I spoke on a recent Sunday about stopping along the way, of pausing to think again. We pause along the pathway of life and we think back, remembering blessings and the presence of God in our lives. When we pause we create a space for calling to mind blessings of the past and a space for becoming aware of blessings in the present. Jesus said to the leper who came back that his returning and giving thanks saved him. The pause and the remembering and giving thanks are a pathway to wholeness, or as Jesus said to salvation.

When Jesus saw that one came back and nine did not, he asked “Where are the others?” I think he is saying something about shared life and community, and not merely questioning their gratitude. These ten lepers had formed a community. They had suffered together and had supported each other. Yes, they were different. One was a Samaritan and the others were Jews, but they had been forced into a common bond by what life had dealt them. Suddenly all their Samaritan-Jew animosities did not matter. They had to lay those differences down to be the community that helped to keep each of them alive. They cried together and cried out together. They were spoken to as a group and sent out as a group. And when they went along the way they were made clean. They were healed. The whole bunch of them, the community.

I wonder what happened to their sense of community. How could the nine not ask the one “Where are you going?” How could the one not stop the nine and ask them to come back with him? Where are the nine, Jesus asks? Was he speaking to the one now former leper?

This story, like the Bible generally, makes me stop and think again. It makes me think about community and shared suffering, shared healing, and shared thanksgiving. It reminds me of coming to Good Shepherd nine years ago and joining this community for sharing in the suffering, the healing, and the thanksgiving. I sat in the pews my first Sunday while Fr. Tim McRee preached. Kathy Wright introduced herself to me as someone with a heart for hospitality and offered to get me a cup of coffee. She and so many others in this community are about community. Fr. Fred Lindstrom preached my second Sunday. It was Trinity Sunday and he referenced the Athanasian Creed. Heaven credit to you if you remember that. They both spoke about community: the earthly community welcoming its new priest and the heavenly community of God. My first Sunday preaching I talked about a seminary friend who was very much different from me but who showed me incredible grace. We were two very different people brought together along the way by the circumstances of seminary and we formed community that helped us and our families through both hard and good times. We needed each other, and we the community of the church need each other.

Where are the nine? I do appreciate that life is hard on aging bodies, that tragic losses happen, that there has been and remains a life threatening virus, and that there are many things we want for our children that set our minds on their earthly needs but might shortchange their spiritual needs. That life and life goals can separate us from the community of the church is not new, but neither is the reminder to think again. “Where are the nine? Where is the rest of our community?” And to those who are the nine, “When will you return?”

These are questions for us in our time. It matters that we gather in person and virtually. It matters that we are a community. It matters when you join us and when you do not.

Grace and peace,
Fr. Bill+