Sermon # 1013
Psalm 65
Dr. Ed Pettus
“Praise To You, O God”
Each Sunday we spend a few seconds in silent reflection to prepare our hearts for worship. This time is intended to move us from the noisy, hectic world of the week into a place of reverent peace and into a joyous and thankful attitude of worship. It is a brief moment in time, a silence of anticipation, a stillness that we sometimes think comes before we sing praises.
But perhaps that time of silence is not a preparation to praise, but praise itself. In Psalm 65 there is that moment of silence before the singing, before the shouts. We are certainly not the first to ever practice a time of silence at the beginning of worship. Psalm 65 helps us imagine Jews centuries before Christ, sitting in a synagogue or in an open space while in exile as they worshipped God. Or we might picture the earliest Christians huddled in a secret place reading Psalm 65 as a liturgy for worship. And here we are carrying on that same tradition, the church today in silent reflection.
You see, Psalm 65 begins with a couple of options in the translation. As we read from the NRSV, verse one says: “Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion”. We are uncertain of the meaning of the Hebrew and so the NASB renders it this way: “There will be silence before You, {and} praise in Zion, O God.” One Jewish Bible says it another way: “To you, God, in Tziyon, silence is praise.” Silence is praise to God. Remember that next Sunday when we practice our time of silence” – silence is praise to God.
Whether we read it “praise is due” or “silence is praise”, the point is to praise! The Psalmist knows that the praise it due, because the Psalmist is, as we say in the south, “fixin” to tell us why praise is due. The Psalm begins: To you, O God…to you is due the praise, and what follows that affirmation is gathering the testimony. We listen to that testimony in silent awe, the testimony is given – for to you, O God, shall vows be performed. We will praise you because you are the one who answers prayer. To you all flesh shall come. You forgive our transgressions. The silence praises God, performing vows praises God, coming to God praises God. So the Psalm begins with the threefold expression: to you, to you, to you, O God… “Praise is due to you, to you shall vows be performed, to you all flesh shall come”.
Praise is due to God because of all the things God does: You choose and bring us near…to live in your courts, to be satisfied in your house, your holy temple.
Verse 5 then turns to God’s saving acts and acts of creation…You answer us with deliverance, you are the hope of the earth, you established the mountains, you silence the seas, you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy. Imagine the morning and evening, dawn and dusk calling out, “Praise the Lord!” We awake to the sunrise shouting, “Come and worship!” We enjoy the coming of night with the dusk shouting joy to the Lord. We stand before the wonder of God in silent awe.
And still we wait in silence for the testimony of God’s deeds to be proclaimed, for the Psalmist is not yet finished:
You visit the earth, you water it, you enrich it, you provide grain, you prepare it. You water, you settle, you soften, you bless.
And verse 11 – you crown the year with your bounty, with your goodness and your wagon tracks overflow with richness. Artur Weiser interprets that last phrase as “God’s tracks drip with fatness” (Weiser, The Psalms, p. 466). There is so much goodness given in the earth and to the inhabitants of the earth that it drips in abundance.
You, O God, have done all this. Eleven verses have chronicled God’s forgiveness, God’s provision, God’s awesome deeds, God’s salvation, God’s strength, God’s creation, God’s nurture, God’s overflowing graciousness. And in the final two verses we see the result of God’s work as creation is blessed to overflowing, girded with joy, clothed in flocks, decked with grain. In the end, after waiting in silent awe at this list of what God has done, the Psalmist says: “They shout and sing together for joy!” The praise that is due is given, singing and shouting, joyous celebration, people and creation – all flesh shall come. ---
The author of Psalm 65 imagines the world in a way that constantly leads to praise. God intervenes. God delivers, God saves, God forgives. God is the reason for worship and praise. God answers prayer, God creates, and God visits the earth. The testimony is that praise is due to God because God has done everything.
The implication is that all other reasons that might be offered are false. God alone is the reason for all there is. God is the source of our life. The counter claim to the world’s liturgy of deliverance, salvation, or forgiveness…is that God alone does these things, not any false gods like Baal of the Old Testament times, not Israel itself, not blind luck or happenstance, not economics, not military might, not homeland security. Only God delivers. Salvation is not from us, not hard work, not technology, not financial power, not anything else but God. That is the claim and affirmation of Psalm 65.
We can get so tied up in ourselves that we begin to think that we have done all these wonderful things on our own, that we brought peace, we made ourselves, we passed the test, we made the business what it is today, we did this and we did that, but we fail to give credit where it is due. An even deeper autonomy is imagining, not we , but “I” made all this possible! I made my success, I make my life, or I bring my own salvation.
