You wouldn't know it to look at me, but I used to have a horrible skin disease. If you look closely you can still see the scars. My skin used to be incredibly dry and itchy, scabbed and sore. I used to wish I could unzip my skin and step out of it, it was so uncomfortable. What was worse was that my brothers and sisters, my mother and father, my aunts and uncles and my cousins had thrown me out of the house because of my skin. They disowned me really. The whole community did that. I wasn't even allowed to be within the walls of the village. I had to find a new community and a new way of supporting myself.

remember as a child, being told that there was a leper colony in the hills, away from the town. So when I was thrown out and told that I was unclean, I headed north to where I thought I might be let in. Now, I know that I looked ugly, I know that I looked like a freak. But when I approached those people in the hills with their moaning and their shouting and their torn clothes, I was scared. I shouldn't have been though. They were a very accepting group. They even accepted Samaritans! I had never even met a Samaritan until I went to that colony. It took me a while to get used to the idea of eating with a Samaritan, but after all, we were all in the same boat. All cut off from our families. All poor. We were all worried about where we would get our next meal.

They took me in though. They taught me how to deal with clean Israelites who came near us. They told me that it was the law to tear my clothes and where my hair hang loose as a sign of my leprosy. They told me that it was the law to shout out to people, "Unclean, Unclean!" lest anyone come near us and catch what we had. Still, I missed my family.

One day there was a buzz in the colony. A man from Galilee who was known for healing people was coming into the village nearby. So a group of us, stole away from the colony for a look at this man. We kept our distance. We didn't want him to get sick like we were. So we called out to him, "Unclean, unclean. Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"

First, he did an amazing thing. He came close to us and really looked at us. We were a sorrowful group. We looked affright. Then he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." When I heard this I was astonished. I couldn't believe what he was saying. The only time a leper would show herself to a priest was when she was healed. When a leper was healed the law required him to go to a priest, then go through a series of washings and then observe a seven-day period of probation. After that he could be certified to return to the community. Such a day would be a great day of celebration!

And so, like Jesus told us, we went. On our way to find a priest, my skin became clear. All of us were healed. It was a miracle.

One man in the group did not go directly to the priest. Instead he turned around and went back in the direction we came from. I yelled to him, "Sam, where are you going?" (We all called him Sam because he was a Samaritan.) And he said he was going to thank Jesus for healing him. I caught up to him and tried to stop him. I told him he was crazy for paying his thanks now.

Now, maybe you don't know this, but where I come from, if you thank someone for doing something that means you acknowledge that you won't ever need his help again. It would mean that if Sam got sick it wouldn't be right to go to Jesus again for help.

I couldn't go thank Jesus. I wasn't ready. I didn't trust my skin enough, I didn't trust myself enough to believe that I wouldn't need Jesus' help again. Sam couldn't be talked out of it. He turned around and went back to Jesus shouting his gratitude and glorifying God. He kneeled at Jesus' feet, so grateful. He couldn't thank him enough.

Sam was right though. We all were healed. We all were made clean. It wasn't Jesus who did that though, really. We all knew it, the 9 of us, that it was God who made such things possible. And it was God to whom our praises were due. It is God who is the ultimate source of all true healing.

Many people tend merely to do what is necessary to get what they need for life without ever bothering to stop and give rightful thanks to God, as we were guilty of. If a physician instead of a prophet heals us, why thank God? Because the knowledge and the skills of the physician are parts of God's creation. They are even God's gifts to humankind.

When we see God as the power and source of all good, we become like that Samaritan leper. When we recognize all the good that God does for us, we become like that Samaritan leper. When we thank God for the gift of aspirin, for the gift of clean drinking water from the tap and for the amazing beauty of a clear glass that holds that water so that we can bring it to our lips, we become like that Samaritan leper.

Today is Thanksgiving Day, what are you thankful for? Rather, what do you thank God for? I invite anyone to stand and complete the sentence, "I thank God for...."

Let us pray, "Loving and gracious God. We thank you for so many things, we lift up our gratitude and praise to you, for you are the source of all that is good. In Jesus name we pray. Amen."

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Nearly 500 years ago, though there were many countries in what we now call Europe, there was only one church. There also was only one political ruler - the pope. The pope was not only the head of the government, but he also was in charge of the church.

While the pope lived in Italy, a man by the name of Martin Luther lived hundreds of miles to the north in Germany. Martin Luther was a law student. One night he was on his way home when a great storm arose. Lightning filled the sky, and a fierce wind blew down branches that fell at his feet. In great fear, Martin cried out, "St. Anne, save me and I will become a monk."

Martin Luther was saved, and true to his word, he became a monk. Living in a monastery, Martin spent his time performing simple tasks and attending worship five to seven times a day.

Though he was very bright and worked at his vocation, Martin was rather unsettled. He fasted up to three days a week, slept without blankets in freezing weather, and went to confession several times each day, all in an attempt to please God. Martin believed that God was very good and that we are very evil. It followed that God must be very angry with us for being so evil.

