Posts Tagged ‘Luke 17:11-19’
Jesus, Master, Have Mercy on Us – Br. Jack Crowley
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Br. Jack Crowley
The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 23C)
“Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” Those were the words called out to Jesus by the ten lepers in our Gospel this morning. Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.
You can feel the desperation in their words. These lepers were sick and not getting better. They were outcasts.
We are told by the Gospel writer that these lepers kept their distance from Jesus. It’s one of the most heartbreaking details from this story. Most of Jesus’ healing encounters in scripture are up close and personal, usually with Jesus laying his hands on those he healed. Yet in this story of healing, there is distance between Jesus and the lepers.
I’m sure we’ve all had that feeling of distance before. Maybe you’ve suddenly felt aware of a distance from those closest to you. Maybe you’ve even felt distant from God. It can be an awful feeling. Distance in any relationship breeds the fear of abandonment.
So how did these lepers bridge that distance between Jesus and them? They cried out. The King James translation of this story says that they lifted up their voices. They called out and pled to Jesus. They voiced how they felt and how desperate they were for help. Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. Read More
As They Went – Br. Luke Ditewig
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Br. Luke Ditewig
Ten lepers called out: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When he saw them, Jesus said: “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean.
As they went. Not when Jesus spoke. Not when they met the priests. As they went. As they followed Jesus’ invitation. As they did the next thing asked, as they journeyed. As they went, they were healed. Healing may happen in motion, in process, as we go, as we live, as we follow during a short walk or over a long journey. We receive healing and insight both a particular points and incrementally over time.
Often, it’s the ordinary, daily grist of life with my brothers and guests, such as asking for and receiving help, in falling down and getting up again, that both challenges and changes me. As I go, as I lean into this life, I am being healed.
When one of the lepers recognized his healing, he returned to thank Jesus. Jesus asked: “Where are the nine? Were not ten healed?” Giving thanks seems simple. It can be such a challenge. I wish I could say thanksgiving is my first and primary response, yet often when I glimpse healing, I immediately wanted more, something bigger, better, or what someone else receives. I also often wish I was further along, fully healed, no longer in need.
Retreat offers time and space to return, renew, and refresh basic prayers like “have mercy” and thank you.” Retreat also offers time to listen deeply. What is Jesus’ response? What the invitation for you today? Retreat may offer perspective. We may get a glimpse of insight into how God is at work in our lives, of how healing has and is happening. Today with Jesus ask for mercy and give thanks.
The Journey of Healing and Faith – Br. Jack Crowley
Br. Jack Crowley
Our Gospel this morning is a story full of healing and faith. The action begins with Jesus on foot making his way towards Jerusalem. As Jesus enters a village, ten lepers approach him. These ten lepers are respectful of Jesus and do not get too close to him. They cry out to Jesus saying “Jesus, master, have mercy on us”. These men are sick and outcasts in society, they are begging for help.
Jesus tells these ten sick men to go show themselves to the priests. They do as they are told by Jesus and begin their journey. Then as these ten men are making their way to the priests, they are all healed. Now this is where the story gets interesting. One of these ten healed men turns back around. He makes his way back to Jesus. He throws himself at the feet of Jesus, praising God and thanking him for his healing.
Jesus is clearly pleased by this man’s gratitude but also wonders aloud where the other nine men he healed are. How come they haven’t come back to give thanks? The story ends with one of the most beautiful lines in the Gospels. Jesus tells the healed man at his feet to “Get up and go on your way, your faith has made you well”. Read More
Faithful is the Word – Br. Keith Nelson
2 Timothy 2:8-15 & Luke 17:11-19
The patterns of life help us predict and control the chaos of creaturely existence. But there arises inevitably the unforeseen variable. The variable may visit in the form of a disruption in a system; as a tipping point or breaking point. Or a sudden reversal or unexpected contradiction can interrupt the flow of a familiar pattern. We witness this in all fields of human experience, from economics to meteorology to evolutionary biology to poetry. The loss of control that accompanies such variables can be truly terrifying. But there is another law of creaturely existence to bear in mind: without the unforeseen variable, genuine change cannot emerge. Without the couplet at the end of the sonnet that unlocks the poem’s meaning, the reader will remain unmoved by the galloping rhyme and meter that brought her there. For us, the Holy Spirit is this change agent. The Holy Spirit is made known within us as what theologian Karl Rahner called “an interior pressure by which we become more.” Such moments are usually the cumulative effect in our praying consciousness of many seeds of grace planted and forgotten, tended in the nourishing darkness of God. Moments of becoming unfold in real time as the fruition of a pattern, but what they point to is something altogether unpredictable. We can witness them if we have eyes to see. They break upon our hearing if we are attentive to how we listen.
The authors of scripture were well-attuned to the basic momentum of the Holy Spirit, that “interior pressure to become more” pulsing within the collective life of Christ’s new Body. They interiorized and recorded the testimony of those who had witnessed, at firsthand, the great unforeseen variable of The Resurrection. The cross and empty tomb together represented the sudden reversal by which God’s wisdom and power shone forth in the least likely, promising, or predictable ways. I want to explore the ways our Epistle and our gospel text show us this relationship between the pattern and the unforeseen variable in the shape of Christian life.
The Radical Practice of Giving Thanks in All Circumstances – Br. David Vryhof
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Read by Br. Curtis Almquist, SSJE
I Thessalonians 5:18
Luke 17:11-19
I have a memory of my 5th-grade teacher asking us to write a short paragraph describing the things in our lives for which we were thankful. I don’t recall any of the specifics of that assignment, but I do recall having a terrible case of “writer’s block.” I sat for the longest time just staring at that piece of paper. I couldn’t think of a thing for which I was thankful.
Recalling it now, it seems shocking to me that a 5th-grade boy growing up in suburban America, with plenty of food and warm clothes and a comfortable home and a loving family, couldn’t think of anything for which he was thankful. I was surrounded by gifts, but I didn’t recognize them as gifts, and so I couldn’t begin to express my gratitude for them. I suppose I naively assumed that everyone had food and clothing, a loving family and a comfortable home. I was unaware of how privileged I was to enjoy these things on a daily basis, and simply took them for granted. Read More
God Loves to be Thanked – Br. Geoffrey Tristram
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Deuteronomy 8:-1; 2 Corinthians 9:6-15; Luke 17:11-19
Among the many things which I like about living in America is this day – Thanksgiving. My family and friends in England don’t know quite what it is. They sort of combine it with the 4th of July and think it’s a kind of thanksgiving for having got rid of the British! But I’ve explained it to them now, and they even phone and wish me Happy Thanksgiving. So, what is Thanksgiving about? If it’s not thanks for getting rid of the British, what is it about? It’s got to be more than just the prelude to the biggest shopping spree of the year!
Thanksgiving’s got something to do with this story of a woman out shopping on Black Friday. She was in the middle of the packed mall, and felt the need of a coffee break, So she bought herself a little bag of cookies, put them in her shopping bag, and got in line for a coffee. She found a place to sit at one of the crowded tables, took the lid off her coffee, and taking out a magazine she relaxed and began to sip her coffee and read. Across the table from her a man sat reading a newspaper. Read More