The Psalm promotes a God consciousness. The message is that we give God praise because we recognize that God is the source of our life and all that we enjoy. One of the reasons for having a Psalm like this is to remind us of God’s deeds among us – because we tend to forget. Israel forgot over and over, they forgot that God had brought them out of Egypt, or that God had gathered them from exile, or that God loved them more than they could imagine.
We hear messages every day telling us God has nothing to do with our lives. This is the message from the world, assumed in every news broadcast, implied in television programs, and promoted in most ads, that God is irrelevant or does not exist or has nothing to do with the modern world. And unfortunately it is evident in the way we sometimes live, worried about so many things. That is why Jesus taught that we do not have to worry about what we shall wear or eat, because God will take care of those things.
Christian musician Phil Keaggy wrote a song about God’s provision. One part says: “Said the robin to the sparrow, “I would really like to know, why these anxious humans beings rush about and worry so.’ Said the sparrow to the robin, ‘Well, I think that it must be that they have no heavenly Father such as cares for you and me.’”
So often we live just that way – rushing about and worrying so as if we have no heavenly Father who cares for us, who forgives us, who has created all to provide for us. The Psalm invites us to think differently, to imagine a world where all praise to due to God and all flesh will one day come, and God forgives, God chooses, God satisfies, God saves.
The example given in this particular Psalm is creation itself. Creation does what it was created to do, shout and sing for joy. Isaiah 55 says: “the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” Psalm 65 ends with a creation doxology: the pastures, the hills, the meadows, and valleys shout and sing. You know what happens to us? We get too busy to shout and sing for joy. We forget to praise God, whether in a spoken word of thanks, or in song, or in silence.
Creation just does that naturally – why can’t we? Our lives could be a natural expression of shouting and singing for joy. Not to say that we go around shouting and singing all the time – but what if we sought a life that lived gracefully, faithfully, and joyfully that simply exudes praise for God? Then our lives might gain the same assumption of creation, that God alone makes all the arrangements necessary for our care. The Creator sustains all that is created. This Psalm brings creation to an animated expression of joy and praise. The Psalm lifts the activity of God thus bidding us to give praise where praise is due. Psalm 65 calls us to notice:
To notice God’s provision,
To see God’s salvation,
To receive God’s forgiveness,
And then…
To sing God’s praise,
To shout God’s joy.
Perhaps what is needed is a return to the beginning of the Psalm, a return to the place of forgiveness, which means a return to the place of confession. We live with the assumption that there is nothing and no one beyond ourselves and so we forget to sing and shout precisely because we see no reason to sing and shout. With an absence of God consciousness, God remains nothing more than a belief we call on when we need something.
Psalm 65 is also a national prayer for forgiveness: “You forgive our transgressions.” Israel was a theocracy, they held to the governance of God alone. We do not live under a theocracy but we do live with a national consciousness founded upon the Judeo-Christian tradition. What if our nation were able to confess its sins? What if our government was able to confess? Israel’s confession was a national public act. Of course, we will not see such a confession, not in today’s climate, but we can imagine the possibilities. We can assert this Psalm back into the public consciousness, at the very least back into our own consciousness. That is the call.
Psalm 65 is a Psalm for a nation and a Psalm for the church, a Psalm for us. It seeks to imagine a different reality, one that recognizes and lives with the wonder of God. The Psalm dares to imagine that God secures reliability about life that we can never secure ourselves. The Psalm was probably composed during good times, when everything about life was working out well – no disorientation and no problems. Some will argue that we are in a situation of conflict, whether we talk about war or crime or poverty or the conflicts between the left and right. How does a joyous Psalm reach out to touch our context of anxiety and pain?
Psalm 65 serves as an affirmation in the midst of chaos that God is still providing for us. God is still forgiving, choosing, bringing near, answering, silencing, making, visiting, enriching, providing, preparing, watering, crowning. God is still performing all the verbs of Psalm 65! You, you, you, God, you do it all! That is our song to sing. It is a song affirming life and, if forgotten, if we forget to sing this Psalm, we begin to think that it is not God, but us, or “I”, who have done great things. If we fail to sing this song and others like it, we will profane the very life we seek to celebrate.
God has made all the arrangements. God has made forgiveness possible. God is ready to begin again with us. So, let us begin anew with God, to You, O God, all praise is due! Let us make this Psalm our song of joy, affirming that God provides, God saves, God delivers, and we shall indeed be satisfied with the goodness of God’s creation. Praise God from whom all, all, all blessings flow. Amen.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Sunday Sermon
Sermon # 1012
2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
Dr. Ed Pettus
“The God-Breathed Word”
The Bible has a lot to say about the Bible. In our text for this morning, Paul writes: all scripture is inspired by God. Inspired literally means God-breathed, that is, God has breathed life into these words. The Spirit of God is at work in the scripture. When we read, hear, study, teach, preach, meditate, memorize, spend any time in the scripture, God is at work. The wind of God blows through our sacred texts. It is in this holy word where we find a refreshing wind of comfort, sometimes a strong wind of conviction, and other times a wind that sets us sailing in the right direction. God has blown the breath of life into these words.
