Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost, October 9, 2016
Revised Common Lectionary, Cycle C, 2 King 5:1-3,9-15c, Luke 17:11-19
Hope International Mission
By Young Kim
Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance from God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I believe you all have a blank paper inside the worship guide. I would like to ask you to write what you were thankful for during this week. You can write a word, or a phrase, or a short sentence that you thanked God for. You can take time to think about it and write it down during the sermon. But please don’t be too occupied by it and not listen to the sermon.
How many times were you thankful to God during this week? Have you ever thanked God for your health, for your job, for what you have, for your family, or for the environment that you freely enjoy?
Last week, I hurt my back so badly and I suffered from a severe pain throughout the whole week. In the great pain, I don’t know how many times I prayed to God to heal my back and take away the pain. But the pain was still there. I was not able to sit, stand, or move. I ate food with tears and the pain was a wake-up call in the middle of the nights. While I was struggling with pain, one of my friends asked me what I was thankful for in the midst of this. I answered that I was able to understand the people around me who have experienced similar suffering from a back pain. I thought about you, Kevin, Ms. Park, and my mom, especially, and so many other people that I know who was and is still struggling from a physical pain. I was thankful for the times when I was able to freely walk and run and do so many fun things with a healthy body. I also confessed that I was not diligent in taking a good care of my body through regular exercise and taking balanced meal.
Today’s Gospel lesson also talks about ten people who were suffering from leprosy which was a miserable disease in Jesus’ time. What is different about this disease from other diseases is that the person cannot feel the pain since it causes a loss of sensation in nerve endings and it leads to more damage to more body parts. It is indeed a most horrible disease because gradually some parts of the skin and eventually the body parts start to rot and fall off.
Lepers were not allowed to come close to people or live in town because they thought that it was infectious and the smell of rotting flesh was terrible. But more importantly, they were forbidden to come into the society because of their religious tradition. Leprosy was regarded as an awful punishment from God and it was also considered as the outward and visible sign of the innermost spiritual corruption which defiles a person’s inner nature and makes the person unclean. Therefore, the Jewish law hindered the lepers to come into the Assembly of God. They were immediately removed from his family and from his community when they were diagnosed with the disease. There could be no contact with their spouse, children or grandchildren. So a group of lepers tended to roam around together to look for foods and to beg for assistance from far off. They had to stand at least 50 yards away when they met someone on the road warning them to keep away by calling out ‘Unclean! Unclean!’
In this miserable situation, they encountered Jesus who was traveling toward Jerusalem where would be the final destination of his journey for the 3 years of public ministry before the crucifixion.
Today’s Gospel reading says, “As Jesus was going into a village, ten lepers approached him, keeping their distance, and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” They immediately recognized Jesus from a far distance. Jesus was well known even to these outsiders. To their cry, Jesus responded, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” What does this mean?
The priests had other duties besides leading worship and offering sacrifices to God. One of their duties was something similar to a health official. Once leprosy was healed, the person had to go to the priest to have his or her body inspected and tested to make sure that the healing was complete. Then the priest would announce that the person was healed. This meant that this person was cleansed and now allowed to enter again to the community and reunite with his family and friends. With the priest’s cleansing ceremony, the person was considered clean!
When Jesus said to these lepers, "Go and show yourselves to the priests," they might have wondered whether or not they could go and see the priests with their current condition. They might have looked down and checked their rotting bodies. They might have thought that if they enter the village to see the priests, they would be stoned and killed for the violation of the law.
But the bible says that they went to see the priests. They simply believed in Jesus and took an action to observe what Jesus spoke to them. As they went on their way, they were made clean. The act of trust cured their miserable disease.
Do you remember last week’s sermon? Jesus told his disciples who asked him to increase their faith, “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.” Through the miracle of healing the 10 lepers, Jesus is showing us that with a very little tiny seed of faith there can be a huge miracle. The small faith that the 10 lepers had for Jesus and the obedience that they showed by going to the priest had allowed their leprosy to be healed.
But this story does not end here. When the 10 lepers were rejoicing for their healing, one of them praised God in a loud voice. And this man came back and threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked Jesus. The bible says that this man was a Samaritan.
