What do You See?

How good is your imagination? Can you picture where we are in the gospel account? We’re still on the move with Jesus, still heading for Jerusalem and everything that will happen there. Luke was a gentile, and his geography of Israel is a little sketchy, but we seem to be in some place inhabited by both Jews and Samaritans. Jews and Samaritans hated each other, so most probably they lived in separate villages. Jesus is approaching one of those villages, most probably a Jewish village.

So imagine yourself back in ancient times and put yourself on the outskirts of some dusty village. What do we see? I see a band of shunned people, united perhaps only by their shared disability. Are there only ten of them? They seem to be both men and women. Are they Jews or Samaritans? We’ll find out that at least one of them is a despised Samaritan. Actually, you can smell them before you can see them. Their clothes are so ragged it’s a wonder they can cover themselves. They are gaunt and scrawny, since all they have to eat are the scraps that kindhearted people give them.

What have they done to bring this misfortune on themselves? Absolutely nothing! They must have some kind of skin disease. If they have true leprosy, what we today call Hansen’s disease, they’ve probably lost fingers or toes, maybe even noses. Hansen’s is a disabling and disfiguring disease for which, in the ancient world, there was no cure. Unfortunately, the Law of Moses lumped many different skin diseases under the word “leprosy,” and declared those afflicted by these diseases to be unclean and unfit for normal society. So what do we see? We see a band of broken, starving, diseased people doomed to a life of exile and expected to stay as far away from the “clean” people as possible.

What did these doomed people see? They saw a holy man. Who knows how they knew who he was? They were desperate for help, and so they cried out to him.

What did Jesus see? Jesus saw them. He saw living, breathing, real people – not people defined by their disease – but real people needing help. He saw wives without husbands, he saw homes without fathers or mothers, he saw fields lying fallow with no one to work them, and he saw hopelessness and despair. And when Jesus saw them, he stopped. He allowed himself to be interrupted. And then he did something startling. He told them to go to the priests and begin the elaborate process of rituals and sacrifices through which they would again be declared clean.

What did the now former lepers do? All but one of them presumably did exactly what Jesus told them to do. They went and found the nearest priest and asked to be declared free of disease. One of them took a good look at himself. He saw what had happened. Samaritans didn’t follow Mosaic Law, so he knew he had little to gain from going off to see a Jewish priest. So he turned back to find that holy man through whom he had been cured. He shouted out his praises to God and then threw himself at Jesus’ feet in thanksgiving.

My friends, this is a story about seeing, and our response to what we see. It is not a healing story like others in Scripture, in which healing occurs when Jesus touches someone or someone touches him. Here, the healing occurs offstage so to speak. Remember that we’re in the part of this gospel account where Jesus is teaching his disciples about how a faithful community lives out its commitment to him. So here, we have a story that asks us consider what we see, and what we do when we see. And, not surprisingly, the story also challenges us in several different ways.

What do you see? The first challenge is to see the need of others. Can we see when someone is in need? Can we see when a friend or coworker is facing a health problem or difficult situation at home? Can we see when an international student is far from family and alone on university holidays? Can we see when someone who comes to Loaves and Fishes needs help? Can we see a homeless person as a child of God, and not just some dirty tramp? Perhaps further away, can we see the people in Haiti who again need help in recovering from a natural disaster? Can we see the need in the non-human world? Can we see the elephants whose numbers are plummeting because of our insatiable desire for ivory? Can we see our wonderful national and state parks as places that need our protection, so that our children and grandchildren will also be able to enjoy them?

And if we see, what do we do? Jesus saw the need of the people who called out to him. He stopped. He took action. He did something very concrete for them. What do we do when we finally see need? Do we ignore it, pass by, or hope that the people, the need, the cause, will all go away? Or, like Jesus, are we moved to take some kind of concrete action? Do we find the time to visit those who are lonely or grieving? Do we find ways to provide food for those who are hungry? Do we work for justice for those who are falsely accused? Do we reach out to those who have lost their homes in disasters? Do we support those who are working to make sure that wild animals and wild landscapes don’t disappear from the earth? I invite you to look around you, see a need that breaks your heart, and then follow the master in addressing it.

And finally, do we see God at work in the world? Do we see God as active in our own lives? The leper saw that he had been transformed by his encounter with Jesus, that something awe-inspiring and holy had happened to him. He didn’t break out a bottle of champagne and pat himself on the back for his cleverness. He didn’t return home to his village. He didn’t stick with the other lepers. He returned to Jesus to praise God and fall on his face, filled with gratitude for what had happened to him.

