Luke 17:11-19 ­ On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."
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Healing and wholeness happen in the presence of the divine. There is a coherent energy of peace and love which is present anywhere and everywhere, in Samaria and Galilee, at all times and in all places. We recognize that coherent energy of peace and love as Christ's incarnation of God's Spirit, the manifestation of God in creation. Being near and within that creative, loving compassion, restores our coherence, our wholeness.

Ten lepers. They know their need. "Have mercy on us." Notice. Jesus doesn't do anything. He doesn't pray over them; touch them; exercise some sort of healing ritual over them. He just says to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests."

When persons who had been infected with leprosy believed themselves to be cured, it was necessary for them to be examined by a priest in order to certify that they were indeed well. Then they would offer the appointed sacrifices and rituals and be restored to the community. Some of that process is laid out specifically in the scriptures.

So Jesus tells the ten lepers, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." Turn and take the next step as if you were clean. In other words, move in the direction you would go toward in order to claim your healing. "And as they went, they were made clean."

There is great wisdom in this teaching. We've seen it at the core of several nonviolent movements of liberation in modern times. Part of what Martin Luther King told black people to do was to walk into a segregated soda fountain as if you were free and claim your equality. Part of what Mahatma Gandhi told his people was to act as though India belonged to Indians and to claim their homeland in peaceful nonviolence.

King and Gandhi knew a great truth. All people are created equal, entitled to their freedom by Almighty God. These are truths that are called self-evident. They are enduring and they are inherently powerful. They do not need force to compel. They have the power of self-evident truth. And power always overcomes force in the end. Truth is more powerful than falsehood. No mere force based on falsehood can endure forever the inherent power of truth.

Now, let me share a great truth with you. At the center of Jesus' teaching to you and me is his insistence that you are one with God. You are a member of the body of Christ. He prayed that we may be one with God just as he and the Father are one. That is who you are. You are whole. You are healed. You are holy. You are united with God forever. That is an ontological fact of your being. It is the revelation of Jesus, and it is what he gave his life to show us. All it takes for you to manifest and actualize that truth is for you to take the next step forward in that direction to claim your being.

If you knew and deeply understood right now at this moment, that you are living in Christ, united to God, completely loved and accepted, filled with divine life, light and energy... If you accepted that as true right here, right now... what is your next step forward in the direction of claiming your reality?

You might relax a bit, and not let whatever may have been bothering you as you entered this place have such control over you. After all, if you are wrapped up in the loving presence of God, how threatening could that problem be? Even if that problem is life threatening, what we know from the life and resurrection of Jesus is that we are completely and eternally secure whether we live for a few minutes or for a hundred years.

Sound too good to be true? That's the voice of unreality speaking. Try doing what the lepers did. Try walking the next few steps in that direction. Walk right into whatever your segregated soda fountain is and sit down. You are a child of the universe. You have a right to be here. And whether or not you know it, things are unfolding just as they should.

We are surrounded by so much illusion and disinformation, however. It's easy to lose focus on the reality of the truth that we are nestled into God as securely as a nursing child in its mother's arms. It's not surprising that only one of the ten lepers returned to give thanks. Only one in ten was able to recognize the source of this wonderful gift of whole life.

I'm like that. It's embarrassing for me to think about all of the things that I've been given that I just take for granted, as if they are my due. I am the product of such unearned privilege. To be brought up in this nation is a glorious chance of fate. I was given a level of security, love, protection, education, religious exposure, and vast opportunity that is of immeasurable worth. I didn't earn any of that. It was handed to me by the conditions of my environment. How rarely I am conscious enough to be thankful for that. And it seems only right that I accept the modest responsibilities that come with being the beneficiary of such excess. After all, those to whom much is given, much should be expected.

How judgmental and condescending I can be toward those who have not enjoyed the same unearned privileges I have. How easy it is to see their ignorances and faults. But what if I had grown up in their circumstances? How certain am I that I would be any different from them?

What if I look at them in a different way? Those others. Those who are threatening to me; those I believe to be wrong or bad. What if I look at them as though they too are one with God? What if I regard them to be as intimately connected with me as my hand is to my arm? What if I entertain the thought that they too are whole, healed and holy, united with God forever? What if my next step toward them is in the direction of my recognition of their wholeness and healing? That would be to see them with the eyes and compassion of Christ. That might make for peace.

Notice the egalitarianism of Christ. All ten lepers are healed. He didn't pick out the good ones and take care of them and leave the bad ones to suffer their just punishment. All are healed. And when only one returned to give thanks, he didn't reinfect the ungrateful ones just to show them.

The peace, reconciliation and unqualified love of Christ is the most radical thing in the world. It turns our way of being upside down. But it is the way of life.

My fellow lepers. Go show yourselves to the priests. Claim your healing, your wholeness, your forgiveness and reconciliation. You are one with God. You are holy. Make your next thought, your next step, your next word, your next act congruous with that truth. And then extend that truth infinitely, to every human being on this planet. See each one united to God, completely loved and accepted, filled with divine life, light and energy. Doing that, we can become a cooperating part of what God is doing to heal this broken world. That's the vision Jesus invites us to live in.

In a few moments we will act upon that vision. We do this every Sunday. We will express our union with God in the communion of Christ's body. And as we go, we will be made clean. Our lives will be nourished literally by his life in a sacrament that makes us one with God and one with each other. And do you remember what it's called? It's called "Eucharist." Eucharist is the Greek word meaning "Thanksgiving." It's what we do when we see that we are healed. We turn back, all of us, praising God with joyful voices, and make Eucharist. Thanks be to God.