Different Types of Pray-ers

October 26, 2025 Luke 18:9-14 Different types of pray-ers 20th Sunday after Pentecost Year C Prelude Greetings Call to Worship (inspired by Psalm 65) Leader: From the east and from the west, we come to praise God! People: Today we celebrate the ways God is at work in our world. Leader: From the fields ready for harvest to the majesty of the mountains, People: from the abundance of gentle rains to the blazing color of fall leaves Leader: God crowns the year with good blessings! People: And today we gather to praise God, Creator and Sustainer of life! (Disciples of Christ Center for Faith and Giving) Opening Prayer Bring us to deep silence, God, as we give thanks for the gifts you pour out on us and on all creation. Help us focus on you, and on the ways you sustain us in this life, even as we offer you our praise. AMEN. (Disciples of Christ Center for Faith and Giving) Song Lord I Want to be a Christian UMH 402 A Sermon for all Ages The Problem with Keeping all of the Rules Object: Picture of a camel Good morning, boys and girls. What is this picture I have in my hand? That's right, it's a picture of a camel. Today, I'm going to tell you a story by Rudyard Kipling about the problem of pride and how the camel got its hump. When God first created the earth and all the animals, He gave each of the animals a different job. All of the animals did their work, except the camel. Whenever the other animals asked the camel to do some work, the camel just said, "Humph!" and walked away. Whenever the other animals asked the camel to play with them, the camel just said, "Humph!" and walked away. You see, the camel thought that he was better than all the other animals. He had too much pride. So whenever the other animals talked to the camel, he just said, "Humph!" and walked away. Well, God didn't like for the camel to have so much pride. Because of his pride, the camel was not nice to the other animals. So God put a heavy hump on the camel's back to remind him of the time when he had too much pride and said, "Humph!" to all the animals instead of being nice. Of course, this is just make-believe. That is not really how the camel got its hump, is it? But it makes an important point. Our Bible story today is about two men who go to church to pray. The first man says his prayer very loudly. He acts like he is better than everybody else. He has too much pride. The second man prays quietly and asks God to forgive him of his sins. God listens to the prayer of the second man, because this man is not proud. God wants us to be like the second man. When we go to pray, we shouldn't act like we are better than others, and we shouldn't be a show-off about our religion. God likes us to be humble, and to glorify Him, not ourselves. Dynamic Preaching, Collected Sermons, by King Duncan Call to Reconciliation When we pray to God, do we do so with pride in what wonderful people we are, or with that humble hope which recognizes how we have not lived as God’s children, and how we need God’s forgiveness and grace in our lives? Join me as we pray to our God, saying, (Lectionary Liturgies, Thom Shuman) Unison Prayer for Forgiveness Watching God, like the Pharisee, we think we can stick our thumbs into life, pull out a prayer, and congratulate ourselves for being such good Christians. Then, we remember the harsh words we have spoken this week, the hurt we have inflicted on someone we loved, the lack of compassion we failed to offer to someone who needed our help. Forgive us, God of Grace, and deal gently with us. May we become more like the tax collector - humble, penitent, acknowledging our faulty lives to you. Then, may we receive the mercy promised to us through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen. (Lectionary Liturgies, Thom Shuman) Silence is kept Assurance of Pardon Forgiven and healed, we open ourselves to the grace, the peace, the hope offered to us through our loving God. This is the good news we have received! Graced and blessed, we are able to live our lives for others, taking them by the hand to reach that finish line called the Kingdom. Thanks be to God. Amen. (Lectionary Liturgies, Thom Shuman) Passing of the Peace Scripture Luke 18:9-14 Sermon Different types of Pray-ers Are You Really Listening? In his book Directions, author James Hamilton shares this insight about listening to God: "Before refrigerators, people used icehouses to preserve their food. Icehouses had thick walls, no windows, and a tightly fitted door. In winter, when streams and lakes were frozen, large blocks of ice were cut, hauled to the icehouses, and covered with sawdust. Often the ice would last well into the summer. One man lost a valuable watch while working in an icehouse. He searched diligently for it, carefully raking through the sawdust, but didn’t find it. His fellow workers also looked, but their efforts, too, proved futile. A small boy who heard about the fruitless search slipped into the icehouse during the noon hour and soon emerged with the watch. Amazed, the men asked him how he found it. I closed the door,'' the boy replied, “lay down in the sawdust, and kept very still. Soon I heard the watch ticking.'' Often the question is not whether God is speaking, but whether we are being still enough, and quiet enough, to hear. Yes, Jesus assures us that our heavenly Father always listens to us, but do we really listen to God? Do we follow the instructions of Psalm 46, "Be still, and know that I am God"? Eric S. Ritz, The Ritz Collection,www.Sermons.com Prayer is listening for God’s voice in our lives. When we pray we are connecting our lives to the source of all life. Prayer is at the heart of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Discipleship is connecting our lives and the world to the God. Prayer also lies at the heart of the gospel of Luke. Luke is intended to be a training manual for disciples. Luke demonstrates the power of prayer in all 24 chapters, from the birth of Christ to the resurrection – Luke shows the power of prayer, he tells us stories of Jesus praying, he models what prayer looks like, shoe shows ordinary persons praying, and he even shows how God answers prayer. In chapter 18, he gives us examples of three types of prayer in the mouths of three different lay persons. We didn’t look at the first part of chapter 18 – but it is the story of a faithful widow praying for justice and God hears her prayer. Our text for today is about 2 very different men with 2 very different prayers. When our children were small and we were trying to teach them to pray, we had three kinds of prayer: "Please prayers," Thank you prayers," and "Sorry prayers." S. Briscoe, Getting into God, p. 55. So the widow’s prayer was a please prayer, the pharisee’s prayer was a thank you prayer, and the tax collectors prayer was a sorry prayer. Actually in spiritual life there are five kinds of prayer. The five major types of prayer, intercession on behalf of others, adoration, confession, petition and thanksgiving. Luke gives models of all of them.As a matter of fact, there are 3 models of prayer in chapter 18. Last week we heard of the woman persistent in her prayer. – prayers of petition. You could say that the Pharisee was praying a prayer of adoration – even if it was adoration of his own faith. And the tax collector prayed a prayer of confession. Which is a better prayer? Which is better for us to pray? There is no comparison. There are times in our lives when we need to pray all five prayers. The comparison is not with the widow, the Pharisee and the tax collector. The comparison is with Jesus Christ – does the prayer draw us closer to Jesus. Luke gives us an example of all 5 types of prayer and I would encourage you to use them all at some point in your daily life. So when Jesus tells this parable, it is probably not based on a real story – Jesus is just using examples of people that he knows are in the crowd that day. Another major them of Luke is bridging the gap between insiders and outsiders. Jesus wanted to encourage the beloved community to understand those that they didn’t know so that they could open the door of acceptance. Tax collectors would have flocked to Jesus, because they didn’t feel accepted by the community. Tax collectors were nothing like IRS agents of today. They were considered traiters, because they would take money from their own people. Some time it made it to the government, most of the time it did not. They pocketed it. In a crowded room people would have felt uncomfortable around a tax collector. They were outsiders On the other hand, the pharisees were considered the ultimate insider. They were well respected