Proper 23, Year C (October 9, 2022) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield

Proper 23, Yr C (2022)                                                          

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7                                                   

Luke 17:11-19

In the name of the one, holy, and living God:

            in whom we live, and move, and have our being.  Amen.

Exile

            and

joy…

    it seems an unlikely pairing, but one that is pertinent to our lives today.

Exile…

            and joy.

This past Tuesday evening as I drove down Patton Avenue near Lowe’s and the Asheville School, I looked up to see a low-flying, army-green helicopter just above the tree tops, with the long nose of a gun sticking out of the front!

The thought immediately entered my head:

            Where am I?

Living in Savannah with nearby Hunter Army Air Field

            or in Fayetteville with nearby Fort Bragg or Simmons Army Air Field

      this would make sense, but West Asheville?!

What was going on?!

These days with constant news of the war in Ukraine,

            the flooding and devastation caused by Ian,

                        and negative political ads,

       the feeling of “exile,”

       of displacement,

  is real.

Over the past few years,

I have even heard quite a few young folks in their 20s ask the question:

       Why would I want to bring a child into this world?

On the one hand, I find that tremendously sad,

            and I also understand the sentiment!

There is a sense of exile…

            of displacement and disconnect…

      of living in a world not of our own choosing or desire.

Some of us may even feel a sense of disconnect within our own bodies and minds

     when we are diagnosed with an illness, ailment, or disease that has a mind of its own,

            or when, as we age, our minds seem to lose thoughts like a sieve!

I think we certainly understand the exile…feeling foreigners in this land…

this world…

            and our own bodies and minds and spirits.

The joy may be a little harder to come by,

            BUT it is new life and joy of which our texts speak today.

Joy…

even in the midst of exile.

The prophet Jeremiah announces a word from God to the people of Israel living in exile in Babylon:

“Build houses and live in them;

            plant gardens and eat what they produce.

      Take wives and have sons and daughters….

                        Multiply…and do not decrease.

                  Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile,

            and pray to [God] on its behalf,

                                    for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”  (Jer 29:4-7)

In other words,

when we feel like we are living in exile,

we are to LIVE!

Plant,

            eat,

                        marry,

                                     bear new life…

     and pray for the welfare of everyone.

Engage life, God says,

and pray for all who live in the wilderness.

      Everyone’s well-being depends upon the well-being of the “other.”

Today’s Gospel reading takes the exile-to-new-life continuum to new heights…

            from the extreme of utter isolation and abandonment

to heartfelt gratitude and joy:

      a complete transformation of broken life into wholeness…into holiness.

As Jesus made his way to Jerusalem…on his way to the cross…

            he entered a village where ten lepers approached him.

“Keeping their distance,” Luke tells us…

            they called out.

Keeping their distance.

Leviticus spends two chapters teaching priests how to diagnose diseases of the skin,

how to pronounce lepers ritually unclean,

and how to perform rites of purification should a leper be healed.

The lepers, too, had certain requirements:

the leper was to wear torn clothes and let the hair of their head hang loose,

and they should cover their lip and cry, “Unclean, unclean.”

A leper remained unclean as long as they had the disease,

and they dwelt alone in a habitation outside the camp.

Exile.

So, when Jesus comes down the road, the ten lepers “keep their distance” and shout:

            “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

When Jesus saw them, he said to them,

            “Go and show yourselves to the priests.”

(Presumably for the priests to determine whether they were clean or unclean.)

They did exactly as Jesus commanded:

they took off to go see the priests,

                        and as they went,

they were made clean.

One of the lepers – a double outsider since he also was a Samaritan –

            when he saw that he was healed,

he turned back, praising God with a loud voice,

        and prostrated himself at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.

He was absolutely beside himself with joy

and knowing exactly where the power that healed him had come from,

he made the only response that made any sense to him…

      to praise God and prostrate himself at Jesus’ feet.

Jesus then wonders the whereabouts of the other nine lepers who had been healed as well.

Their physical healing had not depended on their gratitude,

            but only of this one leper who returned, Jesus said:

                        “Your faith has made you whole.”

His was not just a physical healing,

but a spiritual one as well,

it would seem.

This deep and complete healing occurred as his gratitude and joy poured forth.

It was the expression of gratitude,

along with the recognition of his healing,

            that made the man whole again.

“Where are the other nine?” Jesus wants to know.

They have gone on their way.

Perhaps they experienced physical healing,

            but… where was their joy?

      Where was their gratitude for such healing and restoration of life?

The tenth leper leapt for joy!

            He experienced the fullness of life that God had to offer.

In light of these stories from Jeremiah and Luke,

 I wonder how we

        -in the midst of these bewildering times that are so full of exile-

how we can respond as the tenth leper did?

To live filled with a passionate recognition of the grace of God in our own lives

–  however big or small –

     such that we fall down prostrate at Jesus’ feet,

weeping with tears of joy,

knowing that it is God alone who creates, sustains, and redeems us?

And then to share such Good News with the world around us

            so that all may be made whole… and holy.

I remember many years ago attending a worship service in All Saints’ Chapel at Sewanee, The University of the South.

If you’ve never been there,

            it’s a tall and long chapel of Gothic Revival architecture…

more akin to a Cathedral in size.

I don’t remember the occasion,

but I do remember that there was a visiting Gospel choir there that day.

The service began in the usual subdued Episcopal fashion,

with everyone responding from the Book of Common Prayer.

Then came the time for the offertory anthem, which the Gospel choir sang.

By the end of the anthem almost all of those Episcopalians were up on their feet clapping and swaying with the rhythms of the music.

And then I remember the abrupt return to our usual quiet and measured worship.

It was like two different congregations!

            It was like the nine lepers versus the one.

The nine were quietly relieved to be healed and went on their way.

The one came back,

            praising God with a loud voice,

                        prostrating himself at Jesus’ feet.

I pray that I may remember the example of this 10th leper…

that I may show forth my gratitude for all the beauty and healing Grace in my life!

I pray that even in the midst of what all too often feels like exile in these times,

            we will give thanks,

                        seek life,

       and tend to the welfare of our community…our world.

We are all in this together.

So let us say:

Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on us.

And let us hear: Get up, and go on your way…your faith has made you whole.  

Amen.