A Sign of Hope and Love (Luke 10:25-37)

 ⬛ I’ve been working with other religious leaders in town to plan the upcoming multi-faith Thanksgiving worship, which will be held on Sunday, November 23 at 3pm at the Y. 

Like last year, we will provide the opportunity for those who attend to contribute to an offering that will be given to a local non-profit, as a way of expressing gratitude through action.

My part in this year’s Thanksgiving worship will be to introduce the offering, and to extend the invitation to give.

⬛ I don’t mind talking about money, and inviting people to give… as long as what that money is going toward is something worthwhile, something I truly believe in… something that changes people’s lives for the better.

I know that I myself—like many of you—am always trying to discern how best to use my money. I’ve mentioned before how I define money as life energy; we give up our life energy in exchange for a salary—so that money is our life energy converted into dollars.

And since it is our life energy, it makes sense that we want the use of our money to mean something.

I do not want to waste my money on things that do not contribute to my joy and wellbeing, or to the joy and wellbeing of my family, or to the joy and wellbeing of my community or world.

So if I’m going to invite people to give money to a cause, I’m going to make sure that the cause is, in fact, something that contributes positively to the joy and wellbeing of people.

⬛ So when I talk about stewardship in the church, it’s important for me to emphasize that stewardship is more than keeping the doors open and the lights on. I’ve heard stewardship statements like that too many times, emphasizing that just maintaining the property—keeping the doors open and the lights on—is an end in and of itself. 

The property, the building… are tools that help us carry out our ministry; tools that help us do what’s really important, which is bringing wholeness to this fragmented world, and changing lives by sharing with people in word and in action the limitless love of God.

Last week’s stewardship moment was given by Jaci, and she talked about the ministry of our congregation, and also the ministry that takes place at Camp Walter Scott. 

Camp Walter Scott (just to be clear) is our camp. It’s not just a camp we send kids to. It’s our camp. We at First Christian Church own and operate Camp Walter Scott, in partnership with the other congregations of the Illinois/Wisconsin region. 

And I think we all see in Jaci, and in everyone else who grew up going to church camp, the life-changing impact that our camping ministry has. It is hard to overstate how significant this is. As Jaci said, it helped make her who she is today. 

And I know kids whose very lives have been saved by camp. If it weren’t for the love and affirmation they received at church camp, they very well might not have made it to adulthood.

That is something worth talking about when we talk about stewardship.

Jaci also mentioned that, for her, the church is not just a building, but a home.

First Christian Church is a home. Camp Walter Scott is a home. Both, in the very best sense of the word home.

And home is so much more than just a building. It’s so much more than just open doors and lights that are on.

And that is what stewardship is all about. It is making sure that the opportunity to experience home, and all that a home should be… to experience affirmation, to experience God’s limitless, life-changing love, is available to present and future generations.

⬛ And there are so many other ways that we do this. Last Tuesday I had lunch with our Fibers of Love group—and, yes, I call them “our” Fibers of Love group—and those ladies expressed to me their thanks and gratitude that we have provided them a home, a place where they feel welcome, and affirmed, and where they can carry out their important, life-changing ministry, bringing wholeness to our world in a way that is uniquely theirs.

⬛ For the past month we’ve been hearing about the Helping Shelf, and the lives that are changed through that part of our ministry. And in our encounters with some of those who visit the Helping Shelf, we realize that it’s not just about the food or clothing or hygiene supplies; it’s about people coming and feeling noticed, that they aren’t forgotten, that maybe there is still some love for them in this world. They may even think of First Christian Church as a home, even though their only experience of church is through the Helping Shelf. That, too, is life-changing.

And I could say the same thing for the other ministries and organizations and events we support and partner with through our ReachOut team, or through our Open and Affirming team, or through our team that provides funeral meals.

Ministry is so much more than a building. Ministry is so much more than “keeping doors open and the lights on.”

And because of this, I have probably not given church buildings the credit they deserve. I may have downplayed the importance of buildings and property a little too much. Hearing too many stewardship moments that focused solely on keeping the doors open and the lights on, I have probably taken that pendulum and swung it too far in the other direction.

