Sunday, October 9, 2022

Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Ruth 1:1-19a
Psalm 111
2 Timothy 2:1-13
Luke 17:11-19

If we are faithless, he remains faithful; for he can’t deny himself.

I like to watch the show “American Pickers.” It is fun to see them discover incredible finds in old barns and haggle for their best price. Some of the sellers are very difficult, insisting on more money that the pickers are willing to pay. They sometimes walk away without the items because they just don’t think it is worth the price being asked. I recently read an article about the show that was highly disappointing. Spoiler alert: it isn’t at all what it seems to be.

Now, reality television is never what it appears to be. I like to watch baking competitions. I am always amazed how those contestants can think of their project and complete it in such a limited time. They often must create a complex showstopper that should take days to complete. These big bakes are very complex with specialized equipment necessary to make it happen. One show even requires moving parts! These teams are well prepared with the right electronics and structure pieces, as if they’d designed the piece long before the show. Yet, we are shown their surprise at the subject matter of that episode. I’m sure the kitchens are filled with all sorts of interesting kitchen gadgets, but the supply seems endless, but they must have some warning about the tasks they will be asked to do because they are always prepared no matter what they decide.

The reality is that reality TV is not quite as improvised as they make it seem. On one Halloween show, the pumpkin carver always knows which pumpkin he wants even before they supposedly give the theme. How would he or she know that would create the perfect centerpiece if they didn’t have some idea what they needed to create?

I learned in that article that the picker show is not at all improvised. As a matter of fact, there is a team that goes out and finds the places where the pickers will visit. The team even makes the deal, so when the pickers begin haggling, they already know what the deal will be. I was disappointed to learn that sometimes the team even places that incredible find in the junk of the barn where the guys will be visiting. The pickers were probably once true pickers, but on the show they are little more than actors playing a role that has been scripted long before they drove up to the barn.

The contestants of the baking shows are also characters and they are expected to act according to this personality. It might be true to their real, but it is exaggerated to make good television. Some contestants have confessed after the show that the producers asked them to fulfill an expectation. Sometimes the mean guy is really the nicest person on the set but is acting a role rather than being adversarial. We also must remember that we get just forty-four minutes in an hour of a contest that took at least a day to film. The shows are so well edited that you see only what the producers want you to see.

It is still amazing to think that these contestants can create remarkable displays in such a short period of time. There is usually a disaster or two, but the bakers can usually overcome their problems and make something that looks and tastes wonderful. They can do this not only because they are prepared, but because they have practiced. They have learned their craft through hours of work and research. They could not have even been chosen to appear on the show if they had no experience.

On one baking show they even admit that the bakers have a chance to prepare. They are sent home between episodes with an idea of the theme. The hosts have asked if the bakers prepared. “Can you finish this in time?” they ask. The bakers often respond, “I practiced a few times and came close on my last time.” The work on their showstopper is rehearsed and the materials are available. Practice makes perfect. There is still drama because things can go wrong during the taping. On a recent episode, one baker had a plan and brought a certain display which did not work. Her piece broke and her display failed. Yet, it is probable that none of the pieces would work if the bakers were not given a chance to practice and prepare. The more they practice, the better their piece is in the end.

Paul’s letters are filled with repetition. Though each letter has a certain purpose and is written to a certain situation, there are some things that remain consistent. In every letter Paul shares God’s grace with the reader. In many of the letters Paul restates the story of Christ, reminding the readers of God’s salvation through Jesus. Though it may seem redundant to tell people repeatedly to “Remember Jesus Christ,” He is the center of our faith, so it never hurts to be reminded of the work accomplished through His death and resurrection.

This is not something that comes easily to us. Though we live by faith and trust that God has done this great thing, we don’t fully understand how death brings life. Sometimes we try to explain away the things we do not understand. We take the story of God and make it sound better to our ears and to the expectations of the world around us. Yet, by taking away the grace found in the death of Christ, we deny what God has done through Him for us. This causes confusion, even bickering about the Gospel. This makes it more difficult for the world to know Jesus, to come to faith and to receive the gift of true life.

