From the Daily Lectionary for Wednesday in the Twenty-Fourth Week after Pentecost
Luke 17:11-19
On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”
Lest we forget, healing is at the heart of Jesus’ ministry; healing of the sick, but also healing of that which divides us, that which infects our common life. Indeed there was an insidious divide between the Jews and their northern neighbors, the Samaritans, racial and ethnic division, social and economic. Not just mere contact, but certainly the healing of a Samaritan leper breaks the boundaries of a social norm in which Jews were held captive, that being a myopic understanding of Judaism as peculiar to a particular people. Tales such as these in Luke are seeds of the universal implications of the Jesus movement, its teaching and theology.
Also, there is another, perhaps more important awareness here, and that is the presence of praise. In fact, at the very end of this Gospel we find the disciples, in the midst of suspicion and danger, praising God in the Temple. It’s the very last line. Praise is the baseline of our existence. When all of life’s iterations are said and done, suffering, joy, love and loss, what is left is praise. There is no circumstance that can separate us from the gratitude of being alive. That is why in our Burial Rite we make the audacious claim that “even at the grave, we make our song: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.”
This is a paradox to be sure, but as followers of Jesus we have been initiated into a new reality that frees us from despair and fear, despite the insufferable complexities of the journey. We have a new perspective that all manner of thing is moving towards its perfection; that despite the contentious jostling between the dark and the light, we know that in love all things proceed towards renewal, restoration, and redemption… healing, in short.
Perhaps the reason we gather every Sunday as the church is to testify to the reality that praise of God is what defines us ultimately… for our nurture, for the bonds of love in community, for the mysteries of Nature, for enlightened perspective. When all of the illusions we harbor in this mortal life are stripped away, through whatever means by which a lifetime conspires… what is left is pure and unambiguous praise.
A Prayer of Thanksgiving (BCP p. 101)
O God, Creator of all mercies, we your servants give you humble thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all whom you have made. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Savior Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up our selves for your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Savior, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen.