I was made aware of this when I was reading through our stewardship theme material.

⬛ In the stewardship material there is an article about a large, old church which wasn’t named, but which I recognized, because it was in downtown Long Beach, California, and I had been there multiple times for community meetings, interfaith events, pride events, and even a stage production of Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame, where Ethan worked backstage handling props for the actors.

That congregation was founded by the Bixby family—Long Beach’s version of William T. Major and his family—and that church’s sanctuary (the one they still use today) was built back in 1914.

The sanctuary holds over 1,000 people. It has survived multiple earthquakes. And, at 111 years old, it requires a lot of ongoing maintenance.

The article in the stewardship material was written by a former pastor of that congregation. I recognized her name, which is how I knew what congregation it was referring to. 

In the article she talks about the many blessings of that building, and the incredible amount of time and energy it takes to maintain it. 

And then she said that she and that congregation were like innkeepers for God. 

That’s how they saw themselves. Innkeepers for God.

She wrote that “We had the blessings of many assets, including high public regard. When the wider community considers your congregation a gem, you are a lucky church. And…you are also an innkeeper.”

The innkeeper she’s referring to is the innkeeper in the story of the Good Samaritan.

⬛ In the story of the Good Samaritan, the Samaritan shows compassion and mercy to a poor injured man by taking him to an inn, and giving the innkeeper money, to house him and care for him.

And the innkeeper, we assume, does just that. He uses that money to provide a place for the poor injured man to rest and receive the healing he needs. 

The injured man’s healing was made possible not only by the Samaritan, and not only by the innkeeper, but also by the inn itself, the shelter that provided him a safe space to recover from his wounds. 

Without the inn, the poor injured man would not have found shelter. Without money to run and maintain the inn, there would not have been a place for him to rest and find healing. And without money to buy food for him, and to clean his room, pay the staff, and keep the inn open, the inn would not have been there when the injured man needed it.

The inn itself became a vessel of empathy and mercy. 

I had never thought of the role that the inn itself played in this story. Yet for this injured man, it was essential that there be an inn—a place with the doors open and the lamps lit—where he could rest and recover, and be restored back to health.

⬛ Our church is more than just a building.

But the building itself is a sign of hope and love, and don’t you know, hope and love are what the world so desperately needs these days…

This building is a sign of hope to people in our community.

This building is a sign of stability.

This building is a sign of community revitalization.

A neighbor walking by sees this building, sees it being cared for, and feels just a tiny smidgen of God’s love because of that… and if seeing this church in their neighborhood makes them feel that God is near, that God hasn’t given up on them quite yet…

THAT is ministry. That is gospel. That is life.

For people who enter our building to attend a community event… one of the theater groups, or the bridge club, or fibers of love…the building itself speaks of God’s love, God’s affirmation, God’s welcome.

So much gospel is shared, so much good news, so much love, so much hope… just because we are able to keep the doors open and the lights on… just because we plant flowers in the spring and have lights illuminating the rose window on cold dark winter nights. Taking care of this building is a sign of our love for God, but it is also a sign of our love and God’s love for our community; a sign of love for our neighbors.

Yes, it costs a lot of money to maintain a building like this… and the costs keep going up as the building ages. Maybe one day, we will leave this building. We’ve moved into a new building four times before in our congregation’s 188-year history, so doing so wouldn’t be anything new.

But this is the building we have today. 

And it is, as I said, a blessing to so many in our community and beyond.

So stewardship does, I guess, also include keeping the doors open and the lights on… and the roof repaired…and the floors replaced…and the heat running…

Because all these things help make this building a home… an inn… a place where people can know God and God’s love; a place where people can experience God’s love and God’s healing in so many life-changing ways.

The innkeeper took care of the inn. The innkeeper used the money he received to maintain the inn, so that it would be there for those who need it. 

We are the innkeeper, charged with maintaining a place of refuge, rest, and healing, for all who need it.

And we are also the Samaritan, showing our love for our neighbor by tending to the wounded, and providing the funds needed so that they have a place to find the healing and wholeness they need.

One Out of Ten (Luke 17:11-19)

 Imagination is an important tool when it comes to growing in faith. 

