Sermon – St Anne’s, Brown Edge 9th October 2016
There are certain passages of Scripture that we can become so familiar with, that if we are not careful we skim read or do not pay as much attention as perhaps we ought.
I think this passage from
Luke’s Gospel is one of those. We know the story and it all looks
straightforward.
A story is told of a Church
outing to a circus that was visiting the town. One of the acts was a Strong Man
who did all sorts of amazing feats. He then took four lemons in one of his big
beefy hands and squeezed and squeezed until the lemons were dry.
He then went around the ring
asking if anyone thought that they could get any more out of the lemons.
From the Church party a
small elderly man got up and entered the ring.
He took the four lemons and
began to squeeze them. First one drop, then another until four large drops of
juice had been squeezed out of the lemons.
That’s amazing said the
strong man – how did you manage to do that?
The elderly man replied, I’m
the Church treasurer.
So – let’s see what we might
squeeze out of this passage that will help us live as God’s people today.
‘Now
on his way to Jerusalem…
This is one of those little phrases
that we might easily miss.
In Luke 9.51, we read ‘As the time approached for him to be taken
up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.’
This marks a turning point
in Luke’s Gospel – this journey to Jerusalem will bring Jesus to the Cross and
to a confrontation with all the powers of the world and the dark powers that
lay behind them.
We might infer from the
reading that nine of these lepers were of the Faith – Jews, and only one, a
foreigner, a Samaritan.
A lesson we learn here takes
us back to my opening words about how we can become overfamiliar with
Scripture.
Could it be that the other
nine as God chosen people almost took it for granted that God would cleanse
them of leprosy?
I have a heard number of
people who are new to the Faith and who then find great delight in reading
God’s word, the Bible. They get excited about their discoveries in this
remarkable book.
Have we become a tad sloppy
in our reading of the Scriptures?
Do you read the Bible daily,
perhaps with a good study guide to help you understand more?
Jesus’ work on the cross,
which he is on his way to undertake, will open up the possibility for everyone
to become a Child of God. Not just those who belong to ethnic Israel – it will
include Samaritans as well.
God’s healing power to
cleanse is now to be poured out through Jesus following his death, resurrection
and ascension to God’s right hand.
Romans 10.13 - for, "Everyone
who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
Naaman, also foreigner, had
to act in simple obedience to receive healing and cleansing.
Our obedience is to call
upon the name of Jesus and accept the life of the Sprit dwelling within us.
That cleansing, that
healing, that restoration – surely that should make us fall down on our knees
in thankfulness.
Last week in my home Church,
St John the Baptist, as part of our All Age Harvest Communion, we had a
‘Thankful Wall.’
People were invited to bring
something for which they were thankful to God. We had pictures, and toys, and
flowers and a whole range of different things.
So – let me ask you, what
are you thankful to God for this morning.
‘One
of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice and
threw himself at Jesus feet.’
I remember being with an
American friend discussing some initiative we were both involved in. I said
that I was quietly excited. He smiled and replied; only a Brit could be quietly
excited.
Where is our loud voice
singing out God’s praises?Where is our exuberant joy at our salvation?
Would visitors here this
morning know that we are people who have been healed, cleansed and restored
back into God’s community of Love?
Will the people whom you
will meet throughout the week ahead know that you carry deep in your heart the
joy of the Lord?
Last week the Church
remembered St Francis. With this in mind, I sat and watched one of my favourite
films by Franco Zeffirellie, ‘Bother Son, Sister Moon.’ This is a highly
romanticised version of Francis’ re-birth and the beginning of the Franciscan
Order.
Yet for all of that the
story remains powerful and strong.
How free are we, how full of
joy at the simple things in the life? The song of the birds, the smell of
autumn, the laughter of friends.
I am not suggesting that we
go around with stupid false grins on our faces, but that we know deep down in
our souls that joy that comes when we know that we are a child of God. Beloved
by him - one of his precious daughters or sons.
The 14th century
mystic and anchorite, Mother Julian gave us that wonderful phrase, ‘all shall
be well, and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.’
God alone knows what you are
facing at the moment…
However, no matter whatever it
is you are facing, if your cry out, as did these ten men, Jesus, Master, have pity on us. Then Jesus will respond and bring
you cleansing.
You will then be able to
find comfort in the knowledge that ‘all shall be well and all things shall be
well and all manner of things shall be well.’
In the knowledge that
although we may not see it or feel it, God is working his purposes out in our
lives, we can then live in thankfulness for all God has done for us in Jesus.
Knowing that God is working
out his purposes in our lives might cause us to shout out with a loud voice in
praise and thankfulness occasionally.
For as we read in Romans
8.37-39
…
in all these things
we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that
neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the
future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ
Jesus our Lord.
Now isn’t that something to
get more than quietly excited about – something to get jubilantly joyful about?
So, how are you going to share and show the joy of the Gospel in the week ahead with the people you meet.
Let me close with some
beautiful words written by his Holiness Pope Benedict XV1…
And
only where God is seen does life truly begin.
Only
when we meet the living God in Christ do we know what life is.
We
are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution.
Each
of us is the result of a thought of God.
Each
of us is willed,
Each
of us is loved,
Each
of us is necessary.
There
is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel,
By
the encounter with Christ.
There
is nothing more beautiful than to know him and to speak to others of our
friendship with Him.
So, how are you going to share and show the joy of the Gospel in the week ahead with the people you meet.
