http://pccweb.ca/zionpc/sermons/the-power-of-perspective/

Worship with Zion/Knox PCs - Thanksgiving Sunday Oct. 9/22.
Gospel of Luke 17: 11 - 19 – ‘The power of perspective’
Five years ago, it was a very great blessing to travel throughout Palestine &
Israel. One of the sites we visited was the traditional location of the Sermon
on the Mount, believed to be the spot where Jesus gave His first public
sermon, as recounted in Matthew’s Gospel.
I’ve never seen crowds like that! The parking lot, crammed with tourist
buses, was a giant tetris game as each driver attempted to maneuver
around dozens of other Greyhounds to either park or find the exit. We
moved toward the chapel - just 1/2 a kilometre away - in tiny sideways
shuffles amid a wondrous United Nations of languages. A woman in our
group of 12 grumbled the entire time about the number of people and why
don’t they set limits, or do some crowd control, kvetch kvetch. Another
woman in the group responded: “Yah, but wouldn’t it be a shame if nobody
came, if nobody cared what happened here.” The complaining stopped,
and we all paused to marvel at how patiently and peacefully the throngs
moved together.
Our perspective on life, on faith, on God’s nature, on politics, on aging &
generational differences, on our own & other cultures & societies, affects
virtually every aspect of our lives. We can influence others by our
perspective, and like it or not, we are affected by one another’s view of the
world.
While at seminary at Knox College, I met a woman who felt the call to
ministry in her late 30’s. She is blessed with an understanding, supportive
husband and 2 malleable kids, who changed their lives to allow Mom to go
back to school. She told me one day, with obvious surprise, that she was
having a good day. I was surprised by her surprise, so she explained that
she awoke every morning expecting the worst. She navigated every day
from the ‘victim’ perspective, distrustful of everyone, believing the world
was out to get her. She viewed life as if crouched in a corner without hope,
or confidence, or apparently, faith. She seemed to view God as some sort
of psychopath who enjoyed our suffering, rather than a participatory God
who feels His way through our lives, engaging in every emotion right along
with us. She was never called to any church and never ordained.
What might be a leper’s perspective on life in the 1st century? What might
be their view of God? A leper was declared ‘unclean’ by every religious
authority, and by Temple Law, anyone who was moved to help those
afflicted with food or clothing, and came too close to a leper, was likewise
branded ‘unclean’, which meant barred from Temple, & from any human
contact or company. Lepers weren’t just on the edge of society; they were
entirely outside of it, not allowed inside any city gate, but not welcome in
any rural town or village either. Their best chance of survival was to beg
along a busy roadway where a traveler might toss them some food scraps.
It wasn’t money they wanted; they weren’t allowed into the marketplace.
Most lepers existed in the city dump.
They knew only rejection & isolation. It was firmly believed that one so
afflicted must be despised by God, which gave everyone else permission to
hate them too.
It’s taken about 2000 years, but we’re finally learning to create laws &
accept norms for inclusion & justice & even grace, rather than the old rules
of segregation & division based on ignorance. Consequently, we have
encouragement to trust & understand & actively care, which secular culture
may be startled to discover are Christian values.
It was this consistent valuing of all people that made Jesus an alarming
revolutionary to the keepers of the status quo. The lepers had obviously
heard about Jesus, about His miracles up in the Galilee & the stories that
He could raise the dead. Could He be the Christ? Maybe God didn’t hate
them, if this Man Jesus was walking within shouting distance. They yell out,
“Master”, to show respect, revealing they have NOT lost all hope in God.
Jesus’ response is curious: “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” Strange,
because only the clean were allowed into the synagogue. But off they go,
and the miracle of healing happens as they walk → a literal journey to
wholeness as Christ shows us, once again, that we need to trust & to
participate in our own healing & faith discovery.
But then comes the really wondrous part. The one man returns to throw
himself at Jesus’ feet in humble gratitude because he gets it! He knows that
God did this! He can’t spout trinitarian theology, or articulate the dual divine
& mortal nature of Jesus, or recite the work of the Prophets who’ve known
all along. But this man knows the Source of this life-changing event. Now
he is relating to God through gratitude – not through fear or shame or
righteous superiority, because God apparently favours him all of a sudden.
He’s seeing his Lord through pure gratitude, coloured by the realization that
he didn’t DO anything to deserve this miracle, yet God values him anyway.
Then Jesus asks the question that is common among mainline churches
these past many years: ‘where IS everybody?’ Did no one else realize Who
had made them ‘clean’, Who had healed them & therefore brought them
back into community again, Who had blessed them with an entirely new
life? It would seem that they were thrilled to enjoy the gift, but didn’t have
any thought for the Giver.
Jesus says to the one, “Your faith has made you well”, but he’s already free
of leprosy when he returns to say thanks. Obviously, when Jesus declares
the man, “well”, He’s referring to more than physical health. In the original
Greek language of the Gospels, the word also means ‘saved, rescued,
delivered’, from loneliness & worthlessness, rescued from despair, saved
from fear & freed to accept a new perspective – he is loved by, and truly
matters to God!
That kind of wellness is transformative! The world truly looks different,
clearer, brighter. The realization that God is working in our lives, all the
time, helps us to see His hand in every blessing AND in all the challenges.
Our perspective shifts from uncertainty and anxiety, to one of confidence &
assurance & hope; we start to look for, and to recognize God’s presence &
goodness, and we realize all the places, through all the people, that God is
constantly reaching out to hold us close, and to hold us up through trials.
A final story about Mother Teresa. As the founder of her Order, every issue
in the convent came to her, from non-functioning plumbing to food supplies
to the content of chapel prayers. All day long, she fielded questions and put
out fires: “Mother Superior, we have a problem with so & so’; ‘Mother, we
need to talk, there’s a problem with such & such’. Until one day, the dear
soul reached the end of her considerably long rope of patience and
declared, “The word ‘problem’ is banned within this Order. I never want to
hear that word again. In its place, from now on, please use the word, ‘gift’”
Well, that changes everything! ‘Mother, we have an especially large gift with
the budget just now’; ‘Mother, that gifted new person on staff will need more
training’. Every difficult person, every travel delay as she criss-crossed the
globe, every financial issue that could derail her mission, was received as a
gift for learning & growth & deeper faith.
How do we approach each day, each opportunity or challenge to the
familiar, each exciting or mundane task, each stranger or loved one? Do we
navigate life and our relationship with Christ through a lens of gratitude, or
fear, or indifference? Is this life a gift from God? If your heart cries, ‘Yes’,
then may we pause more often to say Thank You Lord! And praise be to
God, Amen.