Luke 17:5-10

In 2017 and author called Melody Briggs published a book called “How Children Read the Biblical Narrative: An Investigation of Children's Readings of the Gospel of Luke”. To put it in non-academic language, she read the gospel of Luke to a group of children and then recorded their responses to it. It sounds like a fascinating experiment.

In that book, she describes the reactions of a little boy called Fishy when this parable was read to him. According to Melody Briggs, Fishy declared that this story was a part of Luke that he “didn’t think was right” and protested, “I think the servants should be treated well”.

Fishy’s reaction reveals the difficulty of the parable for modern readers. It also reveals just how vastly different the socio-political context of Luke’s Gospel is from our own today.

The social world of the parable reflects a very different world from the world of a modern human rights based western democracy. It reflects a stratified, hierarchical social world that many westerners would find not just alien but also unjust and reprehensible just as wee Fishy did in Melody Briggs’s book.

By the same token, it would have to be admitted too that not so long ago that some of our own ancestors would have interpreted the social world described in this parable as being quite socially acceptable.

It is quite a shock to consider that slavery was still legal according to UK law until 1833. That is really not so long ago.

This parable would almost certainly would have been used by many a Christian slave owners to justify slavery. It would have been seen as justification not only in their owning of slaves, but also in justifying a stratified and hierarchical society where they believed that God had ordained that some were born into a life of privilege and other human beings were born simply to be servants and slaves.

In reading this parable we therefore need to be sure not to gloss over too quickly the real dangers and difficulties this parable poses in reinforcing some of our unhealthy and unjust social systems.

But it also poses some real theological difficulties. If one takes the parable as a description of how God relates to human beings, then it certainly paints a pretty stark and grim picture of God as a domineering, uncaring, authoritarian slave owner. In the NIV version, the Greek word Doulos is softened to mean: “servant”. But the word actually means a bond-slave, someone who belongs to another; without any ownership rights of their own. Is God really like a slave owner? Does God really regard us as worthless and unprofitable slaves?

The image of the slave-owner in this passage stands in stark contrast with the image of God that Jesus paints in the parable of the prodigal son, where God is pictured as a loving father who takes great joy in us as his children and even gives us freedom to make wrong choices.

The parable is also in fact quite contrary to the image of Jesus himself. Christians call Jesus Lord and Master, and yet in John’s Gospel, Jesus, the Master takes off his outer garment, wraps a towel around his waist and takes on the role of a common servant in washing his disciples feet before a meal.

This parable even stands in stark contrast to another of Jesus parables earlier in Luke’s Gospel chapter 12:35-37 where Jesus speaks of a master who returns and finds his servants watching for when he comes. Truly I tell you, says Jesus, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them.

Luke 12:35-37 describes an almost polar opposite scene to our own parable today.

In Paul’s letter to the Galatians Paul writes that We are no longer slaves, but God’s children, and since we are God’s children, God has made us God’s heir. We are heir’s to God’s throne! In other word’s, God does not treat us like an authoritarian slave owner would treat worthless and unprofitable slaves.

In almost every way, the life and example and teaching of Jesus and the witness of Paul challenges the social structure and values of this parable. Modern industrial psychology would also suggest that the best way to get the most out of labour force is do do so with praise and encouragement, making people feel valued and valuable, as indeed we are.

Probably for all these reasons, there are some Biblical scholars who would dispute whether this parable really was a parable of Jesus.

Having been critical of the social values reflected in the parable, I would like reflect on the core message of the parable itself. In the end the real point of the parable is not about reinforcing unjust social relations. Whether the parable came from Jesus or whether it came from the writer of Luke’s Gospel himself, heart of the parable is about fulfilling one’s duty as a follower of Jesus.

We live in a culture that highly exalts freedom, breaking free from whatever restricts our freedom. While the concept of fulfilling ones duties might have been an important one in previous generations, today the word has largely fallen out of favour. Is there still value for us today in this concept of fulfilling our duties and obligations in life. Or should our absolute freedom in life trump all other values?

As I wrestled with the question, it struck me that there is strangely also a freedom that can come to us when we fulfill our obligations and when we do our duties without expecting thanks and praise in return. There is a reward that comes to the parent who does his or her duty towards their children when on the inside it might sometimes feel like a burden. There is a reward that comes in life when the piano student fulfills her duty and obligation to practice. There is a reward that comes in life when we fulfill our obligations and duties towards our employer by showing up at work day after day and putting in an honest days work.