I remember that we have talked about the Samaritans several times during the sermon regarding how they were treated by Jews and where they were socially located in Jesus’ time. But in short, Samaritans were despised by Jews believing that they were irreligious and racially mixed with the neighboring country. So the full-blooded and religious Jews considered that the Samaritans were not pure descendants of Abraham but aliens and foreigners. That’s why Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans.
Now then, let’s look at this text through the eyes of the Samaritan leper who came back to thank Jesus. He roamed around every day with the other 9 Jewish lepers to beg for food and help. Probably, the lepers were alienated from both societies, so they must have ignored their racial origins and the social barriers between the Jews and the Samaritan. However, when Jesus told them to go and see the priest, the Samaritan might have hesitated more than the other 9. Not only was his leprosy healed yet, but also because he was a Samaritan and there is a possibility that he could be stoned or kicked out as soon as he entered into the city of Jews. Despite all these worries, this Samaritan leper obeyed and acted according to Jesus’ words and finally experienced the miraculous healing of the disease. The Samaritan who was condemned to have no religion and no faith was healed just like the other Jewish lepers, and moreover returned to Jesus to express his gratitude.
So to this Samaritan man, Jesus asked, “Where are the other nine?” Yes, where were they? Were they really gone? Why didn’t they come back and express their gratitude to Jesus? After the priest’s cleansing ceremony, perhaps some of them wanted to go back to their beloved family as quickly as possible, some of them were occupied by the plans and expectations that they had as they returned to the community, or some of them were not even thankful to Jesus thinking that they were already in a natural healing process and that it was not Jesus who had healed them. We can’t blame them, because there wasn’t any act of touching or healing from Jesus but just the words from his mouth to go see the priest.
We could easily judge these 9 lepers and accuse them for not returning to Jesus to acknowledge the healing of Jesus. But if we apply this story to our lives, we will soon realize that we are not much different from these 9 lepers.
Let me ask you these questions first. How often do you thank God for your ordinary life? When you wake up in the morning, do you thank God for a peaceful night and for giving you another new day? Or do you start off your day with a complaint that another boring and tiring day has started? Have you ever thanked God for the fresh air and water and trees and flowers around you? Or have you taken these things for granted and ignored the beauty and value of them? We need time to stop doing whatever we are doing and close our eyes from the worries and tragedies that are around us to quietly reflect on what we are thankful for. Let us now take time to acknowledge God for his goodness and let us actually show our thankfulness to God. This is a true worship.
This one healed leper came back to Jesus. He returned to Jesus putting the priest on hold, putting his family on hold and putting aside his celebration of healing from the most miserable disease. He took an action to give thanks to Jesus with a humble heart.
Then, Jesus said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” If you look at other translations, it says “Your faith has saved you.” Or “Your faith has made you whole.” This means that while the others only received an outward healing, this man alone got the spiritual blessing and healing. This was a declaration that his body and spirit had become whole again before God. And by saying this, Jesus proclaimed that he became a true descendant of Abraham and a child of God; true relationship with God began through his act of gratitude. Through his thankful spirit, he was able to receive the salvation of his spirit which was more precious and valuable than the physical healing.
Jesus healed countless number of sick people, but only a few are written in the Bible. The ones who were mentioned in the Bible are the ones who were declared by Jesus that they were saved. Many people who were healed by Jesus had probably returned to their home and lived their own life. On the other hand, the people who were written in the Bible just like this Samaritan leper, were promised salvation from Jesus and rejoiced in the God-given eternal life. Now, do you see the huge difference that a thankful heart brings?
Someone says, “The thankful heart opens our eyes to a multitude of blessings that continually surrounds us.” Do you agree? I think this is true. The thankful heart opens up our eyes and allows us to shift our focus onto the many blessings that surround us instead of focusing only on the difficulties and the tragic situations in our life. One of my favorite hymns is “Count your blessings.” The lyric says “When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed, when you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done. Count your blessings, name them one by one, Count your blessings, see what God has done!”
To all of us who have gathered here, Jesus asks us to have a thankful heart. Start from the smallest things that you are thankful for and express that thankful heart to God. When we come to worship, we should express our thankfulness to God before we ask God to comfort us and acknowledge us for our hard work. Worship is not about us; it is about God. Worship is a time that we come to express our thankfulness and glorify God’s name for his goodness and mercy. Remember: God has two dwellings; one in heaven and the other in a meek and thankful heart.
