‘Blow, blow, thou winter
wind, thou art
not so unkind as man’s ingratitude.’
These words from
Shakespeare’s As You Like It came to my
mind when I first read today’s NT reading (Luke 17:11-19).
Luke tells us
that Jesus healed ten lepers, and only one came back to show his gratitude. ‘Were not ten made clean?’, says Jesus, ‘But the other nine, where are they?’
I fear I’m more
like the nine ungrateful than the tenth grateful one – and I dare say you are
too. How many of us do not owe an immense debt to someone else? Perhaps to a
friend, a teacher, a doctor, who has done something for us that we could not
possibly repay. Or to our parents - a week’s neglect on their part would have
killed us when we were new born. Yet how often do we forget to express our
gratitude, how often do we not even bother to say thank you?
And we are often
ungrateful to God as well. He has blessed us with so much. He has given us a
wonderful world so perfectly made to meet our needs for food, clothing, shelter
and beauty. He has given us the capacity to form deep loving relationships as
parents and children, as friends and lovers. And God has even given us his only
Son to show us the way to his kingdom, the way of self-sacrifice which leads through
the cross.
When times are
bad we may pray to God with desparate intensity, but when times are good we are
inclined to forget to be grateful. At Holy Communion we recite automatically
the words ‘Almighty God, we thank you for
feeding us’, but how many of us ever offer even a silent grace before
meals, I wonder?
Jesus saw that the
one who came back was a Samaritan. ‘Was none of them
found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’,
he says.
As an ethnic
group the Samaritans were heretics - they did not behave, or believe, or
worship as the Jews did – they were ritually unclean. They were disliked and
despised by their Jewish neighbours – somewhat as some Irish people dislike and
despise immigrants or travellers today.
But Jesus teaches
his disciples a lesson by drawing their attention to this particular outsider,
who was the only one to turn back, the only one to praise God for his healing
and the only one to thank Jesus. And Jesus publicly blessed him, saying, ‘Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well’.
Jesus is never
dismissive of people who are different in race, culture or faith, and as
Christians we should not be either. We are enriched by the diverse people who
are our neighbours, and Jesus commands us to love them as ourselves.
Jeremiah (29:1, 4-7) gives the exiles in Babylon
some good advice in today’s OT reading.
Get on with your lives - build
houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat what they produce, marry and
have children. But also, seek the welfare of the city where you find yourself,
and pray for it, because in its welfare you will find your welfare.
Others at the
time were stirring up the Jewish people to rebel against the Babylonians. But
history shows that Jeremiah was wise. It seems the Jews did as he advised, they
prospered in Babylon and retained their identity, so that some 70 years later,
after Babylon in turn had been overthrown by the Persians, their descendents
were able to return to Jerusalem and restore the Temple.
It is good advice
for migrants everywhere. It is good advice for the New Irish who have made our
country their home. And it is good advice for the many Irish emigrants overseas.
If we love them, let us pray that they may build good lives in their new
communities and work for them to flourish, because if their new communities
flourish, so will they.
But what of
those of us who remain at home?
The news media
are consumed with Brexit at the moment - for good reason - but it is the
carefully phrased reports from scientists which should be of most concern to
us. It is clear that human actions are seriously damaging the web of life on
this beautiful planet God has placed us on.
The linked
emergencies of climate change and biodiversity loss will force lifestyle
changes on us all very soon. We do not yet see clearly what those changes will
be, nor how we must adapt to new conditions. But we can be sure the future cannot
be one of ever-growing material prosperity as we have been conditioned to
expect. We have grown up in a world where endless economic growth and
increasingly wasteful consumption seems natural. As the limits to growth become
more and more apparent, we will start to feel like exiles in our own country. We
will have to find ways to live good and happy lives with less.
Jeremiah’s advice
is good for us as well:
- Get on with your lives, he says. We
must not look back at what we feel we are losing, but instead look
forward.
- Build houses and live in them, Jeremiah says. It is shameful that
as a society we allow so many to be homeless, and it is shameful that policies
of austerity ruin the lives of the poor, the sick and the vulnerable, even
as the rich grow richer and the crisis intensifies. We need to build a
better, more equal and resilient society. Together as communities we need
to build our capacity to cherish all our neighbours, and to love them as
we love ourselves.
- Plant gardens and eat what they produce, Jeremiah says. We are blessed with
bountiful renewable resources: our land and seas to feed us, energy from
wind, ocean and geothermal heat, skilled people and vibrant culture. Let
us use them productively – they are the gardens that will feed us.
- Marry and have children, Jeremiah says. Ordinary human life will
continue – let us use our capacity for deep loving relationships as
parents, children, friends and lovers, to support and care for one
another.
- But also, says Jeremiah, seek the welfare of the city where you find yourself, and pray for it, because in its welfare you will find your welfare. Let us strive to protect our God-given planet and build a just and sustainable society for the future, because only in such a society can we all flourish.
And let us behave
like the grateful Samaritan and remember to turn back, praising God, and giving
thanks for all he has given us.
I shall finish
in prayer with a Collect of the Word:
O God,
you have made heaven and earth and all that is good:
help us to delight in simple things
and to rejoice always in the richness of your bounty;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with
you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and
ever.
Amen
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