Pastor
Jim Kniseley presented this sermon at Resurrection on October 10, 2010, the
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost. The
gospel lesson is Luke 17:11-19, The Healing of the Ten Lepers.
Dear Friends in Christ,
The theme of this sermon is
“remembering to say thank you.” Some of
you here today do a better job of saying thanks than do others of us here. I married into a family that places a high
value on receiving a timely thank you note when you have received a gift. And God help you if you forget or are
delayed!
In today’s gospel lesson,
Luke presents a story in which some forget to say their thanks and Jesus uses
their rudeness to teach a lesson. In
this 17th chapter of Luke’s gospel, Jesus is now on his final
journey to Jerusalem and his date with the cross. On this particular occasion, Jesus is going
through the region between Samaria and Galilee.
This is a no-man’s land, where people are caught between two nations who
have bitterness toward each other, 2 nations who share a lot of common history,
and 2 nations who worship the same God, 2 nations that now loathe each
other. That bit of knowledge is
important because when Jesus enters the first village in that area he is
approached by 10 lepers who cry out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” We aren’t told if these lepers are Samaritans
or Jews. It really doesn’t matter, does
it? When you have a disease in Bible
times like leprosy, you are fighting for your very existence and petty quarrels
and rivalries among nations don’t seem to matter. Jesus says to them from afar, “Go and show
yourselves to the priests.”
There is a bit of irony
here, that I do not want us to miss.
“Show yourselves to the priests?”
These lepers are unclean and neither the priests in Jerusalem nor the
priests in Samara at Mt. Gerizim would either want to see them or be allowed to
see them. These 10 lepers know
this. But amazingly they head off to see
their priests. And in the very next
sentence Luke tells us: And as they
went, they were made clean.
Here is where the real
lesson for today begins: 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 raise to God except this foreigner?”
Why did only one man,
cleansed from leprosy, return to thank Jesus? A corollary question might be, “Do we forget
to say thank you to Jesus?” Someone has
made a list of seven suggested reasons why these 9 lepers did not return:
·
One waited to see if the cure was real.
·
One waited to see if it would last.
·
One decided he had never had leprosy in the
first place.
·
One said he would have gotten well anyway.
·
One said, “O, well, Jesus didn’t really do
anything.”
·
One said, “Any rabbi could have done it.”
·
One said, “I was already much improved.”
That’s not all surprising,
is it? It seems that often the more we have,
the less gratitude we feel.
Some of us were at the
ordination and installation for David Drebes in Bayse, Virginia, this past
Friday. The Bishop gave thanks to the
many people who have had a hand in preparing David for the gospel ministry. The net of thanksgiving was cast wide. It included his parents, Jim and Gail, and
his baptism and first years at Christ Lutheran.
It included his growing up years here at Resurrection and his time in
Sunday School and Confirmation and Youth Activities. It included his time at our Lutheran College,
Roanoke, and his time at Camp Kirchenwald in Pennsylvania, and his support
through the synod candidacy committee and his study at Princeton at Lutheran
Theological Seminary at Philadelphia and his internship in a Lutheran
Congregation in New Jersey, and his call by the good people of Prince of Peace
in Bayse to be their pastor.
That’s all good stuff to
hear and remember. I like the emphasis
that Pastor Chip Gunsten put in his sermon.
He looked directly at the people and said that Pastor David Drebes was
called to a ministry of Word and Sacrament.
It is God who does the calling.
Pastor David would be their partner at Prince of Peace, but the ministry is to be shared, and it does not
all fall on him to make it succeed or not. And in the end, Pastor David was not there to
please or serve them, he was there to please and serve the Lord. I
thought that bit of wisdom was good not only for David and the people of Prince
of Peace, it was good for all the people at the service that day, including the
20 pastors who were there to place our hands on David’s head for ordination.
Something occurred at the
service, behind the scenes, that told Pastor Carol and me that David will do
well as a pastor at Prince of Peace. It
was the beginning of the service; the clergy had all processed down the center
aisle and had found their seats. The
crucifer put away the cross and went to find his seat and all were taken. This crucifer happened to be the former
pastor. It was at this point that David
went to a side room, found a chair, and brought it back for Pastor Nabors to
sit in. That was being a servant pastor,
I think, in the spirit of Jesus.
End
of today’s sermon and now a prelude to the sermon I next preach in two weeks…If
you have a cell phone or other electronic device with you that allows you to be
in communication with others, would you take it out right now and hold it
up…Here’s something I want you to ponder:
HOW COULD YOU USE THIS ELECTRONIC INSTRUMENT TO SHARE THE GOOD NEWS OF
JESUS AND HELP RESURRECTION TO GROW?...Please bring your cell phones and all
other portable electronic communication devices with you to worship two weeks
from today, October 24.
Thank you!