and were looked up to as leaders. The pharisees were haters, they were in the crowd just to stalk Jesus and find something to criticize. Not only were they insiders, they were the authority for who was in, and who was out. When Jesus uses them in his parable, he is actually giving them a compliment. He is helping his followers understand their role in religious society. Pharisees were the first lay leaders – they studied the bible constantly, they did all that they could to support the congregation, they prayed for themselves and for others, they were expected to always go above and beyond. They were supposed to be better than anyone else. When he says thank you God that I am not like the other people, he is actually praying • Pharisee prays Psalm 17:3-5 “If you try my heart, if you visit me by night, if you test me, you will find no wickedness in me; my mouth does not transgress. As for what others do, by the word of your lips I have avoided the ways of the violent. My steps have held fast to your paths; my feet have not slipped.” His prayers are sincere – yet Jesus points out that prayer is not just words, it is also attitude and actions. The pharisees words were close to God, his attitudes and actions were not. Being a better Christian is about connecting to others – reaching out, not looking down on people. C. S. Lewis once said, "A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and of course, as long as you are looking down, you can't see something that's above you." • The tax collector on the other hand prayed Psalm 51 - Tax Collector prays Psalm 51:1 "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions” In Jesus eyes, the pharisee’s prayer wasn’t wrong, and the tax collectors prayer was not right. Both are equal in God’s eyes. They are both children of God. The pharisee is a model of faith, and the tax collector is closer to the ordinary guy. Jesus knows that in our minds, we tend to look for the good guy and the bad guy. Jesus is counting on us finding good and bad in the story. We like to stalk out the bad, the wrong, the problem. There is a story of a famous well liked knight who was a dragon hunter. He took is task very seriously. Everything that he did during his day, was geared toward making him a better dragon hunter. He thought about dragons night and day. He spent every available minute practicing hunting dragons. For him, in order to catch a dragon, you have to think like a dragon, you had to understand their motivation. His every thought was directed toward hunting dragons. One day, after years of discipline, he happened to see his reflection while looking at a river, and he was horrified at what he had seen. After years of focusing on hunting dragons, he discovered that he had become the thing that he hated the most – he has become a dragon. If we leave the sanctuary this morning focusing on the faults of the pharisee – thinking that he is the bad guy – then the lessons of Jesus has failed you. Jesus wants you to see the self- righteousness in yourself. Our text actually stars out by saying – there were certain people in the audience who had become self righteous. Those people he is talking about is you and me. As soon as we start to draw the line between us and them, between right and wrong, between good and bad, between insider and outsider – Jesus can automatically be found on the other side than us. Humanity is constantly trying to order ourselves regarding power and worth. The challenge of the Gospel is all people are beloved and that challenge is lived out in the Beloved Community (& the Kingdom of Heaven). In what ways are we humbling and exalting others or ourselves in appropriate (leveling) ways and inappropriate ways? Sometimes our greatest gifts, can become our greatest burden to listening to God clearly. The pharisee prayed a genuine prayer of thankfulness, but he focused on his gifts, and didn’t mention his faults. Discipleship is seeing others as beloved children of God- balancing love of God and love of other That is why prayer is so much a part of our discipleship. All 5 types of prayer ( intercession on behalf of others, adoration for God’s grace, confession of our sins, thankfulness and petition) need to be a part of our daily life. God hears the prayers of both the saints and the sinners. Our prayer life shapes our attitudes and our actions. May the grace that we receive from God be the grace that we pass on to others. Let us pray……. Song Leaning on the Everlasting Arms UMH 133 Pastoral Prayer We know that you listen to the prayers of the faithful, looking in our lives, and looking upon the world. Ask that you be with each and every person here and their concerns. Many things for us to pray about. • Pray for peace within the wars and disagreements in the world • Pray for the tensions in our country. We pray for people who are demonstrating and that you hear their concerns. • Pray for people in danger, and separated form families • Pray for many people and places that have been affected by hurricanes and horrible weather • People who are dealing with loss help in their grief • People who are dealing with illness of themselves and family members • Farmers who are working in the field, keep safe and not let labor be in vain • Violence and crimes unsolved. • Grace, peace, mercy Lord’s Prayer Stewardship Moment So the question still remains, who do you see yourself as in the story of the pharisee and the tax collector. Are we the model of what it means to be faithful to God, or are we just the ordinary person just trying to be faithful. Most of us are probably somewhere in between. And the next question is which of these two people would Jesus want us to model on our own faith journey? Does Jesus really want us to cheat those around us, and to hoard money for ourselves, and then ask for forgiveness without any thought of repentance. Jesus would probably want us to be more like the pharisee – the pharisee studied the bible, he served his church, he reached out to others, he was in constant communication with God, and he was very intentional about tithing. He took what he gave to God very seriously. If the bible called for him to give 10% of everything to God, he did that. Those are all of the lessons that we are reminded of during our stewardship campaign – giving our gifts, our prayers, our talents, our service and our witness. Jesus wants us to be like the pharisee - like a pharisee who has a little humility and an awareness of the prayers of others. Jesus does not discourage giving 10% of our income back to God. But the good news for us is that Jesus gives us grace. In today’s economy, when we look at our income. 10% may be way too much to give on a regular basis. He encourages us to pray and consider the cost and to give in a way that helps us to feel good about our gift. If 10% is too much, then perhaps we can consider 5%, or 2% or 1%. In a few weeks, we will be asked to consider our gifts to the church. I hope that we can all use our skill in prayer and connection to God as we commit our pledge for the year. God loves a cheerful giver, which is why we usually ask for a pledge and not a straight tithe. Jesus also stressed that when we give, that we consider the mission – what needs to be done and how much does it cost to do it. If each of us gives what we can – we can fulfill that mission. The mission of our church is to grow as disciples of Christ and to create a space for others to have a relationship with God, whether they are a pharisee or a tax collector. As we come to a time of sharing our tithes, offerings and gifts, Today, I invite you to look deep within your own self. What can you offer? What WILL you offer in gratitude for the ways Jesus lifts you up in his love, and God’s Spirit draws you close? Prayer of Thanksgiving God, we want to know, deep down, how we can live into the person you’ve created each of us to be. Receive the gifts we’ve offered here: the finances, the time, and the talents of each of our lives, but also the vulnerable recognition of our individual souls. Today, send us from this time of worship eager to be true followers of Jesus, who ate with sinners; crossed racial, social, and gender restrictions; and called ordinary folk to be his disciples. AMEN (Disciples of Christ Center for Faith and Giving) Announcements Closing Prayer for Facebook May we leave this house of worship today, quick to listen, slow to speak, open to hearing and responding to God’s truth. May God bless you and keep you, be kind and gracious to you, may God look upon you with favor and bring you peace. Amen. (Presbyterian Outlook, Terri McDowell Ott) Community Time – Joys and Concerns