WEBVTT - This file was automatically generated by VIMEO 0 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:07.000 When I 1 00:00:06.100 --> 00:00:09.500 was a little boy, I can remember in Sunday 2 00:00:09.500 --> 00:00:11.800 school hearing the story of the ten lepers. 3 00:00:12.400 --> 00:00:14.800 And the one leper who came back and said, thank you. 4 00:00:15.900 --> 00:00:19.000 And I can remember that the message was never forget 5 00:00:18.200 --> 00:00:19.800 to say. Thank you. 6 00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:23.500 Well, of course, the story is about a little bit more than that. 7 00:00:23.500 --> 00:00:26.100 When you think about it as adults and I 8 00:00:26.100 --> 00:00:29.100 want to reflect with you on what meaning it 9 00:00:29.100 --> 00:00:31.500 might have for us today. Let us pray. 10 00:00:32.600 --> 00:00:36.200 The name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit. May 11 00:00:35.200 --> 00:00:38.700 the words of my lips and the meditations for 12 00:00:38.700 --> 00:00:40.800 our hearts be acceptable in your sight. 13 00:00:41.500 --> 00:00:43.700 O Lord our strength and Our Redeemer, Amen. 14 00:00:47.900 --> 00:00:50.600 The leprosy we talk about today, which is 15 00:00:50.600 --> 00:00:53.400 sometimes called Hansen's Disease is 16 00:00:53.400 --> 00:00:56.200 actually different from the leprosy that there was 17 00:00:56.200 --> 00:01:00.200 in the ancient world. I've visited 18 00:00:59.200 --> 00:01:03.000 leprosy hospitals in India 19 00:01:02.400 --> 00:01:05.900 and shaken the hands of lippers but 20 00:01:05.900 --> 00:01:08.000 leprosy when they talked about it in the 21 00:01:08.300 --> 00:01:11.700 time of Jesus and the Old Testament seems to 22 00:01:11.700 --> 00:01:14.900 have referred to a scaly skin disease, 23 00:01:14.900 --> 00:01:16.500 which was highly contagious. 24 00:01:17.400 --> 00:01:20.600 And what it meant of course, is that if you were a leper you 25 00:01:20.600 --> 00:01:23.600 needed to socially distance. We know 26 00:01:23.600 --> 00:01:26.000 about social distancing because of covid. 27 00:01:26.600 --> 00:01:29.400 So they needed to go away from 28 00:01:29.400 --> 00:01:32.200 the community and often they would be a group 29 00:01:32.200 --> 00:01:35.900 of people who are isolated. And of course this 30 00:01:35.900 --> 00:01:39.400 was a cause of enormous hardship having 31 00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:41.400 to be isolated from the rest of 32 00:01:41.400 --> 00:01:45.100 the community. So when Jesus healed lepers, however, 33 00:01:44.100 --> 00:01:47.400 he healed them, He was not just dealing 34 00:01:47.400 --> 00:01:51.400 with the skin disease. He was dealing with a social healing. 35 00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:53.400 He was bringing people back into the 36 00:01:53.400 --> 00:01:56.800 community, because if you were a leper in 37 00:01:56.800 --> 00:02:00.200 fact, if you were sick, if you had disabilities, you were 38 00:01:59.200 --> 00:02:03.200 poor and the message of Jesus was to 39 00:02:02.200 --> 00:02:05.400 be Good News for the poor. That God's 40 00:02:05.400 --> 00:02:08.400 priority was to care for everyone. And so 41 00:02:08.400 --> 00:02:11.200 that's why Jesus was of course involved in 42 00:02:11.200 --> 00:02:12.700 healing lepers. 43 00:02:13.400 --> 00:02:16.700 And this is the story about healing ten lepers. 44 00:02:20.100 --> 00:02:23.100 Jesus sent these ten lepers off to 45 00:02:23.100 --> 00:02:26.200 the authorities namely the priests and Jerusalem who 46 00:02:26.200 --> 00:02:29.700 acted as a kind of Medical Center as well, and 47 00:02:29.700 --> 00:02:33.400 they were to be inspected and if the leprosy had 48 00:02:33.400 --> 00:02:36.400 cleared from their skin, then they could come back into the community. 49 00:02:36.400 --> 00:02:40.500 They needed to have things like that to enable people 50 00:02:39.500 --> 00:02:43.300 to be socially reintegrated. 