Jeremiah 8:18-9:1
Psalm 79: 1-9
1 Timothy 2: 1-7
Luke 16: 1-13

In 1987 the special envoy of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Terry Waite was In Beirut negotiating for the release of hostages when he himself was captured and held for five long years, and, for the most of that time, in solitary confinement.

In the first year of his confinement he had nothing to read and no one to talk to. During that time he began to write his autobiography, without pen or paper, in his head. While he did not find much comfort in prayers he composed himself, being a life-long member of the Church of England, he was raised on the Book of Common Prayer, and found that the twice daily recital of various prayers from memory gave his day structure and helped him look beyond himself to the wider church and to God.

During the long years of his captivity, people the world over prayed for Terry and the other hostages, and thousands sent letters and cards in the hope that they would get through to him so that he would know that he was being thought of and prayed for. Yet, in the five years of captivity only a single card, a postcard bearing a stained glass depiction of John Bunyan in a prison cell, found its way to him. On the back of the card, , the sender assured him of the thoughts and prayers of many people.

In his first press conference given upon his release, Terry spoke of that card and how very important it was to him, not only because it was a picture of someone who was once in prison, but also because of the message that he was not forgotten . He also encouraged people to keep up the simple actions of prayer and letter writing and not to be discouraged and think that those efforts did no good, because they did.

Today’s readings from the book of Jeremiah, the Psalms and the letter to Timothy each speak of the importance of prayer, an intrinsic part of an authentic and honest relationship with God.

All too often we have been led to believe that when crisis comes, we must be “strong” or if we do not feel strong, we must “seek strength” through prayer. While this teaching is a good one, it can be taken too far. If taken too far, it can ignore the very real biblical evidence of those prophets and writers who were not afraid to tell God “how it really was”; they were people who, “let it all hang out”, as the expression goes. As we delve into the Bible in general , and the Older Testament in particular, we find the words of those who poured out their grief, their anger and their frustration to God. They did not pretend to be ‘strong’ when they weren’t, or ‘faith- filled’ when they were not that either, but, ironically, as they expressed their fears, their worries, their anger and their weakness they found the faith that the strength that was so elusive to them and their prayers sustained their relationship with the Almighty God.

When I am talking to people who have just experienced a personal tragedy, I sometimes encounter someone who is reluctant to take those kind of gut wrenching honest feelings to God in prayer, perhaps because, it does not seem right to complain. BUT, that’s an important part of an honest relationship with God. That’s an essential part of the journey through the valley of death’s shadow and the valley of disappointment and anger and grief and hurt and all of those other very real feelings that leave us feeling wrung our and dried out and lifeless.

There are yet others whose faith is shaken or destroyed by tragedy. When tragedy strikes some abandon the God they feel has abandoned them. At a dinner party one evening the the discussion drew around to a neighbour who had abandoned his faith because of a severe illness and wanted no talk of God. One of the dinner party guests commented, “I guess the most horrible thing would be to be in tragic circumstances and have no one to cry out to.”

The writings of people like the prophet Jeremiah, speak of this reality. At the root of these laments is a feeling of God’s absence. These writings ‘tell it like it is’; they pour it out and let it flow in torrents and streams. The people with whom Jeremiah ministered were enduring a severe drought and the crop failures were producing hunger and other suffering. The prophet Jeremiah saw it as much more than a drought though! Jeremiah saw it, as a larger metaphor which depicted the alienation of the whole nation from their God. It is as if, deep down, Jeremiah knew that not even the healing balm of the trees of Gilead would heal the nation. He knew that only return of God would. He knew that the people would only recognize God’s presence when the people consciously returned to God.

Yet we realize that the prophet is also speaking God’s words. Not only did he people feel abandoned; God felt abandoned. Thus Jeremiah’s lament beccame s a call to faithfulness, a call to the people to invite God into their our lives once again!

