Blooming Where You’re Planted
a sermon by Rev. Rebecca Segers
10/10/04
Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7
Luke 17:11-19  

Jesus is on the move again, traveling cross-country to Jerusalem .  As he enters a village, ten lepers draw near, but not too near.  According to the law, any person with leprosy had to live “outside the camp” or town area and whenever anyone approached, they had to cry out, “Unclean, unclean!” in warning.  So these men are calling out to Jesus at the beginning of our story in a totally expected and appropriate way.  They keep their distance, crying out in unison to him, “ Jesus , Master, have mercy on us!”  Even though they are far from him, Jesus sees them – he not only sees them in the sense of the men being a part of the landscape, but he truly sees them – he sees not only their external physical selves and the scales that cover their bodies, but he sees their internal need for healing and wholeness.  He truly sees them.

In this way, the story is reminiscent of the story of the Good Samaritan.  In that parable, the priest, the Levite and the Samaritan all see the wounded man by the side of the road, but only the Samaritan truly sees him.  The one who stops and responds with mercy is the one whose eyes are open.  It is about more than physical sight, it is also about perception – seeing and perceiving the opportunity to be merciful toward another.

Jesus sees the lepers and that is all that it takes.  He tells them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.”  This sounds like an odd comment to us, but in the culture of the day, if a leper were fortunate enough to recover, a priest had to certify that person clean before he or she could return to the community.

But interestingly enough, they’re not cleansed of their illness as they begin to obey Jesus ’ command.  The Scripture tells us that they’re made clean on the way to see the priests, so while they do what Jesus tells them to do, they might be wondering, “Why?  Why does the rabbi tell us to go and see our priests?  Is it so that they might bless us again?”  Are they angry at being put off?  Or simply puzzled at the command?

Then in the midst of their journey toward the town and the priests, one man notices that he is healed.  Perhaps he looks at his arm and sees his wounds are no longer raw and running, his skin is scale-free.  He yanks a bandage from his hand and his fingers are whole and soft and fair as a baby’s.

He immediately turns around, shouting for joy and runs back to Jesus , falling at his feet, praising God with a loud voice and thanking Jesus for what he has done.  We don’t know what happens with the other nine.  Surely they must hear his cries of gladness and see that he has left them.  Or perhaps not.  Maybe once they hear one voice proclaiming healing, they all see their skin, wholesome and clean and now having a reason to see the priests and be returned to their village and their families, they are running toward the town, shouting and whooping for joy and don’t miss their friend who has turned back.  So what began as a unison cry for healing, turns into a lone individual’s thanks and praise.

Then we hear the twist in the story – the tenth leper is a Samaritan, a foreigner, one who is despised.  At this point, Jesus asks three questions:

1. “Were not ten made clean?” – highlighting this man’s singularity in showing up to thank him
2. Where are they?” – are they so caught up in their good fortune that they failed to see God’s hand in their healing?
3. “Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” – the common disdain that Jews had for outsiders, foreigners is loosed here in response to his appropriate attitude of gratitude

The story does not end with Jesus ’ put-down of the Samaritan, however, but with his formula of blessing for the man, “Your faith has made you well,” which has also been translated “has saved you.”  This is interesting because the other nine men were healed, too, but only this one receives Jesus ’ blessing, his declaration of salvation.  The Samaritan’s faith was not expressed in his request for help, but in his gratitude upon receipt of it.  The other nine got what they wanted, but the tenth got more than he had ever dreamed.  Once again, the story returns to the gift of sight, of perception.  Not only is it the ability to see the opportunity to respond with mercy, but it is also the ability to recognize another’s mercy toward you.

There are two points I would like for you to take away from this story today.  The first is the gift of seeing and the second is the gift of being.  Jesus sees the lepers and responds by healing them.  The Samaritan sees that he has been healed and responds in thanksgiving.  What is it that we are called to see in our surroundings?  When you look at the world around you, where do you see opportunities to offer mercy and where do you see opportunities for thanksgiving?

The Reader’s Digest has been publishing Life In These United States for decades, true stories that are sent in by Americans from around the country.  Included among them is the story of an Appalachian mountain couple, clean but shabby, who came before the welfare board as the final step in adopting a baby.  The director had bad news for them regarding the child that was to be theirs and tried to break it to them as gently as he could.

