We open our mouths wide till God opens his hand, but after, as if the filling of our mouth were the stopping of our throats, so we are speechless and heartless. St. Bernard of Clairvaux Have you ever found yourself in a form of suffering that bound you together with other people because of a common predicament? Our world is full of communities that meet because of a shared grief that seeks a common cure. You’ve heard about or have even been a part of those grieving groups – cancer survivors’ networks, Veterans organizations, Al-Anon, and Alcoholics Anonymous, and so on. If you haven’t participated in any of them, you know that these communities meet to solve common problems that emerge from some kind of disease, addiction, or trauma. In each group, there is hope for mutual and reciprocal help. In each group, too, there is always the danger of potential breakdown because of collective spiritual ingratitude. Then there might be the danger that one might find spiritual ostracization because he doesn’t fit in and seems rather alien to the copacetic coziness of the group dynamic. Yet, if the group is seriously committed to its desired end and is patient, the outsider might very well reveal some spiritual truth to the community. In this morning’s Gospel, we find the case of one such alien or Samaritan, who otherwise might not have been welcomed by the group but for the overwhelmingly desperate nature of their common disease. That the man was tolerated reveals how fatal illness and disease break down all division. For the men who clung so acutely together in this morning’s Gospel Lesson shared the disease of leprosy. Leprosy in the ancient world was viewed as a spiritual malady, earning its carriers exile from the City of Man. The physical manifestations were deemed so hideous by healthy men that it they were judged to be a punishment for sins, both by the God of the Jews and the deities of the ancient Gentiles. In any case, the leprous were unwelcome in both communities and so lived on the borders of both as aliens to all. And it is one such group that we encounter this morning. We meet them because Jesus chose not to take the common and safer route for Jews making pilgrimage up to Jerusalem but to go through the dangerous border that the Jewish people shared with their Samaritan neighbors. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: and they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. (St. Luke xvii 12, 13) The lepers stand on the outskirts of the village, and they cry out for help from one whom they trust will hear their plea. Their bodies are wasting away and decomposing, and yet their souls are alive to the need for love. They have not despaired. The prayer of their hearts is that Jesus will be friend and neighbor to them all. The who is my neighbor? of last week’s Gospel takes on a compelling and urgent nature. These men are in a ditch of a predicament and do not merely need help but want it. Their companionship in misery and suffering moves them to seek out the one neighbor whose mercy can heal their pain. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. (Ps. cxlv. 18) Archbishop Trench reminds us, they do have hope that a healer is at hand, and so in earnest they seek to extort the benefit. (Parables, 262) So they cry, Jesus, Master, have mercy upon us. (St. Luke xvii 13) And when He saw them, He said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. (St. Luke xvii 14) In last week’s Gospel we remember that Jesus likened Himself unto the Good Samaritan and not the Good Jew. Today, this same Samaritan continues His work, but this time without need for bandages, oil, or wine. Physical deterioration has yielded to spiritual desire; to the inner hearts of wounded outcasts, the spoken Word of the Good Samaritan is all that is needed for the healing that will soon follow. Those who are spiritually conscious of their sorry and sinful state always cut to the quick and cry Jesus, Master, have mercy upon us. (Idem) When He says, Go…, they obey and trust in the power of His love. Matthew Henry writes that Those that expect Christ's favours must take them in his way and method. (Comm: St. Luke, xviii) Obedience and trust must become the instinctive response of the supplicant to the all-merciful God. What sinful men must seek is His power to heal and whatever means He deems fit for it. Here we see that an external and visible disease reveals far more painful inward and spiritual suffering. Because the lepers’ disease is so hideous, they dare not touch him with their infectious bodies. Their inner agony longs to touch His heart with the cry of anguish. He hears their words and responds with the Word. Go shew yourselves unto the priests. (Idem) His all-commanding Word moves into their hearts so that they trust it inwardly as it heals them outwardly. We read that as they went, they were cleansed. (Ibid, 14) Notice that nothing more was needed for this kind of healing. The men were