Benediction What greater joy can we know that to go home justified because of our humility before God who redeems? Let us leave this place to live as we came in – openly and desiring to praise God and witness to a saving love. Go in humble grace. In Christ’s name. Amen. Derek Weber, March 2025 Additional Illustrations An Absolute Standard One rabbi said, "If there are only two righteous men in the world, I and my son are these two; if there is only one, I am he!" –Reminds me of two friends talking, one said, "We're the only two honest people left in the world, and sometimes I'm not so sure about you!" With a human measure, righteousness is relative, you can always find someone better and someone worse. Take the right point of comparison and you feel pretty good about yourself. A little boy announced to his mother, "I'm like Goliath. I'm 9 feet tall." "Why do you say that?" asked his mother. "Well, I made a little ruler and measured myself with it; I'm 9 feet tall!" Human standards don't count. The only evaluation that counts is by an absolute standard! The righteousness of God Himself; with that measuring stick, we all come up short! Lee Compson, Holier Than Who? ___________________________________ What Impresses God - Luke 18:9-14 There was a very lost, wicked, rebellious man who decided it would be good for business if he went down to the church and joined it. He was an adulterer, an alcoholic, and had never been a member of a church in his life. But when he went down to the altar to join the church, he gave public testimony to the church that there was no sin in his life, and that he had grown up in the church, and they readily accepted him as a member. When he went home he told his wife what he had done, and his wife, a very godly lady, exploded. She excoriated him for being such a hypocrite, and demanded that he go back to the church the next week and confess what he really was. Well, God used his wife to really break him, and he took it to heart. The next Sunday he went back to the church, walked down to the front again, and this time confessed to the church all of his sins. He told them he was dishonest, an alcoholic, an adulterer, and he was sorry. They revoked his membership on the spot. He walked out of the church that day scratching his head and muttered to himself: "These church folks are really strange. I told a lie and they took me in; and when I told the truth they kicked me out!" The Lord Jesus told a story of two men in a similar situation who had totally different results. One man tried to talk himself into God's kingdom, but he didn't make it. One man tried to talk himself out of God's kingdom and he did make it. Now Luke makes it plain who Jesus told this parable to. For he says in v.9, "Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others." I promise you, every one of you will find yourself somewhere in this story. Because at one time or another all of us are guilty of trying to impress God. You are going to learn, surprisingly, what does impress God, and what doesn't. I. The Pharisee Who Fooled Himself II. The Person Who Faulted Himself III. The Principle That Fulfills Itself _________________ Pride I heard about a fifth grader that came home from school so excited. She had been voted "prettiest girl in the class." The next day she was even more excited when she came home, for the class had voted her "the most likely to succeed." The next day she came home and told her mother she had won a third contest, being voted "the most popular." But the next day she came home extremely upset. The mother said, "What happened, did you lose this time?" She said, "Oh no, I won the vote again." The mother said, "What were you voted this time?" She said, "most stuck up." Well this Pharisee would have won that contest hands down. He had an "i" problem. Five times you will read the little pronoun "i" in these two verses. He was stoned on the drug of self. He suffered from two problems: inflation and deflation. He had an inflated view of who he was, and a deflated view of who God was. His pride had made him too big for his spiritual britches. James Merritt, Collected Sermons, ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc. Can You Hear the Music - Luke 18:9-14 Who doesn’t like an “attaboy!” when they do something good? It’s why we have “honor society” in school. It is the reason we have scholarship awards as we head into college. “Attaboy!” stands behind all those accolades high achievers get throughout life — Rhode’s scholarships, purple hearts, Silver stars, gold statues, merit raises for school teachers, making partner in a big firm, getting re-elected (in any organization, at any level). “Attaboys!” reward the gracious, good, above-and-beyond behaviors we see in others. Good persons deserve good things. The problem is that our vision of “good behavior” can get extremely myopic, extremely near-sighted. We only are able to see the good in those who stand closest to us. Those far off become, if not “bad,” at least “other.” “Otherness” is perhaps the most insidious form of prejudice. Why? Because “otherness” makes close closed. “Otherness” disassociates our close family and other loved ones from outsiders and strangers. As soon as we identify some people as “others,” the game is over. We have drawn up “us” vs. “them” battle-lines. In this week’s gospel parable the good-living, well-meaning Pharisee and the ne’r-do-well tax collector are set up as ideal types of the “acceptable” vs. the “other.” The contrast could not be sharper. The Pharisee examines himself, and finds no fault with himself. The tax collector lets God examine him, and throws himself on the bar of God's justice (receiving mercy as God does).Ironically, the Pharisee treats God as a debt collector and the Tax collector, who IS a debt collector, treats God as a Savior…. The Best Treatment for Loneliness Dr. Karl Menninger, the famous American psychiatrist, once gave a lecture on mental health & was answering questions from the audience. One man asked, "What would you advise a person to do if that person felt a nervous breakdown coming on?" Everyone there expected him to answer, "Consult a psychiatrist." To their astonishment he replied: Leave your house, go across the railroad tracks, find someone who is in need, and do something to help that person. Brett Blair, www.eSermons.com Everything He Says Is True When you read the story about the Pharisee, a number of specific statements are made about his piety. Please note this. Everything the man says about himself is true. For instance, when he says, “I thank you that I am not like other men,” indeed he wasn’t like other men. He had a standard of morality that was far above the standard of that day. When he said, “I fast twice a week;” it happens to be literally true. The Pharisees fasted on Monday and Thursday of every week. When he says, “I give tithes of all I possess,” he means he tithes on the gross and not on the net. He went beyond the Law of Moses. That’s no big deal; all the Pharisees did that. And when he says, “I am not a crook,” he really isn’t a crook. When he says, “I am not like this filthy tax collector,” he’s really not like that guy. When he says, “I do not commit adultery,” he really doesn’t commit adultery. He is faithful to his wife. When he says, “I am honest, I am faithful, I am zealous for my religion,” he means it and every word of it is true. He truly is a genuinely good man. When I read his prayer, I am reminded of that country song that says, “Oh, Lord, it’s hard to be humble, when you’re perfect in every way.” What we are to understand is this. When he prayed he was telling the truth. When he said, “Lord, you’re lucky to have a guy like me, because I’m one of the best guys I know,” it was really true. He really was a wonderful guy. While he prayed, people would be standing around watching. And they would say, “He’s a fine man.” While he prayed, they probably applauded. He was the kind of guy you’d want living next door to you. A good citizen. A law-abiding man. A good, religious kind of person. If he were to come to this church today we’d love him because he would be faithful, loyal, and give us a lot of money. We’d probably make him an elder or a deacon. He’s just that kind of guy. He looks really good on the outside. Everything he says about himself is absolutely true. Ray Pritchard, How to Be Right with God ___________________________________ The Cunning Craftsman In her play, "The Zeal of Thy House," Dorothy Sayers imagines a stonemason working on an intricate carving for the chancel of Canterbury Cathedral, who clumsily lets his tool slip and spoils the whole great piece of stone