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Imagine
yourself walking along a quiet country road, kicking up some
dust as you shuffle your feet along. It is another beautiful
day. The sun is warm and the air is fresh and clean. A
somewhat broken-down wooden fence runs alongside the road
where you are walking. As you amble down the road, you come to
a very unusual sight: a turtle sitting on a fence post.
As
you think about that turtle, do you imagine all of the energy
it must have expended to get up there? Do you think about the
length of time it must have taken this guy to get to where he
is? Do you wonder how it could have used its little legs to
scratch and claw to the top? Do you find yourself wondering
that if somehow other turtles were as hard-working and
ambitious as this one, how many more would be able to be
successful climbers?
Or when the
day comes and you find that turtle perched on the fence post,
maybe you say to yourself, “I wonder who put this thing up
here?” You see, when you see a turtle on a fence post, you
never have to wonder how much of the credit belongs to the
turtle. No, in fact, the only way a turtle can get such a view
of the world is with a whole lot of help. When you see a
turtle on a fence post, you know somebody helped him get
there.
The truth
of the matter is, we are all turtles on a fence post. No
matter the station we find ourselves in, no matter the height
of the fence post we find ourselves sitting on, we, like the
turtle, are where we are because somebody (or a whole bunch of
somebodies) helped to get us there. We stand on the shoulders
of those who have gone before us. Often those who went ahead
of us have blazed the trails we are now walking. We are all
turtles on the fence post, looking out at the world from a
vantage point that others have helped create for us. Just like
that turtle, none of us has gotten to where we are solely on
our own. We have all needed some help.
The
question, then, is not so much how do we get to be a turtle on
a fence post, but what do we do once we realize that we
already are? What do we do when we finally recognize that we
have not climbed to our place in life on our own, but we have
gotten to where we are through the kindness, graciousness,
love (both tender and tough) and assistance of others? How are
we to respond to this knowledge? What is a turtle on a fence
post supposed to do, anyway?
Our text
this evening offers some keen insight for those of us who
suddenly realize that we have not climbed to where we are
without a little help from some friends. Our story from the
17th chapter of Luke’s gospel is a story for every turtle
and every person who is sitting on a fence post. Here we have
Jesus on his way to Jerusalem. This story comes late in the
gospel, so we know that Jesus’ life’s mission is about to
culminate. He is on his way to the cross and he seems to know
that. So, at first glance, one might think that Jesus must be
going on to bigger and better things. But the happenings of
this story remind us of the wholeness of Jesus’ life and
purpose. In the midst of this journey to the cross, Jesus
passes through a small and unmanned village. As he enters the
village, ten men suffering from leprosy come and cry out to
him, “Jesus! Master! Take pity on us!” To which Jesus was
quick to respond, and the men found themselves cleansed and
cured.
It might be
tempting to pass over this encounter as just another healing
story in the gospel, but we should not proceed so fast.
Remember where Jesus is heading and what is going to happen
once he is there. He is headed toward the cross, the event
that for many Christians might be considered the central act
of his life. The cross, the event that most Christians contend
mysteriously offers salvation to the world. If there were ever
a time not to be deterred from the larger agenda, this would
be it. If there were ever a time to send some poor and
nameless lepers away, this would be the time. He just as
easily could have said, “Go on. Go on. No time to waste
here. I’ve got bigger fish to fry. I’ve got a world to die
for, don’t you know?”
But Jesus
is moved by the real-life struggles and sufferings of the
people right in front of him. This story reminds us that Jesus
is as concerned with people’s earthly existence as he is
with their heavenly destination. That was who he was and what
he was all about. So even here, on the way to the cross, Jesus
stops and offers a healing touch to those who are in need, to
those who have nowhere else to turn. This is so important for
us to grasp because it reminds us that our Lenten journey has
as much to do with the way Jesus lived as it does with the
manner in which he died. The sacrificial nature of Jesus’
death can never be separated from the loving, caring and
healing presence of his life.