When I reflect on the God-breathed word, I recall other times when God has breathed life into or onto someone. In Genesis 2:7 God breathed into Adam: “then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being”. Adam had only the form of a human being before God breathed life into him. The other story I remember is in John’s gospel, John 20:21-22 when Jesus breathed on the disciples: “Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’”. Jesus breathed the life of the Holy Spirit on the disciples.
What kind of life does God breathe into the word? What does it mean for the Bible to be God-breathed? We live in a world where we speak of words having meaning and power, but we sometimes speak about words being empty and, in one sense, lifeless. We are in that political season when we hear a lot of political rhetoric, especially in ads where promises are made and one opponent uses words to try and persuade us to give a vote one way or another. We are sometimes swayed by words, sometimes disgusted, sometimes frustrated, but we know that the words mean something important. Words have meaning in their context. A word of scripture means much more to us than words from politics or advertisements or news.
Jewish theology taught that the Spirit of God “rested on and in the prophets and spoke through them so that their words did not come from themselves, but from the mouth of God and they spoke and wrote in the Holy Spirit” (Kelly, Linguistic Key to the Greek NT, p. 647). Paul describes these words as words of hope: “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4).
According to the Psalms the word gives life, revives the soul, and it is our delight:
Psalm 19:7-10
(read slowly) The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul;
the decrees of the LORD are sure, making wise the simple;
8 the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the LORD is clear, enlightening the eyes;
9 the fear of the LORD is pure, enduring for ever;
the ordinances of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb.
Psalm 1:2
Their [the righteous’] delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night.
Psalm 119 contains 176 verses singing the praises of God’s word.
When Paul wrote to Timothy he encouraged Timothy to continue in the word, a sacred word he had known from childhood and a word that instructs to salvation. No doubt Paul had the Old Testament in mind, but Paul also understood, or at least the church understood that the gospel stories and the early letters of Paul were also God-breathed. Peter understood this in 2 Peter 3:15-16, “our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him, 16speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures”. Peter regarded Paul’s writings as scripture!
The scriptures are God-breathed – dangerous sometimes, confusing sometimes, challenging, mysterious, our list could go on. Peter Holmes comments on A.J.Jacobs Book, The Year of Living Biblically, and says: A.J. Jacobs discovered that he could not read the Bible alone. So every day he met with others to discuss its meaning. It drew him into community and into a new way of thinking of others. For the first time he considered the possibility that there is One who created us, and soon he felt a deep connection to the whole human family. It may seem out of season, but it is the word the world needs. By the end, Jacobs referred to himself as a ‘reverent agnostic’ and wrote this: ‘Studying the Bible is not like studying sumo wrestling in Japan. It’s more like wrestling itself. This opponent of mine is sometimes beautiful, sometimes cruel, sometimes ancient, sometimes crazily relevant. I can’t get a handle on it. I’m outmatched” (Jacobs, p. 119). We cannot get a handle on the Word precisely because it is a living word that comes from a living God. As Hebrews 4 says it: “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (4:12). As someone once said the word we read is able to read us!
One of the concerns from Paul is that “the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4). The time is here. Such a time has been here since Paul first wrote those words and we know that our culture is filled with teachings that can pull us away from sound doctrine, from God’s word, and lead us to hear what we want to hear. One criticism of the church is that we have lost our confidence in scripture. We no longer trust that it is God-breathed. Perhaps we are so busied by life and modern things that we are apathetic toward the word of God. We are even embarrassed somewhat by what we have in this word! Paul tells Timothy and Paul tells us, no, no, no! Do not be ashamed of this word. Continue to believe. Be persistent. Proclaim the living word by word and deed. Encourage one another with God word.
I think today Paul would warn us not to wonder off by putting more faith in the Oprah book list or even in the latest “new” teaching-self help-pop theology- “what would Jesus do?” -bumper sticker theology that seems to make the best seller Christian book list. I am so weary and leery of the most popular Christian books of the day, because one of the reasons why these books become so popular is that we are looking for something new, even beyond or in place of scripture, and maybe our ears are itching for something to suit our desires. We so quickly move away from the God-breathed word precisely because it is God-breathed, living, active, truthful, able to rebuke. But this God-breathed word is where we truly find life! The Psalmist said: “I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life” (Psalm 119:93). But we are conflicted because we want life and yet we resist this God-breathed word of life because it is easier to find one more book that will give us something else, something different, something we think will satisfy our itching ears.