51 00:02:44.400 --> 00:02:47.400 And of course what happened is that they off 52 00:02:47.400 --> 00:02:50.700 they went and they found that they've been 53 00:02:50.700 --> 00:02:53.900 healed and they got certified. Only 54 00:02:53.900 --> 00:02:56.700 one of them came back and said thank you. I mean 55 00:02:56.700 --> 00:02:59.500 that's significant not just to say well 56 00:02:59.500 --> 00:03:03.600 it's important or say thank you. It's polite, but this 57 00:03:02.600 --> 00:03:05.900 leper came back to make 58 00:03:05.900 --> 00:03:07.400 connections with God. 59 00:03:08.300 --> 00:03:12.300 Some people when they gain benefits, even when they gain 60 00:03:11.300 --> 00:03:14.100 salvation, they think of 61 00:03:14.100 --> 00:03:17.600 it primarily in terms of this is something for me. It means my sins 62 00:03:17.600 --> 00:03:21.800 are forgiven. It means I go to heaven when I die. There's 63 00:03:20.800 --> 00:03:23.700 nothing more that I need to do. I'm 64 00:03:23.700 --> 00:03:26.000 not involved in anything else. But of course, 65 00:03:26.300 --> 00:03:30.200 this is not the way Jesus taught. Jesus invited 66 00:03:29.200 --> 00:03:32.600 people to be involved in God's reign, 67 00:03:32.600 --> 00:03:34.200 in God's life, in God's love. 68 00:03:35.200 --> 00:03:39.100 And so the leper who comes back and says thank you to God connects 69 00:03:38.100 --> 00:03:41.600 to the bigger picture. We're called 70 00:03:41.600 --> 00:03:44.100 to connect to the bigger picture as well. So that 71 00:03:44.100 --> 00:03:46.200 not only do we think about 72 00:03:47.100 --> 00:03:50.700 particular benefits of healing and that kind of thing but 73 00:03:50.700 --> 00:03:53.200 we also think in the broader picture of what it 74 00:03:53.200 --> 00:03:57.000 means to be Good News to the poor in our society. And 75 00:03:56.300 --> 00:03:59.100 for Jesus that meant reaching out 76 00:03:59.100 --> 00:04:02.400 to people bringing them back into a relationship with God 77 00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:06.000 into a relationship with their fellow human beings and 78 00:04:05.400 --> 00:04:08.300 doing more than that, engaging them in 79 00:04:08.300 --> 00:04:08.900 God's life. 80 00:04:09.800 --> 00:04:12.500 And God's love, and God's kingdom, 81 00:04:12.500 --> 00:04:15.500 and God's realm so that they could be agents of 82 00:04:15.500 --> 00:04:18.300 God's action in the places where they were 83 00:04:18.300 --> 00:04:22.000 and that's part of the meaning of the story that the 84 00:04:21.300 --> 00:04:24.400 one who came back made the connection. 85 00:04:24.400 --> 00:04:27.500 Connected to God and connected to what Jesus was 86 00:04:27.500 --> 00:04:28.000 on about. 87 00:04:29.800 --> 00:04:32.700 Another aspect of the story that's important as 88 00:04:32.700 --> 00:04:35.900 well. Who is the one who comes back? He is 89 00:04:35.900 --> 00:04:36.500 a Samaritan. 90 00:04:37.300 --> 00:04:40.600 Now Samaritans and Jews have common origins. They're 91 00:04:40.600 --> 00:04:43.600 both from the people of Israel and but 92 00:04:43.600 --> 00:04:46.500 their alienated for complex historical reasons 93 00:04:46.500 --> 00:04:49.800 and Jews who are Samaritans didn't 94 00:04:49.800 --> 00:04:52.500 Worship in the temple of Jerusalem. They worshiped 95 00:04:52.500 --> 00:04:54.100 in a temple in Samaria. 96 00:04:54.600 --> 00:04:57.800 And there were tensions between them particularly between some 97 00:04:57.800 --> 00:05:00.800 Jews and some Samaritans and 98 00:05:00.800 --> 00:05:03.200 we see this reflected for instance in the story of 99 00:05:03.200 --> 00:05:07.300 Jesus who sat down at a well in Samaria and 100 00:05:06.300 --> 00:05:09.800 talked with the woman who was a Samaritan 101 00:05:09.800 --> 00:05:12.800 and explained there that they don't use vessels in 102 00:05:12.800 --> 00:05:14.600 common. That's to say 103 00:05:15.400 --> 00:05:18.600 many Jews or Samaritan as unclean, as 104 00:05:18.600 --> 00:05:21.600 unworthy people. So there was a form of discrimination 105 00:05:21.600 --> 00:05:24.800 which was really quite hurtful and divisive. 