It takes practice. It takes study. It takes wisdom. It takes daily immersion into the grace of God to stand firmly in that which we trust to be true. Living by faith is not we can do by improvisation. Paul reminds us to be ready to rightly handle the word of truth so that we might share it with others.

Living the life God calls us to live is not easy. Sometimes we must make choices that seem counter to what we should be doing. The things we do might seem good, but they are not always best. It takes commitment to keep our hearts and minds on Jesus, to follow Him as He would have us go, to do what is right in His Kingdom. It takes work to know God so well that we will do what is right even if it seems like we should be doing something different. The psalmist writes, “The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom. All those who do his work have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!” Wisdom comes from God, but it grows with practice and preparation.

Reba McIntyre played a divorced mom of three whose life was anything but ordinary. Her oldest daughter, Cheyenne, became pregnant as a teenager, married her beau and they all lived in Reba’s house. Her husband married his pregnant girlfriend, and they moved into a house literally seconds away. The girlfriend, Barbra Jean, was a ditzy blonde who thought of herself as Reba’s best friend. Everyone in Reba’s life made decisions that led to horrible consequences and in the end they survived because Reba managed to find some amicable solution to their problems. The circumstances were never easy, but Reba had a wisdom that got them through.

The middle child was a daughter named Kyra who was a very intelligent young lady, though a little bit rebellious. She was smarter than her older sister and often took advantage of her. Since Kyra was a highly independent and mature young lady, she often found herself outside the conflict and troubles of the day. She rarely got into trouble herself, so she was the last one to get any attention. Most of the time she liked being the stealth force in the family because it meant she got away with so many things. Unfortunately, it also meant that she was last to see the fulfillment of promises.

In one episode, Kyra had the chance to go on a trip to England. Reba knew that it was important to her, that it was the least she deserved for being such a great kid. Unfortunately, the trip was going to cost a lot of money. Reba insisted that Brock, her ex-husband, had to help her to ensure that Kyra could go. Reba worked out the budget and promised that she could go. Brock managed to find some excuse to get out of his half, but Reba still did all she could to fulfill her promise. Then Cheyenne had another crisis, so the money set aside for Kyra had to go to the young married couple to fix their problem. In the end, Kyra lost again. It broke Reba’s heart to tell her that she could not go.

I know I failed to be faithful to some of my own promises to my children. We never know what will happen tomorrow. We do not know what circumstances might make our promise impossible to keep. We can’t see beyond this moment, so we are often unfaithful. We disappoint those who trust us to be true to our word. Sometimes we make the choice that seems good but is not best.

That is why there is only One who can truly be trusted with our hope. The psalmist wrote, “He always remembers his covenant.” God is faithful. He remembers His covenant promises and He has shown His people over and over again that He is trustworthy. He made his wonderful works remembered. He has shown His people the power of His works. His Word is right and true and His Law is eternal. We who believe are reminded that it is in Him that we find real wisdom. Wisdom begins when we trust in the merciful God and His word, even when we do not know where it will lead, as we see in the Old Testament story from Ruth.

Orpah is one of those obscure figures from scriptures. We know her name, but she gets lost in Ruth’s story. We talk about Naomi, her troubles and her bitterness. We talk about Ruth, her generosity and courage. We barely mention Orpah, the one who went home. I suppose we see her as the opposite of Ruth, self-centered despite her love for her mother-in-law.

And yet, what Orpah did was not wrong. As a matter of fact, she was obedient to her mother-in-law’s wishes. Naomi was a widow with no sons with no means of support. She wanted to return to her homeland where she might find generous relatives who would take her into their home. It wouldn’t be right for her to demand they also take in her daughters-in-law. The women were Moabites and their life would be much better among their own people. Naomi was being kind and generous by telling them to go home, even if she did it from a place of grief and bitterness. Orpah wept in grief about leaving, but she did so out of respect for the woman she’d grown to love.

We have another story of opposites in the Gospel lesson. Nine lepers left Jesus to go to the Temple while one stayed with Him. The nine did what was right according to Jesus’ word and the Law. We are quick to dismiss the nine because they didn’t go back and say “Thank you” to Jesus, but they did what they were supposed to do.

