Proper 23C: 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.”
Jesus healed ten lepers in a sort of border region between
Samaria and Galilee. Only a “foreigner”, only the one outside Jesus’ faith
community, returned to thank Jesus. As he returned to thank Jesus, he praised
God “with a loud voice”, keeping neither his praise nor his gratitude to
himself. The other nine were silent.
Did the ritual of showing themselves to the priest in order
to have the healing verified somehow take the place of praise and gratitude for
the other nine? We have no way of knowing what was in their hearts. They may
have been praising God and feeling grateful in their hearts, but outwardly they
were silent.
Does it surprise us that the outsider, the foreigner, is the
only one who grasps what has happened to him and responds appropriately?
Perhaps not if we consider the situation in many churches today, where rituals
are observed well but there is silence around the reality of the world around
us and our lives outside the church walls. This passage reminded me of
something I’ve observed in several Episcopal parishes in recent years.
Those of us who know our fellow worshipers know that many
people who come to church care deeply about what is happening in the world, but
a stranger might never guess it if they visit on a Sunday morning, where there
may be a full hour with no mention of anything outside of the church and its
members. And it’s not that nothing has been happening in the world worthy of
being mentioned. In the world of weather and climate alone there is plenty to
get our attention.
In the past month we saw terrible floods in Colorado, a
record-breaking snowstorm in South Dakota that killed many cattle, and
tornadoes in Nebraska. The IPCC
5th Assessment Report came out, full of sobering information
about the state of climate change on our planet its implications for the years
ahead.
A new study was in the news this week. Led by Camilo Mora
from the University of Hawaii, this study predicts the years of “climate
departure” for several places around the world assuming “business as usual”,
i.e. no significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. (See a map and list
of cities here.
Chicago’s predicted year for climate departure is around 2052, 39 years from
now. Phoenix is 2043, only 30 years down the road.) “Climate departure” refers
to the point when the coldest years are warmer than the warmest years from 1860
to 2005. So after 2052, the coldest years in Chicago should be warmer than any
of the warmest years recorded up to 2005. Places in the tropics will reach this
point first. For example, Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic is predicted
to reach climate departure very soon, around 2026. As we have known for a long
time, the places that will be impacted first are the ones least responsible for
climate change and often places with less means to respond to climate change
than wealthier nations.
It’s quite possible that people staying home on Sunday
morning and reading the newspaper or watching the Sunday morning news shows may
have more of an idea of what is happening and, as a result, more concern for
those suffering, than those who have been to church on Sunday morning. But we
have several opportunities to connect what we do in church with the urgent
needs of the world. Victims of the storms in Colorado, South Dakota, and
Nebraska – or this week, those who live in the path of Cyclone
Phailin, a huge cyclone that has made landfall in India – might be remembered
in our prayers. A spoken or written announcement can suggest ways to contribute
to relief organizations such as Episcopal Relief and
Development or help in some other way. Preachers can acknowledge what is
happening in the world and help us see the connections to what we learn from
Scripture.
But sometimes we get to the end of an hour of worship and
even the coffee hour conversations and realize on reflection that nothing was
said that couldn’t have been said ten years ago. This may be comforting on some
level – nothing ever changes – but also suggests that like the nine who kept
silent, we churchgoers can become so accustomed to our changeless rituals that
we become less able to connect with Christ and bring Christ into our lives than
are those outside our walls.
I wonder how authentic our praise of God is if we can’t
acknowledge the needs of the world in our worship. I wonder how deeply we trust
God if we don’t express our greatest fears out loud in our churches. Do we
trust God with a global crisis that seems too big for us to understand? And I
wonder if we are really praising God, the Creator and Sustainer of the
universe, if we choose to ignore what is happening to God’s creation.
Breaking our silence so that our praise is heard in the
world and the needs of the world are heard in our churches puts us in the blessed
company of the “foreigner” who turned to Christ and responded appropriately.
