Introit: Holy Ground - 112
Call to Worship
Good morning! I’m Pastor Ashley. To those here in the sanctuary and those joining us online: we are so glad you’re here!
This morning, we will sing songs of worship, pray together, hear from scripture and one another, as we move toward the pinnacle of our service: the table of our Lord, where we will take the bread and drink the cup in remembrance of our most Gracious Host, Jesus. The purpose of our time together each Sunday is to bring our hearts closer to the heart of God, so I invite you to participate in as much or as little in our prepared liturgy as your spirit is willing.
We welcome all sounds and smells from the youngest to the oldest among us. The Kids Corner is in the back for anyone who needs to move around and play to worship God this morning. There is also a nursery available. We know that the energy and spirit of children can be different than adults and we consider that reality a gift.
There are information cards in the pew in front of you—if you are a guest, or if you have moved and have not updated your info with the church, please fill it out and drop it in the offering plate when it goes by later in worship.
For those watching online or for those who would like to follow along, our liturgy for every service is posted on our website before the service begins.
We invite you to Sunday School at 10 AM every week. There’s classes that meet in the Seekers room and the Parlor. There is also a combined children and youth class that meets in the MUB. Godly Play meets behind the sanctuary for our younger elementary students.
Golf tournament is this Saturday!
Mark your calendars for Trunk or Treat on Sunday, October 30 at 5 PM. If you’re interested in helping, please see Becky or Nancy.
We continue our October series today called Let Me Tell You a Story: Jesus Stories from Luke.
Let’s pray to turn our hearts toward God for this hour.
Spirit of truth, open to us the scriptures, speaking your holy word through song, through the bread and cup, and through offering ourselves, and meet us here today in the living Christ. Amen.
Call to Worship: Blessed Assurance - 543
Litany of Faith
One: Hallelujah! I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, in the congregation.
All: Great are the works of the LORD! They are studied by all who delight in them.
One: Full of majesty and splendor is the work of the LORD, whose righteousness endures forever.
All: Gracious and full of compassion is the LORD, whose marvelous works are to be remembered.
One: The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; those who act accordingly have a good understanding.
All: The praise of the LORD endures forever.
(From Psalm 111)
Pastoral Prayer
The Lord be with you.
We continue to pray for Paul Reed, who has declined rapidly and is now at home surrounded by family.
Join me in prayer.
(From Calling on God)
O God of all generations, God of all creatures,God of every leaf and grain of sand, we bring our praise for your whole creation.
God of birth, and death, and resurrection, we are bound together by the knowledge of your love for us.
We praise the complex beauty of your lands and seas. We stand in awe before the power of storms and tides. We delight in the rich variety of creatures you have made. We cherish the love of friends and family, knowing that it comes from you.
Magnificent Lover of justice and compassion, hear now the prayers of praise and thanks we lift to you, for all the power of your presence in the world.
God of love and hope, today we know how much it means to us to have a home, a home in faith, a place where we can celebrate the good news of your presence in our lives. And yet, we know so many places that seem cut off from the joy of that good news.
God of mystery beyond our understanding, your world seems filled with pain and suffering. So often, we don’t know what to do; there are so many people who need healing, and the help we have to offer seems too small to make a difference.
We ask you today: where are you calling us to be your hands and feet? What are you asking us to do to bring your healing love to those who are in pain and need?
O God who dwells within us, we raise our prayers for those in need, for those who grieve the loss of loved ones, for those who suffer sickness and pain. Hear our prayers for those in need.
We ask this in the name of our brother and redeemer Jesus, who taught us to pray…
Our Father, who art in heaven
Hallowed be Thy name
Thy Kingdom come
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever.
Amen.
Sing: In This Very Room - 295 (v 2&3)
Children’s Moment
Can you tell me what an exercise is? Give me some examples.
Stretch their arms, lean on each other to stand on one foot.
Exercise is when we move our bodies to help them be strong and healthy.
Is exercise the only thing we can do to be strong and healthy? We can also eat vegetables, drink water, go to the doctor, get enough sleep.