Paul was afraid Timothy felt the same way, so he wrote this word to encourage Timothy to never ever give up on the inspired word of God. The Message says it this way: “Proclaim the Message with intensity; keep on your watch. Challenge, warn, and urge your people. Don't ever quit. Just keep it simple. You're going to find that there will be times when people will have no stomach for solid teaching, but will fill up on spiritual junk food - catchy opinions that tickle their fancy. They'll turn their backs on truth and chase mirages. But you - keep your eye on what you're doing; accept the hard times along with the good; keep the Message alive; do a thorough job as God's servant”.
There is a lot of spiritual junk food out there; let us stick with a diet of God-breathed words trusting that God is breathing in and through these words of scripture. Let us join Jeremiah who said: “Your words were found and I ate them and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart” (Jeremiah 15:16).
All I want to do this morning is renew the call in our ears – the call to renew our commitment to the Word of God, to listen to Paul’s word…God’s word, to stay the course of solid teaching that is found in the Bible. Trust this word for your life for this is the God-breathed word of life. Amen.
2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
Dr. Ed Pettus
“The God-Breathed Word”
The Bible has a lot to say about the Bible. In our text for this morning, Paul writes: all scripture is inspired by God. Inspired literally means God-breathed, that is, God has breathed life into these words. The Spirit of God is at work in the scripture. When we read, hear, study, teach, preach, meditate, memorize, spend any time in the scripture, God is at work. The wind of God blows through our sacred texts. It is in this holy word where we find a refreshing wind of comfort, sometimes a strong wind of conviction, and other times a wind that sets us sailing in the right direction. God has blown the breath of life into these words.
When I reflect on the God-breathed word, I recall other times when God has breathed life into or onto someone. In Genesis 2:7 God breathed into Adam: “then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being”. Adam had only the form of a human being before God breathed life into him. The other story I remember is in John’s gospel, John 20:21-22 when Jesus breathed on the disciples: “Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’”. Jesus breathed the life of the Holy Spirit on the disciples.
What kind of life does God breathe into the word? What does it mean for the Bible to be God-breathed? We live in a world where we speak of words having meaning and power, but we sometimes speak about words being empty and, in one sense, lifeless. We are in that political season when we hear a lot of political rhetoric, especially in ads where promises are made and one opponent uses words to try and persuade us to give a vote one way or another. We are sometimes swayed by words, sometimes disgusted, sometimes frustrated, but we know that the words mean something important. Words have meaning in their context. A word of scripture means much more to us than words from politics or advertisements or news.
Jewish theology taught that the Spirit of God “rested on and in the prophets and spoke through them so that their words did not come from themselves, but from the mouth of God and they spoke and wrote in the Holy Spirit” (Kelly, Linguistic Key to the Greek NT, p. 647). Paul describes these words as words of hope: “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4).
According to the Psalms the word gives life, revives the soul, and it is our delight:
Psalm 19:7-10
(read slowly) The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul;
the decrees of the LORD are sure, making wise the simple;
8 the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the LORD is clear, enlightening the eyes;
9 the fear of the LORD is pure, enduring for ever;
the ordinances of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb.
Psalm 1:2
Their [the righteous’] delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night.
Psalm 119 contains 176 verses singing the praises of God’s word.
When Paul wrote to Timothy he encouraged Timothy to continue in the word, a sacred word he had known from childhood and a word that instructs to salvation. No doubt Paul had the Old Testament in mind, but Paul also understood, or at least the church understood that the gospel stories and the early letters of Paul were also God-breathed. Peter understood this in 2 Peter 3:15-16, “our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him, 16speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures”. Peter regarded Paul’s writings as scripture!
The scriptures are God-breathed – dangerous sometimes, confusing sometimes, challenging, mysterious, our list could go on. Peter Holmes comments on A.J.Jacobs Book, The Year of Living Biblically, and says: A.J. Jacobs discovered that he could not read the Bible alone. So every day he met with others to discuss its meaning. It drew him into community and into a new way of thinking of others. For the first time he considered the possibility that there is One who created us, and soon he felt a deep connection to the whole human family. It may seem out of season, but it is the word the world needs. By the end, Jacobs referred to himself as a ‘reverent agnostic’ and wrote this: ‘Studying the Bible is not like studying sumo wrestling in Japan. It’s more like wrestling itself. This opponent of mine is sometimes beautiful, sometimes cruel, sometimes ancient, sometimes crazily relevant. I can’t get a handle on it. I’m outmatched” (Jacobs, p. 119). We cannot get a handle on the Word precisely because it is a living word that comes from a living God. As Hebrews 4 says it: “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (4:12). As someone once said the word we read is able to read us!
