Twenty Eighth Sunday October 14, 2007

2 Kings 5: 14-17 Psalm: 98 2 Timothy 2 :8-13 Luke 17: 11-19

a. Daphne du Maurier wrote the book the Key to Rebecca. The key to understanding our Scriptural Passage today is the story that went before our “happy-ending” first reading today.

Naaman the Syrian is a Leper and he comes to Elisha looking for a spectacular cure from Elisha. He is told to bathe in what he calls a dirty old ditch. And he is insulted. But he is persuaded to obey and he is cured. And so we find “Faith” which leads to “gratitude” which opens us to “Generosity.”

1. Our first point is faith. The common held belief was all diseases and malformations like blindness, deafness, being lame were due to sins either of the person himself or his parents. (John 5:14; John 9:2). Among these sicknesses, leprosy was the worst kind of disease. A cure of leprosy was a messianic salvation.

In the case of Naaman, Elisha was the herald of the Messiah. In the case of the ten lepers, their cure was a sign that the Kingdom of God was right in their midst. The Lepers were cured without a demand for their repentance from any sin. It was the beginning of a new understanding that God is not vindictive, that God does not punish our sins with sicknesses and diseases. It is an idea that we find difficult to accept even today. How often we still hear, my daughter is sick because we parents stopped going for Sunday Mass, or we practise birth control or we had an abortion. It was and still is simply that the Kingdom of God is open freely with no preconditions. If there is a condition it is an acceptance that God loves us with an everlasting love.

2. Our second point is Gratitude. We find that in Naaman. He has come back loaded with gifts. Elisha will accept none of it. God too needs no sacrifices of goats and lambs. God has created the earth and all it contains. However, a grateful heart is pleasing both to Elisha and even more so with God.

The human side of our God as seen in Jesus shows pleasure at the return of one leper who comes to give thanks. And hurt in the plaintive note, “where are the other nine?” Ingratitude is probably the most common of human failings, and it is also probably the most painful. Shakespeare puts it so brilliantly “Blow, blow thou winter cold; thou are not so unkind as man’s ingratitude.” (Poem: Blow, blow winter cold)

Gratitude as we know from experience is a blessing both from the one who shows it and the one who accepts it. It supports, encourages and empowers the one who has done the good act: (Elisha and Jesus) - and the other side of the coin is that it confirms the love and goodness of the one who comes back to say Thank You, of the one who comes to express gratitude.

However, even though Jesus is disappointed that only one has returned, there is no meanness in him. There is no punishment by which the other nine return to their state of leprosy, they are still healed and will continue to remain healthy.

At a certain church in the city, they were having a memorial service for those Canadians who died in Afghanistan. And the Priest announced, Mr and Mrs. Munroe have donated $5000 in memory of their son who died in Afghanistan. At which point, a woman said to her husband, “We have that money, let us donate the same amount for our son. But replied her husband, Our son is not dead”. To which the woman replied in soft tones, “Precisely !”

3. Our third point is that this Gratitude promotes an openness and Generosity . While the cure of leprosy was considered to be a sign of messianic salvation, it is interesting to note who has benefitted by the cure. It is not the Jew, but the Gentile who is cured and expresses Gratitude. It is Naaman who is a Syrian and not a Jew who is cured by Elisha. It is the Samaritan and not the Jew that comes back to give thanks. We see the first signs of the Kingdom of God. Not only is it freely given, but it is not exclusive, it is free for all nations.

Gratitude and Generosity go hand in hand. Naaman was disappointed that he did not receive a spectacular cure, because he thought that being an official in the court, he was special. He went with full confidence that he would be cured. It was his right, it was due to him. And we are the same when we are ungrateful: why should I thank the waiter, or the cashier or the bus driver - I paid my bill, my ticket, my fare. It is my due. But the moment we experience the blessings of both giver and receiver, we are eager to make sure that others too experience that joy. That is the messianic salvation that is open to all.

4. The story is told of God taking a group of Protestant around heaven. As they came to a certain corridor, God tells them to keep their voices down. Why asks one of the Protestants. Oh, says God casually, all the Catholics are down that corridor, they think they are the only ones up here.

Salvation is open to all: to the Syrian, to the Samaritan and to those we like and those we don’t. And the best part of it all - it is freely given, we do not have to earn it. All we need to know and acknowledge is that God loves us with an everlasting love.

Mark Pearse tells us the story of a little girl who said to her father, “Daddy I am going up to my room to count the stars.” Very well, said her father. Little later he heard her count 223, 234, and then she sighed. My gosh, I did not know there were so many. It happens to us when we start counting how God has blessed us, soon we have to stop and sigh and say, “My goodness I did not know there were so many.”