“We feel that you should know,” he began, “that this little girl has barely passed her intelligence test – she may not be too bright.  And she isn’t too pretty either.  Please consider these things before you undertake to make her your own.”

The couple turned to one another and quietly conferred for a moment, then settled back in their chairs.  “We’ve decided,” the man said slowly and deliberately, “that we ain’t very smart, and we ain’t very pretty either – so she’ll suit us just fine.”

The couple saw the baby with Jesus ’ eyes, the eyes of mercy and the eyes of love.  Who in your world would benefit from being seen with those eyes?  We are given so many gifts.  Life is a gift; health is a gift; family is a gift; friends are gifts; community is a gift – let us use the gift of seeing and recognize these gifts and respond to them in meaningful and appropriate ways.

The second point I would like for us to take away from the story today is the gift of being.  Being who you are and where you are and what you are.  The man who returns to Jesus in praise is a Samaritan, a stranger in a strange land.  Notwithstanding the fact that he doesn’t even belong here, he is grateful to be able to return to the village community – so grateful that he remembers to praise the Lord for God’s goodness to him.

This is also the essence of Jeremiah ’s counsel to the exiled in Babylon in our other Scripture reading this morning.  He tell the people that they must not expect immediate return to Judah but plan to live normal lives where they are.  Far from seeing their exile as temporary, Jeremiah tells them to “build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat what they produce.”  He tells them to have their daughters and sons marry and have children and increase the population while they are away.  On top of all this, they must even seek the welfare of the hated city where they have been sent and pray to the Lord on its behalf.  This is a revolutionary viewpoint – Jeremiah is telling the Jews that their religion does not depend on the existence of a temple or on sacrifices or on residence in Palestine .  They are to be God’s people wherever they happen to be.

This was big news for the Jews of Jeremiah’s day and it is big news for us.  Whether you were born on Long Island and have lived here your whole life or have traveled extensively and this is where you happen to be at the moment, this is where God has called you to be at this particular point in time.  So the question then is: “Who are you called to be as a follower of Jesus ?”

We all have talents and goals and dreams and special individual capabilities.  How do we fulfill them so that they bear kingdom fruit – the fruit of God – in our lives?  Whether you were born here or far away; whether you are in your dream job or a job you do just to pay the bills; whether you are in your dream relationship or are in relationships related to your location and your circumstances, you are, we are all called by God to “bloom where we are planted.”  To grow and blossom and bear fruit in the situations in which we find ourselves.

Those of us who came last Monday night to the UPW Potluck supper and heard Rev. Paul Neshangwe of Zimbabwe speak saw a wonderful example of just this sort of thing.  We met a young man in his thirties who came from a troubled background in an even more troubled country who has been called to some amazing and difficult challenges.  His father had four wives and he himself had nineteen brothers and sisters.  The average life expectancy in Zimbabwe , which has the third highest ratio in the world of people with HIV/AIDS, is 32 years old.  Paul has already lost several of his immediate relatives and is now married with a wife and two young sons of his own.  But he has also taken on the responsibility of three of his nephews and nieces whose parents have passed away.  Additionally, he has been called to minister to an all-white congregation as a very black pastor in a country that has and continues to struggle with racism.  In the time that Rev. Neshangwe has been the pastor of this congregation, it has gone from 100% Caucasian to 40% black and 60% white.  He has been involved in peacemaking concerning a variety of issues, including Race Relations, HIV/AIDS, Cross Cultural Ministry and Social Economic Justice.  And he’s just left his wife, five-year-old son and two-month-old son to travel around the United States for a month raising awareness about the situation in his home country.  What struck me the most strongly was his impassioned statement that his dream is for his country to be a place where his sons can grow up in safety to be good people of God.  This is a man who is truly putting his money where his mouth is, his actions where his convictions lie, who speaks the prophetic truth knowing that his life may be in danger upon his return in order to work toward a better future for his family and his people.  I was honored to meet such a man.  A man who was blooming where he was planted in spite of great odds including an unfriendly dictatorship, unforgiving disease and unbelievable poverty.  A man who asked us as the prophet Micah did centuries ago, “What does the Lord require of me?  To do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”  Paul is fulfilling point two of the Scripture lesson today: the gift of being who he is called to be.

