Faith From the Outside Looking In
Rachel Knuth
The Community Church of Sebastopol, UCC
October 10, 2010
Luke 17:11-19
Inclusion is the common thread from the beginning of Luke to the end. Luke’s powerful message is that the healing and teaching of Jesus is for all people, everywhere, no matter who they are or where they come from. Luke also takes a special interest in the poor and outcast, and is concerned that the wealthy share what they have with the poor. So it should come as no surprise that he would lift up the story of a group of diseased outcasts, the story of the ten lepers who are cleansed raises a number of issues. Three themes that come out of the text are: exclusion because of disease, gratitude for the presence of healing, and the difference between being made clean versus being made well. This morning we will explore “Faith from the Outside Looking In,” that is, faith from the perspective of the Samaritan leper—the outcast foreigner who is made well.
Sometimes it helps us to understand a story in its literary context. By that I mean, we can look at what Luke presents to us both before and after the healing of the ten lepers. In the lines just prior to today’s text, we hear the story of the mustard seed. This is an oldie but goodie—my grandmother in Alabama used to have a necklace with a tiny mustard seed encased in a glass ball. Jesus says, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” Next in line comes the story of a slave whose obedience is expected, and not rewarded. Then our story about the ten lepers made clean, followed by Jesus saying that “the kingdom of God is among you.” And really, these are all stories about faith. Luke strings them together to illustrate his point that sometimes the least among us has the greatest faith. Even a little faith can move trees, can make us whole, can en-lighten us from within.
In today’s passage, The Samaritan leper is a nobody—a diseased foreigner—one writer likens lepers to “the walking dead.” And yet, he is the one who turns back, his heart filled with gratitude. He is the one who recognizes that something larger than himself is at work here, that God is present in his life. The Samaritan leper himself is like a mustard seed, a nobody, a little speck. And yet, he has the greatest faith, the greatest power in this story. Like the kingdom of heaven inside of us all, we too possess the potential to grow from within. All of these stories are connected to teach us about an inner faith that can move outward to heal our world. The power to be made whole is within us, it has always shined within us, and its radiant light can move outward when we show gratitude to God.
It is well known that leprosy was an illness that brought out human fear and division, that lepers were considered unclean and therefore set apart from society. And one of the lepers in the story is a Samaritan, one of the least-loved groups of foreigners in ancient times. It was the Samaritans who plotted alongside Haman in the Book of Esther to commit genocide of the Jewish people. They took on Jewish customs, but were banished from the Temple in Jerusalem for being illegitimate. We commonly think of “the Good Samaritan,” but there is a reason why we say “good”—the Samaritans were not considered good at all! So the fact that the one leper who shows gratitude to God for his healing is a Samaritan is a shocking twist to the story, and drives home Luke’s point that Jesus is Healer and Teacher to all people, even the Samaritans. In the social climate of the United States right now, we might replace the word “Samaritan” with “Muslim,” and gain the same effect. One of the most oppressed people in society turns out to be the hero of the story.
The hero of the story may be a social outsider, but turns out to be a spiritual insider. He has the spiritual experience of feeling deep gratitude—as the other nine lepers walk away, the Samaritan leper turns back, shouting: “Thank God, Thank God, Thank God!” It’s an emotional moment where he lays his body down in front of Jesus. The political irony of the Samaritan leper’s social position aside, he is modeling for us a spirituality of gratitude. He is showing us what it looks like to give thanks to God for the blessings in our lives. Our relationship with God, our faith life, can always be enriched by gratitude to God.
So, now, back to the political irony of the Samaritan leper’s social position! No matter how you look at it, for good or for ill, outsiders tend to have a different perspective from insiders. Even if it may be uncomfortable, research shows that being on the outside of a social network can be beneficial. Often in our families and relationships it’s all too easy to see things as we have always seen them. But when we can get into an outside position we may see our own roles more clearly. This is particularly tricky when we are also participants. But it is important to try to view our webs of relationship from an outside position, especially when we experience a difference of opinion. Perspective can help us to better understand another person’s point of view, and can help us to navigate our relationships with a greater sense of calm. When even one person in a family system can be calmer, it can tone down the whole system.
I grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where every once in awhile you’d hear this phrase: “I am just beside myself.” Truly, it’s right up there with “I’m getting ready to fix dinner.” So, anyway, “I am just beside myself.” It could be for something embarrassing, as in, “Her children were just running around that grocery store, and she was just beside herself.” Or for something really wonderful, like, “When fifty of his friends showed up for his fiftieth birthday, he was just beside himself.” Maybe this phrase transcends geography, I don’t know? But perhaps being beside oneself could be a useful tool in some ways. What I mean by that is to put ourselves in the place of the outsider, the oppressed, the poor, the leper, the one with a different color skin. I have a friend from Santa Rosa who purposefully takes her child to playgrounds in Oakland so that he can experience what it is like to be a racial minority. It is right and good for us to feel what it is like to be an outsider, the one who is different. And this is what our Adult Mission Trip participants did this summer; they got out of their nice cool Northern California summertime and immersed themselves in the sweaty heat of New Orleans. They put themselves into a position where they would be working with and for the poor. Oftentimes they were a racial and socio-economic minority. Luke would be proud, I’m sure!
And what about times when we experience life as an insider? It is our work and must be our prayer, to think about the larger web of our relationships to make sure we are being inclusive. At the very least, we must strive to “be beside ourselves” to gain perspective on behalf of the outsiders among us. At the end of the movie “Chocolat” the young priest gives an Easter sermon. This character has come a long way through the course of the film. He says, “I want to talk about Christ’s humanity, I mean how he lived his life on earth: his kindness, his tolerance. We must measure our goodness, not by what we don’t do, what we deny ourselves, what we resist, or who we exclude. Instead, we should measure ourselves by what we embrace, what we create, and who we include.” Even when we are social insiders, even when we have an inside position in our families, Jesus teaches us to be concerned with those who are on the outside.
The other nine lepers are “made clean,” but by faith, the Samaritan leper is “made well.” Nowadays, even the word ‘wellness’ can mean different things to different people. In some circles it has taken on a shee-shee elitist meaning—as in going to the spa for wellness care. I would never begrudge anyone a massage! I could use one right now, as a matter of fact! But being able to care for ourselves at the level of wellness, does imply that our basic life needs are being taken care of. Linda Hawes Clever, a doctor and Professor of Medicine at UCSF, has written a book called The Fatigue Prescription. In it she outlines both the symptoms of fatigue and her prescription for renewal. What she’s really talking about here is wellness, a caring for oneself amidst a busy life. She’s also talking about prevention of disease, about not getting so run down that our relationships suffer and our health declines. Her prescription for renewed wellness is: rest, reflection, risk-taking, learning, and exercise. I know what you’re probably thinking, because it’s what I was thinking too—when am I supposed to have time for all these things? But Dr. Clever believes that these are essential to our vitality as human beings.
As part of her program for wellness, Dr. Clever has also set up small discussion groups where people meet to talk about their process towards a healthier life. What Dr. Clever is doing with these small groups, is moving the place of healing from individual efforts and into community. I wonder, as followers of Jesus, whether we might see our community, our church, as a place for healing? The ten lepers are made clean, but only one is made well. What can we be doing to encourage one another toward wholeness, toward a fullness of life? Are there members of our community who need help raising their level of health to begin to even talk about wellness? And really, with many American families living airplane-rides apart from each other, we’re losing our culture of multi-generational households. We are going to need support from places besides family when we encounter illness. Our church families will continue to be webs of support as generations beyond us unfold.
The story of the ten lepers made clean is a story about faith. Much has been made in Christian theology about being saved by faith alone. But our teacher Jesus and the author Luke do not end the story with only faith. Jesus says to the leper, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” True wellness, true vitality enables human beings to take the next step, to “Get up and go on [our] way.” The former leper is not left to just sit there praising God for the rest of his life. He is being asked to go do something with his faith. He has a life now, he is no longer the “walking dead,” but quite the opposite—a truly well man with an invigorated strength. His disease and exile from community have been lifted, and he is able now to engage in life.
It is our task to show gratitude to God, to live into our wellness, and to go on our way. It’s probably much easier to be one of the nine cleansed lepers who move on without another thought. But when we show gratitude, to God and those around us, we deepen our faith lives and open ourselves to being made well by God. Truly, all of us stand in need of God’s grace. But even a mustard seed, even a Samaritan leper, even one of us can possess an inner faith that grows outward to heal our world. Whether we express that faith in a trip to New Orleans, or building a Habitat House in Sebastopol, or some other way, is up to us. Amen.