Every time Jesus told a parable, he used imagination in his storytelling. 

And our stewardship theme—”Dreaming God’s Dream”—invites us to imagine what this world could be like when we let God’s dream for this world become our dream.

In today’s Bible story, Jesus invites us to use our imagination when he asks the question: “Where are the other nine?” Ten people are healed; only one returns to give thanks. Where are the other nine?

No answer is given to this question…

I think it’s an invitation for us to use our imagination, and imagine what happened to those other nine…

So… 

Person #1: When he saw that he had been made clean, his first thought was his family, which he hadn’t seen in many years. People with skin disease were forced to live separate, away from everyone else, so he hadn’t seen them in years... 

He ran home, anxious to embrace his wife for the first time in many years. But upon arriving, he discovered that she was now living with another man. He asked her to return to him, but she only cried, “I can’t. I thought you were dead.” And she shut the door.

So he ended up cursing the healing that he had received. Just being healed wasn’t enough. He wanted his life back.

Person #2, when he saw, as he walked toward the temple, that he had been healed, he started walking faster, running even, eager to return to the city and get on with his life. On his way, he passed by some beggars, some men who themselves had that same skin disease. They kept their distance, but of course he could not avoid the sound of their cries.

Nevertheless, he kept on the path, ignoring the cries that he heard. He had no mercy. Having been healed himself, he wanted absolutely no reminders of his former life. Thus, his life became a life of denial and avoiding realities.

Person #3 believed that he was someone special, since he had been healed by Jesus. After all, there were a lot of people afflicted with skin disease who were not healed. Why did Jesus pick him? Surely, he said to himself, it was because he was more important or more righteous than the others.

He became arrogant. He expected people to bow before him. He expected to have a high-paying job just handed to him; and he actually got such a job, but it only lasted one day. As soon as the boss noticed his overblown sense of entitlement, he fired him.

Unable to find a job after that, person #3 was forced to resort to begging. Thus, he lived as an outcast, unclean, his life after the healing being not all that different from his life before.

Person #4, having been afflicted with skin disease for so long, didn’t know how to transition to a new life. Rejoining society proved very difficult for him, and soon he was plagued by doubts: doubts about whether he really deserved to be cleansed; doubts about whether he really belonged within the city walls with everyone else.

Maybe Jesus had made a mistake? Life in the city was so new, so different, so bewildering and confusing.

Eventually, he went back to living outside the city, where he had lived previously, among the outcasts. “Why are you here?” they asked him; and he said, “Because I don’t know how else to live.”

Person #5 did a little better at adjusting to society and fitting in. He managed to get a job, become a manager, and eventually become quite rich. He built a large house, and had a large wall built around his house to protect his wealth.

Having gone from the bottom of society to the top, he was always afraid of losing everything and falling back down to the bottom. So he hid himself within the walls he built, along with his money, never going outside, always fearful, and living every bit as much an outcast as he was before, the only difference being that now his exile was self-imposed.

Person #6 felt that, because he was cleansed, he should devote his life to easing the suffering of others. This, he felt, was his life’s new purpose. He promised himself that as soon as he got himself together, as soon as he got his own life back on track, as soon as things were going smoothly for him, then he would begin the work that he felt called to do.

However, things never did go quite as smoothly as he wanted them to. He felt that his life was always almost—but not quite—on track, and he never did get around to fulfilling his life’s purpose.

As soon as person #7 saw that he had been healed, his first thought was actually to return to Jesus and give thanks. But then he started to doubt. “He said to himself, “What do I have that is of any worth to give in return as an expression of my thanks? What can I do with my life that would honor the God who healed me? I have no money. I’m not a good speaker. I’m not particularly wise when it comes to religion. I’m really not very useful at all.” And he fell into a deep depression.

Person #8 was excited and happy that, having been healed, he could now rejoin society. He eagerly sought to prove himself and find the acceptance he always longed for.

However, he soon discovered that some people will always find a reason to judge and criticize. He sought their approval and acceptance, but they said, “So what if your skin disease is gone? You’re still not one of us. You’ll never be one of us…”

Seeing himself only through the eyes of his tormentors, his bullies, unable to see himself through the eyes of the God who had cleansed him and healed him, he went out and hung himself.