assigned to him. It is a sad moment as the valuable and custom-cut stone stands misshapen. The architect, however, takes the tool out of the artisan's hand and although he remonstrates with him for his clumsiness, begins to enact forgiveness. He redesigns out of the spoiled carving a new and different figure which has its own part to play in the ensemble of the Cathedral, and then permits the blundering mason to complete it in all its glory. "So works with us," concludes Dorothy Sayers, "the cunning craftsman, God." On reading it, I could not shake the phrase from my mind: "The cunning craftsman, God." As used, the word cunning does not mean some kind of craftiness which might be our modern interpretation. But taken in its pure sense it indicates skill, wisdom and ability. The phrase then really means that the Master artist God can take our blundering efforts and still make something useful out of them. He takes our mismanaged lives, our failed efforts, our missed marks, our shameful deeds, our alien attitudes, our sinful lives and out of his divine resourcefulness he saves the day by creating something new, worthy and wonderful that still has usefulness and beauty in the divine plan of things. It is a reassurance that we desperately need, but one on which we cannot presume. Allan J. Weenink, Only The Wounded Can Serve, CSS Publishing Co., Inc. ________________ What Kind of Sinners Can Be Members Samuel Colgate, the founder of the Colgate business empire, was a devout Christian, and he told of an incident that took place in the church he attended. During an evangelistic service, an invitation was given at the close of the sermon for all those who wished to turn their lives over to Christ and be forgiven. One of the first persons to walk down the aisle and kneel at the altar was a well-known prostitute. She knelt in very real repentance, she wept, she asked God to forgive her, and meanwhile the rest of the congregation looked on approvingly at what she was doing. Then she stood and testified that she believed God had forgiven her for her past life, and she now wanted to become a member of the church. For a few moments, the silence was deafening. Finally, Samuel Colgate arose and said, "I guess we blundered when we prayed that the Lord would save sinners. We forgot to specify what kind of sinners. We'd better ask him to forgive us for this oversight. The Holy Spirit has touched this woman and made her truly repentant, but the Lord apparently doesn't understand that she's not the type we want him to rescue. We'd better spell it out for him just which sinners we had in mind." Immediately, a motion was made and unanimously approved that the woman be accepted into membership in the congregation. God accepts us as we are. There's not a sin too black, not a deed too awful, not a thought too horrible for him to forgive. Larry R. Kalajainen, Extraordinary Faith for Ordinary Time, CSS Publishing Company, Inc. I Used to Be an Intellectual Albert Schweitzer was laboring one day, under the hot African sun, building his hospital at Lambarene. A large timber had to be raised into place, and try as he might, Schweitzer couldn't manage it. He looked up and saw a well-dressed African man standing in the shade of a tree, and asked him to lend a hand. "O, no," the man said, "I don't do that kind of work. I am an intellectual." And Albert Schweitzer, with five earned doctor's degrees, said, "I used to be an intellectual, but I couldn't live up to it." When we are Christians we don't have anything to live up to, no pretenses to maintain, no privileges to guard. We can't be too low in the eyes of the world. We can't be losers enough. There is a wonderful peace and freedom in that. William R. Boyer, Sorry, Thank You, Please _________________ Bent to the Ground A city boy visited his cousin who lived on a farm in the country for the first time. The city boy had never seen wheat growing in a field. It was an impressive sight for him, the wheat golden brown and ready for harvesting. He noticed that some of the wheat stood tall in the field, whereas some of it was bent low, touching the ground. The city boy said to his cousin, "I bet the ones standing tall are the best ones, aren't they?" His cousin smiled knowingly and reached over and plucked the head of one of the tall-standing wheat stalks and one that was bent to the ground. He rubbed each of them and the city boy saw that the tall one was almost empty of seeds. But the one bent to the ground was full of the promise of a rich harvest. R. Curtis Fussell, Deadly Sins and Living Virtues, CSS Publishing Company, Inc. Learn To Empty Yourself A martial arts student was meeting with his master and teacher at a table, having tea. The student said to his master, "I've learned all you have to teach me about defending myself. I want to learn one thing more now. Please teach me about the ways of God." The master took the teakettle and starting pouring the student's cup full of tea. Soon the cup was full and began to spill over onto the saucer. But the master continued to pour the tea until it spilled over the saucer and then onto the floor. The student finally said, "Stop, stop, the tea is spilling over. The cup can't take any more." The master then looked at the student and said, "You are so full of yourself that there is no room in your life for God. It is not possible for you to learn the ways of God until you learn to empty yourself." R. Curtis Fussell, Deadly Sins and Living Virtues, CSS Publishing Company, Inc. Worshipping Who She Used To Be Girolamo Savonarola was one of the great preachers of the fifteenth century. He preached in the great cathedral of Florence, Italy, which contained a magnificent marble statue of the blessed virgin Mary. When Savonarola started preaching at this great cathedral, he noticed one day an elderly woman praying before this statue of Mary. He then began to notice that it was her habit to come every day and pray before the statue. Savonarola remarked one day to an elderly priest who had been serving in the cathedral for many years, "Look how devoted and earnest this woman is. Every day she comes and offers prayers to the blessed Mother of Jesus. What a marvelous act of faith." But the elderly priest replied, "Do not be deceived by what you see. Many years ago when the sculptor needed a model to pose for this statue of the blessed Mother, he hired a beautiful young woman to sit for him. This devout worshiper you see here everyday is that young woman. She is worshiping who she used to be." The first and perhaps the deadliest of the seven deadly sins is pride. R. Curtis Fussell, Deadly Sins and Living Virtues, CSS Publishing Company, Inc. ____________________ They Only Ironed The Parts That Showed Mike Cope, in his article "Righteousness Inside Out," tells of inviting a college student and his girlfriend back to his home after church, to have lunch with him and his wife. "When we got to the house, I took off my suit coat and invited him to do the same. The boy hemmed and hawed for a long time until he could pull me aside, and what he whispered to me then reminded me of the way I used to live when I was in college." It seemed he had only ironed the cuffs and collar of his shirt. If he took off his jacket, his girl would see the rest of his shirt and know what a slob he was. He had only ironed the parts that showed. That was one of the major, ongoing complaints Jesus brought against the Pharisees, the religious leaders of his day. That they were phony. That they were not what they seemed to be. That they were hypocrites. That they only ironed the parts that showed. William R. Boyer, Sorry, Thank You, Please ______________________ Our Own Vices Dwight L. Moody and Charles Spurgeon were great preachers of the nineteenth century. Moody admired Spurgeon from a distance and looked forward to the opportunity of meeting him in London. On that historic day, Spurgeon answered the door with a cigar in his mouth. Moody was aghast. "How could you, a man of God, smoke that?" Spurgeon took the cigar from his mouth, put his finger on Moody's rather inflated stomach, smiled and said, "The same way you, a man of God, could be that fat." Because we are usually blind to our own vices, we are hardly qualified to judge others. Eric S. Ritz, The Ritz Collection,www.Sermons.com ____________________________ • Ask your congregation who they are- the tax collector or the Pharisee? Why do they think that? Who do they view as the other? Why? Do they feel they deserve to be exalted or humbled? In some ways this could be thought of as a modern day version of the old parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.