Just like there are exercises we can do that make our bodies feel better, there are exercises that we can do to help us be able to see God better in our lives.
One of these “spiritual exercises” that we can do regularly is worship - which is what we’re doing right now, together. Another spiritual exercise that we can do regularly is praying, both on our own and with others. And another spiritual exercise we can do regularly is giving thanks to God.
It is that exercise of giving thanks that we see in today’s story. In the story, Jesus heals 10 people, each of whom have this awful disease called leprosy. But, after they are healed, only ONE of the men returns to Jesus to say thank you. Because he returns, Jesus is able to tell him, “Your faith has made you well.”
So let’s do some exercise right now! What is something you are thankful for?
Gratitude stone. Paint a heart on it and keep it somewhere you can see it to remind you of this exercise.
Prayer:
Dear God, thank you for all that you have given us. Help us to recognize you in our lives. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Anthem: 10,000 Reasons - ACC Ladies’ Ensemble
Sermon
Luke 17:11-19
11 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he entered a village, ten men with a skin disease approached him. Keeping their distance, 13 they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16 He prostrated himself at Jesus’s feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? So where are the other nine? 18 Did none of them return to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”
This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.
When I was a teacher in a past life, I taught at a Christian school. And every year, the week before Thanksgiving, we had all-school chapel. From Pre-K to 12th grade, we’d assemble in the sanctuary and sing this song:
“For friends and food and all things good, we give Thee thanks, O God.”
It’s a song that can be sung in rounds, so we’d have section leaders and each grade would sing a round, and the whole sanctuary would fill with the sound of children’s voices singing this simple line: For friends and food and all things good, we give Thee thanks, O God.” Alumni would return every year telling us stories of them singing this song unintentionally before meals. I still do the same, myself.
It was an easy enough concept for all grade levels: thankfulness. But because the message for the day would invariably be geared toward younger children about the importance of being thankful, the older kids would doze, the teachers would grade papers and poke sleeping kids awake. We knew about thankfulness, about gratitude. It was simple, elementary, even.
But if gratitude is so easy, then why I have teared up singing that song these past two and half years? If it’s so simple, why do I sometimes stop mid-song because I can’t finish the line?
Well, let me tell you a story…about ten lepers and Jesus.
To begin, the author of Luke seems to be bad at geography. For example, he gives us the setting of the story: the region between Galilee and Samaria. But that region does not exist. Galilee and Samaria border each other. That would be like saying we were traveling in the region between Texas and Oklahoma.
And then Luke tells us that Jesus in on his way to Jerusalem and is taking this imaginary route between Galilee and Samaria. But that would be like saying we were traveling to Amarillo by way of Houston. It doesn’t make sense.
So is Luke simply bad with maps? Maybe. But perhaps, he’s using geography not so much for the sake of accuracy, but rather for theological reasons.
One of my seminary professors said to always read the Bible with a map of the ancient lands in your hand because the geography itself will tell you stories. In the same way that before Chip and Joanna Gaines, Waco used to only be known for a cult stand-off in the 90s, places like Samaria and Jerusalem should set off alarm bells in our head and trigger other stories.
So let’s start with Galilee. Jesus is a man from Galilee, Nazareth to be exact. If you remember, some people when they heard about this man from Nazareth performing miracles asked, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” It’s not an impressive place. But it is a Jewish place.
And Samaria is a very strange place. We don’t spend a lot of time in Samaria in scripture, but we do encounter a few noteworthy Samaritans.
The gospel writers looked skeptically upon Samaritans. They never say it out right, but we can assume they were wondering, “Can anything good come from Samaria?”
Samaritans and Judeans have a lot of hostility over worship—it stems from experiences in exile that we won’t dive into, but trust me when I say, they worshiped God in a very different way. If you remember the Samaritan woman at the well, her story told in the gospel of John, you’ll remember that she has lots of theological questions for Jesus. She asks him about one of these points of contention between the Samaritans and Judeans—where are they to worship. Israelites say it’s Jerusalem, but Samaritans say it’s Mt. Gerizim. Which one is it, she asks?