One of the concerns from Paul is that “the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4). The time is here. Such a time has been here since Paul first wrote those words and we know that our culture is filled with teachings that can pull us away from sound doctrine, from God’s word, and lead us to hear what we want to hear. One criticism of the church is that we have lost our confidence in scripture. We no longer trust that it is God-breathed. Perhaps we are so busied by life and modern things that we are apathetic toward the word of God. We are even embarrassed somewhat by what we have in this word! Paul tells Timothy and Paul tells us, no, no, no! Do not be ashamed of this word. Continue to believe. Be persistent. Proclaim the living word by word and deed. Encourage one another with God word.
I think today Paul would warn us not to wonder off by putting more faith in the Oprah book list or even in the latest “new” teaching-self help-pop theology- “what would Jesus do?” -bumper sticker theology that seems to make the best seller Christian book list. I am so weary and leery of the most popular Christian books of the day, because one of the reasons why these books become so popular is that we are looking for something new, even beyond or in place of scripture, and maybe our ears are itching for something to suit our desires. We so quickly move away from the God-breathed word precisely because it is God-breathed, living, active, truthful, able to rebuke. But this God-breathed word is where we truly find life! The Psalmist said: “I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life” (Psalm 119:93). But we are conflicted because we want life and yet we resist this God-breathed word of life because it is easier to find one more book that will give us something else, something different, something we think will satisfy our itching ears.
Paul was afraid Timothy felt the same way, so he wrote this word to encourage Timothy to never ever give up on the inspired word of God. The Message says it this way: “Proclaim the Message with intensity; keep on your watch. Challenge, warn, and urge your people. Don't ever quit. Just keep it simple. You're going to find that there will be times when people will have no stomach for solid teaching, but will fill up on spiritual junk food - catchy opinions that tickle their fancy. They'll turn their backs on truth and chase mirages. But you - keep your eye on what you're doing; accept the hard times along with the good; keep the Message alive; do a thorough job as God's servant”.
There is a lot of spiritual junk food out there; let us stick with a diet of God-breathed words trusting that God is breathing in and through these words of scripture. Let us join Jeremiah who said: “Your words were found and I ate them and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart” (Jeremiah 15:16).
All I want to do this morning is renew the call in our ears – the call to renew our commitment to the Word of God, to listen to Paul’s word…God’s word, to stay the course of solid teaching that is found in the Bible. Trust this word for your life for this is the God-breathed word of life. Amen.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Sunday Sermon 10-10-10
Sermon # 1011
Luke 17:11-19
Dr. Ed Pettus
“A Life Infused With Gratitude”
Wayne Mueller shares this thought on gratitude from his book on the Sabbath:
“Meister Echhart, the Christian mystic, asserted that if the only prayer we ever prayed our whole life was ‘Thank you,’ that would be enough. Gratefulness cultivates a visceral [intuitive] experience of having enough. When we are mindful of what we have, and give thanks for the many gifts we have overlooked or forgotten, our sense of wealth cannot help but expand, and we soon achieve a sense of sufficiency we so desire. Practice thanksgiving before meals, upon rising, when going to sleep. Friends, family, food, color, fragrance, the earth, life itself – these are all gifts, perfectly gratuitous. How can we not give thanks? During Sabbath time we are less concerned with what is missing, focusing instead on sharing our gratefulness for what has already been given” (Sabbath, p. 128).
Karl Barth, one of the greatest theologians of modern times, emphasized that the basic human response to God is gratitude, more so than fear and trembling, more than guilt or dread, our greatest response is thanksgiving (from Feasting on the Word, Yr.C, vol. 4, 165).
The Psalms give testimony to this as well. The Psalter ends with several Psalms that do nothing more than praise and thank God. This may be a sign to how an obedient life is completed – praise the Lord! This is how the cleansed leper from Samaria returns to Jesus, glorifying God and giving thanks to Jesus.
Our gospel story today has Jesus on his way to Jerusalem. Back in Luke 9 Jesus “sets his face toward Jerusalem”. He has begun the journey to fulfill God’s will and this story is along the way of that journey. He is somewhere between Samaria and Galilee. He enters a village, no name is given, no more information, but as he enters the village a group approaches, lepers, those afflicted with a skin disease. The story says they kept their distance. By Jewish law they were required to keep their distance. Leviticus 13:45-46 tells us: “The person who has the leprous disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head be disheveled; and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.”