A Pharisee was a lay person, who committed to following the law to the letter. He did what was right all of the time. He tithed, the prayed, he studied the scripture, he lived right. The tax collector of Jesus day, was not the IRS man of today. The tax collector was thought of as a thief and a traitor. He stole from his own to give it to the government. Sometimes the money made it to the government, most of the time it did not. He kept it in his pocket. Jesus understood the plight of the tax collector very well – he had lunch with them all of the time. Jesus did not get along real well with the Pharisee.

The Special Leper

October 9, 2022 Luke 17:11-19 Year C The Special Leper 18th Sunday After Pentecost Opening Song Welcome Call to Worship One: The Psalmist commands: “Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth!” Many: We’re gathered to sing God’s praise. One: Come and see what God is doing; Many: God brought us out from fire and water. One: God brings people out to a spacious place, Many: and we give God our gratitude! (Disciple’s of Christ Center for Faith and Giving) Opening Prayer O Lord, our Creator and Sustainer, you give us seasons to plant, to grow, to harvest, and to rest, and we are grateful. As the leaves turn and fall from the trees, help us embrace the changes we see as a natural part of life. We come today with our ups and down, doubts and fears, trials and triumphs. We’re grateful you have created each one of us and molded us into your own image. As we worship you, help us stand strong and sure when the winds blow. Remind us: through it all you are with us, every moment, every step, every time, every situation. And hear our praise for you in every moment of our day. Amen. adapted from Cynthia Bond Hopson, The Africana Worship Book for Year C, Valerie Bridgeman Davis and Safiyah Fosua, eds., (Discipleship Resources, 2008), 137. Song Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee UMH 89 Children’s Time Does anyone know what I have here? (Hold up the thank-you card.) That’s right, I have a thank-you card. Can anyone share about a time when you have sent or received a thank-you card? (Allow kids to respond.) We have lots to be thankful for everyday, but sometimes we forget to say those two little words in response to someone doing something kind for us. In fact, that’s what happened in our Bible passage today. The story is about ten lepers. Do you know what a leper is? (Pause for kids to respond.) A leper is a person who has a disease called leprosy. This disease causes sores all over the body. Leprosy was very common in Jesus' day, and people who had this disease were thought to be dirty and unclean. They were required to stay away from other people because of the fear that they might infect them with their disease. One day, Jesus was walking through a small village when He saw a group of ten lepers. They stood far away from Jesus and called to Him, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us." Obviously, they knew who Jesus was and that He had the power to heal them. When Jesus heard them, He called back to the lepers and said, "Go, show yourself to the priest." As the lepers went on their way to see the priest, they looked at their skin and the sores were gone. Jesus had healed their disease. They were so happy that they ran up and down the streets singing and dancing. Suddenly, one of them stopped and went back. Praising God with a loud voice, he threw himself at Jesus' feet and said, "Thank You." Jesus said to him, "Weren't there ten who were healed? Where are the other nine?" (Luke 17:11-19) Only one out of ten remembered to say, "Thank You." God does so much for us! Every day He provides everything we need: food, clothing, and a place to live. Do we ever forget to say, "Thank You?" Let's stop right now and say, "Thank You," and ask God to help us remember to thank Him every day. Dear Lord, You give us everything we need, but we often forget to say, "Thank You." We thank You now, and ask You to help us to remember to give thanks every day for all that You do for us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. (Sermons4kids.com) Prayer for Transformation and New Life Loving God, form in me a space for healing and enter in anew. For too long I have clutched the past in ways that have prevented the possibility of moving forward. Boundaries of my own making have kept me resistant to your healing mercy. Definitions of the world’s making have created divisions preventing the possibility of a new day, a new season, a new life. By Your mercy form me for a life of mercy and thanks. Lift every burden and release me from every long-rehearsed story holding me hostage to any narrative of hopelessness, hurt and fear. Grant instead a lightness of spirit forgiving me and freeing me to leap into a dance of delight beyond my wildest imagination. Words of Grace Hear the good news! Into our little openings of trust, God is pouring a large love born of mercy. No burden of your past is stronger than this power of Love to forgive, heal, and bless. In the name of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. Now may (United Church of Christ Worship Ways, Rev. Dr. David Long-Higgins) Scripture Luke 17:11-19 Sermon The Special Leper Greg Anderson, in Living Life on Purpose, tells a story about a man whose wife had left him. He was completely depressed. He had lost faith in himself, in other people, in God--he found no joy in living. One rainy morning this man went to a small neighborhood restaurant for breakfast. Although several people were at the diner, no one was speaking to anyone else. Our miserable friend hunched over the counter, stirring his coffee with a spoon. In one of the small booths along the window was a young mother with a little girl. They had just been served their food when the little girl broke the sad silence by almost shouting, "Momma, why don't we say our prayers here?" The waitress who had just served their breakfast turned around and said, "Sure, honey, we pray here. Will you say the prayer for us?" And she turned and looked at the rest of the people in the restaurant and said, "Bow your heads." Surprisingly, one by one, the heads went down. The little girl then bowed her head, folded her hands, and said, "God is great, God is good, and we thank him for our food. Amen." That prayer changed the entire atmosphere. People began to talk with one another. The waitress said, "We should do that every morning." "All of a sudden," said our friend, "my whole frame of mind started to improve. From that little girl's example, I started to thank God for all that I did have and stop majoring in all that I didn't have. I started to be grateful." We all understand and appreciate the importance of gratitude. How it can radically change relationships. In fact, one of the first things we were taught and that we teach our children is to express their gratitude. Someone gives them some candy and we say: “Now what do you say?” And the child learns from an early age the answer “Thank you.” And certainly we all know as adults that we appreciate being thanked. Yet, when it comes to giving thanks to our heavenly father, we so often miss the mark. And when it comes to giving our thanks to God, I don’t suppose there is any story in the Bible that is so endearing to us, so timelessly appropriate, as the story of Jesus healing the ten lepers. We have all heard the story many times, but like so many Bible stories, we never tire of it…. How can we put a sense of gratitude for God’s blessings in each and every day? That is a fitting message for our stewardship campaign. That is what our faith is all about, not only being able to say thank you, but to live thank you. The story of the ten lepers, is not so much a popular story, it is only found in Luke. But it is a familiar story. Jesus heals the ten lepers, all leave and return to their life, but only one of them returns to say thank you. And for us, the moral of the story is for us to be just like the leper and always remember to say thank you. Have You Forgotten Something? I can recall three rhetorical questions that accompanied me throughout my childhood. The first was, "Were you born in a barn?" That usually came when I left a door open, or didn't clean up my room. The second was, "When will you ever grow up?" which was a question my sisters asked me as a carefully planned, relentless program of persecution. The third one was, "Have you forgotten something?" That was the parental admonition, usually for not saying thank you after receiving some gift. This last question is what I thought of when I read the New Testament lesson for this morning from Luke's gospel, the seventeenth chapter, the story of Jesus healing ten lepers. Only one comes back to give thanks. Ten were healed, but only the Samaritan came back. If my mother had been there, she would have said to the nine, "Have you forgotten something?" Mark Trotter, How about Something Different? I am sure that each of us has a story about growing up and being taught the importance of saying thank you. For me, it was my stepfather who stressed to me how important it was to say thank you whether someone did something big or small for