Jesus took
the time to touch, comfort and heal ten lepers. In this
action, there are two kinds of healing taking place. The first
is a physical healing. Leprosy is a debilitating disease. It
is painful and crippling. These ten men were living a life of
tremendous bodily pain, a pain that made their lives almost
unbearable, virtually unlivable. Jesus brings healing to their
bodies and wholeness to their existence.
Some may
come to this journey with physical pain—pain that makes
living difficult or uncertain.
Know that in the presence of Christ, there is healing
that can come to both our body and our soul.
And while the healing may take different forms or come
in varying degrees, if we bring it to Christ, we can trust
that healing will be available. There is hardly a week goes by
anymore where I am not coming into contact with someone who,
either personally or through somebody close to them, has been
touched by cancer. But it has been from some of those people
who have fought this disease so bravely that I have learned
that while cancer may eat away at the body, for people who
have faith, cancer can never touch the soul. These people have
expanded my understanding of healing. They remind us all that
in the midst of our infirmities, we can experience a sense of
wholeness that no sickness can take away.
The second
healing that happened here was social in nature. You see, in
Jesus’ time, leprosy was considered as much a social
sickness as it was a physical disease. Lepers were
untouchable. The marks on their skin were thought to be the
manifestation of some evil or sin within them. Lepers were
shunned, marginalized and judged simply by the appearance of
their skin. No one dared touch them in fear that the evil, sin
or brokenness within the leper would transfer to them. So when
Jesus publicly associates with them and touches them, he is
bearing witness to the world that the lepers were indeed
children of God. By daring to reach out to them, Jesus exposes
the sickness of a society that marginalized its most
vulnerable. And by touching these men, Jesus also sought to
heal the “hands off” society he encountered.
We
encounter a world and a community that can often view people
as “hands off” or as “less than whole” because of the
circumstances they find themselves in. Ask anyone who has been
out of a job for any length of time, and they’ll tell you
what it feels like to be stigmatized—to have some sort of
mark on them, that others are apt to judge them like they
judged the lepers. Wear the mark of unemployment too long in
our culture and people will assume something is wrong on the
inside—they must be lazy, must not be working hard enough,
maybe there is something psychologically or emotionally wrong.
There are other stigmas in our society that can keep people at
a distance, as well—marks that we believe say something
about who people are without ever taking time to hear their
stories. These marks have names like divorcee, unwed mother,
depression, AIDS or substance abuse. Anyone who has been
looked at as less than whole because of some sort of social
stigma knows that the same Jesus who looked into the eyes of
the lepers and knew them as persons loved and beloved by God,
looks into your eyes and offers that same healing.
The healing
could be the end of the story, really. Chalk up another
miraculous healing to the itinerant preacher from Nazareth.
But then something different happens. It catches us by
surprise. It even seems to catch Jesus by surprise. It is this
moment that serves as sound advice for all of us turtles who
are sitting on fence posts. Verse 15 says that one of the men,
after realizing that he was cured, turned back. He “turned
back,” like the prodigal son in the text we read two weeks
ago. But unlike the prodigal who “turned back” to say he
was sorry, this man “turned back” to say he was thankful.
He took a minute to come and find Jesus, the person who had
brought new healing and wholeness to his life. He came back to
find the one who saw beyond his brokenness, beyond his
disease, beyond his fault, and saw him as a child of God, as
one worthy of love and full potential.
There is
something about those two words, “thank you.” They are
perhaps some of the most important and powerful words ever
uttered. When given honestly to another, the words “thank
you” tell someone they are appreciated and that they have
made a difference. The thankful leper in today’s story is a
model for all turtles and people who realize that where they
sit is a result of somebody helping them get there.
So why
didn’t those other people who were healed go back and say
thank you? Probably for the same reason we often don’t. Life
gets busy and things keep moving ahead. We are on to the next
thing. We’ve got places to go and fence posts to climb.
Don’t forget, Jesus’ healing touch was given freely and
was not contingent upon anybody coming back to say thank you.
