Weekly Bible Notes  Ordinary 28

Year C, Colour = Green

Introduction

The story is told of how Jesus healed ten lepers. At the time of Jesus Lepers were thought to have the disease as a punishment from God, so it was particularly significant that Jesus showed that what God's wanted was to make people well not ill! Jesus refused to walk by on the other side when he was faced with people in need, he went to them and showed his compassion.

All ten were healed, but significantly only one of them, a Samaritan, went and said thank you to Jesus. Jesus response to the man was to tell him that his faith had saved him. Ten were healed, but for nine of them the healing was only skin deep.

The message is clear, we can be physically well, but it is even more important that we are spiritually well.

Opening Verse of Scripture  Psalm 66:1

Shout with joy to God, all the earth! Sing the glory of his name; make his praise glorious!

 

Collect Prayer for the Day —Before we read we pray

Lord, in your goodness, open our eyes to your light, and so fill our hearts with your glory that we may acknowledge Jesus as Saviour, and hold fast to his word in sincerity and truth. We make our prayer through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

 

First Bible Reading   2 Kings 5: 1-3 and 7-15c

Gospel Reading    Luke 17: 5-10

Luke 17: 11-19

Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus travelled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him--and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well.".  (Reader: This is the word of the Lord  -  All: Thanks be to God)

Post Communion Prayer

Commentary

The Jewish Law, the Torah, regulated the treatment of leprosy. Numbers 5:2-3 commands Israelites "to put out of the camp everyone who is leprous." While that commandment also includes those with a discharge and those who are unclean by virtue of touching a corpse, these last two conditions are temporary while Leprosy (Hansen's disease) is likely to be permanent. Leviticus 13:45 requires a leper to shout "Unclean, unclean!" to warn uninfected people to keep their distance. Leviticus 13-14 governs the inspection of suspected lepers, their isolation, and the procedure for declaring the healed leper clean. It deals with infected clothing and houses as well as infected persons.
 
People regarded leprosy not just as a medical condition but also as God's judgment. That made them less compassionate, because they regarded leprosy as punishment for sin.
 
The lepers called out to Jesus, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." They did so from a distance in accord with Torah rules. If they had been addressing an ordinary traveller, their cry for mercy might have been a simple plea for alms. In this case, however, they know Jesus' name and address him as a person in authority. They have surely heard of Jesus' miracles, and their plea is a request for healing.
 
At this point they are united in their plea. Later, only the Samaritan returns to Jesus. We can imagine the other nine going their individual ways to resume their former lives. The end of the crisis brings to a close the community that they had as lepers. 
 
"When he saw them" (v. 14). Jesus saw them. That is a small but significant detail. Jewish law and human nature conspire to make the leper invisible. We are inclined to ignore the leper, because to see his suffering is to suffer with him. We should draw comfort from the knowledge that the one who saw the lepers also sees our pain and perhaps sees the things which we prefer to close our eyes to and walk by on the other side.
 
Jesus does not heal the lepers immediately, but commands them to show themselves to the priests. This entails going to the temple in Jerusalem, about fifty miles distant, a journey of several days. Leviticus 13 requires the priest to examine skin lesions to determine whether they are leprous. If the lesion appears not to be leprous on first examination, Leviticus 13 requires a confirming examination after seven days. The ten lepers would visit the priest for the purpose of being declared clean so that they might regain normal lives. The ten lepers are healed on the way as they do what Jesus has commanded them.
 
One of them turned back praising God, He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Just as Jesus saw the lepers, this man sees that he is healed and God deserves praise and Jesus deserves thanks. We admire this man for taking time to give thanks for his healing, but this is more than a thanksgiving story. It is an instance of being touched by the creative power of God who is bringing order out of chaos and wholeness out of all that is disgustingly defective and contaminatingly deteriorated.

