Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7 Psalm 66:1-11 2 Timothy 2:8-15 Luke 17:11-19

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

I had an interesting phone call late Wednesday afternoon from Elaine Brelsford, the development manager for Boys Home in Covington, VA.  The Church of the Advent has supported Boys Home over its many decades in various ways.  Boys Home is a haven for young males whose wellbeing depends upon being rescued from high risk, highly troubled environments.

Ms. Brelsford began to tell me of a young man, an alumnus of Boys Home, who had accompanied her here to Advent recently on a weekday visit.  As a child in the 1980’s during the time of Fr. Herb Smith, this young man had been active here at Advent.  Ms. Brelsford told of him standing here in the nave before the Christus Rex, transfixed with memories and gratitude.

Unfortunately, during those early years while he was here, the boy’s family had experienced great turmoil that culminated in his becoming a resident of Boys Home.  Fortunately, in that nurturing environment, he received care and counselling and education, insulated from the tragedy of his broken family.  Throughout all those tumultuous years, Fr. Smith and Advent remained engaged in the boy’s life.  And, with God’s help, family disfunction was healed to the point that this young boy was eventually reunited with his parents and siblings.

Now, many years have passed; the sensitive young boy has grown into a successful man.  And, he has never forgotten the nurturance and direction he received from those of you who were present during this turbulent and impressionable period in his early life.  On November 24, one of Ms. Brelsford’s colleagues from Boys Home plans to come to speak to us during the worship service; I’m certain he will share more of the boy’s story – all in thanksgiving for the seeds of God’s goodness that were planted in him in this place and further nurtured at Boys Home.

Reflecting on this conversation in relation to last week’s Gospel lesson and this week’s lesson in the verses that immediately follow, I can’t help but be impressed by the powerful connective tissue of these real-life accounts – these from 2,000 years ago that Luke relates to us, and this from much more recent history.

Last week, Jesus instructed his disciples on the immeasurable power of the tiniest seed of faith – faith, which is a gift from God; the faith of Jesus Christ that we are to mirror to the world; faith made manifest, as its tiniest seed, nurtured by God’s grace, regenerates and spreads generation after generation.  As disciples of Christ, we are slaves to that gift of the faith of Christ, all glory and thanks to God, as we delight in his will and walk in his ways.

Having shared these faith lessons with his disciples, Jesus and his entourage moved southward toward the region of Samaria where they encountered ten lepers, keeping their distance as prescribed by society, all while pleading loudly for Jesus’ mercy and healing.  Luke tells us that Jesus “saw” them and spoke healing to the ten.  Then, following Jesus’ instruction, they departed to show themselves to the priest, and as they went they “were made clean.”

The Greek language in which the Gospels are recorded does not differentiate healing and salvation; to be healed is to be saved; to be saved is to be healed.  We are not promised physical healing on our terms, we are promised spiritual healing, which is salvation.  Luke states that the ten lepers were “made clean” of the physical ailment, which had rendered them outcasts of society.

Yet, we sense that the significance of the encounter is yet to be revealed; the physical healing of the ten lepers is truly only a sideline to our Gospel account.  The significant message of this encounter with the ten lepers is encompassed in the actions of the one who “turned back, praising God with a loud voice,” prostrating himself in thanksgiving at Jesus’ feet.

Luke tells us that the one who “turned back” was a Samaritan – a triple outcast – a foreign Samaritan leper who, so completely and effectively, demonstrated the fundamentals of our salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

In this redeemed Samaritan leper, we find the essentials of our faith journey: By means of our redemption by grace through our faith in Jesus Christ, we are cleansed of sin.  Recognizing the reality of the gift of our salvation, we “turn back” – we turn our lives to the path of Jesus Christ, that we might walk in his ways rather than our own poorly directed earthly ways.  With all praise and glory to God, we prostrate ourselves before God in thanksgiving.  And, it is in this thanksgiving that we are made “well” as the Samaritan leper was “made well.”  It is in this thanksgiving that we are made “well.”

Luke differentiates through the use of two different Greek terms the meaning of being made “clean,” as were the ten, from the meaning of being made “well,” as was the one.  To be made well encompasses gratitude and thanksgiving to God – the recognition that we owe all thanks and glory to God for all things; the recognition that God is in all things.  And, in all things, we are made well.

Our young boy went away from here seeking and finding the cleansing healing that Boys Home so effectively provided through God’s grace.  Yet, again and again, spiritually and physically, he has turned back to give thanks for the seeds of love and healing that were planted and nurtured by this parish over 30 years ago.  Now, he has grown into a successful man whose faith has made him well.  All thanks be to God.