In the year 587 BC Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians and many people were carried off into exile, and became what wee would call refugees. The Psalm for today was most likely written to address this situation. It was one of the most traumatic periods in the history of the people of Israel. The Psalm spoke best for itself, and it spoke best of the honest and authentic expression of faith in the midst of this kind of despair.

The Psalm told its original hearers that faith should never ignore the reality of the world and its separation from God, but that religious faith should always be an expression of hope.

The person who wrote the letter to Timothy challenged him and his church to reflect and act upon another expression of prayer; that is intercessory prayer, or praying for others. Christians have always been encouraged to pray for those who had special needs. During our service we will pray for those who are grieving, and for those who are sick. We pray for people whose homes have been destroyed by floods and fire and earthquakes. We don’t tend to have much of a problem with that kind of prayer. We feel deeply for these people, some of whom we do not know and especially if we cannot do anything else, we pray.

What we have more difficulty with, I think, is the first admonition to Timothy, that is: praying for those in authority. When we read the letter to Timothy we must keep two things in mind. FIRST: As is the case with the other ‘pastoral letters’ in the Newer Testament, the letter to Timothy is essentially an answer to a question or a problem in his community, BUT we have lost the question. We can only surmise that it was a problem with some kind of authority.

SECOND: When we read the letter to Timothy we have to keep in mind that the political situation of his day was very different from our own. He was not living in a democracy, but under a repressive regime which would, eventually, seek to kill off all of the followers of this Jesus of Nazareth. They were, essentially, to ‘pray fort their enemies’!

The very early church focussed on the second coming and the total transformation of creation that was to take place at that time. Gradually as this expected event became more and more delayed the church had to struggle with keeping faith in the world in which it lived, which was a very difficult place indeed. It felt drawn to seek the faith based transformation of the world without seeking its cosmic replacement. So it became concerned that the world be transformed into what they understood as God’s vision for it, depicted in the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.

We might not have trouble praying for our provincial politicians; such as Shawn Graham and Bernard Lord Premier and Leader of the Opposition, respectively even if we are from another party, we can do at least that. Even though we may not have voted for the person who was elected, that person is ‘in authority’. Until the next election we can either complain that they are ruining the province, or the country, or we can pray for them and the other leaders and enter into a kind of helpful dialogue within a process that works with them, rather than against them, just for the sake of it.

Speaking of authority figures, there are also our police officers and other law enforcement officials. There are those who work for Canada Customs and Revenue. Instead of berating the jobs they are doing, what would happen to our attitudes and our actions if we were to pray for them? I wonder?

We no longer live in a Christian culture; for the world has ceased paying lip service to the gospel. We are called to set an example of the kind of community in which we believe and for which we pray. To pray for and to seek to live peaceably with those with whom we disagree on major issues is a testament to the faith we all hold and the hope in which we live.

These passages call us to take a serious look at the question: “What would the world look like that was fully Christian?” “What would the world look like if the poor had jobs and were fed. What would the world look like if there were no wars and there was no oppression and murder and mayhem?

Someone commented that we are afraid to pray for some situations because we are too uncomfortable with the answers that might come to us, or the questions that might be raised. When we pray for the poor or the sick or the broken-heated, the question we may well hear back from God is, “What are you doing to stop hearts from breaking; or to hold up the Christian way in the face of an authority that does not recognize it?”

Are we afraid that praying too hard for justice will end up calling us to change how we live our lives and to seek to effect a more even distribution of the resources we enjoy in great abundance in North America. Such prayer takes faith, honesty and courage. Such prayer is risky, but it is the way of the gospel.

Lets come to God each and every day with all that we have and are, sharing our deepest hurts and feelings; pleading for our deepest desires; and in praying, being prepared to be changed and transformed by the power of the God wo whom we pray; and through our own transformation believing that the world will be changed.

Amen.