It was an isolated existence – the only companionship was with other lepers. The isolation itself may have been more painful than the actual disease. We may not even be able to imagine what that life was like. Image no more contact with family or friends, no interaction with your community, no buying or selling in the market, no “Hi, how are you?” with strangers. Instead you have to keep your distance and cry out “unclean” any time you came close to someone.
We might experience that for a short time if we are quarantined in the hospital with some illness, but rarely for a lifetime. It is so unpleasant to have to stay away from others – like when we have a cold or flu, we have to separate ourselves or we separate our children so that no one else will catch whatever virus is making the rounds. Isolation from others is painful emotionally and physically.
Imagine that feeling of isolation compounded by the fact that there is no hope of ever coming back to family or church – never fitting into society again. Instead, you are cast out to live untouched by others with a few who suffer the same disorder. That is what lepers faced in the first century – total isolation from society, from family and friends. Torn from their lifestyles of work and play, torn from the physical touch of spouse and children. Ten lepers met Jesus at this village and this time they called out to Jesus: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” (13)
They know who Jesus is. They know that he is the one who can and will show mercy upon them. The first request, the first act of faith is to ask for mercy. Mercy, in this case, means healing. Mercy means recognizing them and their condition. Mercy means seeing them, really seeing them – and Jesus does see them. When he saw them, he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’
Just as the lepers had followed the Leviticus code that kept them out of normal society, so Jesus follows the law of Leviticus here.
Leviticus 14:1-9 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 2This shall be the ritual for the leprous person at the time of his cleansing: He shall be brought to the priest; 3the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall make an examination. If the disease is healed in the leprous person, 4the priest shall command that two living clean birds and cedarwood and crimson yarn and hyssop be brought for the one who is to be cleansed. 5The priest shall command that one of the birds be slaughtered over fresh water in an earthen vessel. 6He shall take the living bird with the cedarwood and the crimson yarn and the hyssop, and dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was slaughtered over the fresh water. 7He shall sprinkle it seven times upon the one who is to be cleansed of the leprous disease; then he shall pronounce him clean, and he shall let the living bird go into the open field. 8The one who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and bathe himself in water, and he shall be clean. After that he shall come into the camp, but shall live outside his tent seven days. 9On the seventh day he shall shave all his hair: of head, beard, eyebrows; he shall shave all his hair. Then he shall wash his clothes, and bathe his body in water, and he shall be clean.
This was the plan for the ten lepers as Jesus tells them to go to the priests. Go and show yourselves; the priests would examine them and see that they were healed and go through this ritual cleansing. They are certainly being faithful to the Jewish law, first in keeping their distance from Jesus and then keeping the law of ritual cleansing.
So the lepers go as Jesus commands:
(Luke 17:14-18) 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?’
The first act of faith for the lepers was to seek mercy and now the second is to return thanks – to say “thank you”. But only one returns, only one comes back. Jesus responds to the first act and sends the lepers to the priests for cleansing. The second act of faith is returning to Jesus to give thanks, to offer gratitude. As Meister Echhart asserts, when we are grateful we are cultivating an intuitive experience of plenty, of enough, of satisfaction, of healing and wholeness. Like the lepers we are so enamored by the experience of healing and wholeness that we cannot help but return to praise and give thanks. C. S. Lewis “observed the connection between gratitude and personal well-being. ‘I have noticed how the humblest and at the same time most balanced minds praised most; while the cranks, misfits, and malcontents praised least. Praise almost seems to be inner health made audible’” (Reflections on the Psalms, 78-81).
Notice then what happens to the leper who returned. He receives something even greater than the first healing – for now he receives salvation. The plea for mercy leads to healing, which leads to gratitude, which leads to salvation. Jesus said to him: ‘Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.’
The word translated here as “made well” is the same word translated in other texts as “saved”. It is the same word used in Luke 19 to say that salvation has come to Zacchaeus. Ten are healed and one of those ten is saved!
There is in this story, and in many others, a mysterious (mystical) connection between faith and healing, praise and healing, thanks and healing, obedience and healing – and salvation. It is the kind of connection that we know as people of faith, but even the medical community has become more aware of the connection between faith and healing. A great connection is suggested in this story. When this particular leper sees what has happened to his skin, he returns in gratitude. It bids the question, what do we do when we see what God has done for us? It has been suggested by one commentator that: “gratitude may be the purest measure of one’s character and spiritual condition. The absence of the ability to be grateful reveals self-centeredness or the attitude that I deserve more than I ever get, so I do not need to be grateful” (NIB Luke, p. 327).
Gratitude, in other words, demonstrates faithfulness.
Gratitude reveals character.
Gratitude expresses the depth of our relationship with God – our spiritual condition.
