Sermon for the 14 th Sunday after Trinity, September 13, 2009
“Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.”
YOU are not saved by a belief system. You are not healed by personal religious high ideals. Nobody gets to heaven by just thinking it's real and they deserve it. Either Christianity is the biggest fraud ever foisted off on the world, with ridiculous promises made to gullible people with the desire for inventing and injecting meaning into their bland useless existence, or else it's the entire Truth that lies behind and explains everything we see. Jesus had to be one of these: a madman , a charlatan , or the Son of the Living God. Call me an extremist, but no logical path can truly lead to a mild-mannered, very enlightened but misunderstood carpenter to whom are attributed miracles and claims he neither did nor said. Make that same statement about anyone else, and he falls to obscurity, a sad but unread footnote in ancient history. The present day effects of the Life of Jesus Christ are still transforming our world. I am thoroughly convinced, therefore, that he was not a madman nor was He a charlatan. I have to go with the God.
But if He is God, then this means something to us. This changes us . This challenges us. There cannot be some neutral ground where a mildly positive response to the Galilean prophet makes sense. Hate Him rather than feel mildly disposed toward Him. Atheists may be converted more easily than agnostics, for an atheist actually believes in God, is obsessed with God, but he is only angry at Him. An agnostic can't be bothered to find out if there is a God or not, nor cares if that fact might mean something essential and important.
If Jesus is God the Son, then His appearing in Palestine and speaking to people who wrote of their encounters with Him, His actions, His family, His life story, His death, and resurrection must be looked at closely, regarded as very important to our lives and future, and embraced as the only true path of our one great hope. If Jesus is God, then the sky no longer holds fearful portent, the grave no longer yawns with chilling imaginings. There is a Face beyond this universe, and the Face is one of love. Hold this truth, follow it to Jesus, and you can't have wasted your life. But should you regard this bearded man in robe and sandals mildly, as a figure for stained glass and mere ceremony and religion-talk, sweet songs and nice ideals, then you have never met Him, never known Him, never understood a thing we've said here week by week. For in truth, you are either a madman, or a charlatan, or a believer in the One True God. Which is it? The madman looks at the world and sees the mirage that he thinks is there and can't find reality. The charlatan knows he's a liar, but covers up and makes it up as he goes, figuring no one will know or ever find out. A believer quite sanely sees the invisible, weighs the immaterial, and knows for a fact that God is there.
Ten lepers came pleading to the healer who had entered their town. Excited voices heralded His arrival and words of hope reached the ears of these outcasts, with their rags and bells and shouts of “ Unclean !” The ten at least had each other for company, but such company! Nine Jews and a Samaritan. The Jews wouldn't have had the Samaritan in their company but for the disease that leveled the field between the nine and the one. Together they would beg, scavenger, glean and starve. Ten men cried out to Jesus, “Master, have mercy on us!” He simply told them to turn and find a priest to have him examine their leprosy. The priests were the judges of health and administered the laws of lepers. Ten men turned mumbling up the street. It was only as they walked that something felt different in them. The skin inside their rags no longer stuck to its bandages, old sores and weeping wounds no longer stung. One, then another began to unwrap his bindings, only to find whole flesh, smooth skin, its color uniform, rich and healthy. They began to peel their head wrappings, leggings, arm bandages and all found the same healthy skin shining up at them. Their joy was absolute. One mentioned that they needed to be certified cleansed so that they might completely get rid of these rags and wear clean clothing, reunite with their families, find welcome in society. “He told us to show ourselves to the priest! Let's go.” And off went nine men, healed men, happy men.