physically healed of their leprosy instantly as they moved on to the priests. But this is not the end of the matter. This miracle is not only about healing the physical disease of leprosy. What is clear from today’s miracle is that Jesus heals always to inaugurate an inner and spiritual transformation. The Jews alienate the Samaritans because of their ethnicity and race. That the Samaritan would dare to show himself to the [Jewish] priests is uncertain. Though no longer leprous, still his soul felt alienation and separation from all other men, filled with fear and confusion. His motives might have been mixed. Coleridge says no man, either hero or saint, ever acted from an unmixed motive, for let him do what he will rightly; Conscience whispers "it is your duty.” The Samaritan does what he thinks is right and best by his conscience. The Samaritan, alone, is spiritually awakened by his healing and so returns to offer God thanks. Feeling the newly emerging healing of his body, he senses the birth of a spiritual awakening in his heart to the Power of God in Jesus Christ. In the depths of his spirit, he had longed for a friend, and so in this place that he feels the presence of the newfound love in God’s Good Samaritan. Here he finds that love that will touch and transform his life. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. (St. Luke xvii 15,16) This outsider, this alien to Israel’s promises, turns back. Unlike the Nine Jews, this man serves the Power of God’s love in the heart of Jesus and not the Law and the Commandments. No doubt the priests in the temple would have judged him alien and undeserving of their blessing in any case. But more importantly, he turns back first to the source and cause of all healing and health. He not only turns back, but he glorifies God; he not only praises God but with all the strength of his body’s newfound health, he runs, and he falls down at the feet of God’s powerful presence in Jesus Christ in Spirit. His body was healed, but now his soul has been set free, and he serves his liberated soul, giving thanks to God in Jesus Christ. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. (St. Luke xvii 17,18) This Samaritan is a stranger to God and his promises. But it is this stranger who perceives and knows Jesus’ love most truly. This Samaritan alone gives God the Glory. His faith is startling and profound. The others were healed by faith as well. But as George Macdonald reminds us, this man had enough faith left over to bring him back, for his cure had been swallowed up in gratitude. (Miracles of Healing…) Jesus says to him, Arise, go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. (St. Luke xvii 19) This morning we each must ask: Where do I find myself in this morning’s miracle? Are we one with grateful Samaritan? Are we here for worship in community alone to seek healing through Common Prayer and the Sacraments? Or will these outward and visible signs bring inward and spiritual healing to our souls? For that to happen, once we leave this place, we have two options. You have come to God’s priest to receive His blessing. Will we turn back, giving God thanks throughout the week for what we have received through Jesus Christ? Again, with George Macdonald, All communities are for the sake of individual life, for the sake of the love and the truth that is in each heart, and is not cumulative. But all that is precious in the individual heart depends for existence on the relation the individual bears to other individuals. – how can he love? (idem) Jesus gives Himself to the community of ten lepers but one turns back because his faith has moved him to gratitude in love. Jesus gives Himself to us today in His Body and Blood. Will we turn back and offer him thanks for incorporating us into His death on the Cross and His Resurrection? Are we being healed in deed and in truth so that nothing presses us with more urgency than the ongoing need to be grateful for the good work already begun in our souls? St. Paul tells us to walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other. (Gal. v. 16, 17) The Venerable Bede asks, with the Samaritan, acutely aware of my own unworthiness, humbling myself before God, shall I hear the Divine Word to rise, put my hand to strong things, and go on my way to more perfect things? (P.L. 92, Expos. In Lucam) Today’s Samaritan perfects his flesh with the Spirit of gratitude. Soon he shall bear the fruit of the Spirit…which is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against which there is no law.Let us not be speechless and heartless like the nine other healed lepers. Jesus Christ the Good Samaritan’s has cured us. Let Jesus us allow Jesus to respond to our thanksgiving with: Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole. (St. Luke xvii 19) ©wjsmartin Comments are closed.
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St. Michael and All Angels Sermons:
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