Another wonderful example that comes to us from Africa is the Kenyan woman, Wangari Maathai , who won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for decades of advocacy work.  She is the first African woman ever to win the prize, a tribute to women in a country where they are often not “seen” much less allowed to “be” who they are meant to be.  In the process, she has been clubbed in the head by riot police.  She has been denounced as a subversive.  In a country where men run the show, her efforts to advocate for women’s rights have been seen as romantic at best, and unforgivable at worst.

Wangari Maathai has put together an unusual combination in building her movement – women and trees.  It began in 1977 with just a handful of seedlings planted in her backyard and grew to include hundreds of tree nurseries throughout Africa , where women come to pick up seedlings, who then plant them on both public and private lands.  For every tree that takes root, the woman who planted it earns a small amount of money.  For many of these women, tree planting is not simply a good deed, but a way to make ends meet.

But when Wangari began, people didn’t understand what she was up to.  It was, in fact, the opposite of what Africa ’s women traditionally were supposed to do.  They are the ones who go out with small axes to chop firewood for the family meal.  But she explains that her work has always been as much about the women as the trees.

“We try to make women see they can do something worthwhile,” she said in an interview with The New York Times in 1989.  “And we’re trying to empower people, to let them identify their mistakes, to show they can build, or destroy, the environment.”

How might we here in America , on Long Island , at the Presbyterian Church of Sweet Hollow both see and be?  How might we see the gifts that we’ve been given and the opportunities to give back that we might grow into the whole people that God intends us to be?

As you know, the Mission Fair is coming up this Saturday.  Perhaps you could show up on Friday night between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. and help us set up.  Or maybe you could help put those heavy signs out by the road today, or on the corners of Round Swamp Road and 110 early Saturday morning.  If you could help with that, speak to Gloria Sperry who’s providing the truck to carry them.  Or if you would like to help the day of, we still need a couple of people to staff the Mission tables, and could use donations of new or gently items, crafts or baked goods.  Use your new eyes to look around your home or basement or attic and “see” what might benefit someone else that you are no longer using to its maximum.  We also need donations of hot dogs and buns for the food court.  Speak to Lori Galen if any of this sounds up your alley.  If you’d like to drop off flyers at your favorite dog groomer or hair salon or dry cleaner or other shop that you frequent in the area, there are plenty on Denise ’s desk to go around.  Feel free to stop in the office after church and pick some up.

We’re going to have a great day and with our 175^th Anniversary Old Fashioned Theme, we’ll ask you to dress up – if not in 1800s clothing, at least in jeans and a plaid shirt with a bandanna around your neck, or some other appropriate “country” style.  And once the fair is over, if there is a particular group or mission activity that you have a passion for, we invite you to come and share it at our next Mission Team meeting when we tally up the money we’ve made and begin to think about how and where we’d like to spend it.

What other ways might you see and be?  Have you found yourself singing around the house lately and feeling like you might want to share that gift with others?  Come to the choir rehearsal at 7:45 p.m. on Thursday night and join our lovely group in lifting your voice in praise to the Lord.  Or perhaps now your children have gotten older and you’ve got a few extra moments in your life to share with little ones.  Our new Sunday School Workshop Rotation Program allows those who would like to volunteer to do so on a once in a blue moon basis – using the gifts that you have in particular, whether that is singing or art or drama or physical play or games or whatever.  Talk to Carol Keil and we’ll get you set up “being” somebody who makes a difference in the lives of the children so near and dear to us in this church community.

Each of us in this room has been given so many gifts and talents, so many opportunities to make the world a better place.  And we are not struggling under the incredibly difficult circumstances of a Paul Neshangwe or a Wangari Maathai .  We have an opportunity to vote for the president of our country on Tuesday, November 2^nd, and I encourage each and every one of you to take advantage of this privilege.  As you may know, the people of the country of Afghanistan voted for their president for the first time yesterday and while the results will undoubtedly be flawed – one reporter told the story of watching men who had come out of the polls washing the supposedly indelible ink off their fingers and rejoining the line to vote again while fifteen of the eighteen candidates threatened to take their names out of the election because of the possibility of just such incidents – the excitement over the voting in that country is palpable.  We here in America may have concerns over voting booths and the electoral college vs. the popular vote, but the fact is, we have over 200 years of democratic privilege behind us and need to appreciate the gift and protect it through utilizing it.