Jesus commanded them to go to the priests and they all went in faith. I wonder what they were thinking as they left Jesus. It was proper to show yourself to the priest when you were cured of a disease, but they had not yet been cured; it was only as they were leaving that the leprosy left them. Nine of the lepers continued to the priests, doing exactly as expected according to their religion and society, then they disappear from the story. They were thankful, I am sure. The miracle saved their lives. They could return home, work and live as a normal person again. It probably saved the lives of their families who suffered along with their loved one who had been outcast. Their world was returned to them, and their thankfulness was displayed in a return to the normal course of life. This is not a bad thing.

The decisions Reba made on the show may have been right, but that didn’t make them any more acceptable to the middle daughter who was always left out. It was not bad that she helped the child who needed her, but it may have been better for Reba to choose the other way. It was just a scripted situation comedy, but we can learn by Reba’s mistakes. We can also learn from the failures of the Bible characters in our lessons this week. Orpah and the nine lepers did what was right, even obedient. However, there was a better way as we see in the stories of Ruth and the tenth leper.

Ruth followed Naomi, who was probably not very good company. Her bitterness made caring for her difficult, but Ruth willingly went into the fields to glean so that they would survive. Ruth’s love and generosity made a difference to Naomi, and in the end Ruth also found love, a future, and offspring. Her great grandson was King David and through his seed Jesus Christ was born. It might have been frightening to go with Naomi, but God had plans for Ruth’s life. Orpah probably had a wonderful life back home in Moab, but Ruth was greatly blessed when she went the other way. She experienced the blessing of relationships, not only with Naomi and her family, but with a husband, children, and the God of Israel.

Jesus told the lepers to go to the priests. The tenth leper was a Samaritan, but he went with them in hopeful expectation for healing. They all experienced the miracle. The nine continued in joy, but the Samaritan returned to the One who made him clean. The ten lepers were all healed physically, but only one sought out the true healing. When He praised God, Jesus gave him far more. He was made whole physically and spiritually. Jesus is concerned for both our physical and our spiritual wellbeing. Jesus changes people from the inside out, granting them forgiveness and filling them with the love of God, bringing them back into a relationship with the God who is faithful. It is that relationship that makes them whole.

Do we respond to God’s grace with simple obedience and then go on to our normal lives or are we changed forever by what God has done? That was the difference between Ruth and Orpah, the nine lepers and the Samaritan. Those who trusted in God were changed; they were made new. When they turned to God, they began a life of faith. What is faith? I often define faith as trust in God, but is that definition deep enough? What does it mean to trust God?

The psalmist confesses his faith in the presence of an assembly, and he does so by recounting the wonderful things God has done. He praises God by referencing the works of His hands. “Yahweh’s works are great, pondered by all those who delight in them. His work is honor and majesty. His righteousness endures forever. He has caused his wonderful works to be remembered. Yahweh is gracious and merciful.” The psalmist knows that we need to hear the story repeatedly so that we can see God’s hand even when it is not obvious. Unfortunately, God’s people often forget the great and marvelous things He has done, and in Jesus’ day they did not recognize that He was the final and most incredible act of God’s mercy. The tenth leper saw the truth; the others did not recognize the presence of God even though they did what was expected. They had faith in their obedience rather than in the One who could really make them whole.

Timothy was a believer for as long as anyone could remember, having been raised by Eunice his mother and Lois his grandmother. They taught him, planted the seeds of faith, and prepared him to follow the vocation to which God had called him. Paul continued to teach him everything he would need to know, mentoring him into a pastor that would serve God and the people of Ephesus. Timothy heard the story of Jesus repeatedly so that he would remember and stay true to the truth.

Unfortunately, the people of Ephesus were deceived by the Gnostic heresy, and they had no respect for Timothy. There were those in the congregation who even held Paul in contempt. Since Timothy was so young, they thought it would be easy to turn him into the kind of preacher they wanted him to be, teaching the heresy that tickled their ears. Paul wrote to encourage him to stand firm in the Gospel, to teach the Word as he’d heard it from Paul, even if it was hard to make the stand. He had a very specific job to do: God called him to teach the truth, not to conform to the desires of the world.

