NOTES: 1] 'Lepers', maybe suffering from a form of psoriasis, had to live outside settlements, & keep away from people. 2] A priest had to declare people afflicted by, or healed from, skin diseases. There were priests resident outside Jerusalem. 3] The word used for 'thanked' in v.16 is the same word as our Eucharist, a giving of thanks to God. 4] It's LK, not Jesus who points out that the one who returns is a Samaritan.
WARMING UP: Have we ever been at some event at which we felt very much an outsider?
TREASURES OLD & NEW: Identify God at work in anything that's happened since last week's group?
EXPLORING GOSPEL:
11-13 What is it about Jesus that makes him so approachable? Even to outsiders, outcasts, people who mightn't be expected to know who he is? Do we ourselves find him approachable? Personally, or just liturgically? What does it take to make us realise that we need mercy? Again, personally, or just liturgically? How desperate do we need to be before we ask God for mercy, for any reason? Is there any streak at all in our faith-make-up that tells us that 'good Christians don't need to, or ought not to bother God'? Do we have in our head or heart a list of people who are outsiders, or outcasts, & should stay 'out'?
14-19 Do we ever find ourself looking for signs that something has happened to us before we'll believe it really has? Where do 'instantaneous cures' fit into our belief system today? Or don't they? Does a need to 'be cleansed' - from anything - fit into our system? If we've ever had any kind of healing experience, how long did being thankful last? Are we still thankful? Or are we more likely to take being thankful for granted because of the kind of God we believe in? How 'loud' is our thankfulness to God for mercies?
Do we have any experience of people who don't think of themselves as 'believers', but might be thankful to God for some mercy? Or are they so exceptional not many of us know them? When it comes to our track record for giving thanks to God, are we more likely to be the one who returned, or the nine who didn't? Sometimes the one, & sometimes the others? What determines our level of thankfulness, how long it lasts, & whether it's a continuous process or just one that cuts in from time to time when something special happens & reminds us?
Given the Samaritan's an outsider because of both his religion & his disease, are we as aware as we might be of what being an outsider, or feeling they're an outsider, does to people? Seeing the nine who don't come back to thank Jesus may be Jews, Samaritans, or something else, how do we get beyond categorising people according to race, religion, colour, all that kind of thing? If, as someone has said, "God is colourblind", might God also be blind to differences in religious belief? Or is that going too far? At what point would it become too far? If it's the Samaritan's faith that's made him well, what role, if any, does our faith play in making / keeping us well? Bringing us in from the cold? Making us one with God? With others?