And here’s the challenge to us: to see what God has done for us and, more important, to be truly thankful for all the many ways in which God has blessed us. The truth is that gratitude may be the real measure of our spiritual health. Do we think we are self-made people? Do we think we deserve everything we have – and more? Or do we take the time to examine our lives, to really look at our lives? Do we take the time to look at our day or week and see where we have met Jesus in that day or week?

Anne Lamott has a wonderful little primer on prayer entitled Help, Thanks, Wow. It’s a book about basic forms of prayer. We know about “help.” All our intercessory prayers, for ourselves, for others, for the world, our prayers of the people in the Eucharist, are all forms of “help.” For most of us, if we pray at all, our prayer is usually a form of “help.” “Wow” is our praise of God. It’s a way of expressing our awe for who God is, for the great mysterious yet loving creator, for the God we see in the face of Jesus, for the spark of God that lodges within us. “Wow” is mostly what we do in liturgy and worship.

“Thanks” is something else. Yes, the Eucharist – the very word means thanksgiving – is a way of offering sacramental thanks for the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. But “thanks” should also be part of our daily walk with God. I invite you to take the time – lots of people do it at the end of the day – to look over your day and see if you have met Jesus anywhere in that day. If you come to the quiet day on October 22nd, you’ll even learn a simple form for looking over your day in order to discern God’s presence in it. And when you discern God’s presence in your day, when you can see how God has blessed you – and continues to bless you – then fall down on your knees, or raise your hands, or open your mouth in thanksgiving.

What do you see, and what do you do when you do see? Does it matter that you have committed yourself to following Jesus? Do you see as he sees? Do you see the need of others and respond to it? Do you see God at work in your own life, and do you say to God, “Thanks?” In a short while, we will leave this place after singing, “Now thank we all our God, with hearts and hands and voices, who wondrous things hath done, in whom this world rejoices.” It’s a hymn that sends you out into the world. So get up, go your way. Spend your life helping others, praising God, and thanking God for all of God’s gifts.

Jesus is on the Move

Sitting is hazardous to your health! Why did James and John want to sit with Jesus in his glory, one at his right hand and one at his left? Didn’t they hear what he’s been telling them? Didn’t they understand his mission at all? In the two verses immediately preceding the beginning of our lection, Jesus has given James, John, and the other disciples, for the third time, a clear statement of his fate. Mark tells us, “They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, ‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again.’ (Mark 10:32-34).” There they have it: the rest of Jesus’ story in a nutshell, and Jesus’ clearest explanation for his disciples of the kind of messiah he will be.

Do the disciples get it? Do they want to go up to Jerusalem with him? Even though James and John were to become revered apostles in Mark’s community, here it is clear that they still haven’t understood Jesus’ teaching. They still think that Jesus will establish a new political regime, in which he will reign like the other despots of the ancient world. Like little children sheepishly asking for a goody from Dad, they ask if they can sit, seemingly static and unmoving, and bask in his reflected glory. As if we didn’t need another, here is just one more illustration of the gap between what the disciples thought and what Jesus himself foretold. Like Peter before them, James and John cannot get their minds around what Jesus has told them, so they instead envision a static kingdom with themselves in places of honor. As if that weren’t bad enough, James’ and John’s insistence on sitting with Jesus when he becomes king creates dissension within the little band of followers. The other disciples also want their piece of the pie! They too want to sit with Jesus in glory.

Is that what we want? Do we too want to sit with Jesus, inertly basking in his glory? Jesus is on the move, and sitting is hazardous to both our physical and spiritual health. Certainly we have been bombarded by messages that sitting is hazardous to our physical health. Think about it: how much time do you spend sitting each day? Most of us spend a lot of time in our cars. Perhaps we work at a desk. What about the time you spend in front of your computer, or eating, or reading the newspaper, or paying bills, or watching TV? On the weekend, do you sit in a movie theater or in the bleachers at a sporting event? When you add it all up, middle class Americans spend an average of nine hours a day sitting! And that’s a problem. A recent study by the American Cancer Society found that sitting six or more hours a day increases your risk of early death from any cause by 18 percent for men and 37 percent for women. Someday your office chair or your easy chair just might come with a Surgeon General’s warning that says, “Caution: Sitting may be hazardous to your health.”

