A
sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 13 October 2013 by the Rev. Judy Chan. The
scripture readings that day were 2
Timothy 2:3-15 and Luke
17:11-19.
The
inspiration for today’s sermon title came from an article I read by a woman
minister in the U.S.
She tells the story of what happened to her when she found out she had breast
cancer. After the shocking news sunk in, she cried and cried and cried. She had
been expecting bad news from the looks on the faces of the medical personnel
doing all the testing. Still when she got the results, it was devastating. She
forced herself to go to work the next day, but as she sat in her church office,
she was paralyzed with fear. She couldn’t cope. Then a colleague knocked on the
door and told her Dr. Stone was in the church library. Dr. Stone was not her
doctor, but the chances of any doctor stopping by the church library on a Friday
morning seemed too good to pass up. So she pulled the doctor into her office as
if she’d been thrown a life preserver. And as she described it, “Dr. Stone
reached out with compassion and brought Christ the healer to me.”
The
following week she met with her spiritual director who invited her to open
herself to discover all the
ways that God was reassuring her that she wasn’t walking this journey by herself.
As she drove home, she formed this
prayer for guidance:
Seek
God, See God, Choose Life.
That
prayer is what the story of the 10 lepers in Luke 17 is all about. It’s the not
the first story about healing lepers in the Gospel of Luke. You may recall in
Luke 5, there was one leper who came up and begged Jesus to heal him.
There
Jesus spoke the word and the man was healed. But Jesus warned him don’t tell
anyone, only go to the priest to be declared clean. In those days, the priest
was the one who examined you and declared you to be cured.
In
today’s story there are now 10 lepers needing help. They have heard about
Jesus, at least enough to know that he might be able to do something about
their horrible condition. Scholars are not sure that what these men had was the
same as what we know as leprosy today, what we call Hansen’s disease, which can now be cured by medicine. I was told that Hong Kong once had a leper
colony in the outlying island
of Hay Ling Chau.
Probably some of you remember it. From what I know, it opened in 1950 and had
over 500 residents at its peak, and it closed in 1974 with the remaining
patients being sent to Lai
Chi Kok
Hospital.
So whether the 10 men in this story had Hansen’s
disease or some other kind of skin condition, the results were the same – you were considered toxic, you were
sent away from your family and community, and you lived in poverty in the company
of people who had the same hideous condition as yourself.
If
healthy people happened to be coming near, you had to cover your upper lip and yell
out “Unclean, unclean” so they would be warned not to come close. You also wore
rags and let your hair grow long and be unkempt so no one would mistake you for
a normal person. Lepers had to beg in order to survive, so even as you shouted
unclean, unclean, there was always the possibility that some kindhearted soul
might throw a few coins your way.
In
short, having leprosy was a miserable, condemned existence. But perhaps the
worst part wasn’t even the disease itself, though that was very bad. The worst
part was being cut off from your family, friends and community. You couldn’t
see them and they couldn’t see you, unless they chose to join you in the leper
colony. But who in their right mind would do that?
So,
when 10 lepers hear that Jesus is coming by, what do they do? They seek him out
as he approaches the village. Keeping their distance, they call out – not “unclean,
unclean” – but “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” And Jesus does. Without even
uttering a word of healing, he tells them to go and show themselves to the
priest. And as they went, they were made clean. As they went, they were made clean. His power was that great.
Can
you imagine the absolute joy those 10 lepers must have felt? They were cured of
this curse. They could go back to be with their family and friends again. Who
wouldn’t be running to be first in line to see the priest and get the
all-clear? And that’s just what they did, all except one.
The
Bible says one leper, seeing that he was healed, turned back. One leper,
praising God at the top of his lungs, fell down at Jesus’ feet. One leper, the
only leper to give thanks, was a Samaritan.
Now
you will remember from other Bible stories that Samaritans were a despised
people in Jesus’ time. They were considered infidels and enemies of the Jewish
people. No respectable Jew
would have anything to do with them.
Yet, the only one of the 10 who came back to say thank you was the one who was
least expected to do so. Even Jesus seems to be astonished. But because of the Samaritan’s
faith, Jesus not only gave him mercy, he gave him mercy beyond mercy.
Now
you may say, what is this mercy beyond mercy? After all, weren’t all 10 cured
of their leprosy? Yes, but only one truly saw the miracle for what it was. It
was more than the healing of their physical disease. It was more than the
restoration to their former life and place in the society. It was more than any
declaration a priest could make. What Jesus offered was a chance to seek God,
see God and choose life.
And
that’s what the Samaritan did. Instead of running away from Jesus, he turns
around to run to Jesus. Instead of rejoicing in his good fortune, he praises
the one who has given him the blessing. Instead of going to the priest to be
declared clean, he presents himself to the Great Physician who declares him not
only clean, not only healed, but declares him to be well. The Greek word used here
is sozo and it literally means
“saved.”
It
may not be so obvious at first reading, but this story is much more than a
story about being thankful for all the good things in our lives. In reality,
it’s a story about being thankful that God
is in our lives, that God in Jesus
Christ has come into this world not only to heal us but to make us
whole.
