The Passage<\/p>\n
On the way to Jerusalem he (Jesus) was passing along between Samaria and Galilee.\u00a0 And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices saying, \u201cJesus, Master, have mercy on us.\u201d\u00a0 When he saw them he said to them, \u201cGo and show yourselves to the priests.\u201d\u00a0 And as they went they were cleansed.<\/p>\n
Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and fell on his face at Jesus\u2019 feet, giving him thanks.\u00a0 Now he was a Samaritan.\u00a0 Then Jesus answered, \u201cWere not ten cleansed?\u00a0 Where are the nine?\u00a0 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?\u201d\u00a0 And he said to him, \u201cRise and go your way; your faith has made you well.\u201d [English Standard Version]<\/p>\n
\u201cGod is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.\u201d [2 Corinthians 9.8]<\/p>\n
In the Name of Christ + Jesus Our Lord<\/p>\n
The cultural routines of this holiday weekend are settling in on our lives once again.\u00a0 While some family members and friends may be clogging the highways and the airports, we find ourselves closer to home \u2013 worshiping, texting, cooking, emailing, eating, face timing and shopping!<\/p>\n
Thanksgiving is a national holiday with several origins \u2013 one initiated by the early settlers in New England, one whose first proclamation was issued by George Washington, one whose proclamations resumed under Abraham Lincoln.<\/p>\n
Being a national holiday, the day attempts to surface the best of this country\u2019s life while a number of parish communities participate in offering traditional dinners for homeless individuals.\u00a0 Running underneath all this activity is a vague sense of the good, material life available to many people in this country.<\/p>\n
Such a focus and sense may speak of the LORD God in a general way, but there are few specific mentions of the Father, Son or Holy Spirit (those speaking publicly of thanksgiving in this culture may be inclined to get specific, but they may know, from experience, that is not always a good form!).<\/p>\n
Given this reality then, it would be easy for parishes in this culture, particularly those who struggle to be faithful to the LORD God, to just walk away from the holiday by not worshiping!\u00a0 At the same time, though, such parishes would be missing a great opportunity to see the Life of the LORD God and his specific actions forming the real center of Thanksgiving, regardless of what the culture thinks or does.\u00a0 So, while the culture focuses on its stuff through the weekend, on this national day the Lord\u2019s baptized people focus on the real center of Thanksgiving \u2013 the rescuing, sustaining and creating actions of the LORD God, actions that spill over, in hidden ways, into this culture\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
These contrasting views are brought out vividly in today\u2019s Gospel!\u00a0 Our Lord is on the way to Jerusalem where his crucifixion and resurrection will shatter this world\u2019s life and lead to the emergence of his eternal Life.\u00a0 On the way he encounters ten lepers who ask him for mercy.\u00a0 Do they do this out of habit? \u00a0Or had they heard of Jesus\u2019 ministry? \u00a0Or are their lives of desperation getting to them?<\/p>\n
Leprosy was and is a rotting skin disease, one that is highly infectious.\u00a0 When people caught it, they lost their jobs and were forced to live in ghettos, separated from their families and friends.\u00a0 Having caught the disease, they were forced to live with its symptoms \u2013 loss of feeling in nerve endings, ulcers and paralysis, gangrene and mutilation.<\/p>\n
It is striking that these ten people do not ask for healing but for mercy!\u00a0 In response, Jesus tells them to go to the temple and show themselves to the priests.<\/p>\n
There are two sections in Leviticus 13 and 14 that go into detail about the handling of leprosy:<\/p>\n
First, when contracting the disease, a person had to go to a priest to have it verified and to\u00a0be declared unclean;<\/p>\n
Second, the person was then required to dress in a torn and disheveled way to reflect that\u00a0uncleanness, such requirements also included living away from other, unaffected people;<\/p>\n
Third, finally there was a long ritual that marked the cleansing from the disease and the\u00a0offering of fitting sacrifices to reflect such cleansing.<\/p>\n
On their way to temple, the ten lepers discover their skin disease is gone! \u00a0Nine of them continue on their way.\u00a0 Do they follow through on the ritual just described?\u00a0 We don\u2019t know.\u00a0 Do they think they deserve the healing after all their suffering?\u00a0 We don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
Do they shrug their shoulders and set out to resume their lives?\u00a0 Again, we don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
But what we do know is that one of them noticed something.\u00a0 It dawned on him that Jesus had triggered this healing, so he turns back to thank him; he praises him with a loud voice and stretches himself out at Jesus\u2019 feet!<\/p>\n
Luke comments that the man is a Samaritan (remember that, as a people, they were viewed as detested half-Jews, poorly thought of by those who considered themselves pure Jews). \u00a0\u00a0Jesus wonders about the other nine.\u00a0 We wonder, too, how they could follow Jesus\u2019 instructions and then ignore what happened to them?\u00a0 Jesus calls the Samaritan a foreigner and comments that he is the only one to return and give praise to the LORD God!<\/p>\n