Revised Common Lectionary, Cycle C, 2 King 5:1-3,9-15c, Luke 17:11-19
Hope International Mission
By Young Kim
Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance from God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I believe you all have a blank paper inside the worship guide. I would like to ask you to write what you were thankful for during this week. You can write a word, or a phrase, or a short sentence that you thanked God for. You can take time to think about it and write it down during the sermon. But please don’t be too occupied by it and not listen to the sermon.
How many times were you thankful to God during this week? Have you ever thanked God for your health, for your job, for what you have, for your family, or for the environment that you freely enjoy?
Last week, I hurt my back so badly and I suffered from a severe pain throughout the whole week. In the great pain, I don’t know how many times I prayed to God to heal my back and take away the pain. But the pain was still there. I was not able to sit, stand, or move. I ate food with tears and the pain was a wake-up call in the middle of the nights. While I was struggling with pain, one of my friends asked me what I was thankful for in the midst of this. I answered that I was able to understand the people around me who have experienced similar suffering from a back pain. I thought about you, Kevin, Ms. Park, and my mom, especially, and so many other people that I know who was and is still struggling from a physical pain. I was thankful for the times when I was able to freely walk and run and do so many fun things with a healthy body. I also confessed that I was not diligent in taking a good care of my body through regular exercise and taking balanced meal.
Today’s Gospel lesson also talks about ten people who were suffering from leprosy which was a miserable disease in Jesus’ time. What is different about this disease from other diseases is that the person cannot feel the pain since it causes a loss of sensation in nerve endings and it leads to more damage to more body parts. It is indeed a most horrible disease because gradually some parts of the skin and eventually the body parts start to rot and fall off.
Lepers were not allowed to come close to people or live in town because they thought that it was infectious and the smell of rotting flesh was terrible. But more importantly, they were forbidden to come into the society because of their religious tradition. Leprosy was regarded as an awful punishment from God and it was also considered as the outward and visible sign of the innermost spiritual corruption which defiles a person’s inner nature and makes the person unclean. Therefore, the Jewish law hindered the lepers to come into the Assembly of God. They were immediately removed from his family and from his community when they were diagnosed with the disease. There could be no contact with their spouse, children or grandchildren. So a group of lepers tended to roam around together to look for foods and to beg for assistance from far off. They had to stand at least 50 yards away when they met someone on the road warning them to keep away by calling out ‘Unclean! Unclean!’
In this miserable situation, they encountered Jesus who was traveling toward Jerusalem where would be the final destination of his journey for the 3 years of public ministry before the crucifixion.
Today’s Gospel reading says, “As Jesus was going into a village, ten lepers approached him, keeping their distance, and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” They immediately recognized Jesus from a far distance. Jesus was well known even to these outsiders. To their cry, Jesus responded, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” What does this mean?
The priests had other duties besides leading worship and offering sacrifices to God. One of their duties was something similar to a health official. Once leprosy was healed, the person had to go to the priest to have his or her body inspected and tested to make sure that the healing was complete. Then the priest would announce that the person was healed. This meant that this person was cleansed and now allowed to enter again to the community and reunite with his family and friends. With the priest’s cleansing ceremony, the person was considered clean!
When Jesus said to these lepers, "Go and show yourselves to the priests," they might have wondered whether or not they could go and see the priests with their current condition. They might have looked down and checked their rotting bodies. They might have thought that if they enter the village to see the priests, they would be stoned and killed for the violation of the law.
But the bible says that they went to see the priests. They simply believed in Jesus and took an action to observe what Jesus spoke to them. As they went on their way, they were made clean. The act of trust cured their miserable disease.
Do you remember last week’s sermon? Jesus told his disciples who asked him to increase their faith, “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.” Through the miracle of healing the 10 lepers, Jesus is showing us that with a very little tiny seed of faith there can be a huge miracle. The small faith that the 10 lepers had for Jesus and the obedience that they showed by going to the priest had allowed their leprosy to be healed.
But this story does not end here. When the 10 lepers were rejoicing for their healing, one of them praised God in a loud voice. And this man came back and threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked Jesus. The bible says that this man was a Samaritan.
