness-is a matter of being aware. Secondly, as soon as he becomes aware of what happens, he returns to Jesus and gives thanks. His awareness leads him to respond. It leads him into a relationship, a relationship with the one who has healed him. And it is in that relationship that Jesus declares what has already happened. This one has been healed. And he is sent on his way, a whole person. My chaplain friend tells me that most of the prisoners he deals with never really see or understand what he is telling them. But occasionally there is one who does see. There is one who does understand. One who becomes aware of the offer that is being made to him. And who responds to that offer. That, my friend tells me, is what keeps him returning to the prisons. Because when that one prisoner does see and understand and respond, then the miracle happens. Then the transformation occurs. Then in the middle of a maximum security prison, one person is healed; is made whole; is given new life; is made free. This is a freedom that cannot be given by the state. And it is a freedom that cannot be taken away by the state. From time to time prisoners are released. Most of them leave the walled prison unchanged and return to the prison of their former lives. They substitute one prison for another, just as the nine lepers who, when they were cured went to the priests to be declared clean under the Law. They exchanged the prison of leprosy for the prison of the Law. But, my friend tells me, when one who has heard and responded to the promise of Christ leaves prison, he rarely returns. If you can be whole-if you can be free-within the walls of a maximum security prison, you can be free anywhere. There is no prison strong enough to hold such a one. What prison holds you this day? What fear blinds you? J esus stands before you today offering you a way out. He offers you the love and forgiveness of God. He holds out to you the promise of healing; of new life; of true life. Open your eyes. See that you have been healed; that you have been freed. Accept the life that is to be found in relationship with God as God's dearly loved child. Give thanks. And then go your way into the freedom of the kingdom of God.
Proper
23C |
Chapel
of the Cross · 674 Mannsdale Road · Madison, Mississippi
39110 · (601) 856-2593
Copyright © 2001, Chapel of the Cross