Jeremiah 32: 1-3a, 6-15
Psalm 91: 1-6, 14-16
1 Timothy 6: 6-19
Luke 16: 19-31

Many people come to a point in their lives at which they are compelled to ask the searching question, “If I had my life to live over, what would I change?” Occasionally, the answer to that question is ‘nothing’, but I think that for many people there are genuine regrets and things that they feel could have been done differently. Sometimes this learning can be integrated into the rest of one’s life, sometimes it is really too late. In reality though if we had our lives to live over we would probably make the same mistakes again and miss the same opportunities. The catch to that kind of second chance, would be that, we would have to know then, what we know now, in order to make such a second chance work!

In the 1970s Harry Chapin, typical of many in his era, used songs as a means of challenging the values of his culture. One of the songs he is known for is “Cat’s In the Cradle”, in which a well intentioned man loses touch with his son because he is always putting off all of his opportunities to spend time with his growing boy.

At the beginning of every episode of the television show, “Twice in A Lifetime” a recently deceased person is brought before a heavenly judge and is on the verge of being condemned. However, upon the intervention of a celestial advocate, the person is given three days to change their life. They are transported back in time to be able to interact with and influence a younger version of themselves. The advantage they have is that they DO have the benefit of the kind of hindsight I talked about earlier. Of course they cannot tell their younger self who they really are. They have to convince this younger self of the error of his or her ways and thus change the course of their life. When they are successful they are transported ahead in time to the present, but not with the life they did have, but the life they would have had, if they had made better choices. Their memories are also altered so that the whole thing will work. It’s certainly an intriguing concept; a combination of science fiction time travel and folk religion and because it’s on ‘feel good tv’, no one fails their three day mission.

In the gospel story for today we are introduced to two men; a rich man and a poor one. To make this story unusual from the very beginning, it is the rich man who has no name. He has traditionally been called “Dives” but that’s really just from the Latin translation of the words, “a certain rich man”.

In an era when the poor were totally nameless, this poor man has a name: Lazarus, which means, “the one whom God helps”.

Archaeological evidence attests to the fact that it was a very common name in Jesus time. This Lazarus is a story book character, made up solely for the purposes of Jesus parable, like the well known Prodigal Son. We must not confuse this Lazarus with Mary and Martha’s brother Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead, who was clearly a real person within the account of Jesus ministry.

The rich man is this story lived the high life. It is clear from the description of his life and his clothing that he is a man of high status, has great wealth, and spends a great deal of time with those of like status and class.

Lazarus, on the other hand, is a poor beggar, too sick to work. The description of his disease is quite distasteful. While Lazarus is very aware of the rich man’s lifestyle, the rich man does not even notice him. Lazarus would even have been content to browse in the rich man’s garbage, but that opportunity was denied him. We do know that the rich mak knows that he is there, that he exists though. Even when the rich man is in torment he tries to treat Lazarus like a servant. He feels that as a ‘child of Abraham’ he has certain rights and privileges’. What he does not really ever comprehend is that he has any responsibility toward the poor and those in need.

In the story the real irony is in the last line; that even if someone were to come back from the dead, the rich man’s brothers and sisters would not listen to the lesson that the rich man has learned too late.

Of course this is the essence of the Gospel: the story of the resurrection, but these cynical remarks depict the reality with which many in the early church lived. There were many who did not listen to the teachings of Jesus. But these words are not to be taken as a statement of the way things need to be, or will be.

As Christians, our task to prove Abraham’s grim words, quoted by Jesus wrong because it is Jesus who has come back from the dead. It is this Jesus that has shown us and taught us once again what the faith of Abraham has been saying all along.

One of the ways to try and hear the message of a gospel story is to see ourselves in the story. Our first inclination would be to say, “I am not that rich man”, and that is probably true. Even though all of us are wealthy compared to the poorest in our world we are hardly of the same statue as this caricatured rich man. Most of us do help the poor, at least occasionally.

Nor are we willing to claim to be Lazarus, sick, unable to help ourselves in any way, nursing our sores and allowing the dogs to lick our wounds. We are not that helpless. !