The one who returns to Jesus is a Samaritan. The model of faith turns out to be the ultimate outsider. Luke was himself a Gentile, a foreigner. He delights in recounting the stories of foreigners whom God has blessed, and he makes foreigners (even Samaritans) the heroes of his stories. "The story anticipates what is yet to come in Acts (also written by Luke), a growing blindness in Israel and a receptivity among Gentiles.  
 
Your faith has made you well
Jesus is critical that only one gave thanks, nine walked away, and we are tempted to join him in his criticism. How could they have failed to give thanks? We should consider, however, how eager they must have been, after such long isolation, to rejoin their families and to resume normal life. Under the same circumstances, would we stop to give thanks? We should not answer that question before we consider whether we have stopped to thank God for our blessings.
 Luke told us that all ten lepers were made clean, so something additional has happened to this Samaritan. The Greek that is translated "has made you well" (sesoken se, from the verb sozo), has to do with salvation. It can legitimately be translated, "has saved you." What we have, then, is a story of ten being healed and one being saved. Charles Royden
 


 

Meditation

The following is a quotation from Pelagius, a british monk from the fourth century who lost out in an argument with Augustine and ended up being made a heretic. Sadly his ideas were not all that bad and it has been said that the British are all Pelagians at heart. This reading speaks profoundly about the subject of the sermon, attitude towards possessions.  

If you were besotted with the things of this world, would want to surpass all others in the luxury of your house, in the magnificence of your garments and jewellery, in the abundance of food on your table, in the splendour of the carriage which took you from one place to another. You would never be satisfied with what you possessed, but would always want more. And you would constantly be comparing yourself with others, looking with envy at those even richer than you. Your wealth would be like a spiritual prison; and your limitless desires would be the chains that bound you.  Thus in giving up all these things, you have smashed the chains and broken free. You have little; yet you are satisfied with what you have. You are poorer than most; yet you feel no envy towards the riches of others. To you a simple tunic is like a royal robe; a tiny hut is like a palace; a bowl of porridge is like a feast; a pair of sandals is like a golden carriage

God has created all things for our enjoyment; and therefore physical pleasure is good. Yet the person who seeks perfection acquires more and more pleasure from less and less. The perfect person derives the greatest pleasure from the simplest food. The perfect person rejoices in a tiny hut with a few sticks of furniture. The perfect person sees beauty in every human being, so has no need to possess the beauty of a spouse. Contrary to what some religious leaders teach, perfection is not the denial of pleasure, but the enhancement of it.
To Demetrias
 

A Poem to Pelagius

Branded heresiarch, for love of man

I let my thoughts begin where they began

Unlike my large opponent Augustine

Who sees in grace what I have never seen

We'll meet of course the common fate of clay

From which my life will lift me up I pray.

Until such time I find it odd

Twice cut off from man for love of God.
 

Hymns

1. All Hail the power of Jesu’s name! 252
2. God’s spirit is in my heart.315
3. From all that dwell below the skies.489
4. Give to me, Lord, a thankful heart 548
5. Father, who on man dost shower 341

 

Prayers for Sunday and the week ahead

"Prayer is a plant, the seed of which is sown in the heart of every Christian.

If it is well cultivated and nourished it will produce fruit, but if it is neglected, it will wither and die."

O Holy Spirit, giver of light and life;
Impart to us thoughts
higher than our own thoughts
and prayers better than our own prayers
and powers better than our own powers,
that we may spend and be spent
in the ways of goodness and love,
after the perfect image
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Amen Eric Milner - White 1884– 1963


O consuming fire, O Spirit of love, descend into the depth of my heart and there transform me until I am fire of your fire, love of your love, and Christ himself is formed in me. Amen
Elizabeth of Schonau, d.1184

O God of love, we pray thee to give us love:
Love in our thinking, love in our speaking,
Love in our doing, and love in the hidden places of our souls;
Love of our neighbours near and far;
Love of our friends, old and new;
Love of those with whom we find it hard to bear,
And love of those who find it hard to bear with us;
Love of those with whom we work,
And love of those with whom we take our ease;
Love in Joy, love in sorrow;
Love in life and love in death;
That so at length we may be worthy to dwell with thee,
Who art eternal love. William Temple 1881-1944