you. I always wondered why that lesson was never stressed to my younger siblings or nieces or nephews. But nevertheless it was a big lesson for me. In Sunday School, we were taught that the point of this story was to always follow the example of the tenth leper and be the one to come back and say thank you. As a matter of fact, many would think that this scripture is the perfect lesson about how faith, obedience and gratitude work together. If you look at the background of this story – that could not be further from the truth. The first words of the story say “On the way to Jerusalem”, somewhere between Galilee and Samaria. Jesus has already been to Samaria, so no one knows why he is in no man’s land between the Samaritans and the Jews. Jesus loved his people, but he was also about reconciliation between the two people. Perhaps Jesus was intentionally looking for people like the lepers who did not fit in on either side. The lepers were in quarantine from any social group. Their illness kept them together as a group, but it also alienated them from their support system. Healing was not just curing the disease, but returning them to that system. The story is not specific about what exactly Jesus does – but he does tell the lepers to return back to their support system. He also tells them to go back to church, so that they can get back to life as normal. All of them do that. But one of them is not a Jew, he is a Samaritan. He does not have a church to go to. He knows that if he returns to church, whether he is healed or not, he is not going to be accepted. Jesus is his church, and he returns to Jesus to show his gratitude. Who are the Samaritans of today? Who are the ones who know that they just don’t fit in here? Jesus point in telling us this story – sometimes outsiders are closer to god and have a deeper faith than those inside of the church. Outsiders find salvation, and insiders remain blind and oblivious to true faith. Why was Jesus in no man’s land on that day- looking for outsiders, outcast and others and showing them to salvation of God. The first lesson for us – blur the lines between the outsiders and the insiders of the church. Keep our eyes open for those unexpected moments of God’s grace in our lives. The second lesson – expand your definition of healing. Our scripture never says what Jesus did to these ten men. Did he pray, lay hands on them, preach a sermon. No mention of it as all. But Jesus does tell them that they are healed and to go show themselves to the priest. They may not have even had time to feel better or to know that they were really healed. But they took Jesus at his word – believed things were better. Jesus told them the healing was in the journey. How many of us take Jesus as his word? How many of us will do what Jesus says and just trust it to be so. The healing is in the daily journey, not in Jesus touching us. Jesus says that the Samaritans faith made him whole. God In the Ordinary Once upon a time, there was a far-away land that was ruled by a vicious king. His iron hand reached into every corner of his subjects' lives. Every corner - except one. Try as he might, he couldn't destroy their belief in God. In his frustration, he finally summoned his advisors and asked them: "Where can I hide God so the people will end up forgetting about him?" One suggested hiding God on the dark side of the moon. This idea was debated, but was voted down because the advisors feared that their scientists would one day discover a way to travel into space travel and God would be discovered again. Another suggested burying God in the deepest part of the ocean. But there was the same problem with this idea, so it was voted down. One idea after another was suggested and debated and rejected. Until finally the oldest and wisest advisor had a flash of insight. "I know," he said, "why don't we hide God where no one will ever even think to look?" And he explained, "If we hide God in the ordinary events of people's everyday lives, they'll never find him!" And so it was done. And they say people in that land are still looking for God - even today. ChrstianGlobe Illustrations We have to recognize the grace of God in every moment in life. • Rob Myalis (http://lectionarygreek.blogspot.com/2010/10/luke-1711-19.html) “When Jesus says that the man's faith saved him, we see very clearly that Luke is not suggesting "your belief in a set of propositional truths gave you keys to heaven." What Jesus seems to be saying is more on long the lines: "your trust in my word and power motivated action from you that transformed your life in a way that have experienced the salvation of God." For all good theologians, faith leads to action!” The key word is transformation. The Samaritan leper is not a hero because he was a stranger, not because he was obedient and faithful. He was a hero because he chose to be transformed because of his encounter with Jesus. When was the last time you were truly transformed by saying thank you to Christ? Let’s try to do it everyday. I found this poem last night – the author is Ullie Kaye, but it channels the words of that special leper. How did you heal? I didn’t Then how is it that you can still face the sun every morning like that? Because I am healing. How do you know? Because I am finally okay with not being healed in the way that I wanted But choosing to know that I am being healed in the way that I needed. I am trusting the process. The Process is Jesus Christ. Amen. Song God of the Sparrow, God of the Whale UMH 122 Prayer Lord, we thank you for the wondrous ways in which you have healed and restored us. There have been countless times when we wondered if the trials and struggles of our lives would overcome us and swallow us up; yet you have reached out to redeem us. Just as in the scriptures when Jesus healed the ten people afflicted with leprosy, one, when he saw that he had been healed, returned to Jesus, praising God for the healing that had taken place. Make our faith as strong as the one of that man. Give us the wisdom to know the source of healing is not in our pleading, but in our acknowledging your love and power. As we bring before you the names and situations in our hearts that are filled with strife and trouble, we ask for their healing as well. We know that you hear the cries of our hearts and respond always in love. Help us to place our complete trust in your never-ending compassion. For it is in Jesus’ Name, we pray. AMEN (United Methodist Ministry Matters, Nancy Townley) Lord’s Prayer Stewardship Moment Meister Eckhart said, “If the only prayer you said was ‘thank you’, that would be enough.” If we begin there, with a simple “thank you” to God, the rest will follow. Thanks first. Thanks always. Thanks in everything. One of the greatest gifts we can give to each other in Christian community is that of helping one another cultivate a spirit of gratitude. If we do this, glad hearts and generous spirits will follow. Our spirits will be filled, along with our coffers, providing financial support for our congregation’s ministry. After all, gratitude begets more gratitude, and the more gratitude you have the more abundance you see. With thank-filled hearts, let us share our morning offerings, tithes and gifts. Adapted from https://www.stewardshipoflife.org/2013/10/first-and-always-give-thanks/ Prayer of Thanksgiving Holy Creator, Like the healed leper, we come to give you our thanks! You provide for us, abundant stores of more-than-we-need. Now, receive the gifts we’ve brought today. Help us transform them, modeling on the ways Jesus reached out. Encourage us to freely share what’s been given, so we might bless those we seek to serve: the hungry, the lost, the fear-filled neighbors who yearn for signs of help and hope. AMEN (Disciples of Christ Center for Faith and Giving) Announcements Closing Prayer for Facebook Go, my friends, because the mercy of God has freed you from your past. Go, because the mercy of God calls you forward into the world. Go, because the blessing of mercy you offer to others will lighten the burden they are carrying. Go, because by this mercy of God, we are all healed again and again. Thanks be to God! Amen and Amen! (United Church of Christ Worship Ways, Rev. Dr. David Long-Higgins) Community Time Benediction Benediction (Luke 17) Jesus said to the leper, “Get up and go on your way. Your faith has made you well.” Let us all claim Jesus’ healing and liberation in our lives. Get up and go on your way! In Jesus’ name, your faith has made you whole And all God’s people say: Amen. (United Methodist Ministry Matters, Rebecca Gaudino) Additional Illustrations Sermon Opener - Giving Thanks before Thanksgiving - Luke 17:11-19 _________________________________ Healing - Luke 17:11-19 When I was in fourth or fifth grade, I was helping my dad in the kitchen. I had been taught how to use a knife properly, but I wasn’t always perfect at it. I slipped and knicked my finger. It was just a small cut but it was on the knuckle, so if the cut was going to heal, we had to find a way to splint my finger. I remember being very proud that my dad simply took a piece of kindling from the pile for our wood stove, cut off two small pieces, bandaged