He then tells the man to get up and go on his way, stating that his faith has helped him to see who made him well.\u00a0 Notice, also, that Jesus does not punish the others by re-infecting them with the disease!<\/p>\n
As we pull away from this passage, it is clear that all ten of these lepers were gifted with the culture\u2019s stuff of thanksgiving (they were healed of a horrible skin disease), but there was only one individual who saw Jesus\u2019 Life behind the healing (the real center of Thanksgiving).<\/p>\n
Isn\u2019t that true of us as well?\u00a0 We\u2019re always trying to make something of our lives, managing them as well as we can.\u00a0 We\u2019re always attempting to get through life\u2019s difficulties and turmoil as best as we can.\u00a0 We\u2019re always assessing how we relate to what the culture is telling us as well as we can.<\/p>\n
Then, when some blessing impacts our lives or we are gifted with some goodness, we eagerly reach for it!\u00a0 We may be briefly thankful (even the culture thinks it is good for us to notice the stuff of thanksgiving), but it is more likely that we see ourselves as deserving of what has occurred).\u00a0 We may think such blessing and goodness are rewards for all we have had to endure or for the decency and energy we have had to put into our lives.\u00a0 Then we go on, just like the nine healed lepers!<\/p>\n
Or do we catch what is going on when such blessing and goodness surfaces in our lives?<\/p>\n
Do we see them flowing from the new Life of our Lord, like the foreign leper did?\u00a0 We will, when it dawns on us how dangerous and selfish is the natural concern for self which surfaces in our thinking and doing!\u00a0 Up to that point, however, we honestly do not think we need a Rescuer.\u00a0 But when our lives are being torn down or are crumbling it then strikes us that we do need One!\u00a0 And, out of his grace and mercy, our Lord compassionately responds!<\/p>\n
He is continuously streaming into our lives with his Life through the Scriptures and the Sacraments of Baptism, Forgiveness and Eucharist, impacting us with the richness of that Life while overwhelming us with the realities of the Son\u2019s crucified and resurrected Life!<\/p>\n
Such holy streaming reminds us that the real center of Thanksgiving is found:<\/p>\n
Not just in the lifestyles of this culture that appear to be comfortable, but also in the holy\u00a0drenching of the Lord\u2019s water at Baptism;<\/p>\n
Not just in the families of this culture that both bless and curse us, but also in the holy\u00a0words of the Lord\u2019s Scriptures and the Lord\u2019s Forgiveness;<\/p>\n
Not just in the work of this culture which drives to be successful, but also in the holy\u00a0eating of the Son\u2019s Body and the swallowing of the Son\u2019s Blood.<\/p>\n
Yes, the stuff of this culture\u2019s thanksgiving has its importance and significance.\u00a0 But it is the Life of Thanksgiving, the Life seen in our crucified, resurrected and ascended Lord which reflects the most importance and the most significance!\u00a0 This distinction between the culture\u2019s thanksgiving and the Lord\u2019s Thanksgiving continues to fill us with deep appreciation, applause and gratitude. \u00a0\u00a0This culture bases all its thanksgiving on the apparent good of its material life, determining if there are sufficient accumulations to warrant such thanksgivings.\u00a0 The Lord\u2019s baptized people, however, base all their thanksgiving on the rescuing, sustaining and creating actions of the LORD God.<\/p>\n
Thus, parish communities struggling to remain faithful to the LORD God do not walk away from the culture\u2019s holiday.\u00a0 Instead, they step into it with a fresher and deeper look at the Life into which they have been drawn by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!<\/p>\n
Now may the peace of the LORD God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our\u00a0hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus Our Lord<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
Pr. Carl A. Voges, Columbia, SC; carl.voges4@icloud.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Day of Thanksgiving (Revised Common Lectionary) |\u00a011.23.23 |\u00a0Luke 17:11-19 | Carl A. Voges The Passage On the way to Jerusalem he (Jesus) was passing along between Samaria and Galilee.\u00a0 And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices saying, \u201cJesus, Master, have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19087,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,157,853,173,108,110,603,3,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-19089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lukas","category-beitragende","category-bibel","category-carl-a-voges","category-current","category-engl","category-kapitel-17-chapter-17-lukas","category-nt","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19089"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19090,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19089\/revisions\/19090"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19089"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=19089"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=19089"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=19089"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=19089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}