Dear Jesus, help us to spread your fragrance everywhere we go.
Flood our souls with your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly,
that our lives may only be a radiance of yours.
Shine through us and be so in us,
that every soul we come in contact with
may feel your presence in our soul.
Let them look up and see no longer us but Jesus!
Stay with us and then we will begin to shine as you shine;
So to share, as to be a light to others;
the light, O Jesus, will be all from you, none of it will be ours;
it will be you, shining on others, through us.
Let us preach without preaching,
not by words but by our example,
by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what we do,
the evident fullness of the love our hearts bear to you.
Cardinal Henry Newman (1801 –90)
used daily by Mother Theresa’s missionaries of Charity

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Additional Resources

Commentary

Today Leprosy is a mildly contagious disease which is called Hansen's disease and can be readily treated with drugs. In Jesus' time Leprosy was a term for a whole range of skin diseases which were assumed to be contagious. If the person did not have leprosy but perhaps a really bad case of acne, then it would get better on its own. In that case the person could go to the priest and show them that they were better. We read, for instance, in Mark 14:3-9 of Simon the former leper who entertained Jesus.
To be considered as having Leprosy was terrible, not only did it mean that you had an obvious physical ailment, but you were also regarded as spiritually unclean. Such people were unworthy to be allowed to participate in prayers or make sacrifices in the temple. People in Palestine were afraid of lepers because they could infect healthy people with their physical disease, they also despised the lepers as people who must have committed terrible secret sins and were being punished by God-have you heard of that anywhere before?

Since skin diseases cannot be hidden from others from the community, those affected were shunned and forced to live apart. Other people were afraid they could catch their disease from them. Though leprosy is not fatal, it can affect the voice and vision, as well as the skin, nose, toes, and fingers, and the leper's physical condition continued to deteriorate during his or her lifetime. If you were considered 'unclean' you were isolated from friends and family and the rest of the community. It was a wretched existence in which you were cast out to fend for yourself.

The ten lepers keep their distance in accordance with the Law (Lev 13:45-46), but they did call out for help. Interestingly Jesus also kept his distance, responding not with touch as before, but with the instruction to go to the priests. The priest's role is to inspect the symptoms and if all is well declare the person fit to re-enter social life (Lev 14:2-4). Associated with the declaration was an offering.

How many times do we have to tell our children that they must say 'Thank you!'. However only one returns to do this, the Samaritan. This was worth pointing out because of course the Samaritans were foreigners, not liked by the Jews. Just as in the parable of the Good Samaritan Luke shows how our own racism can blind us to the good in others and lead us to group together people whom we dislike or are frightened of. This has surely been the case with the wholesale attack on Muslims since the terrorist attack in New York. Prejudice can easily blind us to the good in others. So the Samaritan came back to say 'Thank you,' he also came to give glory to God. He recognised that Jesus was God in action. This is the poignant nature of the story lepers were not respectable and Samaritans were despised by many, yet it is one of them who becomes our example. It is yet another disturbing story which challenges us to question ourselves about our attitudes to others and God.

The nine who were healed were content to go off and perhaps looked forward to becoming a part of normal life. having been so sick and having carried the stigma for so long there was much to look forward to and much to distract them from Jesus. The Samaritan is concerned firstly about one thing, he wants to thank Jesus, to thank God. The curious thing about this healing is that whilst all were healed of their obvious ailment, only one appears to properly receive God's gift of true healing. The Samaritan is cleansed of the obvious skin problems, but that is not of primary importance, the most important thing is to be healed inside and this Jesus does. He tells the man who has fallen at his feet to 'rise, you faith has made you well.' The word which Jesus uses, means more than just being physically well, it speaks of wholeness and restoration of body and soul. Real healing is far more than can be achieved by the surgeons knife or a good bottle of antibiotics. Real healing takes place inside us, it is not skin deep. We all need this healing because the worst ailments are not those on the surface of our bodies, instead they lie deep inside our souls and sometimes become so much a part of us that only the power of God can expose our need of healing to us.  Charles Royden

 

Meditation

Leonardo Fibonacci 1175-1250, was one of the first to introduce into Europe the Arabic-Hindu system of numbers that we now use and take for granted: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 including the all-important concept of zero! 