Sitting may also be hazardous to our spiritual health. Certainly, there is a place for silently sitting and listening patiently for God’s word. But think about it: is your prayer life static and inactive? Do you go through the same rote prayers day after day? Have your ideas about God, Jesus, Church, and faith stayed the same since the bishop laid hands on you in confirmation? Have you learned anything about the Bible since then? Or perhaps you only think about your spiritual health sitting in the pew? Perhaps our pews should come with a warning: “Caution sitting here may be hazardous to your spiritual health!”

Sitting is hazardous because Jesus is on the move! No sitting allowed for his disciples! Jesus has invited his friends to walk with him to Jerusalem. He has invited them to be partners with him in the events that will play out there. James and John, at least, glibly and naively assert their ability to share Jesus’ fate, and Jesus assures them that they will do just that. Just to make sure once more that they understand the demands of the new community he is forming, Jesus reminds them that they are not called to sit like despotic kings but rather to be up and moving as servant leaders. And he proclaims one more time that if they are truly his disciples they will eventually find themselves, like him, walking toward the cross.

Do we want to walk with Jesus? Movement is good for our health. Indeed, building any kind of extra physical activity into our day is beneficial. In fact, as you are able, stand up right now, breathe deeply, and stretch. Don’t you feel better already? Walking is especially good for your health. Physician and priest Bill Watson reminds us that, “…walking is a part of God’s design. It is a natural action, perhaps next to breathing, our most natural. Walking opens the world to us and is central to who we are.” Experts at the Mayo Clinic detail the benefits of walking. Walking lowers bad (LDL) cholesterol, raises good cholesterol (HDL), lowers blood pressure, reduces the risk of or helps manage type 2 diabetes, helps control weight, improves your mood, and helps you stay strong and fit.

But did you know that walking also has spiritual benefits? To convince clergy of the benefits of walking, CREDO, the clergy renewal program of the Episcopal Church has designated October as the month to “Walk and be Well.” For each day of the month, there is a brief meditation – ideally to be heard while walking – that connects our physical and spiritual well-being. Walking a labyrinth is another form of spiritual walking. Have your ever walked one? A labyrinth is not a maze. It is a circular arrangement of stones or marks that has only one path to the center and back out. Walking into and out from the center of the labyrinth enables one to experience spiritual centering, contemplation and prayer. It’s a wonderful practice that, if done slowly and contemplatively helps us quiet our minds and focus on a spiritual question or prayer. People in Gallipolis are fortunate: there’s a labyrinth in the healing garden at Holzer medical center. Try it sometime! Yet another form of spiritual walking is pilgrimage. Pilgrimages are, of course, ancient forms of devotion, and almost every faith community has some form of pilgrimage practice. Pilgrimages were especially popular in medieval Europe, but even today, nearly 200,000 people walk the Way of St. James to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

Walking may also be a form of spiritual witness. We are familiar with the charity walks that raise visibility and funds for many good causes. But have you ever heard of the Peace Pilgrim? Starting on January 1, 1953, Mildred Lisette Norman, calling herself only "Peace Pilgrim," walked more than 25,000 miles on a personal pilgrimage for peace. She vowed to "remain a wanderer until mankind has learned the way of peace, walking until given shelter and fasting until given food." In the course of her 28 year pilgrimage she touched the hearts, minds, and lives of thousands of individuals all across North America. Her message was both simple and profound. It continues to inspire people all over the world: "This is the way of peace: overcome evil with good, and falsehood with truth, and hatred with love." Although she died in an automobile accident in 1981, her witness lives on in her book and through the voluntary organization of Friends of the Peace Pilgrim.

Perhaps you and I are not called to duplicate the walking of the Peace Pilgrim. But Jesus is on the move, and we are called to walk with him. We can commit ourselves to the appropriate habits of exercise that will keep our bodies strong and enable us, frail and mortal though we may be, to be his faithful followers and servants. We can commit ourselves to continuing to grow in our understanding of our call, through study of the Bible and other aspects of our faith. We can commit ourselves to serving those of his children who are sick, in need, in prison, hungry, and hurting. We can work for a more just and peaceful world. And we can ask God to strengthen our desire to grow spiritually through worship, contemplative prayer, study, walking prayer, pilgrimages, retreats, quiet days, and any other way that God may open to us.

Jesus is on the move, and I want to walk with him. O Master, let me walk with thee!