A life infused with gratitude is a life acutely aware of God’s gifts, God’s grace, God’s love, because we cannot help but return praising God and giving thanks when we have seen what God has done.
Gratitude recognizes that there is another to thank. We are not autonomous beings without need to thank another. We have not done this work on our own, but we owe thanks – and that Other is God. The lepers displayed faith when they cried out for mercy and obedience when they left to go to the priests, but one leper went a step further and displayed gratitude in response to the mercy received. The result was salvation – wholeness – wellness.
John Buchanan says: “The basic Christian response to God is gratitude: gratitude for the gift of life, gratitude for the world, gratitude for the dear people God has given us to enrich and grace our lives. The basic Christian experience is gratitude to God for God’s love in Jesus Christ and the accompanying gift of hopeful confidence and wholeness and wellness that comes with it, regardless of the worldly circumstances in which we find ourselves” (Feasting on the Word, Yr. C vol. 4, 169).
Foster a life infused with gratitude, giving thanks at mealtimes, giving thanks in the morning when you awake, giving thanks in the evening when you go to sleep, praising God for what God has done throughout your days. In Psalm 126 we read: “The Lord has done great things for us…” God has indeed done great things for us and we return, even if no one else does, we return to Jesus to simply say thank you and to praise and glorify God for all that God has done for us. Let us nurture gratitude – a life infused with gratitude – by giving thanks today and every day. Thanks! Amen.
Luke 17:11-19
Dr. Ed Pettus
“A Life Infused With Gratitude”
Wayne Mueller shares this thought on gratitude from his book on the Sabbath:
“Meister Echhart, the Christian mystic, asserted that if the only prayer we ever prayed our whole life was ‘Thank you,’ that would be enough. Gratefulness cultivates a visceral [intuitive] experience of having enough. When we are mindful of what we have, and give thanks for the many gifts we have overlooked or forgotten, our sense of wealth cannot help but expand, and we soon achieve a sense of sufficiency we so desire. Practice thanksgiving before meals, upon rising, when going to sleep. Friends, family, food, color, fragrance, the earth, life itself – these are all gifts, perfectly gratuitous. How can we not give thanks? During Sabbath time we are less concerned with what is missing, focusing instead on sharing our gratefulness for what has already been given” (Sabbath, p. 128).
Karl Barth, one of the greatest theologians of modern times, emphasized that the basic human response to God is gratitude, more so than fear and trembling, more than guilt or dread, our greatest response is thanksgiving (from Feasting on the Word, Yr.C, vol. 4, 165).
The Psalms give testimony to this as well. The Psalter ends with several Psalms that do nothing more than praise and thank God. This may be a sign to how an obedient life is completed – praise the Lord! This is how the cleansed leper from Samaria returns to Jesus, glorifying God and giving thanks to Jesus.
Our gospel story today has Jesus on his way to Jerusalem. Back in Luke 9 Jesus “sets his face toward Jerusalem”. He has begun the journey to fulfill God’s will and this story is along the way of that journey. He is somewhere between Samaria and Galilee. He enters a village, no name is given, no more information, but as he enters the village a group approaches, lepers, those afflicted with a skin disease. The story says they kept their distance. By Jewish law they were required to keep their distance. Leviticus 13:45-46 tells us: “The person who has the leprous disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head be disheveled; and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.”
It was an isolated existence – the only companionship was with other lepers. The isolation itself may have been more painful than the actual disease. We may not even be able to imagine what that life was like. Image no more contact with family or friends, no interaction with your community, no buying or selling in the market, no “Hi, how are you?” with strangers. Instead you have to keep your distance and cry out “unclean” any time you came close to someone.
We might experience that for a short time if we are quarantined in the hospital with some illness, but rarely for a lifetime. It is so unpleasant to have to stay away from others – like when we have a cold or flu, we have to separate ourselves or we separate our children so that no one else will catch whatever virus is making the rounds. Isolation from others is painful emotionally and physically.
Imagine that feeling of isolation compounded by the fact that there is no hope of ever coming back to family or church – never fitting into society again. Instead, you are cast out to live untouched by others with a few who suffer the same disorder. That is what lepers faced in the first century – total isolation from society, from family and friends. Torn from their lifestyles of work and play, torn from the physical touch of spouse and children. Ten lepers met Jesus at this village and this time they called out to Jesus: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” (13)
They know who Jesus is. They know that he is the one who can and will show mercy upon them. The first request, the first act of faith is to ask for mercy. Mercy, in this case, means healing. Mercy means recognizing them and their condition. Mercy means seeing them, really seeing them – and Jesus does see them. When he saw them, he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’
Just as the lepers had followed the Leviticus code that kept them out of normal society, so Jesus follows the law of Leviticus here.