But one man stood stock still. He watched his former friends walk away, but his mind, his heart, his spirit was full of another more urgent call. It wasn't the priest that healed them. “Besides, I'm a Samaritan. What will a Jewish priest do for me? Even if I'm certified, I'm not one of them. No, what's important right now is that a man just gave me healing, and my life is restored. He is back there. I have to thank Him. No, I have to worship Him. He must be, He has to be Messiah.” He began to walk back, then he ran. His healthy body could run painlessly now and it felt wonderful to feel the air on healthy skin. He burst into the square crying, “Jesus! Praise you! Bless you! Thanks be to God! All thanks be to you, Jesus!” and he feel at the Lord's feet, blessing Him and thanking Him. Christ looked down with love and understanding, then scanned the streets for sign of any more grateful men. “Were there not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? No one else can be seen except this foreigner who comes to give thanks and glory to God. Where are my Jewish countrymen? Where are the faithful descendants of Jacob? They all got what they wanted, and now they're back to the lives that never helped nor healed them.” He lifted the man up by his healthy arms and looked in his eyes. “Stand up. It's all right. You may go where you will. Your faith has now made you whole.”
Whole faith. Jesus is not the embarrassing fact of our upbringing, the fact that as children we were forced to celebrate Christmas and Easter by going to church. We sung those songs as kids. We believed in our felt-board Bible stories. Then we grew up and thought differently. Jesus is not the sentimental kindly angel who answers our selfish prayers with funny little ‘miracles' we send stories of to magazines. Jesus is not a distant hope, or pie in the sky, or a choice among equally good religious walks. He does not belong to the Church. The Church belongs to Him, in fact, the world and all its creatures, the sky, stars, everything created is His. He may have walked the earth as we do, but it was His earth. Jesus is the fact we meet at the end of time, and at that time Jesus and you had better be on friendly terms. As Judge of the human race, Jesus Christ matters so much more than we ever imagined before. Should we not fall on our faces before His throne and thank Him?
To be whole is to have all you need to be who you were created to be. We strive, we worry, we fret, we get angry, we have ulcers, we get high blood pressure and cancer and heart disease and nervous break downs, and why? Our wholeness, our health is found in one significant truth. Jesus is God and we are His by faith in Him. Rely on that fact, live your life in the shadow of that reality, and whatever your circumstances, way of life, bodily age or health status, you will be whole . In living and in dying, when we have the One who lives forever, we are whole. St. James wrote, “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the priests of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.” James 5:14-15 The prayer of faith will save the sick. Sins will be forgiven. Life will return. Wholeness is yours.
Jesus often made this remark after He clearly did a creative, healing miracle . “Your faith has made you whole.” He isn't deferring the miracle, denying that He had a great deal to do with it. It is essential that we believe , that we are convinced that we will change , that we shall be followers of Him . What good is it to have your crooked leg straightened just so you can walk away from God? What good is it to you for your life to be saved just to throw it away on evil? For blind eyes to be given sight just to look at filth? Health without faith leads to pride. Our pride gains us nothing. Our lives aren't worth living without Him at the head of our path. In Jesus' home town, He didn't do many miracles because they wouldn't believe who He was. Pride and self-fulfillment never got us anywhere but the psychiatrist's couch. We touch His hem. We eat the crumbs under the Master's table. We grope toward Him in our darkness. And He heals us, stops the bleeding, opens our eyes, delivers our children from their devils, fills broken hearts with peace, forgives our sins, defends our souls, feeds us His Body and Blood, and raises us up on the last day. Our faith in Him leads to these and so many other wonders. Without Him we remain broken, partial, guilty, incomplete.
No one is saved by a belief system. Personal religious high ideals without the reality of Jesus gets you nowhere. Christ is the entire Truth that lies behind and explains everything we see. The present day effects of the Life of Jesus Christ are still transforming our world. I have to go with Jesus as the Son of God, that He was made man in the womb of Mary, that He lived and died for us, and was raised to life unending on the third day. He lives . And only because He lives can I live and have hope and faith to live another day. Nothing was made except through Him. Nothing will remain except through Him. Nothing is nothing. Everything else is everything—and it all counts on Christ. Whole faith : nothing lacking, nothing held back, no doubts, no judgment reserved. We're in. We're convinced. We're committed to it. Jesus is Lord. Now let us praise Him.
PFH+