During his lifetime, the most popular religious picture displayed Christ, the Judge sitting on a rainbow, a sword in one hand and a lily in the other. Below, evil people were being pulled by the hair into the flames of hell. No wonder Martin was so unsettled.

When nothing he did seemed to help, Luther turned to the saints. It was widely believed that the saints of God had been so good that they had accumulated a surplus, a treasury of goodness that was available for others. First, Martin looked to the Virgin Mary and St. Anne for aid. They seemed to offer no assurance. Later, Luther was to discover that no human being has any extra goodness to give anyone else. He discovered that God alone can grant us forgiveness. And, Luther discovered, God does. As he read the letters of Paul, he heard the words, "The just shall live by faith." Trust God, they seemed to say, and this love will come to you. We need not fret about pleasing God, he forgives us and loves us as we are.

A German man by the name of Albert of Brandenburg wanted to be a bishop. Actually he was a bishop of two areas, but he desired to be bishop of a third. The pope was willing to make Albert bishop if Albert would give him 12 000 gold pieces.

"A thousand, for each of the twelve disciples," the pope demanded.

Albert countered, "A more reasonable figure would be 7000 your grace, a thousand for each of the seven deadly sins."

And so they compromised at 10,000 gold pieces, a thousand for each of the Ten Commandments.

Albert, however, didn't have 10,000 gold pieces. The solution the pope offered was to give Albert permission to sell indulgences, pieces of paper that said your sins were forgiven. Buy an indulgence and you were certain to go to heaven.

Now, Martin Luther was living in the province of Savony, in the city of Wittenberg where he was both a teacher and pastor of the Cathedral Church. One day a man by the name of Tetzel came to town to sell these indulgences. A great drama began between the two men. Luther was irate. Privately he ranted, "You can't do things like this. Money can't buy the forgiveness of sins."

On the eve of All Saints' Day, Luther marched to the cathedral, and there on the great wooden door that served as a community bulletin board, he nailed 95 theses, that is 95 arguments for debate. People quickly copied the theses down and ran them off on a new device called a printing press. Soon they spread all over Germany.

The initial reaction was predictable. Albert was angry, and the pope was furious.

Luther's purpose in posting the theses was to gain the opportunity to debate the indulgence issue. He soon got his wish, with the finest debater the church could produce, John Eck. During the discourse, Luther's opponent appealed to the authority of the pope. "I am right," Eck said, "because the pope says so."

Luther shouted back, "Then the pope is wrong. He is human, and he can make mistakes. Only the Word of God, only the Bible can be trusted in matters of faith."

Though the leaders of the church were clearly shocked at his remarks, Luther quickly became a hero all over Germany. Some admired him simply because they were proud of a German brother standing up to an Italian pope. Others were tired of German money going out of the country, while still others simply believed his calls for reforms were greatly overdue.

In 1521, in the city of Worms, Luther was ordered by his church to take back what he had said and all that he had written or be banned from the church. He answered:

"My conscience is captive to the Word of God. I will not take back anything, for to go against conscience is neither honest nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me."

Now, as we sit here in this great land of Canada, a land of freedom of speech and religion, it may be difficult to fully appreciate the risk Martin Luther took in saying such things. Remember that there was only one church in Europe at the time. It was illegal for any other church to exist. There were not the protections of freedom of speech as we have today. Martin Luther could easily have been hanged or burned at the stake for saying such things.

That didn't happen though, instead Luther was expelled from the church, making him a criminal. Anyone was free to kill him and in so doing become a hero. On his way home from the trial, Martin was captured by a group of hooded men on horseback. Most people later believed that he was killed. The men, however, were friendly. They had come to make certain Luther was safe. They took him to the Wartburg Castle to live until things became easier. While he lived at Wartburg, Martin translated the Bible into German for the first time. His translation of the Bible was the first time the Bible had been translated into the vernacular - meaning the language of the people. Before that the Bible was only available in Latin, the Old Testament in Hebrew and the New Testament in Greek.

Martin Luther had no desire to split the church, but it did split. He always hoped that the church would change, re-form. People thus called this period "The Reformation." Those who followed him, who protested against the errors of the church, were soon called Protest-ants or Protestants.

During the early years following Luther's excommunication, changes did take place. Worship changed from Latin to German, and a great emphasis on congregational singing developed using German folk tunes. The sacraments were reduced from seven to two, and people were allowed to have both bread and wine rather than just the bread.

Luther wrote hymn, teaching materials, and, in general, shaped the church for hundreds of years to come.

Several years ago, Time magazine, in a cover story on Martin Luther, declared that three men since the first century had change the way the world thinks: Jesus, Karl Marx, and Martin Luther. However one counts, Luther is one of the great figures of history.

Today there are 80 million people in the world that call themselves "Lutherans" and millions more who are part of the Protestant movement, of which the United Church is a part. All of this began a little over 460 years ago when a small town pastor had the courage to stand before princes, bishops, and popes and say, "The Bible is the sole authority for our faith and lives."

Amen.

Credit:Speaking in Stories
William R White

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