my finger and taped it with adhesive tape. Voila! Within a matter of minutes I was on the road to healing. My finger healed quickly and you can’t even see a scar. It is as if it never happened. I think we often wish more of life was like that. When we are sick or injured, we hope and pray for healing. We want a transformation. We want our health completely restored. We want it to be as though we were never sick or hurt in the first place. We want transformation as we see in our scriptures today. In 2 Kings we hear the story of Naaman, the army commander, who was healed from leprosy when he finally followed the instructions of the prophet Elisha and went to bathe in the River Jordan seven times. Amusingly, Naaman was initially resistant to this source of healing as he expected a great fanfare or an endurance trial or challenge in order to be healed rather than merely just bathing in the Jordan. Yet that was not what was required of him. When he finally followed Elisha’s instructions, at the urging of the servants, Naaman was made clean. And this was some cleansing. It was not just that Naaman was healed of his leprosy, his flesh was completely restored to what it was before he ever had it. He had the skin of a young boy after he bathed. Naaman got exactly what we wish for — complete healing and transformation. Then in Luke’s gospel we get another story of a miraculous healing of lepers. The ten lepers asked Jesus to have mercy on them. Jesus told them to go show themselves to the priests, and Jesus granted their wish, and “poof,” just like that they were healed. The leprosy was gone. Again, just what we wish for when we are the ones who are afflicted. I have to admit, I actually have a hard time with these miraculous healing stories in the Bible. I find them rather frustrating. Because while the small cuts and bruises of life do heal over…. The Seeds of Discouragement An old legend tells how a man once stumbled upon a great red barn after wandering for days in a forest in the dark. He was seeking refuge from the howling winds of a storm. He entered the barn and his eyes grew accustomed to the dark. To his astonishment, he discovered that this was the barn where the devil kept his storehouse of seeds. They were the seeds that were sown in the hearts of humans. The man became curious and lit a match. He began exploring the piles of bins of seeds round him. He couldn’t help but notice that the greatest majority of them said, “Seeds of Discouragement.” About that time one of the devil’s helpers arrived to pick up a load of seeds. The man asked him, “Why the abundance of discouragement seeds?” The helper laughed and replied, “Because they are so effective and they take root so quickly.” “Do they grow everywhere?” the man asked. At that moment the devil’s helper became very sullen. He glared at the man and in disgust he said, “No. They never seem to grow in the heart of a grateful person.” Keith Wagner, But Are We Grateful? Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known. Garrison Keillor, Lake Wobegon

Did you Remember to day Thank You

October 13, 2019 Luke 17:11-19 18th Sunday after Pentecost Year C Did You Remember to say Thank you Object: A bow (from a gift) Good morning, boys and girls. There are some words that are more important than all others. For example, "œI love you." Wow, those are important words. Would you like to get an instant smile from your parents or your grandparents or someone close to you? Simply say, "œMom, I love you. Or Dad. Or Grandmother, I love you." None of us probably say those words enough. There are two other words that are almost as powerful. They are "œThank you." I brought this bow with me to remind us that all of us enjoy getting gifts. Some of you have birthdays this time of year. Soon it will be Christmas--I know that you are not looking forward to Christmas. Oh, you are? I'm not surprised. One of the most important lessons you can learn in life is to say, "œThank you." Our lesson from the Bible this morning is about ten men whom Jesus healed from a terrible disease, but only one of them came back to say thank you. You know, God has given us many gifts, hasn't He? He's given us healthy bodies, good minds, families that love us, sunshine and rain and flowers and trees--and the list goes on and on. That's one of the reasons we come to church each week--to say "œthank you" to God. When anyone gives us a gift, we need to say "œthank you." God has given us more gifts that we can possibly even imagine. So let's remember to say thank you to God. Dynamic Preaching, Collected Sermons, by King Duncan Stewardship Moment When I visited Greece during a tour in 2000, we were all surprised that everyone that we met spoke English. Someone explained that the economy of Greece was dependent on tourist, so they had taken a lot of time to communicate with us. But they felt that the least that we Americans could do was to learn to say hello and thank you in Greek. I can’t remember hello, but luckily one of my friends taught me an easy way to remember thank you. Say F. Harry Stowe. So now you can say thank you if you ever found yourself in Greek. Modern Greek has changed a little from the greek that we know from the bible. Efaristo is the modern pronounciation for Eucharisto or Eucharist. When we take eucharist or communion it is our way of saying thank you. But it is important for us to remember that thank you is more than words of endearment – they are a way of life. it is how we treat other people, it is how we prioritize life, it is our relationship with God, it is how we live our faith. In today’s scripture Jesus says that it is that Eucharistic faith that heals us and makes life better. How do you say thank you? Luke 17:11-19 Common English Bible (CEB) Jesus heals a Samaritan 11 On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he entered a village, ten men with skin diseases approached him. Keeping their distance from him, 13 they raised their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, show us mercy!” 14 When Jesus saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” As they left, they were cleansed. 15 One of them, when he saw that he had been healed, returned and praised God with a loud voice. 16 He fell on his face at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. He was a Samaritan. 17 Jesus replied, “Weren’t ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 No one returned to praise God except this foreigner?” 19 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up and go. Your faith has healed you.” Common English Bible (CEB) Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible Imagine being a young man, in the prime of your life, just married the woman of your dreams, and one day she notices some white spots on your neck – and your life as you know it is over – because she has to report to the community and the priest that you have leprosy – and have to immediately move away from the community. Or imagine that your first child has been born two months ago – a son to carry on your name – and you too are diagnosed with leprosy- Or after a long period of trying to find your life work – you realize that you want to go into farming with your father – and as you celebrate your new found life – you lose it to leprosy. The laws in the book of Levitcus are very clear – if anyone notices a swelling in his skin or a scab or boil or pimple with transparent skin they are to be brought to the priest for examination. If the spot turns white – or if it looks more than skin deep, then the priest must declare him a leper. It could happen to anyone at any time in life. If they were a leper- the most important thing was protecting the rest of the community from they – so they were to live outside the gates of the city. They were to keep their distance from everyone and to declare to all that they were one of the untouchables. Life as they knew it was over – no family, no job, no meaning in life. Just gathering together with other lepers – totally dependent on the goodness of others to live. I find it interesting that the modern interpretations of this verse identify the 10 subjects of this story as men with a skin disease. Whereas older versions just calls them lepers. Their whole sense of humanity is tied up in their sickness. It takes over everything about their life. They couldn’t be with family, they couldn’t work, go to temple. All they could do was to sit by the side of the road and ask for mercy. That is exactly what they ask of Jesus – mercy. But Jesus gives them so much more than that. It is no surprise that Luke as a doctor would be the only one to tell this story of a physical healing that turns into so much more. We know that Jesus heals all ten of the lepers, we know that only one bothers to come back to say thank you. We know that the one who comes back is not only an outsider because of his physical condition, but also because he is a Samaritan. Even Jesus calls him a foreigner. Perhaps the other nine were jews. And they did what jesus told them – go show yourself to the priest so that you can return back to your life. perhaps instead of saying thank you, they chose to live thank you. Living thank you is a matter of stewardship in the way we give to others, it not only requires repentance, but being grateful also means returning. Maybe that it why we go home for thanksgiving to be with family and friends in order to return to the things that we are grateful for. But for the one that does return to Jesus – Jesus gives him another gift – he says that your faith has made you whole. Or in some interpretations, your faith has saved you. Our version says your faith has healed you. Who packed your parachute story Every now and then someone sends you something on the email which is worth Keeping. Some years ago a friend, and I can't remember who it was now, sent An email entitled "who packed your parachute". I was interested to see Recently that it is doing the rounds again. It was one of those you are meant to send on to people who have a special Place in your life. It is the story of a US fighter pilot from the Vietnam War, called Charles Plumb. