Proper 23 C Cheerful Giving

 Proper 23 C Cheerful Giving

October 12, 1980

By Rev. Ernest F. Campbell

I want to talk about hard times. I want to talk about the hard times of a leper in the first century. 

It was a condition so dreaded that it caused those who had it to be ritually rejected. (To ring your bell and announce that you were unclean). It was generally believed that it’s victims must be hated by God. All of life’s doors were closed; family rejected you, business opportunities vanished, marriage was out of the question, old friends could pity you…. at a distance. You were considered as one who was dead. 

In today’s Gospel ten of these retched out-casts see Jesus as He is entering a village and from a distance, they cry out to Him in a loud voice!

We need to read between the lines here for a minute and imagine the expression on their faces, the tone of their voices and the urgency of their words – Jesus may never pass their way again – “Jesus! Master! Have pity on us!” Jesus responds by saying, “Go show yourselves to the Priests (Priests at that time also functioned as public health officers and by law the Lepers would have be certified as clean).

There is a moment of silent disbelief, did we hear Him right? We know that Lepers are rejected at the temple! Do we want to bear that?! And, the Samaritan (one of the ten Lepers) will be rejected at the temple clean, or not. There seems to be two alternatives, continue in the state of living death or step out in faith at the Lord’s direction. 

Pause here to think about this scene.

They choose to step out in faith and as each step takes them towards the temple, they discover that their leprosy is…. disappearing!

 

Do you remember what our guest Margaret Haily told us; what she did when she discovered that she could stand up out of her wheel chair? She leapt for joy and then she went and lay prostrate before the alter and gave thanks to God. Her witness to us last week was merely another measure in her song of praise. Can you imagine anyone experiencing a healing miracle and keeping silent about it? (I often wonder if our Lord wasn’t making a little joke when He instructed those who had been healed not to tell anyone about it). People I have known, who have experienced healing, become a force-field of love. Their gratitude has hands and feet.

Gratitude is as natural as swallowing after a delicious drink pours over the tongue. It is that golden thread that ties the giver, the gift, and the benefactor together. Gratitude is to living what oxygen is to fire.

After the ten lepers were healed, and were heading to the Temple, one returned to give thanks. The leper who was the Samaritan. We are not surprised when we hear Jesus ask, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?” Wouldn’t we expect that as they realized the beautiful blessing they had received, that they would have all been prostrate before the Lord giving thanks?

The Gospel leaves the answer to why the nine didn’t return to speculation. Life with leprosy had been so demeaning they had nothing to be thankful for and so has lost the art of being grateful. As Job’s tormentors suggested when they saw his suffering – "Why don’t you curse God and die." But listen to Job’s response, “If I let go of God, then I will surely have nothing.” 

Perhaps they felt they had suffered long enough and healing was their due? Maybe they were moved to shout back over their shoulders, it’s about time! Maybe they were enjoying their new life so much that they simply forgot. Maybe they were simply following Jesus’s command to go to the Temple and as observant Jews, they were doing just that. 

Example) My mother would always ask, “Did you remember to say thanks?”

I would like to think that I would have been the one (out of the ten) who bothered to say thanks, but then I have to remember the times when I felt the whole world was against me…that I felt that some recognition of a gift was my due, or when I was simply having so much fun out of life…I forgot to say….thank you to God. 

Many of you here, right now are experiencing hard times. Unlike leprosy the causes are unseen. 

• Some suffer from bitter disappointment.

• Some from a life consuming resentment.

• Some are fighting for air in the quick-sands of financial debt.

• Some from unbearable loneliness.

• Some from lost love.

The list could go on. All we can do in our dis-ease is to cry out to the Lord for mercy and wait on His direction. Lord, have mercy and show us the way! And, in faith, we can be grateful that we have not been abandoned. Jesus said, “I will not leave you comfortless – come unto me all you who travailed and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you. I love you, and if you believe in that love, my promise to be with you always, will be your strength in the hard times.” 

Maybe there will be only one question on Judgement Day – were you grateful? Are you the one who returned thanks to the Lord?

Specifically, did you work, pray, and give to advance the Lord’s love in the world? No matter how much or how little you give are you grateful? I believe that when we can say, "Yes Lord," we know the joy of gratitude and, by that gratitude, the joy of giving back.

All those who are grateful, even in the hard times, will know that faith in God’s love and mercy is the key to wholeness.