God’s grace is free. It always is. But did the thankful
leper seem to make a difference to Jesus? He did. It seemed to
bring a smile to his face and some hope that his presence
among us was making a difference. Did the people who have made
impacts and brought wholeness to our lives do it to hear our
thanks? Most likely not. Their gifts were offered freely and
lovingly. But would somebody “coming back” to say thank
you make a difference? I am sure it would.
The writer
of the book of Hebrews describes the presence of all these
people who have brought healing to our lives as our Great
Cloud of Witnesses. And he is right; we are surrounded by
people of faith both now and throughout history who, through
their lives, have become the face, hands, feet and voice of
God to us. Some of the names in this cloud of witnesses are
known to us all—names like Paul, St. Francis, Mary
Magdalene, John Wesley, Mother Theresa or Martin Luther King.
Some of the names are known mainly to this community—names
like Ritter, Hook, McIlvenna, Quainton or Kim….names of
people who make up the core of this community like George and
Julie, Mike and Amy, Ann and Jeff, Sally and Momma June. And
still there are others whose names are only known to you or
me, and some are names known only to God. But whether they are
altogether famous or relatively nameless, each of these people
make up the cloud of witnesses that have brought healing and
wholeness to the lives of God’s people throughout history.
The miracle of it all is that while we have people that we
name as integral members of this cloud of witnesses, chances
are that you and I have been named to someone else’s list,
often without our even knowing it.
These past
weeks, I have asked you to bring in pictures of the people in
your journey who have helped you become the person you are
today. I wanted you to think about the teachers, mentors,
guides and friends who have made a difference in your life.
The pictures came in and something beautiful began to take
place. With each picture came a story. You told me in person,
over the phone or through an e-mail the story of who these
people were and why they were so important to you. Often when
you told these stories, you could barely contain your emotion.
Your face would beam with gratitude, and a couple of you even
had a tear well up in the corner of your eye when you talked
about what these earthly angels had meant to you. It was
amazing to listen to you tell me how much these people have
meant to you. But it left me wondering if you have told them
what you had just told me.
In just a
couple of minutes, we are going to run a slide show of all the
people we have identified as agents of healing and wholeness
in our lives. Together they will form our cloud of witnesses,
a testimony to ways that God has surrounded us with people who
walked with us—and sometimes even carried us—to places we
never could have gotten on our own. As these play, I want each
of us to commit to living out our gospel story this next week.
May each of us choose to “go back”—just like the one
leper from our story—and say thank you. Let somebody in your
cloud of witnesses know what they have meant to you. Be among
the ten percent who take the time to say thank you.
Make a
commitment tonight to do that. Sometime this week, let each of
us pick up that phone and make that call, or sit down with a
blank piece of paper and write a quick note. It does not have
to be big. It does not have to be elaborate. It just needs to
be heartfelt. It is my prayer that from this service tonight,
an attitude of gratitude will be unleashed, that a spirit will
leave this place and inspire others to keep on being the face
of God to others, as well as inspire us to continue to offer a
healing hand and loving touch to those we will continue to
meet on our journeys.
Before
we show the video, there is one other thing about that turtle
on the fence post that I want to mention. When you think about
it, what good does it do for the turtle to be up there,
anyhow? None that I can think of. In fact, a turtle on a fence
is actually not in a very good position at all, is it? He is
stuck, and soon will be in trouble if he is unable to get down
to get the food, water and shelter necessary for survival. But
the lesson still applies. Because just as a turtle can’t get
up on the fence by itself, it can’t get down without some
help, either. So if you are feeling stuck tonight, stranded in
a situation you can’t seem to get down from, remember that
you don’t have to get down by yourself. Ask for help. Let
somebody know of the need you are in. Find those people who
will help bring healing and wholeness to your life.
It is the Good News of the season we find ourselves in,
that through the kindness and generosity of others we can move
from brokenness to wholeness. Similarly, just as others have
been angels of healing to us, we can be the same to others.
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