Lessons I learned from a Leper

October 14, 2007

By: Pastor Bettye

Grace, mercy and peace to you this day in the name of the one who makes us whole, Jesus Christ our Lord! Amen

Have you ever noticed how the simplest of stories carry within them the strongest lessons? Take Aesop’s Fables for example… a collection of short tales which serve to teach the listener important lessons about life. Jesus often used the simplest of stories himself to teach his followers – both then and now- about relationships …people to people relationships as well as relationships between God and God’s children. We know these simple stories as the parables of Jesus. One of the beauties of these stories is their diversity – how these stories carry lessons for according to what our lives look like at varying times. Take for instance the story of the Good Samaritan. This is a story of great kindness shown to someone in need. At one point in our lives we may be the gracious stranger to someone in need, reaching out a hand of love and help to an unknown brother in need or…on another day we might be the sister in need reaching UP and receiving help and support. At any point in our lives these stories of Jesus can speak to us in different tones. One aspect that never changes about Jesus stories is that each story grants us a lesson in life, amen? Grants us something to remember and incorporate into our beings, our thought processes for future use as a people seeking ways to live out our lives as children of the Most High in the best possible way……..

And that is the way I believe we are called to look at today’s story in the Gospel of Luke – 9 verses which I like to refer to as the LESSONS I LEARNED FROM A LEPER.

One leper is speaking to you and to me today as a community in Christ. One leper is offering a set of lessons from the past that we can use in the present and in the future. A total of ten lepers have an experience with Christ that yields us as a community some really important lessons about relationships with each other and with the living God.

LESSON #ONE: LEARN WHO TO LOOK TO IN TIMES OF TROUBLE.

In today’s Gospel life has brought these lepers to their knees – a deadly disease that made them outcasts and placed these men and women in a situation in which no one could help them. They had fallen on the hardest of hard times and could appeal to only Jesus for help. They had not lived lives of such perfection that their good works could save them….as humans they only had Jesus, the incarnation of a merciful loving God to help them in their time of need. Have you ever been in an experience where you knew that the only way up was up and that "up" came only through your Jesus? These lepers are showing us their human state and teaching us that yes, there is still only one to look to in times of trouble …

LESSON #TWO: LEARN TO LISTEN TO THE LORD WHEN THE LORD SPEAKS.

In this story the 10 lepers are teaching us to learn to listen…..teaching what it means to really hear the words of Jesus. Unlike other healing stories of Jesus, Jesus does not TOUCH these lepers. He simply speaks to them reminding us that there is great reward, comfort, and peace in using our ears to listen to God’s word for our lives. His words are all that is needed to turn away the devastation in their lives. His words are cleansing and saving and in those words lives are changed forever.

LESSON # THREE: LEARN TO MOVE BY FAITH

After listening to the words of Jesus the lepers went out BY FAITH into their new lives and a healthy future. They did not linger or question Jesus but rather, as scripture says, "They went and were made clean." These lepers walked not by sight or proof but by faith. How many of us have lives that are propelled by this Jesus energy? How many of us need to linger and "Why" or "How" or "When"? ….to put our sticky little hands into every crack and crevice of every issue in our lives when really, a "hands off" approach…a "let go and let God" would serve us far better? However, faith sometimes means taking the leap, saying the words and taking the stand because our listening ears have heard the message and Jesus and in his name and by HIS word we are propelled forward in faith.

LESSON #FOUR: LEARN TO TURN TO JESUS

One leper heard, was made clean and turned back….turned to the source of his healing. One leper turned back not in desperation but IN JOY! When was the last time you turned to Jesus with Joy? How many times to we after a crisis is resolved, after a night of peaceful rest, after a time of trial turn back to the founder of our faith? What about all those times you should have suffered the consequences of some wayward action but were spared? What does it take; my brothers and sisters in Christ to turn to your Lord…turn to your Lord for the next lesson on this story?

LESSON # FIVE: LEARN TO GIVE THE GLORY

One leper turns and praises God I a loud voice. One leper is healed and spared and turns, falls on his face at the feet of Jesus and praises the Most High Lord. "One knee bows on heaven and on earth and under the earth and one tongue confesses that He is Lord". This leper does of a body response for what it means to engage God totally in thanksgiving…to be up close and personal with a God desires an up close and personal relationship with us. When was the last time you gave glory to your God Not for what he did but rather, simply for what he is… the Lord of your life?

LESSON # SIX: LEARN TO RECOGNIZE THAT JESUS DID THE WHOLE JOB

When we come to worship on Sunday morning we carry an imaginary bundle on our backs more days than not. We may not be a leper but we are in many ways filled with stories of distress, disease and devastation simply because of our own human "stuff". Any one of a hundred burdens that we pack in that imaginary bundle weighs us down. Jesus calls us to a relationship with him which unpacks that bundle and sets it at his feet – he takes the burden ….Jesus has done the WHOLE job of saving us from our sinful selves. His cross and NOT OUR EFFORTS finished the job of salvation once and for all time. The final word of victory is his and ours through him. That bundle is dispersed in his act and forgiveness and freedom is ours! The final word in the story for the leper is Jesus proclamation that the leper has been "made well" or "has been saved" because in the Greek translation of this word saved and made well means the same thing and isn’t that true for us today brothers and sisters? Jesus came, conquered and carried a cross that made us well, that saved us and finished the whole job in God’s name and to God’s glory!

Lessons from a leper…..learn who to look to in times of trouble, learn to listen to the Lord when he speaks, learn to move by faith, learn to turn to Jesus, learn to give glory to God and learn to trust that Jesus did the whole job. These are good lessons for this era that we have begun at Community Lutheran. Perhaps it is good time to renew and restate how to learn together what it means to look, listen, move, turn, glorify and trust Jesus as the Lord of our lives. As we begin to pray and plan about the legacy we wish to live out in this community as a presence planted here by God it is a very good thing to listen to the lessons of a leper and leap into our future with God!