Person #9 noticed that all of those who were healed were, like him, Jews; all except one. One was a Samaritan.

He wondered why Jesus would bother healing a Samaritan. The more he thought about it, the more offended he became…. and the more he decided to prove, through his own life, that only Jews were worthy of such attention.

He devoted himself to being the best Jew possible, as if to prove that Jews were better than anyone else, especially Samaritans. He became known as an arrogant, judgmental man, full of bitterness, a person who no one wanted to be around. This just made him try even harder, which in turn just made him even more bitter. And along with the bitterness, hidden within him, was a deep sense of loneliness.

When we hear Jesus ask, “Where are the other nine?” maybe we hear it with a tone of judgment and criticism; but I think it was with a deep sense of compassion that Jesus asked that question. “Where are the other nine? I wanted their healing to lead to a life of wholeness, but I fear that it has not.”

The tenth person – the Samaritan – he alone returned to give thanks. He alone returned to praise God, even before he went to the priests to be examined. And he alone heard Jesus say to him, “Go on your way; your faith has made you well. Your faith has made you whole.”

All ten were healed; but only this one was made well. Only this one was completely restored to wholeness. Only this one truly got his life back.

Being made well, being made whole – receiving what in Greek is called sozo, healing, wholeness, salvation – comes after this tenth person returns to give thanks. He returns to offer up his gratitude… and that is what makes him well.

Perhaps you’ve heard that the happiest people are not those who have all they want; the happiest people are those who are grateful for all they have. The other nine who were healed… they still found a reason to be unhappy. They still longed for things they didn’t have. Being healed didn’t fix their unhappiness.

But the tenth person… his gratitude made the difference. In fact, I’d bet that even before he was healed, he was better off than the other nine, because this tenth person, I suspect, could always find something to be grateful for, no matter what his circumstance. And that gratitude led to greater joy for him in his life.

So even though ten were healed, only one out of those ten found happiness.

Now. Why were there ten in this story? Why not 8, or 20, or 100?

The fact that only one out of ten returned to give thanks reminds me of scriptures that teach that we should return one-tenth of what we have to God.

It’s called a tithe; a tithe is the one-tenth that we return to God, in gratitude for what God has done for us.

Originally, the tithe that scripture talks about was in the form of one-tenth of a person’s crops and their livestock, but as society shifted to one that used money, the tithe came to mean one tenth of one’s income. Basically, out of everything you receive, scripture teaches that one-tenth of it be returned to God.

The book of Malachi is, to a large extent, a chastisement of people who have failed to tithe. Through Malachi, God accuses the people of robbing him. The people ask how are they robbing God, and God replies, “In your tithes and offerings! You are robbing me, the whole nation of you! Bring the full tithe into the storehouse.”

And then God does something unusual. God invites the people to put him to the test. Elsewhere in scripture, the people are told to not put God to the test, but here, when it comes to the tithe, that doesn’t apply. God says, “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.”

One tenth of those who were healed returned to Jesus. A tithe of lepers returned to praise God. Jesus gave out ten blessings, and one of the ten was returned to him. And the blessings flowed. They flowed out, back, and then back out again…

That one leper found wholeness. That one leper was made well, because of his faith. Because of his gratitude.

The healing and wholeness God offers to us is given freely. Like those who were healed of their skin disease, we don’t need to do anything to receive God’s grace.

And we try to follow this model in the ministry of the church. You don’t need to do anything, you don’t need to give any certain amount, to receive all the benefits that come from being a part of First Christian Church.

As you know, Ginger and I recently joined the Y. How did we become members of the Y? By paying our membership fee.

Other organizations work the same way. You want to be a member? Pay the membership fee, and you’re a member.

The church doesn’t work that way. You can be a member, and receive all the benefits of being a member, regardless of whether you contribute financially or not. 

But gratitude expressed through giving has its own power to heal and restore. There is true joy in giving back, as the Samaritan in today’s story found out. Our offering is our thanks to God. And our path to wholeness is complete when we offer this thanks to God.