Charlotte
Collins Reed
Christ
Church Episcopal
October
9, 2016
23 Proper C
The last parish I served runs a large
food pantry one Wednesday afternoon a month.
They serve about 150 families each time they open and distribute three
days’ worth of food to each family. The
food comes from Shared Harvest, which provides food to food banks at a nominal
cost. So, the church is able to provide
the usual staples like canned goods, peanut butter, and cereal, along with
fresh produce and meat. In addition, the
parishioners provide toilet paper to go in the food bags since toilet paper is
something that cannot be purchased with food stamps. Here at Christ Church we are also collecting
toilet paper for the Hudson food bank for the same reason.
One particular Wednesday the food
pantry ran out of food a good thirty minutes before the posted closing
time. There was no food left on the
shelves when a woman came to the door and rang the bell. But we still had some toilet paper, so as I
went to the door to explain to the woman that we were out of food, I picked up
a large package so at least I could offer her something. What the woman had actually come to do was
retrieve her walker, which she had left behind earlier in the day when she had
come for her food. Since I was standing
in the doorway holding a package of toilet paper, I offered it to her
anyway. The woman’s face lit up, she
threw her hands up in the air and she shouted “Thank you, Jesus!” Then she went on her way.
I believe the gratitude the woman
displayed for a package of toilet paper is the kind of gratitude the 10th
person with leprosy displays when he realizes that he has been healed. He turns back, praises God with a loud voice,
and falls at Jesus’ feet to thank him. After
the man has been healed, and after he has returned to give thanks, we are told that
he is also a Samaritan. The ancestry of Samaritans was a mix of Hebrew and
pagan, going back to the time when the Assyrians conquered and invaded the northern
kingdom of Israel and mixed marriage became common. The form of Judaism that developed in what
remained of the Northern Kingdom was different from the Judaism that developed
in the southern Kingdom as well, making the Samaritan a double outsider-once on
account of the leprosy and once on account of his faith.
What I find interesting and a bit
annoying quite frankly, is Jesus’ criticism of the other 9 people who he healed
of leprosy. Jesus told them to go and
show themselves to the priests, who would certify that they had been healed of
the leprosy and could be restored to the community. Those 9 people did what Jesus told them to
do. They were going off to show
themselves to the priests. The 10th
person who returned, was actually disobeying Jesus. However, since he was a Samaritan, a) he did
not observe the same laws around cleanliness that the other 9 did and b) even
if he was declared clean by the priests, he still was not going to be made part
of the community because he was a Samaritan.
But why does Jesus criticize the 9 who were simply doing what Jesus had
told them to do?
Hold that question while we hear what
Jeremiah says this morning to the people who have been forcibly taken from the
Promised Land and exiled in Babylon in the 6th century BC. We know from Psalm 137, which was written
early in the exile, but which we did not hear this morning, that the people who
were exiled in Babylon thought they could not possibly live as God’s people in
a foreign land. Their identity was tied
up in being the people of a particular piece of real estate that God had
provided for them. The beginning of
Psalm 137 reads “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we
remembered Zion. On the willows there,
we hung up our harps. For there our
captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying “Sing us
one of the songs of Zion!” How could we
sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?”
Into that misery, God speaks the words we hear from Jeremiah this
morning: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles
whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in
them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and
daughters; take wives for your sons, and give you daughters in marriage….seek
the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord
on its behalf. For in its welfare, you
will find your welfare.” God is telling
the Hebrew people to settle down in Babylon, in this foreign place, and make it
their home in the fullest sense of the word.
They will find new and different ways to worship and obey God in a
foreign land.
The 9 people who were cleansed of
their leprosy did as Jesus instructed and they were doing as the law
required. They were obedient and
faithful. I am also quite sure that they
were thankful. The exiled people in
Babylon also thought they were doing as God and the law required by holding on
to their faithfulness to the land God had provided and their identity as people
of that land. They saw no way they could
keep God’s law without a temple in which to worship. In both cases, however, I think God is
telling the faithful people that there is more to faith than just
obedience. Faith is also about joy and
gratitude. The Samaritan was filled with
great joy and deep gratitude at the sudden miracle Jesus had done in his life,
and used his whole self to demonstrate that gratitude. The Hebrew people would settle down in
Babylon, would learn that they could, indeed, worship and obey God there. In fact, they would come to enjoy life there
and find such meaningful ways to practice their faith apart from the Promised
Land that many would choose to stay even when they were allowed return to the
Promised Land some 50 years later.
We may not be as demonstrative in our
gratitude as either the woman at the food pantry was when she received the
package of toilet paper or as the Samaritan who was cleansed of leprosy. But Jesus calls us to more than lip service
to express our gratitude. Our worship
calls us to live as grateful people at all times and in all places. We obey this call every Sunday as we pray “It
is right and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere, to give thanks to
You.” This parish has certainly experienced
times of deep challenge when you had to do the spiritual equivalent of building
homes and living in a foreign land. You
have learned to give thanks in all times and places. This parish has also experienced times of
restoration and deep delight. Jesus
calls us to a lively faith, and to throw our whole selves into gratitude, not
just out of obedience but out of joy.
Amen.
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