Perhaps then, we are the rich man’s bothers and sisters. Perhaps we are the ones who may yet have time to listen to the message of the one who has come back from the dead, to the one with the Good News that it does not have to be this way. We are the ones with the chance to change ; the ones with the opportunity to listen.

What mistakes did the rich man make, that we can learn from. The first mistake was that he ignored the humanity in Lazarus - or he just didn’t see it. If confronted with the reality of Lazarus’ humanity the rich man, would likely have responded, “What does that have to do with me?” “Why should I help him?” “Where is his own family” “Why doesn’t he get a job”. “I pay temple taxes, let the temple look after him.”

In 2004 the rich man’s brothers and sisters may ask, “What connection do the poor of inner city Toronto have with someone from Kent County, let alone someone suffering from AIDS in Africa.” “What does the genocide in the Sudan have to do with me.” “What does the oppression of coffee growers or banana workers have to do with me?” “Why do those people have to be so poor, they have everything given to them.”

You see, the rich man was not a bad man. He did not kick Lazarus as he passed him by. He did not have the soldiers arrest him for vagrancy. The rich man just didn’t see Lazarus for what he was: a fellow human in need. He was essentially a nothing, little more than a nuisance.

In our global village that may be our biggest challenge, to see the other as a fellow human in need. We are so insulated from real need. We are so accustomed to people like ourselves who have jobs and incomes and family support that we cannot comprehend life without those things that make our lives possible.

This is where the parable goes from attitude to detail. How are fellow humans, fellow brothers and sisters to be treated. The words sharing and generosity come to mind.

When we start getting into these kinds of details, the rich man’s brothers and sisters in 2004 would start making excuses: they would cite the reality of the cost of living, of entertaining colleagues and potential clients, the cost of brand name clothes for kids, piano lessons and hockey registration and expensive vehicles and toys for the adults and trips to warmer places when the snow starts to fly. They would have to be challenged to take a serious look at the difference between real needs and the money required to pay for choices.

Someone once said, “I’ve been poor and I’ve been rich and I’ll take rich any day!” Being poor removes choices that the richer people take for granted. I recall reading of a house-fire in a community near where I once lived. A child died in that fire. The family should not have been living in that run down house but it was all that they could afford. Perhaps the landlord should have been forced to remove the hazardous materials that made the fire worse and fix the wiring, but then the rent might have been too high for that family. These are not easy dilemmas for they involve more than an individual change of heart and an individual’s seeing, they involve a change in society, in the way it sees and the way it acts.

The person of faith is called to see these dilemmas and questions as a part of faith; religion is not just about keeping our nose clean so that we can get to heaven. Faith is about a relationship with God. But faith is also about helping alleviate the need of our brother Lazarus, whether Lazarus is on our doorstep or half way round the world. Whether our sister Lazarus speaks English or some language we have never heard of we are called to act on the connection that is between us.

The rich man had power and resources and part of his problem was that he did not use them for the good that they could have been used for. While the first duty of a doctor is to do no harm, he or she would be a pretty poor doctor if their practice were limited to this. We must use our power and knowledge and resources to effect positive change in the lives of those in need.

How?

Serving a meal at the school breakfast program

Taking an extra bag of groceries on grocery Sunday

Getting to know the man who lives in that run down house

or getting to know that family with all of those poorly dressed kids, or

who is the Lazarus on your doorstep and what is her need?

Lazarus knew his joy would only come in the world beyond and that is very sad; the rich man came to find out that his only joy would come with tangible things and soon be gone, and that too is sad

The good news of the gospel is that Jesus came so that all people might have life and have it in great abundance. Part of this abundant life is recognizing the world wide fellowship of human beings as a beloved part of God’s creation. Part of that abundance is recognizing our duty of care to one anther.

Let us seek the abundant life we have been offered and let us seek to share that with which we have been blessed with others for we have found a great treasure in the gospel and we can do nothing less than share it with everyone we meet.

