Date: October 6th & 9th
Preacher: Pastor Ashley Rosa-Ruggieri
First Reading: 2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c
Psalmody: Psalm 111
Second Reading: 2 Timothy 2:8-15
Gospel: Luke 17:11-19
We are rapidly heading into the Fall and Winter seasons, which also means that we are heading into a season of colds, the flu, and other illnesses that love to come around when the cold outside has chilled us to our bones. I remember when I first went off to college, I had a friend that was sick enough to be out of commission and away from class for about a week, and her roommate was even staying in another friend’s room just to be safe. And after she had recuperated, she was talking with me and a professor one day. The professor knew she had been sick, and asked her, “How are you doing? Are you well?”
My friend’s response was along the lines of, “Yeah, I’m better, my symptoms are nearly gone, so now it is just catching up on schoolwork.” And the professor responded with this wisdom, “I understand you are physically better, but I am also asking if you are well. How is your mind? Your heart? Your soul? Illness can take its toll on more than just the physical body, and I want to support your healing, and your wellness.” It has been a decade since this interaction occurred, and yet I often think of this wisdom when someone around me is sick in any way.
Sickness, illness, disease, or whatever name it might go by, is an unavoidable part of living in our world. And though there are treatments, medicines, or other practices that can help to heal these physical burdens, we often tend to neglect the ways that these situations also drain someone’s mental, emotional, or spiritual energy along with the physical. Between navigating the expenses and difficulties of our healthcare system, ensuring that accommodations are made when necessary, and attending the actual appointments or meetings to get the care that is needed, the energy left for those other non-physical needs often has run dry. Today in our Gospel reading, we have one of the many examples of healing that Jesus does in the Bible. Ten lepers come to him, he tells them to go show themselves to the priest, and as they go, they are made clean, or healed. But one of the people with leprosy does not continue to the priest, but stays to thank Jesus for this miracle, and Jesus’s response for this one person is that their faith has made them well.
All those with leprosy in this passage experience the wonder of being made clean, but only one is told that he is also well. Healing is important, it opens opportunities in a way that can be closed off for someone in need of cleansing. In our reading this truth is shown through how lepers were treated in their culture at the time. Leprosy could have referred to any number of illnesses, but the important thing was that they were often excluded, ostracized from society because their physical illness could harm others around them. And so, in order to keep others safe from these many ailments, they stayed away from the majority of the population. This is why the other men who are made clean so quickly run off to the priests to show them that they are healed. In a way they are finally seeing a way of running back into the arms of a society that has isolated them for an unknown amount of time. Perhaps for some it has only been days or weeks, but some in that group could have been excluded for years because it was better for the community around them to not also get sick.
In our present world we can also see how this has affected our culture during the pandemic. In order to keep more people physically safe, those who contracted Covid are asked to seclude themselves, though not for as long as these lepers might have had to. In doing so, the person was contributing to the physical health of their friends, family, and neighbor by not spreading a disease that was harming and continues to harm many people. But we also know that there were other repercussions of Covid that left many people feeling unwell, even if they were physically healthy and clean. Isolation from others, a lack of physical contact, these are all things that take a toll on our emotional, mental, and spiritual needs. However, amidst all of this, the Holy Spirit found a way to spread the good news of Christ through ministries that were trying new ways of connecting. Churches found a way to still be the church, even from different places. It is a blessing that the people of God were able to find innovative and new ways to worship and include all people, even in the face of horrible circumstances that could have gotten in the way. By doing this, the church was recognizing the spiritual wellness that we also want to nurture alongside our physical health. Both are important, both are needed in this Gospel passage for the man with leprosy to be made clean, and to be made well. We too should have the same wish for our whole community, that all may be clean, healthy, and well.
This connection from the lepers to our own modern context then leads me to ask: In what ways are we as a community of Christ followers lifting one another up? How are we doing this so that all are physically healthy, and are able to share spiritual, mental, and emotional burdens with one another so that all may also be well. I think our Good News is found this week in the acknowledgement that in Jesus there is healing and wellness. That our faith and our community can help support us in the times where we do not feel well. There is a great hymn that is one of my favorites, and the chorus repeats the line, “It is well with my soul.” The hymn does not promise that everything in life will always be good, but it offers a message of hope that the Lord can lovingly take all your burdens, blessing you and sending you off in faith and wellness.
The first verse says, “When peace like a river attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll, Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.” I offer theses lyrics today, along with the words of our Gospel, as an invitation to be a faith-filled community who is called to advocate for the physical health of our neighbors, and for opportunities that all may also find wellness. So that all might say, I am clean, healthy, and healed, and it is well with soul. Thanks be to God.