Prior to his time, Roman numerals were still in use. Fibonacci solved a puzzle about the numbers of breeding rabbits that might be produced. Mathematically he worked out that the numbers of pairs of rabbits, month by month, would be: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55. 

What do we notice about these figures? Each is the sum of the previous two numbers. The numbers 5, 8, and 13 occur in music: an octave (for example 'C' to 'C') covers 8 white notes and 5 black (13 in all) on the piano. 

This 'Fibonacci Series' of numbers occurs throughout nature. We could look at plants with individual leaves coming out from a single stem. If we count the number of leaves from one leaf to the next that is directly above it, that will be a Fibonacci Number. It is the same with pine cones and a leafed cactus. We can look at plants like the sunflower or the daisy. Counting the clockwise and then the anti-clockwise spirals of seeds or tiny flowers on the head of the plant, they will be consecutive Fibonacci Numbers. 

Dividing a Fibonacci Number by the previous Fibonacci Number gives a result close to 1.618 . The higher up we go in the Fibonacci Series, the more precise the result becomes. That number (a recurring decimal) is given the Greek letter "phi": j = 1.618034. 

Experiments have shown that buildings whose walls are in proportions that are 1 to 1.618 look "just right" -aesthetically they are the most pleasing to the eye. The Greeks knew this, and so much Greek art and architecture (such as the Parthenon in Athens) is based on these proportions which are called the "Golden Ratio" or "Golden Mean". 

Artists down the ages have often used the same proportions which they know are naturally appealing to the observer. Leonardo da Vinci's drawing ("Vitruvian Man") of a man with outstretched arms and legs within both a circle and a square, demonstrates the same proportions of (phi) in the measurements from head to waist, from waist to feet, and from head to feet. 

The "Divine Proportion" and the "Golden Section" are other names for the "Golden Mean". In Van Gogh's painting, "Mother and Child", Mary's face fits perfectly into a "Golden Rectangle". Use of the same proportions is seen in the work of more recent artists, e.g. with the Impressionist Georges Seuret. The innovative 20th Century architect, Le Corbusier, designed the rooms of multi-storey villas in the proportions of the 'Golden Rectangle'. 

Within a "Golden Ratio Rectangle", we could make a square that is based on one of the shorter sides. The remaining rectangle is then of exactly the same proportions as the original. That, too, can be divided into a square and rectangle, and that can be repeated, on and on. If diagonally opposite points in the squares are joined up to form a spiral, we get precisely the same spiral as a snail's shell, a nautilus sea-shell, the flower of a rose, and a breaking wave on the sea-shore. The same proportions are seen in the great spiral galaxies of stars in space.

Lord God, may all that we see and discover lead us to grow in wonder and appreciation.  Amen.

Prayers for Sunday and the week ahead

Lord, you know all that lies before us, both of duty and temptation. Keep us, we pray, from all things hurtful to the body and the soul. Strengthen within us all that is praiseworthy and true, and grant that nothing may come between us and your holy presence; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen John Hunter, 1849-1917

Living Lord, humanity and creation, when touched by you, come alive in exciting and often unexpected ways. In those moments when we are conscious of human frailty or limitation, the struggle to make sense of life, being uncertain where next to turn, may we be alert to you and allow your thoughts to stir our spirit, your mind to encompass our thinking, and your will to engage our will. Ward Jones, Chair, Bristol District

Holy Spirit of God, let us not seek you in the distant land, for you are here among us. Let us welcome you in the heart which is your dwelling place and let us rejoice in the glory of your presence, the only fountain of goodness and love. Amen. Amy Carmichael, 1868-1951

 

 

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