Proper 23, Year C
Sunday, October 13, 2013
St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX
Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7
Psalm 66:1-11
2 Timothy 2:8-15
Luke 17:11-19
I’ve been watching the TV show,
“The Walking Dead,” which is soon to start its fourth season, and I’ve been
thoroughly enjoying it. “The Walking
Dead” is your basic end of the world, zombie apocalypse drama with small groups
of people struggling to survive in the wake of a zombie apocalypse. As Kristin pointed out one night, it isn’t an
overly happy show, and she wasn’t too keen on watching it because of the often
rather tragic situations the survivors often found themselves. Then after a couple of episodes she was
totally hooked.
I noticed though that the level of
drama, the intensity of emotion expressed by the characters was really no
different than many other shows I’ve seen.
We were watching some family drama set in modern time with everyday,
regular kinds of struggles, and I noticed that the characters in that show were
getting just as intense in their level of emotion and drama as the people in
the end of the world zombie apocalypse show (not unrealistically), and all I
could think is, “y’all need to chill; it ain’t the end of the world.”
It seems that our level for drama
and the intensity of our emotions can pretty well be amped up to fill whatever
struggle we happen to be going through, but by and large, our struggles aren’t
the end of the world.
Ten lepers were cleansed by Jesus,
and for them, their leprosy, while not the end of the world, was the end of
their getting to interact with non-leprous people until their leprosy was healed.
They had to be quarantined from the rest of the people according to the
laws of Israel, and once they were cured, they couldn’t re-enter society until
showing themselves to the priest and being declared clean.
Notice, though, that Jesus sent
them off to see the priest before he cured them. They were supposed to be checking in with the
priest every seven days, so I assume Jesus was having them go to the priest
partially to keep them walking and living as Israelites, rather than despairing
and giving up entirely, not checking in with the priest feeling that there was
no point. You may be leprous, but you
can still in this small way, live as faithful Jews. Go, present yourself to the priest.
Then, on the way they were cured,
and only one of them returned to thank Jesus.
To be fair, the other nine were likely doing what Jesus said, and
rushing to see the priest, now so they could be declared clean and re-enter
society. The laws of Israel demanded
that they go and see the priest, but couldn’t it wait. If they didn’t get the ritual part of their
religion done immediately, it’s not really the end of the world. They were so concerned with getting back to
the priest and to society, that they missed the opportunity for gratitude.
We are often so concerned with the
various goings on in our lives that we too miss opportunities for gratitude,
and really we’re the ones who suffer for it.
When we’re so busy trying to get things done and so worried about what
we have to do that we can’t be grateful for what we have, then we often end up
feeling like whatever we’re going through at the time is the end of the world,
even when what we’re going through is just the regular stuff of everyday life.
I think it’s safe to say, that so
far, all of the struggles we’ve been through in our lives and even the joys and
challenges of everyday life have not been the end of the world, and I don’t
mean to minimize the struggles, challenges, and tragedies people face. We struggle with life daily and sometimes we
struggle with some truly terrible things.
Keeping or seeking a grateful heart, even in the face of tragedy can
help us through the tragedy so that we are not overcome by darkness, but we
overcome darkness with light.
For the people of Israel in our
reading from Jeremiah today, life did feel like the end of the world, and God,
through Jeremiah was telling the people to overcome darkness with light. Jerusalem had been destroyed, the nations of
Israel and Judah no longer existed, and God was telling the people who were
being taken away captive into a land of exile to pray for the welfare of the
land of exile. Pray for the welfare of
Babylon, the very land whose army just sacked Jerusalem.
Live and thrive in the land of
exile. Build houses, take wives and
start families, pray for the welfare of Babylon, for in their welfare you will
find your welfare. Continue being a
light to the nations, I hear God saying.
Live as Israelites in the land of exile, but don’t sequester
yourselves. Live among the people of
Babylon and be a light to them, showing them the joys and beauty of the Kingdom
of God.
Your nation has been destroyed,
you’re being brought captive into Babylon, and yet you are still Israelites,
you are still God’s people chosen to be a light to the nations. Jerusalem is destroyed, but it isn’t the end
of the world. Be grateful because you
are still God’s people, a light to the nations.
Be grateful and let the light of your gratitude and the light of God
shine in your lives for others to see.
So too for us in all of the little
apocalypses in our lives, in our daily struggles, and in our times of real
tragedy, Jesus commends us to keep grateful hearts, not denying our pain or
tragedy, but also seeking to be grateful for the ways in which we are blessed.
Sometimes we’re simply not going to
be able to feel grateful, and I don’t know that we’re supposed to feel guilty
about that. The 9 guys in the gospel
story today who were tacitly reprimanded for their lack of gratitude had just
been cleansed of leprosy. Jesus didn’t
tell people in the midst of tragedy, “shame on you for being sad and
despondent, you should be grateful for…well I don’t know for what but you
should be grateful.”
We are allowed to be sad, and we
seek gratitude. We seek to keep grateful
hearts, realizing that so many of our challenges really aren’t the end of the
world. When tragedy does strike, we keep
our hope in Jesus, realizing the words of Psalm 62, “for God alone my soul in
silence waits; from him comes my salvation.
He alone is my rock and my stronghold so that I shall not be greatly
shaken.”
We keep our hope and confidence in
God, realizing that even the actual end of the world is going to be
redeemed. We can keep gratitude in our
hearts as we look forward to the restoration and re-creation of all things in
the resurrection which will fortunately look
nothing at all like a zombie apocalypse.
Amen.
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