106 00:05:26.200 --> 00:05:29.800 and we know of course about that from story 107 00:05:29.800 --> 00:05:32.500 that Jesus told where he told the 108 00:05:32.500 --> 00:05:36.000 story of the Good Samaritan. Jewish leaders 109 00:05:35.800 --> 00:05:38.600 associated with the temple passed by a 110 00:05:38.600 --> 00:05:41.200 person who was beaten up and left on the side of the road 111 00:05:41.200 --> 00:05:44.800 and the parable of Jesus, but it was a Samaritan who 112 00:05:44.800 --> 00:05:46.000 reached out and helped. 113 00:05:47.100 --> 00:05:50.700 Now this is quite deliberately subversive. It's kind 114 00:05:50.700 --> 00:05:53.600 of saying look, sometimes you think 115 00:05:53.600 --> 00:05:56.200 you're respectable you think you know, you're the right 116 00:05:56.200 --> 00:05:59.200 culture, but sometimes you actually miss the point 117 00:05:59.200 --> 00:06:02.500 and it's the people who are at the bottom of the heap or who are 118 00:06:02.500 --> 00:06:05.300 discriminated against or against whom you hold 119 00:06:05.300 --> 00:06:07.300 prejudice who will often hold the truth. 120 00:06:08.400 --> 00:06:11.800 And so it's a Samaritan who illustrates what 121 00:06:11.800 --> 00:06:14.500 God's compassion is like in the 122 00:06:14.500 --> 00:06:16.000 parable of the Good Samaritan. 123 00:06:16.800 --> 00:06:19.300 And it's a Samaritan here who comes back 124 00:06:19.300 --> 00:06:22.600 and joins reconnects with 125 00:06:22.600 --> 00:06:26.500 God to share God's life to 126 00:06:25.500 --> 00:06:27.500 share God's love in the world. 127 00:06:28.800 --> 00:06:31.200 The issues of prejudice and racism of course 128 00:06:31.200 --> 00:06:34.100 are around. We face them in our 129 00:06:34.100 --> 00:06:37.300 own day, people who look different from us, whose 130 00:06:37.300 --> 00:06:40.200 skin color is different, who speak a different 131 00:06:40.200 --> 00:06:43.300 language, who've got a different culture and it's very 132 00:06:43.300 --> 00:06:46.600 easy to be superior about 133 00:06:46.600 --> 00:06:49.300 one's own culture and one's own background with 134 00:06:49.300 --> 00:06:52.700 which one is familiar and to act in 135 00:06:52.700 --> 00:06:55.500 a discriminatory way against other people. 136 00:06:56.800 --> 00:07:00.000 Now that of course happened with people who are lepers. It 137 00:06:59.100 --> 00:07:02.500 can happen in the way that we treat people with disability 138 00:07:02.500 --> 00:07:03.300 and sickness. 139 00:07:03.900 --> 00:07:06.600 It can happen in the way that we treat people of a 140 00:07:06.600 --> 00:07:09.400 different gender or a different background or a different 141 00:07:09.400 --> 00:07:12.900 religion; a different culture and 142 00:07:12.900 --> 00:07:15.500 the invitation of the Gospel is to depart 143 00:07:15.500 --> 00:07:19.100 from that kind of thing and to be open and compassionate towards 144 00:07:18.100 --> 00:07:19.600 all people. 145 00:07:21.100 --> 00:07:25.400 So the message of the story of the 10 letters isn't 146 00:07:24.400 --> 00:07:27.500 just about learn to say 147 00:07:27.500 --> 00:07:30.700 thank you. Oh that's part of the message. But it's 148 00:07:30.700 --> 00:07:33.200 also learn to be a person who 149 00:07:33.200 --> 00:07:36.300 connects to God, connects to 150 00:07:36.300 --> 00:07:39.100 the bigger picture. Not just what are the 151 00:07:39.100 --> 00:07:42.300 benefits for me but one of the ways in which 152 00:07:42.300 --> 00:07:46.100 I can share the life of God where I am. I can 153 00:07:45.100 --> 00:07:48.800 share the life of God in my community. I can 154 00:07:48.800 --> 00:07:52.200 be an agent of God's love in my 155 00:07:52.200 --> 00:07:55.200 daily life, in my wider community, in the way 156 00:07:55.200 --> 00:07:58.200 that I vote and the way that I spend my money, in the way that 157 00:07:58.200 --> 00:08:00.800 I pray, in the way that I look at the world. 158 00:08:01.900 --> 00:08:04.600 That's the message that's there for us in the 159 00:08:04.600 --> 00:08:07.800 story is the challenge for us to think about in our 160 00:08:07.800 --> 00:08:08.300 daily lives. 161 00:08:09.200 --> 00:08:12.700 May God help you to grapple 162 00:08:12.700 --> 00:08:15.900 with that issue, for what it means for you and may 163 00:08:15.900 --> 00:08:17.200 God's blessing be upon you.