October 10, 2004

Mindekirken, Oct 10, 2004
Pastor Jens Arne Dale

Luke 17.11-19

Thirteen years ago an accident happened at our home. Our youngest daughter, Maria, was one year old at that time. She rushed high and low, and we had to put a gate in front of the stairs to the basement, we placed the flower vases on top of the bookshelves and we installed child safety locks on some of the cabinet doors.

Even so, what shouldn’t happen, happened. Maria found the way to the hot tub and turned on the hot water. She had no socks and the water was very hot. We were sitting in the living room and heard her screaming. I remember clearly lifting her out of the tub. The skin on her feet was peeled off almost like when you’re taking off a pair of socks. Other parts of her body were also badly burned.

We put her in cold water and the ambulance took her to the hospital. Shortly after she was brought to Bergen in an ambulance plane. Haukeland Hospital in Bergen offers the best treatment for damage by fire. Maria got skin transplants. Today she barely has any scars from what once was a life threatening burn.

We celebrate the Sunday of gratefulness today. Looking back on the accident, I’m very thankful for all the help we got. We cannot praise the health services enough when it comes to this. We’re grateful we didn’t lose our girl, and we feel humble thinking of those who do lose the ones they love the most.

I have tried to envision the feet of a teenager when I read today’s text. Joshua, let’s call him that, had strong legs and could run fast in the woods and the meadows. But one day he looked at his feet and saw some small white spots which hadn’t been there before. "What’s this?" he asked his mother.

His mother asked his father, and their physician was called upon. The adults inspected Joshua’s feet, then they went by themselves and talked seriously together. When his mother returned to him, huge tears slipped down her cheek. "You have got leprosy, my boy." She said. The words filled the room with an atmosphere of sadness.

Leprosy was incurable and contagious. Lepers were regarded as unclean. They had to live separately from others. In the woods behind the village where Joshua lived, lepers used to live in small, primitive cottages. That would be his future home, a fellowship of suffering.

How do you think it must have been for the mother to pack a small bag with clothes and some other things, and then walk her son out of the village, away from life. He would never more run around playing with his friends. For Joshua, the gate to all the things he had looked forward to in life, was shut. No girl would ever dance a wedding dance with him, no normal job would require his strength.

It was the living dead Jesus met with in today’s text. Ten lepers stood at a distance, calling out: "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" They share the destiny of a lot of people in our time. Still there are humans who are expelled, incurably sick, people who for some reason have run aground with the vessels of their lives.

"Kyrie eleison, Lord have mercy on us," we sing in our services. That’s the cry from a suffering world lifted up to him who has created all and everything. It’s the cry of the desperate, the homeless and the stricken, the many who have fallen victim to others’ ignorance and evilness.

We don’t always experience healing. Some lose their dear ones. Some search for light in the darkness of depression. Others get their lives damaged by drug addiction and crime. The Bible teaches us that Jesus pitied the criminal on the cross.

He supported suffering people also in situations which didn’t turn out successfully according to human judgement. God’s love is not limited to the ones who see the light. The light shines after all -- especially for those who are in the darkness.

In today’s text there were ten people calling aloud to get Jesus’ help. And they were heard. Jesus healed them. He asked them to show themselves before the priests. That was not only to be declared healthy again, but more importantly, to once again be included in the service, the fellowship where they belonged. We don’t know how old the boy we have called Joshua today was, when he was healed. But it may well have been after years of isolation. The day we get to hear about, his body was healed, cleansed, renewed. The healing must have been like getting back ones’ life.

But before he went, or maybe rather ran home, he turned back to Jesus, prostrated himself before his feet, and thanked him. Jesus wondered why only one, and that even a foreigner, did so. "Were not the other nine made clean?" But the one who returned got to hear: " Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."

I wonder if he, after all, got the most important thing of all. Healing is important, but salvation is even more important.

Maybe we also are more obsessed with the gift than the giver? "My soul, praise the Lord, and don’t forget all his benefits," David sings in Psalm 103. It’s so easy to forget the things for which we should be grateful. We have a lot to thank for: health, joy, daily bread. We are surrounded with people who care about us. We have a home in the church. We are called to be God’s children. We’ve received everything by God’s grace. And we’ve got hope of life eternal.

One of the great skaters of Norway was Oscar Mathiesen. He is often seen in an old picture where he’s wearing all his medals. When I see that picture I think of the hymn where we sing: "he decorates you with thousands of blessings…" We are decorated by God with numerous blessings. We have got an abundance of all good things.

"Surely mercy and goodness shall follow me all the days of my life…" David sings in Psalm 23. We are "persuaded" by the God who would like to give all good things. Today’s text teaches us to stop and think about that. Poor is the one who takes all good things in life for granted. Rich is the one who sees his life in the light of God’s blessings.

Glory be to God, the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever. Amen.

The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church ·  924 E. 21st St, Minneapolis, MN 55404-2952 ·  (612)874-0716