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air Missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and Spent 6 years in a Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now Lectures on lessons learned from that experience. One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!" "How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb. "I packed your parachute," the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!" Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today." Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. He says, "I kept wondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform, a white hat, a bib in the back, and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said, "Good morning, how are you?" or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor. Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent on a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't even know. "Now," Plumb asks his audience, "who's packing your parachute?" Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. Plumb also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory --- he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He called on all these supports before reaching safety. Transactional Theology Barbara Brown Taylor, a professor at Piedmont College and Columbia Seminary, in an article “Easter Preaching and the Lost Language of Salvation,” writes: On the occasions when Jesus praises peoples’ faith, most Christians automatically assume that he means their faith in his divinity, which he then rewards by helping them out; but that is just another sorry example of transactional theology. According to this theology, if you believe the right things about Jesus, then he will help you. If you don’t, he won’t. I am not sure where this idea comes from, but in the first three gospels Jesus seems much more concerned with making people well than with making them believe in him. (p. 21) Jesus does not proclaim himself, but the coming of God’s kingdom. The only thing people have to believe is that God can help them. In Luke’s gospel, when Jesus heals the ten lepers and the lone Samaritan among them comes back to say thanks, Jesus does not say, “Rise up and follow me.” He says, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” The faith that helps Jesus do his saving work; the faith that makes people well; is their full-bodied trust that God can act in their lives, both to forgive and to heal. (p. 22) Barbara Brown Taylor, ‘Easter Preaching and the Lost Language of Salvation’, quoted by Don Fisher, Saving Faith After hearing this story, of how a leper, a foreigner , made a long journey to becoming a healed whole of God. it is not surprising that Jesus intentionally created a church of outsiders, and refeguees. In his ministry he went after the gentiles, and hoping that one day the insiders would join him as well. No matter who we are, some of us are in need of healing, some of us are well, some of us are insiders, some are oustiders. But we our faith has made us whole – as long as we remember Jesus is the one who packed our sails. As we take communion – let us remember to say F. Harry Stow – thank you in all that we do. Let us pray… Extra illustrations…. Magic Words When our grand-daughter Sarah was two years old, she was extremely active. She was always busy, always moving and always in a hurry… because at two years of age, she had already realized that there are so many exciting things to do and see and experience in this incredible world God has given us. One day Sarah interrupted her play-time just long enough to run into the kitchen in search of a mid-afternoon snack. Hurriedly, she said to her mother: “Banana, Momma, Banana!” Jodi, her mother, handed her a banana. Sarah quickly grabbed the banana and turned to rush back out of the kitchen. However, before she took very many steps, her mother said: “Sarah, come back. What are the magic words?” Sarah screeched to a halt, turned back around and said: “Please! Thank You! You’re Welcome! God Bless You! And I Love You, Mommy!” At this point, Sarah got a second banana!... And a warm hug! The magic words Sarah’s mother was looking for were “Thank you.” She got more than that… but those were the words she was looking for… because Sarah’s mother knows how important it is… for us to learn how to stop and say thanks.” James W. Moore, Collected Sermons,www.Sermons.com Continuing Gratitude A friend began his ministry at little First Presbyterian Church in Aberdeen, Mississippi. His first year as pastor he was visited by three men inquiring about one of his members, a widow who lived by herself. Was she getting out? Were her friends in Aberdeen keeping in touch? Was there anything they needed to know? The three men explained the situation, gave him their cards—one lived in New Jersey, another in Oklahoma, the other in California—and he was told to call them if there was anything they could humanly do to make her life happier or easier. These three men arrived each year bearing presents their wives had picked out in the shops of San Francisco and New York. The men had hired a family who mowed the woman’s yard, trimmed the bushes, and checked on tree branches and gutters. One of the men prepared the woman’s tax returns each year, another contracted repairs on her house or made them himself. Sometimes they helped her shop for a new car. They were meticulous in wanting to check on everything and anticipate every difficulty the woman might face. Each year they visited the President of the Bank of Mississippi in Aberdeen—there was a regular turnover in young bank executives—passed out their cards, explained that he was to notify them of any worldly need this woman might have, and they explained to the Bank President the situation. The situation was this: Sixty years ago the three men had been three soldiers standing on the ground floor of a house in Normandy just a few days after D-Day when a German potato masher grenade came bouncing down the stairs. A fourth soldier, the woman’s husband, threw himself on the grenade, absorbing most of its impact. The three men lived because of his death. After the war was over in 1945 the three men began making their way to Aberdeen, Mississippi on a regular basis to make sure that this man’s widow would lack for nothing they had within their power to provide for her. They had been doing that for more than twenty-five years when my friend was pastor of First Presbyterian Church. Isn’t that a remarkable story? I’ll tell you another remarkable thing: there were eighteen soldiers on the first floor of that house in Normandy. All eighteen of them were spared by the action of that one soldier’s leaping on a grenade, and after the war was over three of them made their regular pilgrimages to Aberdeen, Mississippi. Three out of eighteen: that’s 16 2/3%. How difficult it is to imagine 100% gratitude. What does it take for us to recognize that life is a gift, and the only possible human response is gratitude? Patrick J. Willson, Deep Gratitude God In the Ordinary Once upon a time, there was a far-away land that was ruled by a vicious king. His iron hand reached into every corner of his subjects' lives. Every corner - except one. Try as he might, he couldn't destroy their belief in God. In his frustration, he finally summoned his advisors and asked them: "Where can I hide God so the people will end up forgetting about him?" One suggested hiding God on the dark side of the moon. This idea was debated, but was voted down because the advisors feared that their scientists would one day discover a way to travel into space travel and God would be discovered again. Another suggested burying God in the deepest part of the ocean. But there was the same problem with this idea, so it was voted down. One idea after another was suggested and debated and rejected. Until finally the oldest and wisest advisor had a flash of insight. "I know," he said, "why don't we hide God where no one will ever even think to look?" And he explained, "If we hide God in the ordinary events of people's everyday lives, they'll never find him!" And so it was done. And they say people in that land are still looking for God - even today. ChrstianGlobe Illustrations