Reflection for 10th October 2010

Year C Proper 23 10 October 2010
Jeremiah 29: 1, 4-7 Psalm 66: 1-12 2 Timothy 2: 8-15 Luke 17: 11-19

Do you ever feel like you are living in exile?

Through the holidays I spent time in Longreach visiting a friend. He is a man who grew up in Mackay, but due to what he feels God has called him to, he has been living and working in Longreach for the last seven or so years. His life reminds me of God’s call to the people we read about in the first reading.
Jeremiah 20:4-7 “This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper."”

My friend in Longreach feels that God has called him to be in Longreach for an extended period of time and so he has bought a house and has set about renovating it. My friend has not had an easy time. The community has taken a long time to accept him. I suspect I’d have given up and left, but my friend is faithful to the call of God and like the people to whom Jeremiah is addressing, he is becoming part of the community, seeking the peace and praying for the prosperity of that place.

Many times in the Bible we see God telling His people to marry within in the community so that the faith in God should not become confused with the gods of the nations of those around them. In this reading, however, we read that God blesses their unions with those nations.

In Jesus time we read that the Jewish people looked with disdain on the people of mixed nationality. These were known as the Samaritans. Some of their ideas about God were a little confused, but it would seem that a little humble confusion made for openness to the truth of God – as opposed to the narrow-minded self righteousness of the Pharisees who thought they knew it all.

In our Gospel reading we find that Jesus was walking along the border between the area of Samaria and Galilee. In his travels he is greeted, from a distance, by Ten Lepers. These men know of Jesus reputation and cry out for mercy. We do not know the nationality of the other nine, but we do know that the one who returned praising God and giving Jesus thanks was a Samaritan.

Sadly, we may be more like the nine who were also healed, but not praising God for our healing. Often we become stuck in the structure of the ways that we know things should be done, and the structure of how God has worked previously in our lives, such that we cease to see him working the miracles around us. The Pharisees made this mistake and we need to ensure we don’t make the same.

I think that a great example of how God totally is beyond our understanding is found in the second reading of 2 Timothy 2: 11-12 “Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.”
You see, just when you expect faith to be black and white, cut and dry – it isn’t. Make sure you read that all correctly....that last line says that God remains faithful even when we are faithless.

There are many times when we know we have been faithless. But rest assured that God is faithful and concerned about our welfare. This is the story of His interactions with the people He sent into exile. The Psalm makes it clear: Psalm 66 “9 he has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping. 10 for you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver. 11 You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. 12 You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance.”

Throughout history God has always been finding ways to bring His people to a place of relationship with Himself.... in everything, even the difficult things it is for God’s purpose in bringing us to a place of abundance – though He takes us through “fire and water” to get there.

We have a security in the “fire and water” of Jesus. We are united with him in the waters of baptism and the fire of the Holy Spirit. Through this unity, when God looks at us He sees Jesus and his sacrifice – and He will not disown himself. Nothing can separate us from the love of God.

However, sometimes on planet Earth, we feel that we are living in exile. We are going through times of carrying burdens. We need to know God’s message is to LIVE in these places of exile and increase and prosper (– not necessarily physically!). It is in these times that we need to be the people of faith, knowing that God has a plan and a purpose for our good, even though we don’t see it.

St. Paul tells Timothy that he endures all things for the sake of the elect. How often have we endured anything for the sake of someone else’s salvation? But the elect are those who are in the church.... do we endure any hardship for the sake of those in the church? When we attend meetings do we argue over words and things that don’t lead to anything but disagreements? This is the kind of thing that Paul warns Timothy about and he encourages him to correctly handle the word of truth.

There were ten lepers who called out to Jesus and who were healed. They are people who knew Jesus and they experienced the healing of God. We who are baptised have been healed by God. Is there only a tenth of us who are actively praising God? Jesus told that one leper, “Your faith has made you well”.

We don’t need to muster up a magical feeling and call it “faith”, as faith pertains to something or someone that our faith is in. It would seem that nine out of ten might be unable to see the working of God due to “blinkers” that narrow our vision about how God works according to a set of rules that man has devised. God is beyond that –He is even faithful when we are faithless - Thank God!
So, here is a self reflection to see if we are one of the nine lepers – or the one who came and gave God thanks - Is our faith in the doctrine of our denomination, our own set of ideas about God, or in God himself?