First Lutheran Church
October 9, 2022 + The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Sermon Part One“Gathering”
Pastor Greg Ronning
The appointed gospel for this Sunday is the story of Jesus and the healing of the Ten Lepers. This morning you will hear that story and the sermon - in four parts. I will be using the ancient liturgical pattern of worship,(the one we practice here at First Lutheran),“Gathering, The Word, The Meal, and Sending,” as a way of helping us better understand and “enter into” this gospel story. Our pattern of worship is very intentional, each Sunday it takes us on a journey; it takes us from places of isolation, broken-ness, and emptiness into the abundance of life found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This morning it will takes us on that journey in with and through the story of Jesus and the Ten Lepers.
The story, found in the Gospel of Luke, begins this way … “On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee.”
“Gathering.” Our worship service begins with a “gathering up of people,” an invitation rooted in the grace of God, God’s love poured out in the waters of baptism. “Here in this place,” “all peoples together,” we gather with Christ.
The geography of Jesus is very important, the geography of today’s Gospel is very important. This morning we find Jesus traveling somewhere along the border between Samaria and Galilee. Jesus is wandering through some kind of “no man’s land,” an uncomfortable place between two peoples who don’t care for each other(the Jews and the Samaritans), a place populated by lepers, the unclean and untouchable people of his day, a place that most people probably avoided.
Yet that tends to be the pattern of Jesus, it’s not unusual to find Jesus in this kind of place. In story after story Jesus goes to borders, physical and social borders, and crosses over them, traverses back and forth, challenging their existence and redefining their nature, while proclaiming the Kingdom of God.
As we gather together this morning for worship, we are reminded that Jesus often gathered people up on the margins of life, at crossroads, in broken and conflicted places. Perhaps you crossed some kind of border to be here this morning? A physical border, a social border, an emotional border? I imagine someone is not with us this morning because something kept them from crossing some kind of border? Many of us gather very aware of our own personal borders, our own boundaries, our own broken places.
This morning we are reminded that Christ is found “between” Samaria and Galilee, between here and there, at the edges of life, at the edges of your life, and my life, on the border; the geography of Jesus is important. We begin this morning by crossing over borders, despite borders, gathering together, “somewhere between Samaria and Galilee” at the invitation of Christ.
Sermon Part Two
“The Word”
The story of the Ten Lepers continues … “As Jesus 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. (Luke 17:12-14)
“The Word.” This is the point in the liturgy where we unpack the scriptures in search of a Living Word that can enter (find its way) into our life. Just as Jesus enters into the village and transforms the life’s of the Lepers, Jesus enters into our life as we gather around the Word. And in anticipation, we open up our hearts and minds that we too might receive a Living Word that will transform our life.
Often when I meditate on the scriptures, one thought, word, phrase, or idea, will come to me and invite me deeper into the story. This week I found myself thinking about the geography, “the region between Samaria and Galilee,” and the many borders (physical, social, and personal) that existed in that place.This has become the Word I want to share with you this morning.
So, what comes to your mind when you think of borders, when you “unpack” the idea of “borders,” “the region between Samaria and Galilee?” The first thought that comes to my mind is the border with Mexico and all the ways we struggle with issues of immigration. I also picture the border wall between Israel and Palestine and the way it was built cutting people off from land, family, resources, and opportunity. Fresh from my trip to Germany this Summer, I can picture the images of the Berlin Wall with its watchtowers and snipers. And from that same trip in which I crossed “friendly” borders I remember very stern people, checking and inspecting my papers and my possessions. When I think of borders, the first things that come to mind are not positive things, instead I imagine negative things, I feel stressed, and I become anxious and fearful.
And what about the other kinds borders in our lives, the borders made up of things other than brick, steel, and barbed wire.
I am reminded of the barriers that our ever-present cell phones create. Glued to the screen we have become detached from each other; sharing meals, spaces, and moments without making eye contact and conversing. We walk along with our ear buds blasting our music into our brains oblivious to all that is going on around us. Head down, head long, looking at our phones.
