Ordinary Saints - 3

Pentecost 18 (C)
Luke 17:10-19
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.’

Sermon
(This sermon is the third of four sermons celebrating Christian vocation. Not only do pastors, priests, nuns, bishops, and popes have a call from Jesus to serve in the world, all do. The various ways we fulfill this call are called vocations. This series of four messages recognizes the vocations of those who work in education, public safety, healing professions, and business/crafts people.)

This morning as I begin the sermon, I would like to invite you to set everything aside. Place your hands in your lap. Close your eyes. Focus on your breathing. And as I say a few words just let the impact settle into your heart. Let each word have its full calming and purifying effect upon your mind. Ready?

Medicare

Healthcare Reform

Obamacare

Insurance Companies

Pharmacy Companies

Can’t you just feel the peace wash over you? Can’t you just breathe a sigh of relief? No? Probably not. More than likely, if you are like millions of Americans today those words are fighting words, whether you are in favor of one position or another. These are the words that are thrown around like Molotov cocktails on radio and cable news. There has been a great battle in our nation waged over how we care for the bodies in our society. This battle stirs deep and primitive passions. Words are said in the heat of battle that can be off the mark, slightly askew, or just downright wrong.

But let there no mistake about it. This battle you and see played-out in our society reflects a much deeper battle. The battle you hear on the airwaves and byways mirrors a conflict much more personal. If the fact be known, there is a battle every single second of every single day in our very own bodies. At this very moment, there are pathogens, unhealthy bacteria, and viruses trying to break down the defense of our bodies in order to make us sick and bring us down. At this very moment, our bodies have sentries posted to detect these foreign intruders, ready to send forces to attack and repel their advances.

On the rare occasion that illness does occur, what misery it brings. How quickly our enjoyment of God’s good creation spoils. When you are sick, if servants set before you a table of the finest wines, the choicest meats, and wonderful delicacies, your stomach will turn at the sight of it. When you are sick, you can have the thickest bed of the softest down with the smoothest silk, and still you toss and turn in discomfort. When you are sick the slightest sound of music can echo in your head like a pounding hammer.

Nothing brings people to a state of discomfort like sickness. Nothing drives people to a sense of despair and futility like sickness. You know this from your own experience. And do you know who else knows this? The Devil. The Devil knows that one of the most effective ways to get people to throw in the towel with God is to drive them to sickness. That is, after all, the story of Job. Job enjoyed his life. Life was good. God took delight in Job. The devil popped-off, of course Job likes you so much, he’s never had it so easy.

Then the devil shatters Jobs life like a sledgehammer. Kids killed. Home destroyed. Livestock dead. Health gone. All he had left was his wife to encourage him to get it over with, pushing him to tell God to “take a hike.” It is often when we are at our lowest moments that we are tempted to give up hoping in God. The devil knows that. But he’s not the only one who knows it.

Jesus knows it as well. After Jesus is baptized and begins his public ministry, do you know what one of the first things he does is? He HEALS people. In fact, his reputation as a healer spread like wild fire, so much so that crowds did almost every conceivable thing to get up next to him for a healing. They disassembled houses like when some men took off a roof and lowered their friend down to Jesus. They would sneak up from behind him. They would crowd around him. Jesus was known as the great physician.

Of all the things that Jesus heals people from there are a few that I would remind you of today.

First, Jesus heals you from those things we can see and understand. There were people who would come to him and their need for healing is plain to see. It is obvious. It is right there in front of you. The woman with the bleeding for eighteen years, for example, it was pretty clear what she needed. The man with the withered hand. The man born blind. The ten lepers in today’s gospel.

There are times you can look at a situation and see what the problem is. In your body, you look and point and say to yourself “This needs to get taken care of.” In your marriage, there are times you can look at it and point to something and say “This is broken and needs to be taken care of.” For every situation that you see around you that is broken and needs to be taken care of, know this, Jesus heals it. It’s not a matter of if he will but when he will. That’s what he came to do. He came to heal and to make new.

Second, Jesus heals you from those things you can’t see or understand. There were people in Jesus’ day who were considered ill – spiritually. They had, as they said, “an unclean spirit.” They were “possessed.” Then you look at what is happening in the story as a man flails about in seizures, choking, eyes rolling back in his sockets, and it hits you, he is an epileptic. When the ancient people didn’t understand something and it was terrifying and unsettling, they often labeled it as a “demonic possession.” They didn’t see the real cause or understand the situation.

Sometimes not knowing can be desired. I, myself, have had a couple of surgeries. One just recently. As they prep you for surgery, they go the extra mile to try and explain things to you. Personally, I don’t need to know. I don’t want to see any diagrams. Don’t map it out for me. Don’t tell me what cut you’re gonna make where and why. I just don’t need to know. All I want to know is do the doctors know what they are doing? If they do, then just put me to sleep and do your job. Then, when it’s all over, make sure you wake me up again. Sometimes not knowing is ok.

Other times, it’s not. Many of you know Dave Goers is still in the hospital. He has been fighting ulcerative colitis since early July. It is an auto-immune disease. His body is attacking itself. Great pain and misery. Hugely invasive surgery around the corner.

As I sat with Dave before his first colon surgery, the doctor was telling us all the details. Drawing maps and diagrams. Explaining this and then that. Not the kind of thing I need to hear personally. But Dave enjoyed it. He’s an engineer by trade. Then after the excessively descriptive prep was done, I asked the doctor. Impressed by his seeming absolute command of the workings of the body, I asked, “Now doctor, what causes this ulcerative colitis,” thinking there must be some understanding of the intense pain and wrecking of his body. Do you know what the surgeon said, “WE DON'T KNOW.” Did you hear that, we don’t know what makes a person’s colon explode on its own and bring near death. That’s a little unsettling.

But Jesus is not unsettled or caught off guard. He created us, put us together. He knows us from the inside out and knows exactly what is going on. And he heals those things we can’t see or understand. Whether these things are in our bodies, our minds, our spirits or our relationships. There is no broken situation that we will ever face that can escape Jesus’ mastery as the Great Physician. It is for him a matter of life and death.

For those of you who work in the health and healing services, you know firsthand what is often at stake. You see up close sights that would make most of us cringe. You k now the life and death struggles that go on around us daily. And what I want you to know today is that your work, your hands, are an extension of Christ’s work in the world. As you care for you patients, whether on the examination table, the surgery table, the counseling sofa, across the counter at the pharmacy, writing checks for coverage, you help extend Jesus’ reign in the world.

Disease and death are enemies of Christ. They are anti-Christ. They are what he came to defeat. Your work is an extension of his reach into the world.

I have to believe that for many of you, whether you work for a pharmaceutical company, or insurance company, or in mental health, or a physician’s office – work is often a thankless job. You see people when they can be at their worse. They come to you not feeling well. And when people don’t feel well they can be surly, short, irritable, and irrational. Whether or not the people you provide care for ever thank you, I want you to hear it here “Thank you.”