Meanwhile, all the disciples are scandalized by Jesus talking to this woman—the text literally says, “They were surprised to find Jesus talking to a woman.” They’re missing the point of what’s happening in this moment.
Jesus is engaging with the Samaritan woman. He asks for a drink of water—a big cultural boundary crossing. He inquires about her painful past—her life dependent on the carousel of men she must marry in order to avoid destitution. And he listens to her theological inquiries. After her encounter with Jesus, she becomes the missionary to her people. This Samaritan surprises us all.
And then we have the famous parable of the Good Samaritan. A Jewish man is on his way to Jericho and is beaten badly and left in a ditch to die. Three people pass by, but only one helps the man. And the person who helps the man is not the professional lawyer—an emblem of the legal system. And it’s not the priest—an emblem of the religious system. It’s the Samaritan. The one we’d least suspect. The one that perhaps the Jewish man in the ditch would have avoided had they met in different circumstances. The Samaritan risks his own safety and dignity and gives of his own resources to help this stranger.
And we learn from these two stories that of all the people we might expect to be the one who understands what Jesus is about—it’s the one we’d never expect. It’s the Samaritan, the theologically suspect outsider.
And it’s with these stories fresh on our minds that we come to our story today. Jesus is metaphorically walking in that in-between space—the imaginary place between the borders of Galilee and Samaria. The sureness of home and the disquiet of Samaria.
And he’s on his way to Jerusalem, the text tells us. Well, we’ve already covered that Jerusalem by way of this border is not plausible, but if we’re thinking about geography theologically, then we know Jerusalem is supposed to set off alarm bells, too. I know all of you Bible scholars know that if Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, he is on his way to the cross. Everything that happens “on his way to Jerusalem” is colored by what will happen in Jerusalem.
So it is with all of this geographical and historical context that we read that Jesus comes upon a village. And as he gets to the edge of it, he encounters a group of ten people with leprosy. They call out to Jesus for mercy, careful to keep the proscribed distance as detailed by religious law that helped mitigate spread of disease. Sound familiar? And Jesus, full of mercy, sends them on their way to the priest to be okay’ed for return to normal life. But before they even make it to the priest, they are healed. It’s a miracle.
And one turns back.
This man thanks Jesus profusely for healing, and Jesus expresses surprise that it’s the Samaritan who returns. Jesus asks seemingly dumb questions such as where are the other nine? Well, Jesus, they’re on the way to the priest like you told them to do.
Is it only the Samaritan who has returned? Well, Jesus, it looks that way. Because as we noted before, the others are doing what you told them to do.
But something tells me that Jesus wasn’t interested in the answers to the questions so much as asking the question out loud for everyone to hear. There were 10. And only one came back. And it’s the Samaritan. Is that clear to everyone here, he seems to be asking.
It’s like when a parent would ask you questions they knew the answer to as a way to make you tremble in your boots. Is it 2 AM? Are you just getting home? Did you call? They knew the answers before they asked those questions.
On the surface, this story of the one leper returning seems to be a simple lesson of gratitude. Be grateful for the work of God in your life. Always say thank you.
But if we remember the context and history from a few minutes ago, we realize that this story is about much more than gratitude. It’s about radical inclusion. It’s about the reign of God breaking down all of our carefully constructed boundaries and walls and ways of understanding the world. It’s about mountains and valleys becoming prairie lands. It’s about lions and lambs becoming friends. It’s about the last being made first, and the first being made last. It’s about a topsy turvy kingdom, a world turned upside down to be made right side up.
Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s scoot back for a second.
We know from other Samaritan stories, from the fact that Jesus himself calls this man a foreigner, that Samaritans are other-ed in scripture. They are often demonized. They’re seen as a threat to the religious establishment, to the respectability of what we’re trying to do here. As heretics, but at the very least weirdos. I mean, Mt. Gerizim? Come on.
But in this story where Jesus asks a series of questions, a question is posed back to us: Do you see it, Jesus is asking us. Do you see who is the one who turns back? Do you see the one who is pointing back to me?
