October 14, 2007

Proper 23 C

2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c; Luke 17:11-19: Eyes Wide Open

Kay's husband died last year. Her church family and the kindness of friends and Mike's appreciative business associates got her through the funeral, but eventually reality set in. And reality bites.

Alone now, her children in distant states, Kay struggles with the presence of Mike's absence in the house. Dinnertime is especially hard. She struggles with decisions about finances and lawn care and pest control - the ones she always counted on him to make in his careful, sure-footed way.

And Kay struggles with God.

A faithful Christian her whole life who turned to God for help throughout Mike's cancer treatment, she wants to know why her loved one had to die, why first Mike's voice and then his presence were taken from her and the children. With some anger and bitterness she wants to know, "Where was my miracle?"

Mike needed healing, that was clear enough. The doctors prescribed treatments, Mike worked on staying positive, and Kay prayed for a cure - a medical miracle that would stop the advancing cancer in its awful tracks and restore Mike to good health so that the two of them could have a future...together. In Mike's case, such a cure did not come to pass. But there was healing for Mike, who made it a point to write letters to thank the people in his life he was especially grateful for. And Jesus offers healing for Kay, too... when she is ready to receive it, when she has eyes to see it.

In our scientific age, cure is usually our focus when a loved one is seriously ill. And understandably so.

But Luke's story about the ten men with leprosy invites us to look elsewhere. The point of the story is not the healing itself - the cure that Jesus caused to happen -- but the response of those that Jesus touched with his mercy.

Jesus hears the cries for mercy from the chorus of ten outcasts, sees the pain of their sores and their isolation, and acts to cure their disease and guide them back into the community that had shunned them.

Ten are restored to health and polite society, ten made whole, saved. But only one truly sees...and starts down the road to a whole new life.

Why did only one of them return to thank Jesus, do you think?

Maybe the nine felt they were finally getting what they deserved and moved ahead to reclaim what was rightfully theirs all along. Why look back when there was so much to look forward to, now that you're out of the tub and back on the club?

This is Naaman's hang-up. Naaman in our Old Testament reading this morning has leprosy, too. He's a major military celebrity who expects star-studded treatment for his medical problem. When God's prophet, Elisha, refuses to pay him a house call, the general stomps off in a self-important huff. It takes the urging of his staff to bring him to his senses: "Why look a gift horse in the mouth?" they reason.

Like it or not, we're a lot like Naaman and the others with leprosy. We may or may not have complexion issues, but we've all got a raging case of soul-sickness. We feel like outsiders looking in, at least some of the time. And we long for a cure, for a sense of belonging, for true home. Healing is within our reach but we don't always see it.

It's funny: sometimes we have an easier time seeing what's missing than appreciating what we've already got.

There must be something in our line of sight that messes up our view. Preacher John Thomas sees it this way:

"Part of the illness of life today and part of what leads to the sense of distance and isolation so many feel is a deeply ingrained feeling of entitlement, the notion that I am somehow entitled to things, that I owe no one anything and have no responsibility for anyone. It is a deep self-centeredness that assumes everything is my right, my due, an attitude that replaces concern for the community with a preoccupation with my own needs... Healed of illness, we wander off like the nine because, after all, we're entitled to health."

Something different is going on for the healed Samaritan. Like Naaman, he experiences the transforming power of God's grace. In Jesus he sees the power to obliterate sin and death and restore creation and everything in it, starting with himself. Overcome with joy, he cries out and throws himself at the feet of the One who has given him this second chance...and is lifted to a new way of living, a life shaped and buoyed by gratitude. Faith in the One who pours himself out as healing balm gives him a whole new perspective: the Samaritan now lives life with his eyes wide open, watching for God's goodness, living each day in thankfulness.

We could all use a second chance, a second chance at the life that really is life, (to use the apostle Paul's turn of phrase). Sometimes the second chance comes with a diagnosis or the ending of a relationship or the dying of someone close to us, some event that rocks our world...when, after a long walk through a dark valley, we feel ourselves lifted through the pain of grief and the emptiness of loss towards the light. We wake up one day and realize that we are glad to be alive -- grateful not just for food and shelter and disposable income, but grateful to have this life we've been given - with all its textures and challenges, in all its poignancy, with its troubles as well as its joys.

But why wait until there's a crisis to fall in love with the life we've got? We can start today, living with our eyes wide open to the blessedness that is ours in God's amazing grace.

Living through recovery from addiction and a string of tragic personal circumstances, Melodie Beattie picked up something about living in gratitude. She writes,

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.

This summer Andrew Ulku, a high school student from this congregation, learned something about living with gratitude from the people of El Salvador. Listen for Andrew's testimony in the DVD that you'll be receiving in the mail this week.

"I realized I was looking at Christianity wrong," Andrew says. "I was thinking about the wrong things. I thought religion was about pleasing God. I learned what true faith was from the Salvadorans. They have nothing but they are just as happy."

Andrew said it best, but all of us on the trip learned something about living with our eyes wide open, living in thankfulness.

We might think of gratitude as a new faith habit. Or as a spiritual practice that encompasses several of the habits of faith that shape our lives as disciples.

We practice gratitude when we worship faithfully (praising God is, after all, fundamentally giving thanks), praying always (offering prayers of thanks to God for all the circumstances of our lives), serving here and beyond (sharing a portion of our overflowing cup with lepers and other strangers, joining our gifts to bring healing, making a difference in a world of hurt - motivated not by guilt but out of sheer gratitude).

Benedictine brother David Steindl-Rast suggests this exercise to encourage the development of a grateful spirit:

"Day and night gifts keep pelting down on us. If we were aware of this, gratefulness would overwhelm us. But we go through life in a daze. A power failure makes us aware of what a gift electricity is; a sprained ankle lets us appreciate walking as a gift, a sleepless night, sleep. How much we are missing in life by noticing gifts only when we are suddenly deprived of them! But this can be changed. We need some methodical exercise in gratefulness. Years ago, I devised a method for myself which has proved quite helpful. Every night I note in a pocket calendar one thing for which I have never before been consciously thankful. Do you think it is difficult to find a new reason for gratitude each day? Not just one, but three and four and five pop into my mind, some evenings. It is hard to imagine how long I would have to live to exhaust the supply."

Each thank you becomes a way to practice gratitude so that more and more our lives are weaned away from the myth of entitlement and the arrogance and isolation of independence.

Gratitude opens a channel for God's grace, a way in for God to restore us to good physical, emotional, spiritual, and social health.

Grateful living is grace-full living. It brings us to Jesus' feet and makes of us whole people: healthy-minded, lion-hearted, fortified in times of stress and crisis, equipped to bring healing to a world crying out for mercy.

Healed, gathered, saved, sent... on our way rejoicing!

The Rev. Kristie Hennig
Chanhassen, Minnesota

The Rev. John Thomas, president of the United Church of Christ, from a sermon entitled "Gratitude is More Than Saying Thanks," www.day1.net/index.php5?view=transcripts&tid=359.

Leann Thompson used this phrase in her sermon at Family of Christ on September 29 and 30.

Brother David Steindl-Rast, A Listening Heart: The Spirituality of Sacred Sensuousness .