St. John’s Lutheran Church, Toluca, IL – 18th Sunday after Pentecost
2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c, Psalm 111; 2 Timothy 2:8-15; Luke 17:11-19
Gospel: Luke 17:11-19
11On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, 13they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. 15Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 17Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? 18Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”
NRSV
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Kinship by Faith
Grace and Peace to you, beloved of God, from our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.
My birthplace of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is quite a multi-cultural metropolis. You can experience food from all over the world, and very early, I developed a taste for Middle Eastern food.
Rio has sizable Lebanese, Syrian, and Jewish communities. Lebanon, Syria, and the northern region of Israel, where Galilee is, neighbor each other. No official lines separated those nations for the longest time. Therefore even if they did not share the same faith, a lot of the culture is similar, especially in culinary tastes. Those tastes brought them together to a city business, and financial center restaurant called “Cedro do Líbano” or “Cedar of Lebanon.” My father used to say that this restaurant was probably the only place in the world where you would find Jewish and Arabs at the same table enjoying a meal together.
In antiquity, as we learn from the reading of 2 Kings, Israelites, and their northern neighbors were already adversaries. Once Palestine was occupied by the Greeks and later the Romans, the battles stopped, but the bitterness remained. However, centuries after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and the Jewish diaspora, the Israelites, Lebanese, and Syrian people started to mingle. They sometimes would coexist in the same towns and neighborhoods up until the mid-1900s. They shared struggles and joys and attended each other backyard celebrations. Those were the immigrants who ended up in Rio and whose stories my father overheard or participated in because “Cedro do Líbano” apparently was one of his favorite restaurants. It is not only the taste for certain delicious foods that has the power to bring down the so-called walls that divide us. There is something else.
Coming back to 2 Kings, what then brings together the Kings of Aram and Israel, a battle-tested army general, a young captive Israelite woman, and Elisha, the uprooted farm boy who left his father and mother to follow Elijah and became a prophet for the Lord out of Samaria?
And talking about Samaria. Oh my, gosh. They were once the same people and then marginalized forever because they claimed the right to worship God in their own land and not only in the Temple in Jerusalem. They became quasi enemies avoiding each other towns and territories. So, what is a Samaritan doing hanging with 9 other Israelites in the region between Samaria and Galilee? Most importantly, what is Jesus doing there? What bound all of them together?
For the kings of antiquity, perhaps it was war. Some in this audience may know firsthand how that goes. Armed conflicts, in reality, are not beautiful, so maybe they are of the same mind in trying to avoid it.
For the captive young woman and the prophet in Samaria, it was leaving the places they knew to proclaim the Word of God in strange lands.
For the ones with skin diseases that made them look like the walking dead, it was the hopelessness of being on the receiving end of an ostracizing campaign that bans them to die in the wilderness.
For the ones who did not return, perhaps it was the joy and the deep desire to show themselves healed and restored to the places they belong.
For the Mighty General and the healed Samaritan, it was the deep gratitude and devotion that rose from acknowledging that they have met the one true God who has the power to transform hearts and minds and give life, even life after death.
What unites us, God’s people of all times and places, is the gift of faith that grants us the capacity to endure together conflict, hopelessness, and hardship propelled by the love towards all people commanded to us by the Word, Jesus Christ, unchained and flowing freely in us, with us, and among us.
What saves us is that even we stumble and miss opportunities to advance God’s just Kingdom on earth, extending kindness, forgiveness, and grace, giving life to each other, even when we seem not to be able to repent and gratefully receive this precious and loving gift, he remains faithful to us. Even when we walk away and snare ourselves, becoming separated from him, our Lord and Savior never throw the keys of our freedom. He keeps them secured in his back pocket just in case.
Beloved, this is what binds all of us, one community of sinners made saints, crying, enduring, restoring, and being restored only by the power and love our God showed to us in Jesus Christ. Oh, how great is thy faithfulness, my Lord. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Bridging Faith 