There is a reward that comes in life, even strangely one might say from paying our taxes. We receive the benefits of living in a well functioning country.

While duties and obligations may sometimes feel like they are a hindrance to our freedom - family duties and obligations... social duties and obligations... duties towards friends and our communities, our countries and even our world, even towards the environment – and while at times these duties and obligations may even make us feel like worthless slaves, there is also a strange freedom that can come from fulfilling our duties.

I have an uncle who was oozing with talent. He had been blessed with an amazing sharp mind and amazing musical abilities. If he had applied himself and led a life of even moderate discipline, he could have achieved great things in his life and would have been in quite a stable position in his life right now. But unfortunately in his own words, he saw himself as a free spirit and as such, he lived a life without much of duty or obligation except to his own freedom. My uncle is in his 70’s now. He doesn’t have great relationships with any of his children because he was never really there for them when they were growing up. By contrast, my parents, like many parents in this congregation sought to take seriously their duties and responsibilities in life. Duties and obligations to their parents, to their children to their church communities and to their jobs. I can imagine that many times it must have felt like they were living their lives a little like the slaves in this passage. But when compared with my uncle who sought to live his life as a free spirit without any duties and responsibilities, I would suggest that paradoxically they have found a much greater freedom in their lives than my uncle has ever experienced.

Getting back to this parable... I don’t believe that God regards us a worthless slaves. The Christian message is meant to communicate to us the good news that we are God’s beloved children. And yet, at the same time, being a Christian, a follower of Christ means that we have freely taken on extra duties and responsibilities... in a strange and paradoxical way, even though we are God’s children, beloved sons and daughters, as the apostle Paul suggests, we have also freely made ourselves into slaves of Christ. We have of our own free choice agreed to take on the duties and responsibilities of being followers of Christ, which is perhaps what this parable is trying to express. And somehow, paradoxically in the end, that is where true freedom will lie. When we allow ourselves to become seemingly, (in the eyes of many others), worthless slaves for Christ, we discover the joy and the freedom of being the precious sons and daughters of God.

Maybe, one day, when the Master welcomes us home with the words “Well done good and faithful servant” it will be we who respond with the words: But we have only done our duty.

 Luke 17:11-19 HARVEST SERMON

I preparing for today’s sermon I came across the story of a person who described how a colleague, when ever she was greeted and asked how she was doing, she would respond with the words: “I’m grateful.”

It was her standard response. Where some people might answer: I’m fine, or I’m doing great, or It doesn’t help complaining, her response was always: “I’m grateful!”

It is an interesting response because while it is a positive response, a choosing to focus on what is positive in life, it is not a denial that there may be difficulties in life, because even when things in life are difficult, there is always something that one can be grateful for.

The person who related the story suggests that we should all give it a try: Imagine that someone asks you how you are, and then imagine yourself replying with the words: “I’m grateful!”

What does it feel like to say those words?

In reflecting on his colleague who always responded to a greeting with the word: “I’m grateful”, it taught him that gratitude is a choice. It is easy to forget to be grateful, especially when things don’t feel like they’re going so well. To be grateful is a choice.

And that takes us to our gospel passage today.

Luke tells the story of ten lepers who ask Jesus for mercy, keeping their distance, as the law dictated they must because as lepers they are objects of fear and loathing.

Asking Jesus for mercy, Jesus simply says to them, “Go and show yourselves to a priest”, because it was the priests who had the power to pronounce them clean. In the story, they start walking and as they walk, they realize they are healed. But only one turns back to give praise and say thanks. The others keep on going.

Jesus asks the question: Why do nine rush away without giving thanks. Why is this foreigner the only one who does? And, to that one who came back, he says: “Your faith has made you well”.

And so interestingly, Jesus makes a distinction between being healed and being well. Or another way of putting it, it could be said that in this story there are two moments of healing.

Firstly, there is a physical healing when they follow Jesus instructions to go to Jerusalem.

Secondly, Jesus pronounces what seems to be a second healing on the one leper who returns “Rise, your faith has made you well.”