I remember that we have talked about the Samaritans several times during the sermon regarding how they were treated by Jews and where they were socially located in Jesus’ time. But in short, Samaritans were despised by Jews believing that they were irreligious and racially mixed with the neighboring country. So the full-blooded and religious Jews considered that the Samaritans were not pure descendants of Abraham but aliens and foreigners. That’s why Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans.
Now then, let’s look at this text through the eyes of the Samaritan leper who came back to thank Jesus. He roamed around every day with the other 9 Jewish lepers to beg for food and help. Probably, the lepers were alienated from both societies, so they must have ignored their racial origins and the social barriers between the Jews and the Samaritan. However, when Jesus told them to go and see the priest, the Samaritan might have hesitated more than the other 9. Not only was his leprosy healed yet, but also because he was a Samaritan and there is a possibility that he could be stoned or kicked out as soon as he entered into the city of Jews. Despite all these worries, this Samaritan leper obeyed and acted according to Jesus’ words and finally experienced the miraculous healing of the disease. The Samaritan who was condemned to have no religion and no faith was healed just like the other Jewish lepers, and moreover returned to Jesus to express his gratitude.
So to this Samaritan man, Jesus asked, “Where are the other nine?” Yes, where were they? Were they really gone? Why didn’t they come back and express their gratitude to Jesus? After the priest’s cleansing ceremony, perhaps some of them wanted to go back to their beloved family as quickly as possible, some of them were occupied by the plans and expectations that they had as they returned to the community, or some of them were not even thankful to Jesus thinking that they were already in a natural healing process and that it was not Jesus who had healed them. We can’t blame them, because there wasn’t any act of touching or healing from Jesus but just the words from his mouth to go see the priest.
We could easily judge these 9 lepers and accuse them for not returning to Jesus to acknowledge the healing of Jesus. But if we apply this story to our lives, we will soon realize that we are not much different from these 9 lepers.
Let me ask you these questions first. How often do you thank God for your ordinary life? When you wake up in the morning, do you thank God for a peaceful night and for giving you another new day? Or do you start off your day with a complaint that another boring and tiring day has started? Have you ever thanked God for the fresh air and water and trees and flowers around you? Or have you taken these things for granted and ignored the beauty and value of them? We need time to stop doing whatever we are doing and close our eyes from the worries and tragedies that are around us to quietly reflect on what we are thankful for. Let us now take time to acknowledge God for his goodness and let us actually show our thankfulness to God. This is a true worship.
This one healed leper came back to Jesus. He returned to Jesus putting the priest on hold, putting his family on hold and putting aside his celebration of healing from the most miserable disease. He took an action to give thanks to Jesus with a humble heart.
Then, Jesus said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” If you look at other translations, it says “Your faith has saved you.” Or “Your faith has made you whole.” This means that while the others only received an outward healing, this man alone got the spiritual blessing and healing. This was a declaration that his body and spirit had become whole again before God. And by saying this, Jesus proclaimed that he became a true descendant of Abraham and a child of God; true relationship with God began through his act of gratitude. Through his thankful spirit, he was able to receive the salvation of his spirit which was more precious and valuable than the physical healing.
Jesus healed countless number of sick people, but only a few are written in the Bible. The ones who were mentioned in the Bible are the ones who were declared by Jesus that they were saved. Many people who were healed by Jesus had probably returned to their home and lived their own life. On the other hand, the people who were written in the Bible just like this Samaritan leper, were promised salvation from Jesus and rejoiced in the God-given eternal life. Now, do you see the huge difference that a thankful heart brings?
Someone says, “The thankful heart opens our eyes to a multitude of blessings that continually surrounds us.” Do you agree? I think this is true. The thankful heart opens up our eyes and allows us to shift our focus onto the many blessings that surround us instead of focusing only on the difficulties and the tragic situations in our life. One of my favorite hymns is “Count your blessings.” The lyric says “When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed, when you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done. Count your blessings, name them one by one, Count your blessings, see what God has done!”
To all of us who have gathered here, Jesus asks us to have a thankful heart. Start from the smallest things that you are thankful for and express that thankful heart to God. When we come to worship, we should express our thankfulness to God before we ask God to comfort us and acknowledge us for our hard work. Worship is not about us; it is about God. Worship is a time that we come to express our thankfulness and glorify God’s name for his goodness and mercy. Remember: God has two dwellings; one in heaven and the other in a meek and thankful heart.