Leviticus 14:1-9 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 2This shall be the ritual for the leprous person at the time of his cleansing: He shall be brought to the priest; 3the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall make an examination. If the disease is healed in the leprous person, 4the priest shall command that two living clean birds and cedarwood and crimson yarn and hyssop be brought for the one who is to be cleansed. 5The priest shall command that one of the birds be slaughtered over fresh water in an earthen vessel. 6He shall take the living bird with the cedarwood and the crimson yarn and the hyssop, and dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was slaughtered over the fresh water. 7He shall sprinkle it seven times upon the one who is to be cleansed of the leprous disease; then he shall pronounce him clean, and he shall let the living bird go into the open field. 8The one who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and bathe himself in water, and he shall be clean. After that he shall come into the camp, but shall live outside his tent seven days. 9On the seventh day he shall shave all his hair: of head, beard, eyebrows; he shall shave all his hair. Then he shall wash his clothes, and bathe his body in water, and he shall be clean.
This was the plan for the ten lepers as Jesus tells them to go to the priests. Go and show yourselves; the priests would examine them and see that they were healed and go through this ritual cleansing. They are certainly being faithful to the Jewish law, first in keeping their distance from Jesus and then keeping the law of ritual cleansing.
So the lepers go as Jesus commands:
(Luke 17:14-18) 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?’
The first act of faith for the lepers was to seek mercy and now the second is to return thanks – to say “thank you”. But only one returns, only one comes back. Jesus responds to the first act and sends the lepers to the priests for cleansing. The second act of faith is returning to Jesus to give thanks, to offer gratitude. As Meister Echhart asserts, when we are grateful we are cultivating an intuitive experience of plenty, of enough, of satisfaction, of healing and wholeness. Like the lepers we are so enamored by the experience of healing and wholeness that we cannot help but return to praise and give thanks. C. S. Lewis “observed the connection between gratitude and personal well-being. ‘I have noticed how the humblest and at the same time most balanced minds praised most; while the cranks, misfits, and malcontents praised least. Praise almost seems to be inner health made audible’” (Reflections on the Psalms, 78-81).
Notice then what happens to the leper who returned. He receives something even greater than the first healing – for now he receives salvation. The plea for mercy leads to healing, which leads to gratitude, which leads to salvation. Jesus said to him: ‘Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.’
The word translated here as “made well” is the same word translated in other texts as “saved”. It is the same word used in Luke 19 to say that salvation has come to Zacchaeus. Ten are healed and one of those ten is saved!
There is in this story, and in many others, a mysterious (mystical) connection between faith and healing, praise and healing, thanks and healing, obedience and healing – and salvation. It is the kind of connection that we know as people of faith, but even the medical community has become more aware of the connection between faith and healing. A great connection is suggested in this story. When this particular leper sees what has happened to his skin, he returns in gratitude. It bids the question, what do we do when we see what God has done for us? It has been suggested by one commentator that: “gratitude may be the purest measure of one’s character and spiritual condition. The absence of the ability to be grateful reveals self-centeredness or the attitude that I deserve more than I ever get, so I do not need to be grateful” (NIB Luke, p. 327).
Gratitude, in other words, demonstrates faithfulness.
Gratitude reveals character.
Gratitude expresses the depth of our relationship with God – our spiritual condition.
A life infused with gratitude is a life acutely aware of God’s gifts, God’s grace, God’s love, because we cannot help but return praising God and giving thanks when we have seen what God has done.
Gratitude recognizes that there is another to thank. We are not autonomous beings without need to thank another. We have not done this work on our own, but we owe thanks – and that Other is God. The lepers displayed faith when they cried out for mercy and obedience when they left to go to the priests, but one leper went a step further and displayed gratitude in response to the mercy received. The result was salvation – wholeness – wellness.
John Buchanan says: “The basic Christian response to God is gratitude: gratitude for the gift of life, gratitude for the world, gratitude for the dear people God has given us to enrich and grace our lives. The basic Christian experience is gratitude to God for God’s love in Jesus Christ and the accompanying gift of hopeful confidence and wholeness and wellness that comes with it, regardless of the worldly circumstances in which we find ourselves” (Feasting on the Word, Yr. C vol. 4, 169).
Foster a life infused with gratitude, giving thanks at mealtimes, giving thanks in the morning when you awake, giving thanks in the evening when you go to sleep, praising God for what God has done throughout your days. In Psalm 126 we read: “The Lord has done great things for us…” God has indeed done great things for us and we return, even if no one else does, we return to Jesus to simply say thank you and to praise and glorify God for all that God has done for us. Let us nurture gratitude – a life infused with gratitude – by giving thanks today and every day. Thanks! Amen.
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