Paul encouraged Timothy to believe the word he spoke and to continue to follow it. Paul had to justify himself repeatedly. He had been a Pharisee, but he was changed by Jesus and was constantly persecuted for his work as an Apostle. He was in prison when he wrote his letter to Timothy, and it would have been natural for his adversaries to use his suffering as proof that he was not a reliable minister for God or for Jesus. Paul encourages Timothy by reminding him that suffering does not mean God’s Word is untrue. Though Paul suffers, God’s salvation is real. So, Paul charges Timothy to take that message to the people, the message that Christ is faithful even when we are faithless.

Ruth took the hard road, and she was blessed. Timothy took the hard road, and he was blessed. Who took the hard road in today’s Gospel lesson? Was it the nine who went to the Temple to show themselves to the priests even before they were healed, or was it the one who turned around and fell at Jesus’ feet in worship when the leprosy was gone?

It might seem like the Samaritan took the easy road. He didn’t walk all the way to the temple or face those who would question them about the healing. He didn’t provide thankofferings. Were the nine unfaithful because they didn’t worship Jesus? They did exactly what He told them to do. When He said “Go” they went even before they were healed. They trusted that Jesus’ word that they would be healed. They did what was required of them according to their law. We should be heralding their faithfulness.

We don’t, however, because we know that they did not need to seek forgiveness or absolution from the temple priests; they could find everything they needed in Jesus Christ. The one who turned back took the hard path, because it was the path that went against the expectations of the world in which he lived. He died to self and turned to God. And in doing so, he was blessed beyond measure. The other nine were healed, but he was made well.

Here’s the rest of the story: like Ruth, the one leper who turned to Jesus was a foreigner. Jesus was passing along the borders of Samaria and Galilee. There is always more diversity in along the borders. The Galileans were from Judah; the Samaritans were from the Northern tribes that had been Israel. The differences between the people were largely political; there were some religious differences, but in many ways the ordinary people related to one another on a human level. Yet, among those who were strictly observant of the Law, the Samaritans were unclean because they had a history of syncretism (accepting and trying to meld together opposing and conflicting belief systems), allowing the worship of other gods in their communities. These differences did not matter much to the lepers. They were all outcast, all unclean. They all stood at a distance from Jesus, respecting his position not wanting to make him unclean. They all sought mercy.

The easiest relationship in our lives should be with God, but it is the hardest because we have to turn away from everything we know to follow Him into the unknown. Ruth did it. Timothy did, too. The leper from Samaria saw the work of God in Jesus’ words and he humbled himself before the One who does great things. He revered the One who can heal, who changes lives. He found life and forgiveness and wisdom at the feet of Jesus.

We are healed for more than just a return to our old way of life. We are saved to be a blessing to others. Ruth followed Naomi and a God she did not know, and she became the mother of kings and the King. We don’t know what happened to the Samaritan leper after he left Jesus, but as soon as he knew he was healed, he worshipped. I’m certain that he returned home praising God and telling others about Jesus.

Paul told Timothy to pass on the knowledge that he had been given. It isn’t enough to hear the Gospel and go on to live our lives as if nothing has changed. God’s grace gives us new life, life that is meant to be shared. The examples Paul gives are interesting because again, it is not bad to live life or do your job as expected. A good soldier is obedient to the commands of his leader. A good athlete focuses on his training. A good farmer reaps a harvest that will take care of his family. This is not bad. A person of faith, however, takes it to the next step. A person of faith glorifies God in their daily work. We are made new, transformed by God’s grace. We are no longer soldiering, running, or reaping for ourselves. We are called to do all this for God. We are saved and healed through Jesus Christ who died for our sake.

We should go on to live our lives, to care for our families, to do our work. We should go to the Temple and show ourselves to the priests so that they can declare to our communities that God has done good things for us. We should go home and love our families. We should rejoice in the new life we have been given. However, faith takes it further. Faith heals. Faith trusts that it was God who did it for us; faith praises God for what He did. We are blessed to be a blessing for others. Orpah and the nine walked away from God with the promise of a good life. Ruth and the one received far more. They received the promise of eternity, the promise of a relationship with the faithful One who makes us whole.