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sthanks04
Ten Unclean and
Nowhere to Go
Text:
Luke 17:11-19
Date: A National Day of Thanksgiving
11/24/04 d2 map hack 1.07v
Ten
unclean and no where to go,
Ten
men cleansed as clean as snow,
One
returned to give God thanks
But
nine went away. (Song by The Singing Nuns)
The
account of Jesus cleansing of the ten lepers was obviously chosen
as a suggested Gospel reading for a National Day of Thanksgiving
because of the element of gratitude on the part of the Samaritan
contrasted with the apparent ingratitude of the others. But should
this Bible reading serve only to pad the pride of those who actually
go out of their way to attend church on this secular holiday, thereby
pronouncing all the rest as blatant ingrates, we will have, of course,
set ourselves up to be rightly accused as hypocrites. As Christians
we would like to count ourselves among the ten percent minority
who have come out of the darkness of unbelief at least to the extent
of realizing the truth of our catechism training. According to the
First Article of the Creed we believe that God made us and everyone,
that he has given me my body, my reason, my senses, even clothing,
food, shelter and all I have, for all of which “it is my duty to
thank and praise, serve and obey him.” But did the Samaritan return
to give thanks only because it was his “duty” to do so? And according
to the Fourth Petition of the Lord's Prayer we believe that God
gives daily bread to everyone without even asking for it, the difference
being that Christians realize it and receive our daily bread with
thanksgiving. Or do we?
Negotiations
between labor and management, even when agreements have been reached,
do not resemble “love fests.” We want our due and justice is not
served until we get it. The average high school or college student
is not so much motivated by the goal of becoming more well-rounded
or educated as he or she is by the goal of getting their piece of
the rich economic pie. Though Christians realize the dangers of
gambling as bad stewardship and avoid it, when that Reader's Digest
Prize Patrol rolls up to the house next door we congratulate the
lucky stiff with clenched teeth. After all, it is our “duty” as
refined and congenial neighbors and citizens.
To
be fair, lets speculate a little about the nine who didn't return.
On the Last Sunday of the Church Year we were reminded by the prophet
Malachi of the age-old complaint of the righteous asking, “why do
the heathen prosper?” Well, what lay before the nine? Were they
worse or better off? Like winners of the lottery rushing to turn
in their lucky ticket, we assume they finally arrived to show themselves
to the priest as Jesus had commanded. The priest would have examined
them and officially pronounced them “clean.” But it wasn't that
simple. They would have then been required to perform the ritual
commanded by Moses in Leviticus 14.
Each
taking two live clean birds and cedarwood and scarlet yarn and hyssop,
they kill one of the birds in an earthenware vessel over fresh water.
Then they take the live bird with the cedarwood and the scarlet
yarn and the hyssop and dip them and the live bird in the blood
of the bird that was killed over the fresh water. Then the priest
sprinkles them with the blood seven times, pronouncing them to be
clean releasing the live bird to go into the open field. Then those
cleansed were to wash their clothes and shave off all their hair
and bathe in water. They can then visit in the camp but must continue
to live outside the camp for another week. Then, shaving off all
the hair from their heads, their beards, and their eyebrows they
wash their clothes and bathe again. On the eighth day each takes
two male lambs without blemish and one ewe lamb a year old without
blemish, and a grain offering of three tenths of an ephah of fine
flour mixed with oil and one log of oil. Set before the Lord at
the entrance of the tent of meeting the priest then takes one of
the male lambs and offers it for a guilt offering, along with the
log of oil, and waves them for a wave offering before the Lord.
He kills the lamb where they kill the sin offering and burnt offering,
taking some of the blood and putting it on the lobe of the right
ear of him who is to be cleansed and on the thumb of his right hand
and on the big toe of his right foot. He pours some of the oil in
his left hand and dips his right finger in the oil and sprinkles
it with his finger seven times before the Lord. Some of the oil
that remains in his hand he puts on the lobe of the right ear of
him who is to be cleansed and on the thumb of his right hand and
on the big toe of his right foot, on top of the blood of the guilt
offering. The rest of the oil that is left he puts on the candidate's
head. After offering the sin offering and the burnt offering and
grain offering on the altar, “the priest shall make atonement for
him, and he shall be clean” [Leviticus 14:4-20 (ESV)]. You got that?
And you thought having to handle a service folder, a hymnbook and
a hymnal supplement all at the same time was confusing!
So
there they were, ten unclean with nowhere to go, now ten men cleansed
as clean as snow. One returned to give God thanks and nine went
away. Either way they received the blessing of healing from Jesus.
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