And let’s not forget the red and blue boundaries of politics, very real boundaries that are creating very real problems for us, especially for those in great need, those who live “in between,” those stuck in “no man’s land.” Borders that seem to make it impossible to find a way to serve each other and the common good.
And then there’s the personal borders with which we all struggle. The areas in our life that we are afraid to explore, places where the pain is just too much, places where we become addicted, places that tear us apart from the inside out.
Borders, a Word that we all can relate to, we all have “border stories.”
Sermon Part Three
“The Meal”
A recap of the story up to this point …. “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. (Luke 17:11-14)
Unfortunately, we have been taught and conditioned to always fear borders - physical borders, social borders, and our own personal borders. Doubt and fear keep us from exploring the edges of society, the places where people are struggling. Doubt and fear keep us from understanding our so called “enemies” on the other side. And doubt and fear keep us from exploring our personal rough and damaged edges. Sadly, doubt and fear, our doubt and fear, the other’s doubt and fear, my doubt and fear, your doubt and fear, society’s doubt and fear, all the fear - keeps all of creation cut off from wholeness and healing.
In this week’s Gospel Jesus reminds us that he is very present on these borders, in that “no man’s land” reaching out and healing “lepers,” in those places that we are often too frightened to explore. Jesus invites to step away from the doubt and the fear that defines borders as dangerous places, and to instead let God’s love transform these borders into places of grace and love and peace where healing can happen, healing for the nations and healing for each of us as individuals.
Our worship service continues with “the meal,” a time when we remember what God did for us in Christ Jesus, a time in which we are gathered up “as grains of wheat” to become “one bread,” a time when Christ is present to hold us and heal us, a time when we are nourished and inspired in life, a time when Christ “crosses” over the border to be with us, a time when we are invited to cross over a border and be Christ with each other. As we gather for Holy Communion, we are reminded that we become a Holy Community. When Jesus invites us to “do this in remembrance of me,” we are invited, challenged, to “re-member” the body of Christ, put it back together in all its wonderful diversity embracing the kingdom of God.
Yes, it’s hard to approach borders, borders between nations, borders between peoples, and our own personal borders. So let us be reminded once again that Christ is present in these places, present to heal and restore, present in love, present with grace, present to set us free and to make all things new. At this time you are invited to rise up, come forward, cross over, and share in the sacrament of Holy Community, the gift of God for the people of God.
Sermon Part Four “Sending”
The story of the Ten Lepers concludes … “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." (Luke 17:15-19)
Our story ends with transformation, with healing, and for at least one person, a moment of thanksgiving, a moment of bearing witness to the love of God. So, what has happened to you during the past 40 minutes or so, how has the story of your life been impacted?
Did the Word find you somewhere in the midst of one of your “border places?” Did it encourage you and strengthen you in a way that might allow you to explore those parts of your life that might be broken or damaged. Did a word of grace and love break through giving you hope and inspiring your faith?
Or perhaps you felt a call to go to one of those places in our world where barriers, where walls, where borders divide people, hurt people, even destroy people. Maybe you, and your gifts and talents and passion are needed to wander in those places proclaiming the gospel, and even begin tearing those walls down.
And as we gathered to share in the meal that is Christ present, “crossed” over and poured out for us, did you experience the love and grace of God? Did you find yourself in the Holy Community, in the place where God is present “for you” in bread and wine? Were you made aware of someone who is missing from the Holy Community, someone that needs to be reached out to and invited inside.
I hope and trust that God has spoken to you this morning, in with and through; Word and Sacrament, the Word made alive, The body of Christ re-membered, a story about the lepers who lived “somewhere between” Samaria and Galilee, a story about Christ powerfully present at the edges of your life; And that the work of transformation, the work of all things becoming new, has begun or continues in your life.
In today’s Gospel only one Leper, the Samaritan, returns and gives thanks. Our worship concludes, following his faithful example, with a song of thanksgiving and a “Sending” out into the world, our faith filled response to the call of God, to share the story of the Gospel, present at the border, a story that breaks down walls and sets people free.
“Praise to you, O God of Mercy”
Praise to You, O God of mercy, Thanks be to You forever!
Raising high the weak and lowly: Thanks be to You forever!
Amen.