Amen.

Lamentations 1: 1-6
Psalm 137
2 Timothy 1: 1-14
Luke 17: 5-10

Today we gather, as millions around the world are gathering, or have already gathered, to celebrate the love and grace of God as revealed in Jesus, the Christ. On this first Sunday of October we observe what we call, “World-Wide Communion Sunday”. For those of us who do not celebrate the sacrament of Holy Communion every week, it has become one of the times to do so, and when we do, to bring to mind all of those who gather in the name of Christ all around the world.

As always though. We also gather here every Sunday to hear the word proclaimed. We gather to bring the Story to mind; that great story of God’s call to human beings and their response. We gather so that we can connect our own personal stories with that great Story; that in responding to this great call, and the great Power and Presence behind that call, all human beings can know the love and care of Almighty God.

In today’s gospel we have the disciples coming to Jesus and asking for increased faith. As usual though, Jesus’ answer is a little puzzling, and takes some effort to understand. He tells them that if they had faith the size of a mustard seed, they could do great things. The image of a mustard seed as a metaphor for faith occurs elsewhere in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. It is usually interpreted to mean that great things can come from small beginnings, just like the proverb, “Mighty oaks from little acorns grow”.

Today’s gospel follows immediately on the heels of last week’s reading in which Jesus followers were challenged to reassess their priorities and ensure that they were in line with God’s will as revealed in Jesus’ teachings.

SO, as Luke’s gospel tells us, the apostles, come to Jesus asking for increased faith. How else could one follow those kinds of teachings, except with great faith! How else can one avoid the pitfalls common to all human beings? How else does one overcome a human nature prone to self-preservation and self-promotion? Surely that kind of faith must be hard to come by indeed. So, they go to Jesus and ask for that kind of faith.

Jesus’ answer, as I said, is a little peculiar. He says that even a mustard seed faith will enable them to uproot large trees and plant them in the sea. I am left scratching my head and asking: “Why” would I want to plant a tree in the sea, that’s not where trees belong?” There are true stories of great kings and nobles building fine houses and having full grown trees transported from other places and planted on the new estate, an effort which took hundreds of workers and great skill. Yet, they were still planted in soil. To move a tree to the sea is to alter the very nature of trees themselves. Perhaps Jesus used thyis obvious exaggeration to show the faith can change the very nature of our reality. Faith can enable us to do things we thought were impossible. 12 step programs, such as Alcoholic’s Anonymous, talk about the power of God which is able to transform someone’s life and help them stop destructive behaviours and addictions.

Then Jesus goes on to talk about a slave doing what the master orders without any hope of thanks or recognition. It is an odd statement, and hardly seems like Jesus at all.

There was once a wedding dance where the DJ gradually cleared the floor by asking the couples married less that 20 years to sit down, then less than 25, then less that 30 and so on until at last there was once couple left dancing and they had been married for 57 years. The DJ then asked them to give advice for a happy marriage to the newly married couple. The woman went first. She talked about openness in communication and the willingness to be forgiving. Then the DJ asked the man, who thought for a long moment and then he said, “Do what you are told, do what you are told.”

There is something in this about the life of faith being its own reward. There will not always be outward recognition, outward praise, and in fact, in some cases, the life of faithfulness may bring criticism, or even suffering. How much more important it is in those cases to know, deep within, that one is walking the right path. Faith is about following despite the fears and reservations and worries that we may have.

When we think of things we do in this way I think of any of you who are mothers, who when you held your first child for the first time, perhaps felt just a little bit inadequate, just a little bit scared , but you took that baby home because you knew that you could do it somehow, that you had to do it somehow. Even though you don’t know how you did it, you got up every three hours, whether you felt like it or not and the only thank you received from that baby was peaceful silence, until it was time for the next feeding.

