Above and Beyond

Scriptures: 2 Timothy 2:8-15, Luke 17:11-19

Numerology can be an entertaining although probably not very enlightening ersatz science.  Here we are on a date that when written in its usual number form, with slashes, is 10/10/10.  Casinos are playing this up big – although not as big as they did three years ago in July with 7/7/07.  Do you have any idea how many marriage licenses have been taken out for this day?  The Clark County Recorder’s Office was so concerned about this that I got a letter from them last week asking wedding officiates to come to a special training session last Tuesday to discuss how to fill out and submit marriage certificates, since 10% of marriage certificates are rejected due to incomplete documentation, missing signatures, or other document discrepancies.  I didn’t go.  Nobody asked me to marry them on this day.  Nevertheless, this is a rather unique date.  Next year when 11/11/11 falls on Veterans Day we’ll probably have a totally different kind of hoopla.  But then after 12/12/12 we won’t have to worry about it for awhile.

Today, of course, is unique for another reason for us.  We are starting a new thing with this concept of a Leadership Sunday, in order to see if this pattern of working will enhance the way our church is led.  When Ann Beggs wrote to Linda Schultz of the Westwood Hills Church asking her to describe their plan and then to offer some evaluation of it, Linda replied (even though this won’t all be relevant for us):  “In going to a Leadership Sunday model, we have had greater participation by our membership (amazing as we are a small congregation).  With all the committees meeting at the same time, people cannot serve on more than one so we had to recruit a broader range of participants.  In exchange, those serving on boards and committees know that the meetings will start and end in a concentrated amount of time, that things will move (more or less) efficiently and that they will have to meet only once per month.  New members to the church can also ‘sample’ the different committees before committing to a position….. Our kids LOVE Leadership Sunday as they are able to socialize outside of Sunday School.  In fact, we had a Kid’s Congress group arise organically out of the Leadership Sunday experience because they too wanted to help the church like their moms and dads.  It was really something.”

Leadership.  It can be a rather daunting thing, and I know that many of you who have served on Boards or been asked to serve on Boards tend to shy away from the idea that you are a leader in this congregation.  But you are.  Or, to put it another way that perhaps will have more resonance with you:  you are a servant in a leadership role.  (I am reminded of when I was with the National Council of Churches’ Communication Commission back when web sites were just getting started, and those who ran these new communication tools were usually referred to as “web-masters”; we decided that those who did this in a Christian context might better be referred to as “web-stewards”.)

But however you choose to refer to yourself, the fact remains that you have been called out to take on specific responsibilities and to meet certain expectations.  These include the expectations that God has for you.  I’m not talking here just to those who are currently on Boards and on the Church Council but to all of us who have accepted Christ into our lives and therefore are prepared to give back to God what God has given to us.  We are, as the title of our closing hymn has it, “Called as Partners in Christ’s Service”.

Our lectionary scriptures today point us toward three characteristics that inform what we do as leaders, as servants (Ann likes to get on my case about my not doing traditional three-point sermons anymore; so here’s an old fashioned sermon with specifically three points in it.)  The three characteristics are:  humility, a call to obedience, and gratitude.

When we are at work for the church we believe that God has certain expectations of us – and likewise we have certain expectations of God.  Paul Stroble, who teaches at Eden Theological Seminary, puts it this way:  “…we often go about our own obedient discipleship with the assumption that God works within parameters we’ve set and expectations we impose.  Ironically, being obedient to God’s direction may increase our sense of entitlement:  I’m a church leader, I’ve spent time praying and doing God’s will, thus God will do a great thing exactly as I expect.

“What a terrible self-imposed burden to assume that God’s work is based on our expectations and efforts, and what an opening for disappointment!  Humility is a way that we gain new eyes, so to speak, about God’s work among us.  Humility not only characterizes our attitude toward God and others but also provides a fresh sense of discernment about what God is doing and through whom (perhaps a complete surprise) God is working.”

Paul’s disciple is instructing his young friend Timothy in what it means to be a follower in the faith, and in this passage he is doing that by seeking to have him remember in order that he might then teach others.  That’s a pretty good one-sentence description of what leadership is all about.  We remember in order to remind.  As Bill Long describes it in relation to this passage, “We are to remember three things:  (1) the Savior, (2) the Suffering, and (3) the Song.”

One of this season’s new TV shows is called “The Defenders”, based on two real-life lawyers who practice right here in Las Vegas.  Because it’s set here I thought I’d sample it at least once anyway.  Last week’s episode had to do with defending a woman who had accidentally hit a jogger with her car.  The defense put on the stand an expert in safe driving practices, who carefully articulated how important it is constantly to be checking the rearview mirror, looking over your shoulder when changing lanes, and being aware of what other cars were doing around you.  Safe driving, in other words, means looking back to where you’ve been in order to get an orientation for what’s in front of you.  But you can’t just be looking back.  The driver needed to be aware that the jogger was coming up on her right.  While the legal ploy of putting the expert on the stand was effective in helping to get an acquittal by establishing that it was an accident, nevertheless a tragic accident had occurred.  The point of this story relative to our scripture is that while Paul’s disciple wants Timothy to remember the Savior, the Suffering, and the Song, he then most ardently wants him to communicate the faith with right words to those he encounters.

