Readings
for Proper 23C
Ruth 1:1-19a, 2 Timothy 2:8-15; Luke 17:11-19
October 10, 2004
The Rev. Mary B. Blessing
St. Jude the Apostle Episcopal Church, Cupertino,
CA
Today we hear two stories of spiritual transformation. Two stories of faith moved to action. The first is an ancient Hebrew story about a young foreigner, a woman who leaves her homeland. Ruth, the Moabite, clings to her mother-in-law Naomi, the Israelite. She travels to an unfamiliar land, adopts her mother-in-law's religion, and adapts her life to the customs of the Hebrew people. In so doing, she expresses faith in action. In so doing, she becomes a vital link in the lineage to Israel's kings, as she bears the child, Obed, the grandfather of King David.
The second story is of another foreigner, a Samaritan healed of leprosy. Ten lepers are healed by the compassion of Jesus. Only one took action to show gratitude for grace received. Only one praised God for this gift-a gift that went far beyond mere physical healing of the body. This foreigner--treated with hostility by Jews of his day, not only as an unclean leper, but also because he was a Samaritan-this foreigner knew his life was spiritually transformed. Only he turned back to praise God, to lay prostrate before Jesus. Thus does Jesus declare, "Your faith has made you well." Also translated, "Your faith has saved you." (Craddock, Interpretations, p. 203)
People ask, "What is faith?" Is faith a gift we receive or an action we take? I believe it is both. I believe God is always offering us the free gift of faith. Some of us accept that gift, recognize it, and take action to praise God for the saving grace of faith. Like the Samaritan leper, some of us stop to notice we have been given this gift, and get down on our knees to worship God. When we do, our lives are spiritually transformed, not just materially satisfied. The other nine lepers were also physically cured, but Jesus does not declare their faith has made them well; Jesus does not indicate they have been spiritually saved.
We do not know the precise ending of the story of this Samaritan, the foreigner healed by a Galilean Jew. Did he go to the Jerusalem Temple to be seen by the priest, in order to be given a clean bill of health, and re-enter society as a "normal", set-apart Samaritan? Or did he go to Mount Gerizim, where Samaritans worship, and re-integrate his life with his people? We know Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. We know Jesus was "collecting disciples" along the way. Did the healed Samaritan become a disciple of Jesus? Was he among the hoards of followers whose lives had been transformed by Jesus, and who were there in the streets of Jerusalem to greet him? We do not have a "he lived happily ever after" ending in this story as we do in the case of Ruth. We will never know if the faith the Samaritan received that day moved him to further action. We do know that his initial response to new-found faith brought him to action-to praise God with a loud voice, and to thank Jesus.
In today's world I find myself looking around to see who acknowledges the gift of faith freely given them. Who puts their faith into action? I wonder who shows by their actions that they know their lives have been spiritually transformed. Who is praising God with a loud voice, and thanking Jesus? Who becomes a disciple? Who becomes one who learns what Jesus is teaching them, and then passes it along to others, that others may have their faith activated?
Some of you may be tired of hearing about stories of foreigners whose lives are spiritually transformed, but when I look around, foreigners are often the ones I see spiritually changed. Last month I opened my mail box, and at the top of the stack of "junk mail", was an image I recalled from my college days: a famous photograph of a little girl in Vietnam running naked, screaming at the top of her lungs, as her village burns in the background. Her clothes burnt off, her skin on fire from a napalm bomb. My heart broke and I burst into tears at the sight of this photo-remembering this image that circulated throughout the world in 1972. An image which some say contributed to the end of America's involvement in the Vietnam War.
The post-card in my mailbox was an invitation to attend a special service of a local, Morgan Hill, church. They invited the entire town to come to a special worship service to be held at the high school gymnasium, the largest venue in town. This special Sunday service would feature "the girl in the picture", Kim Phuc Phan Thi, now a grown woman, now a Christian, now a Canadian citizen, who put her faith into action, who now leads a peace movement to care for children who are victims of war.
I didn't get to attend the Sunday service, but I read all about Kim's story. It is one of tragedy turned to hope. The photographer who captured this horrific image of war, scooped Kim's burning body up and air-vacced her to Saigon to undergo healing, and years of surgeries. She was not expected to live. But over time she was healed enough to return to a normal life. She held forth a dream to become a doctor, and was in Saigon for her studies. After some years, foreign journalists sought her out. When the Vietnamese government saw her celebrated life, they forced her to stop her education to become a propaganda tool for their "new government." She hated this, feeling as if she were a pawn in someone else's game, adding to her suffering, thwarting her in pursuit of medical school to help others.
Kim was raised in the traditional Vietnamese religion, Cao Dio. She prayed to many gods, but never found solace, no peace in her religion. She got angry at God, and shouted up into the sky "Are you there, God? Don't you care about my suffering?" She went to the library and began reading other religions, and found the New Testament. Here she learned who Jesus really was, not just a dead prophet as her religion taught her, but one who truly understood her suffering.
In time she began attending a Christian church, listening for guidance from the pastor, but feeling very isolated. She prayed "God I really need one girlfriend, someone to tell my story to who can understand me in confidence." One Sunday she went to church, and sitting in the middle of the auditorium by herself was an older woman. Kim thought, maybe she's the one. Timidly she approached the woman, bowed and smiled, and the woman said, "Please, sit, we can talk." Starting that day, Kim had a companion along her journey.
It still took many years of sharing, of healing her emotional wounds, before Kim truly decided to receive Christ into her heart. When she did, she found such peace that she was able to forgive those who had bombed her village and caused her such pain. Her faith brought her to action. Flying home from their honeymoon, she and her husband made a bold choice to defect to Canada during a plane layover in Newfoundland. They knew only the name of one person to contact in Canada, a Quaker woman who helped them receive political asylum.canadianchristianity.com
Not every foreigner has such a dramatic story of healing and spiritual transformation, yet many have received the gift of faith as part of their immigrant journey. And many have put their faith into action. The woman who cuts my hair is also a refugee from Vietnam. She is quiet about her faith, but she shared with me her story of the Catholic Church giving shelter to her and her husband as they were among the "boat people." She says, the church did so much for her, she gives back by helping with Christian education, and her husband is the Choir Director.
Here at St. Jude's we have set as one of our strategic goals that we will learn how to better incorporate people who are part of the changing demographics of our area. The National Episcopal Church commissioned a task force called "20/20 Vision" to report on how we can double the size of the Episcopal Church by the year 2020. We are told one of the main components of creating new disciples in our church will be the attention we give the increasing immigrant population. We know this at St. Jude's, but we do not necessarily know what to do. I suggest we begin by recognizing that immigrant populations have a faith story to tell. Like the woman sitting alone in Kim Phuc Phan Thi's church, we can invite them to sit alongside us, and tell us their story. Perhaps by our mentoring, they, too, will one day accept Christ's healing power into their lives, and they, too, may turn their faith into action.
AMEN
| Updated 10/13/04 |
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