Archbishop Desmond Tutu in commenting on this parable suggests that maybe there are two kinds of leprosy: Leprosy of the skin, an external leprosy that affects the physical body, and secondly, a leprosy of the spirit. All 10 of the lepers were healed physically, but only one of the lepers who returned to Jesus to express gratitude was healed internally.

Looking a bit more closely at the story, we see that it invites us to make a few insights into the nature of gratitude:

Firstly, as has already been said expressing gratitude is a choice. And it seems that it is the road less travelled. In the story, all 10 lepers were healed. Only one of the lepers made the choice to return to express gratitude to Jesus, the other 9 lepers, for whatever reason chose not to return. Gratitude is a choice we must make.

Secondly, showing gratitude takes effort. It is costly. It requires a change of direction. It requires making a return to the one we are thanking. It requires we retrace our steps. In the passage, the one who expresses his gratitude takes the time and the effort to return to Jesus.

How much easier would it have been for him to simply continue on his way like the others. It takes effort to return, to find Jesus and to express his thanks.

I remember as a child, when it was birthday time or Christmas time, it was always exciting to receive gifts from others. But it took great effort to sit down and write thank you notes to all those family members who had given me a gift. If it wasn’t for my Mom and Dad insisting that I sit down and write those notes, I hate to admit that it probably wouldn’t have happened.

Showing gratitude takes effort. It is costly. But it is also worth it. I have no regrets that my parents forced me to sit down and write those thank you letters.

Thirdly, it seems from the story that gratitude and humility go together. This is illustrated in this passage in the way the man throws himself down at Jesus feet. It is an act of humility. What more profound way of expressing gratitude than throwing yourself down at someone else’s feet.

Interestingly, the word humility itself comes form the word humus, referring to the rich layer of soil on the earth. It is as though he takes this word humility quite literally as he throws himself down on the ground at Jesus feet. His gratitude expresses itself in humility before Jesus.

Grateful people are humble people and humble people are grateful people. Gratitude makes us humble, because it turns our thoughts away from ourselves towards others. The arrogant don’t express gratitude, because they take everything as a right, as an expectation. It is the humble who are grateful.

Fourthly, this passage suggests that gratitude is the true expression of faith. When the man falls on the ground at Jesus feet, Jesus says: “Rise, your faith has made you well.” For Jesus, the man’s gratitude is an expression of his faith. It suggests that the heart of what it means to be a person of faith, is to be a person of gratitude. Meister Eckhart, the great German mystic of the middle ages once wrote: “If the only prayer you ever pray is thank you. It will be enough”.

Lastly, as we have already seen, gratitude is healing. It brings wellness and wholeness to the soul. At the end of the story, after the man has thrown himself down at the feet of Jesus, Jesus says to him: “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” All ten lepers were healed physically, but only one displayed wellness in his soul.

When we say the words “I am grateful” an inner healing begins to take place. A healing of the heart. A healing of the spirit. A healing of the soul. Gratitude brings healing, not just to ourselves and to those around us. How difficult it is to deal with people who do not show gratitude. When gratitude is missing, something of our true humanity is missing. But when it is present it brings wellness and wholeness to the soul.

On this Harvest Sunday, we have gathered as a community to collectively express our gratitude. Gratitude for the gift of the earth and our connectedness to it. Gratitude for all that sustains our lives here on earth. Gratitude for farmers, for animals, for sunshine and rain, for insects and microbes that sustain healthy soil, for transporters for shop assistants and for the whole invisible chain of beings and people upon whose lives we depend, and without whom we would not be able to live. And finally, we have come to return out thanks to God, the foundation and source of life.

I would like to close with a short story:

Once there was a happy, satisfied old woman whom many people envied because of her artistry with life. She never left her house without a handful of dried beans. She did not intend to eat the beans, but rather would keep them in the right pocket of her jacket. Every time she experienced something beautiful – a sunrise, a child’s laughter, a brief encounter, a good meal, some shade in midday heat – she soaked it up, let it delight her heart, and moved a bean from her right pocket to her left one. When an experience was especially nice and even surprising, she would move two or three beans.

In the evening, the old woman sat at home, counting the beans she had moved. As she celebrated the number of left-pocket beans, she brought reminded herself how much beauty had crossed her path on that day and how much she was grateful for. And on evenings when she could count only one bean, that was still a good day – it had been worth living.

I would invite you to practice with me again: How are you today? “I’m grateful”.

And Jesus said to him: “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”