Now, you may feel that with this story I have wandered away from talking about humility.  But it is our remembrance of the past – of the traditions and visions and faithfulness that have been part and parcel of this congregation over the years – that gives us the kind of humility we need in order to provide leadership and service to others.  “The word of God is not chained,” Paul’s disciple asserts confidently to Timothy.  This is a word of freedom that everyone who toils in the vineyard of the church needs to hear – and we can hear it when we offer ourselves in humility to that Word.

Humility leads us to be called to obedience.  This is where this passage in 2 Timothy is leading us.  Paul’s disciple wants Timothy to cut to the heart of things, and so he admonishes Timothy, “…if we endure we will also reign with him….. (even) if we are faithless, he remains faithful…..”  Obedience in faithfulness doesn’t mean just simply obeying whatever we are told (the soldier’s classic excuse of “I was only following orders”).  Rather, it means, as our text has it, “rightly explaining the word of truth.”  Our call to obedience is urging us to speak the truth in love.  It means that we try to represent the verbal battles that are swirling around us with words that allow us to get to the substance of what is at issue rather than the background noise which is the mere tangling over words.  We sometimes say that a person offers more “heat than light” in seeking to clarify a situation.  But a leader – a servant – is always striving to lay out the substance of things, in words that are carefully chosen for that purpose.

Through it all – all this kinda heavy stuff about humility and obedience and faithfulness – in a word, discipleship – Jesus wants us to be grateful.  (In a way, this is really a kind of precursor for a Thanksgiving sermon.)  We’ve dealt with the story of the cleansing of the ten lepers before.  It’s presented as an actual happening, but it feels a lot like a parable – with the point being made by Jesus of what happens when gratitude is added to faith and healing.  The one who turns back is twice handicapped.  Not only is he afflicted with the worst disease you could possibly have in that society (think:  someone in the final stages of AIDS), but also in what is given as almost a throw-away line:  “And he was a Samaritan.”

What is it with Jesus and Samaritans?  Why are the gospels so ready to point to them as worthy of his special care?  Like we were saying last week, the “Samaritan” symbolizes for Jesus and the gospels the ultimate foreigner, the consummate outsider, the one most to be despised.  And here, of course, this is doubly so.  Yet, he is the one of ten who turns back and to whom Jesus says, oh, so gently, “’Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.’”  Here in a striking reversal of expectations Jesus breaks through two barriers that would have stymied most people of his time.

When the lepers first meet Jesus they call out to him:  “’Master!’”  Other than when the disciples begin to recognize him and call Jesus “Master”, this is the only time that the Greek word translated here as “Master” is used.  These lepers, sick though they might be, knew who this was, knew the healing power that might be available to them, and so they cried out their request for mercy with loud voices.  The narrative then takes a somewhat surprising turn.  Jesus doesn’t lay his hands on them, doesn’t pronounce any kind of healing words – he just tells them to go show themselves to the priests, and as they were going “they were made clean.”  Simple as that.  But notice that the healing doesn’t take place until after they had obeyed Jesus’ instruction to go to the priests.  Faith is shown in the going; healing is found in the obedience.

But what about the Samaritan who turns back?  He has added an element to the going and the obedience, and thus he praises God “with a loud voice”.  Take note of that loud voice.  The lepers had called out loudly to ask for mercy; but only this leper – this Samaritan — offers loud thanksgiving and praise.  It would be nice if our thanksgiving was as loud as our clamoring requests!

Why didn’t any of the other nine return and give thanks?  We don’t really know, of course, but we can speculate.  Maybe they were afraid to credit their good fortune, and thus were concerned that expressing their gratitude would jinx it.  Maybe they thought it really wasn’t Jesus who had done this.  But of all the speculations we might make, the one I like the most is that maybe they felt they had earned the healing.  Rev. Bruce Goettsche makes this point in these terms: “After all, they were the ones who decided to give Jesus a try.  They were the ones who cried out.  They were the ones who acted in faith by heading to the priest.  If they were grateful they were grateful for their own wisdom and resourcefulness.  What did God have to do with anything?”

This is a very human trait, isn’t it – to believe that when something good and extraordinary has happened to us it’s because we deserved it?  And gratitude to God just takes second place.  But this story of the ten lepers is telling us that when gratitude to God is added to humility and obedience that is the essence of faithfulness.  And faithfulness is what makes us whole and well.

What are the things for which you are grateful to God?  I don’t mean material things like food and shelter but such things as God’s plan to make us right with God through the sacrifice of Jesus; the various means God has given us to bring us to faith (the Bible, the Holy Spirit, the testimony of others, the sacraments of the faith and the example of those in the past); the people God has brought into our lives who faithfully shared and demonstrated the truth to us; the church where we can learn, where we can share as a family, and where we can grow together.  I would encourage you to meditate on other things you can think of for which you are grateful to God.

The leprous Samaritan went above and beyond what was expected of him, and in response Jesus is empowered to say to him, “’Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.’”  May we as leaders and servants – as the people of God here in this place – continue to discover the ways in which we may go above and beyond in service to our awesome, magnificent God.

Amen

Dave Pomeroy

Above and Beyond (2 Timothy 2:8-15, Luke 17:11-19)

2 Timothy 2:8-15

8 Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! 10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. 11 The saying is trustworthy, for:

If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
12 if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he also will deny us;
13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful—

for he cannot deny himself.

14 Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. 15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. (ESV)

Luke 17:11-19

11 On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. 12 And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance 13 and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 14 When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; 16 and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” (ESV)

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