The answer seems to be: the other. The one we’d least suspect. The one that the very religious people have made other.
And it’s helpful to remember in this encounter where Jesus is headed. To Jerusalem. To the cross. Jesus ends up being the ultimate Other, being made so by the very religious people and state authorities. It’s almost as if he’s saying along the way, “These others? They are my people. I am one of them.”
And it’s not that the healing is just for the Samaritan—all ten of the people with leprosy were healed. They were welcomed back into their families and their neighborhoods after seeing the priest, thanks be to God.
But this one who turned back, who returned to Jesus, his faith has made him whole. He returns, perhaps, because he has found in Jesus in this place of in-between as Luke proposes with his geographical mishap, a hope.
This almost Jewish, but not quite, person, in this almost Galilee, but not quite Samaria place, in this story about gratitude but not only gratitude, urges us to think about our own places of uncertainty.
For some of us, this pandemic has changed and taken so much that we loved and didn’t even realize we depended on, and now we feel adrift. Set out to sea. Floating along aimlessly, desperate to put down an anchor or find the nearest shore.
For others of us, we feel like everyone else needs to get back to normal. If things would just resume how we’d like it and people would return to their regularly scheduled programming, we could move on. We could finally keep going where we were headed before the March 2020 interruption.
Our world, our country, our church, our individual lives—they all have significant shades of uncertainty and uneasiness. The sense of urgency we feel to just head back to the priest and return to our lives is understandable. It does seem on some level, that would right the ship.
But there’s this Samaritan. And he doesn’t go back to normal immediately. He turns back. To Jesus. And he doesn’t just say thanks and get on his merry way.
He prostrates himself before Jesus.
Imagine a humility and reverence that would make you come up the aisle and prostrate yourself in front of the cross. To lay on your belly and stretch our your arms and put your nose the ground in front of someone. This prostrated position is a vulnerability that many of us spend our whole lives avoiding. Because it leaves us exposed and defenseless. Unguarded.
And I wonder if these shades of uncertainty are not meant for us to avoid, at least not right away. But rather to turn back in to, to turn our gaze to Christ.
And I wonder if these shades of uncertainty are calling us to let down our guards. To lay down our defenses and defensiveness.
To lay ourselves down, to bow our heads, to stretch out our hands, and say, “Thank you, for even this. Here I am.”
Uncertainty does have a way of making us feeling like we’re crawling out of our skin, like we’d do anything to get rid of it, like we’d latch on to anything that seemed like a life raft or climb on to the first shore that presented itself or put down our anchor even in unsafe waters so to only feel anchored.
But what if uncertainty is not something to run away from? At least not right away. What if it is something we are called to turn in to? To seek where Christ may be in these unchartered waters?
I realize that gratitude is not going to magically fix our very real problems. It’s not going to make the beauty of what we love last forever. It’s not going to reverse climate change or undo the damage COVID did. It’s not going to heal our polarized world.
But maybe gratitude is not meant to be productive. Maybe it’s not something that can be measured on spreadsheets.
Perhaps gratitude is meant to remind us of what matters.
Perhaps it is to help us take a step outside of our pressing urgency, our anxiety, our fear, our dread, our itch to just run back to religious life as we knew it, and say in this uncertain place, “There is goodness here. I see Jesus here. Thank you.”
Amen.
Sing: From the Head to the Heart - United Pursuit
Sharing Our Resources
There are many ways to support and resource the ministries of Azle Christian Church. You can give online on our website, on Venmo, or in the offering plate as the deacons come by during our final song. Don’t forget to drop your notification survey in the plate.
Invitation
If you’d like to become a member of this faith community, or if you’d like to become a disciple of Jesus, please talk with me after service or sometime this week.
Benediction:
Please rise in body or spirit for our benediction, the final song, and the Doxology.
Receive this blessing….
May the God of the open future show us the ways of caring and compassion, this morning and in the days to come, as we disperse now as a people committed to the way of Christ, who is our Savior. Amen.
Sing: Go Walk With God (O Waly Waly) & the Doxology