Many stories are told of people who initiated great changes through initially small efforts. In 1977 in Kenya Dr Wangarei Maathai planted 7 trees to mark Earth Day and to protest the deforestation of her country and the ensuing ecological havoc that was being created. Today her effort has grown to a network of 6000 village based nurseries where trees are nurtured and then planted to preserve the ecological balance and to date over 20 million trees have been planted and the ecological balance has been restored in many villages.

Many times a person is asked to take a task or a job within the church and the answer is, “I can’t”, or “I don’t have enough faith.” Jesus answer is that all that is required is a little. All that is required is the will to follow, the will to learn and great things can happen. Indeed, the example we have from the disciples themselves, all ordinary people, is that ordinary people can do extraordinary things when they step forward in trust.

The challenge for each one of us is to step forward trusting that our God goes with us and that we will accomplish great things, not because we are great but because our God is. When we are discouraged we have only to think of the faith examples of the Bible: the mustard seed, the trust of a little boy who was able to share his loaves and fish and allow the power of God to transform it into enough to feed thousands; the many healings started with a simple request made in faith.

The unlikely theologian, Gracie Allen once said, “Never place a period where God has put a comma”.

The demands of faith are always before us, and the results aren’t always what we would like, but we can be assured that God is with us and that when we step forward in faith, to follow God’s call, we will be given the power to accomplish great things because our God will be with us.

Amen

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7
Psalm 66: 1-12
2 Timothy 2: 8- 15
Luke 17: 11-19

Seeing is Believing

As some of you know, I am a big fan of Harry Potter. In various episodes Harry and his friends, Ron Weasley and Hermionie Granger struggled against a snake-like monster called a basilisk, a vicious three headed dog by the name of ‘Fluffy’ and even a whole army of giant spiders. They also were forced to contend with fellow students Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. In some ways it’s a typical ‘us’ and ‘them’ tale of a boarding school with a little bit of a twist!

Yet, not too far beneath the surface, the stories are really about age old struggles and universal themes of good and evil. Harry Potter’s world of magic and fantast is, in reality, our world and his struggles are new versions of the age old human struggles of class and race and the appropriate use of power.

One of the questions with which the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had to deal is whether or not the school would be open to anyone with the potential to learn magic and become a wizard or be limited to only those students from magical families. Harry’s classmate, and rival, Draco Malfoy parrots his father’s prejudice as he refers to some of his fellow students as “mudbloods”, a derogatory term used to refer to those who are at least partly non-magical.

Of course, our little group of heroes includes both the pure and the mixed blood would be wizards and we see how these students are more credit to the school and to the honour of good wizards everywhere than some of those of ‘pure blood’.

Generally speaking, discrimination against people of different races has been with us since the beginning of time. The people of Israel, at various times in their history were cautioned against mixing with other races, while at other times, such as during the time of Jeremiah, were even encouraged to embrace the culture in which they lived because it was in working together than the future lay.

In the gospel stories there are three basic groups of people: Gentiles, Jews and Samaritans. The term Gentile referred to all non-Jews. Samaritans were people of Jewish heritage who were of mixed race but whose major difference with Judaism was that, for them, true worship took place, not in Jerusalem but instead, on Mount Gerazim. The gospels tell us very little about the Samaritans except that the Jewish people did not associate with them. Apparently many Jewish people would even go out of their way to avoid travelling through Samaria.

Today’s story from the gospels is about an encounter between Jesus and a group of people who have leprosy. We discover that in the misery of leprosy the traditional barriers between Jews and gentiles have been broken down. Of the ten persons with leprosy who approach Jesus on this day, one was a Samaritan.

In Jesus day a great deal of attention was paid to whether or not a certain illness or activity made one unclean or not. For example touching a dead body made one ‘unclean; for a certain time. Giving birth made a woman unclean for a certain period of time. To be made clean again the person usually had to go to the temple and offer a sacrifice. Leprosy was one of those diseases which made a person ‘unclean’ and the people with leprosy had to live outside of the community and whenever someone came near to them they were required to call out and warn people “unclean”, “Unclean” It’s not as simple as a fear of leprosy being contagious, but that’s certainly one of the things that drove the community to ban people with leprosy from the community.