Seek
God, see God, choose life.
I
began this sermon with a story about a woman minister facing cancer. She shared
the story behind that prayer in 2004. I googled her name and found out that she
has apparently made a full recovery and has a flourishing ministry in high
places in the Methodist
Church. Praise God. But I
wondered what about those that don’t make a full recovery? What about those who pray for healing but don’t
get the results they wanted? You and I
all know situations like that.
Let
me share two stories I know,
one from the U.S., one from Hong Kong. When I was working at a church early in my
ministry, there was a woman who developed cancer when she was only in
her 40s. She was such a vivacious
woman so this news was heartbreaking. Her husband was a well-respected
doctor and they had two teenage children. The couple weren’t regular church
goers but their extended family belonged to the church where I served so
everyone knew about them.
Her
husband was so desperate to save his wife that he took leave from his medical
practice, and threw himself into cancer research trying to find a cure. Sadly,
the treatments didn’t stop the disease from spreading. Towards the end when she
was in the hospital, some church members encouraged me to go visit her. They
said she was really depressed and maybe I could help her. Well, I was pretty
young at that time, without a lot of
experience, but of course I
said I’d go.
I
went to her hospital room and knocked gently on the door. She looked up at me, but not with
surprise or gratitude. No, it was definitely a look that said, Oh, you. She
recognized me as one of the ministers from the church. The visit was probably
one of the worst ones I’d ever had. I didn’t know what to say, and she seemed
to resent that I had come. Perhaps she was in pain or exhausted. It would be
understandable. But I felt I needed to do something because that’s what
ministers are there for, to do something. So I asked, is there anything I can
do for you? She glared at me, and shoved a Bible towards me. “You can read
something from that.”
So I
opened the Bible to the 23rd Psalm, read it as reverently as I could, and then
asked if I could pray with her. I don’t even remember whether she said yes or
no, or whether I prayed or not. I just remember leaving the hospital and
feeling like a failure.
Looking
back now, I realize I was probably
thinking more about myself than about her. Still I’m not sure what I
could have done differently. She was
obviously angry and afraid because
she was dying. And maybe she had every right to be angry and afraid because she
had so much to live for. I was only sorry that at that moment I could not bring
her comfort and hope from God. Perhaps someone else did.
I
compare that visit with another situation of a cancer patient I heard about. I never met him, but I knew his
wife. Her husband was a brilliant student, doing graduate work in theology
overseas. He was only in his 30s when he found out he had cancer. They came
back to Hong Kong to get treatment. But the
cancer was fast-growing. The wife stayed with her husband in the hospital as
much as she could while also caring for their young child. And eventually he died. Years later,
when I got to know the wife, we were talking one day and she shared something with me. She said when her husband was near the end, as he lay dying in that hospital bed, he told her, “I’ve never
felt so close to God as I do now.”
Wow. For most people, that doesn’t make
sense. Shouldn’t you feel closest to God when things are going right in your
life, when you get the miracle you want? Well, maybe not, if today’s Gospel
reading is any indication. The success rate there was only 1 out of 10. And
even that one still faced an uphill battle. He was going back into a society
where religiously he was still an outcast, a foreigner so his problems were far
from over. I think that’s why Jesus’ words were so powerful to him. They’re
almost like a benediction: get up and go on your way, your faith has made you
well.
“Your faith has made you well.” That’s what
Jesus promised to the Samaritan leper and that’s what He promises to each of
us, anyone who comes to him not only asking for healing but for the healer, not
only for a miracle but for the miracle worker, not only for a better life but
for everlasting life. Seek God, see God, choose life.
As I thought of how to close this sermon, I
recalled what Aime said last week about the importance of sharing testimonies
of God’s faithfulness. That brought to mind a song called ‘Blessings’ by a
Christian singer named Laura Story. Have you heard it? I first heard about it
through one of our radio speakers on RTHK.
Laura Story wrote the song after her husband
developed a brain tumor and she almost lost him. She described “Blessings” as a
song about
worshipping when life is hard. Through all her hard times, ups and downs, in and
out of hospital, she often wondered "Why didn't you just fix it, God? You're all powerful and
all loving… just fix it." Later she told her sister she just wished things
would return to normal, to which her sister wisely replied, "You know, I think the
detour is actually the road." The detour is actually the road.
I’d like to play the song “Blessings”
for you. Laura Story sings it on her own album, but actually I am partial to
the version I heard first by Hong Kong singer
Frances Yip. I had some hesitation to play it today because I’m aware there is
a danger of glorifying suffering. But when I read the lyrics again, I was
reassured as I heard echoes of St Paul’s
words to his brother Timothy: “The saying is sure: If we have died with Christ,
we will also live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we
deny him, he will also deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful.”
Blessings by Laura Story, sung by
Frances Yip.
(Lyrics)
We pray for blessings, we pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
And all the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things
'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near?
What if trials of this life
Are Your mercies in disguise?
We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
And all the while You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe
'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near?
What if trials of this life
Are Your mercies in disguise?
When friends betray us, when darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It's not our home
'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near?
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst
This world can't satisfy?
What if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise?
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, October 13, 2013