8th September Trinity
Luke 17: 11-19
And it happened as he was on the way to Jerusalem
that he passed through the middle of Samaria and Galilee.
And as he was entering a certain village, ten men
who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and they raised their voice,
saying
“Master, Jesus, have mercy on us!”
And seeing them he said, “Go, and show yourselves
to the priests.” And it came about that as they went on their way, they were
cleansed.
Now one of them, when he saw that he had been
healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and fell on his face at
his feet, and thanked him--and he was a Samaritan.
And Jesus responded and said, “Were not all ten
cleansed? And the nine—where are they? Was no one seen returning to praise the
revelation of God’s working in this event except this foreigner?”
And he said to him, “Rise, and go your way. The
power of your trust has made you strong.”
8th
August/September Trinity
 |
| Ten Lepers, James Christensen |
September
11, 2011
Luke
17: 11-19
Sometimes
the characters in a story can be a reflection of the separate parts of one
individual human being. Today’s reading can be seen as the different parts of
our souls. We all have nine lepers within, outcasts who stand by the wayside
and beg for mercy. And when by some chance a hope or a wish is granted, we rush
off to the priests, the representatives of the establishment, to certify that
can return to our former community, to our old life.
Yet
within is also the tenth part, the one who recognizes the higher self, the
guide along the way, the Christ. This tenth part, this sliver of ourselves that
is connected to our real future, recognizes Christ as the mediator of God’s
healing grace. He turns to Christ to give humble but forceful and heartfelt
thanks.
And
Christ, our guide along the way, says to this tenth part of our soul, headed
toward the future—Rise up. Continue on your path. Your trust in Me, in God’s
power, gives you strength. The poet e.e.cummings captures some of what that
tenth part of us can feel:
i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth
day of life and love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of all nothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