So as Jesus was going along he met a group of people who had been ostracized from the community because of their leprosy. According to law and tradition they would have indicated their plight to all who had the ears to hear. In addition they called out to Jesus for mercy, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” Apparently it happened to Jesus a great deal. Some commentators have thought they were simply looking for a handout, asking for alms as they would from anyone. Since they could not work they had to eat somehow. But most people who read the story assume that these people had heard about Jesus, knew his reputation and, in their plea for mercy, ask for healing.

But Jesus does not tell them that they are healed, he tells them to go to the priest. We need to be clear about this: the only reason they would have for going to the priest would be to certify that they were no longer suffering from leprosy. So for them to turn around and go to the priest was to show that they clearly understood what was going on, and it was, in fact, an act of faith. They all went, believing that they would be healed. They were all, in this sense people of faith. But there was one who went beyond this to another level of faith

He was the one who came back when he saw that he had been healed. There was in this man an attitude of gratitude; a seeing that went beyond the mere fact of his cure to being able to see where the healing had come from. The story tells us that he came back to Jesus, praising God and thanking Jesus. Yet there is more going on here than meets the eye. This man sees and experiences more than the power of a really great healed. He knows he has met the power of Almighty God.

Although I wouldn’t want to take the analogy too far, thre is a comparable realization in the harry Potter story. After his arrival at the school, one of Harry’s first surprises is the magically appearing food and the magical disappearing of the dirty dishes. Then one day he found out that the magic was helped out by a hoard of house elves working hard in the kitchens. It gave him a very deep appreciation of the work that went into making their stay at the school comfortable and the meals ample and delicious. It is clear that some of his rival classmates do not think of it, nor do they really care for the food just appears and they eat it.

Many times we look around us and we take our good fortune for granted, or even, we feel we deserve it. Our food does not appear by magic. Our money does not grow on trees or appear out of thin air! We work hard. We saved. We feel that we deserve to have the abundance we enjoy.

Yet, like the nine former lepers who did not return to Jesus to give thanks, we forget that there is a larger context in which we function, a whole host of things going on behind the scenes, as it were, that makes our obvious efforts, as important as they are, only a part of the picture.

We need to see, as Jesus saw. We need to see the grace of God which surrounds us and makes our lives possible We need to see the ways in which we rely on the efforts of previous generations, on the interconnectedness of humans and nature, and on the dependance we have on one another.

The passage uses the word ‘see’ several times. How often do we look at something and cannot see what is really there. I have often tried those magic pictures where if you stare long enough you see a background picture emerging from the many multi-coloured dots but I can never see what I am supposed to see, probably because I really only see out of one eye the most of the time. However, sight, in the biblical sense, involves more than what we do with our eyes; it’s the way we look with our hearts. What the biblical passage is talking about is something beyond physical sight. Society looked at the beggars and saw lepers, outcasts as sinners, as drains on society, as a bother and a nusiance. Jesus looked at them and saw the children of God they actually were. One of the ten who was healed able to see the power of god working behind this teacher from Nazareth. It was when this one who had been healed, saw the grace and power of God in his life, that he became truly whole.

On this thanksgiving weekend we are all called to see; not just the abundance on our own tables but to see those children of God in need around us, just as we see the hand of God in our own lives.

We are called to go beyond the idea that we are called to share some of what is OURS with those in need. We are called to SEE life in a new way; we are called to live an attitude of gratitude; called to see that our life, our healing, our wholeness our abundance comes form God, not only for us and our benefit, to administer at our discretion, but by God’s grace to be a blessing for all.

We are called to see the need

to see the grace and power of God,

To praise the God who gives us life in great abundance and to give this praise not only with our lips but with our very lives.

May the God who worked through Jesus of Nazareth work through us as we live our lives in praise and thankfulness.

Amen.