A srmon for All Saints Sunday

All Saints Sunday

Luke 6:20-31

"The Importance of the Nail"


20* ¶ And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
21* "Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. "Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh.
22* "Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of man!
23* Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.
24* "But woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation.
25* "Woe to you that are full now, for you shall hunger. "Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
26* "Woe to you, when all men speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.
27* ¶ "But I say to you that hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
28* bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.
29* To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from him who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt.
30* Give to every one who begs from you; and of him who takes away your goods do not ask them again.
31* And as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.
As the story goes, they built a new church building and people came from far and wide to see it. They admired its beauty! Up on the roof, a little nail heard the people praising everything about the lovely structure-except the nail! No one even knew he was there, and he became angry and jealous.

Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen

As the story goes, they built a new church building and people came from far and wide to see it. They admired its beauty! Up on the roof, a little nail heard the people praising everything about the lovely structure-except the nail! No one even knew he was there, and he became angry and jealous.

“If I am that insignificant, nobody will miss me if I quit!” So the nail then released its hold, slid down the roof, and fell in the mud.
That night it rained and rained. Soon, the shingle that had no nail blew away, and the roof began to leak. The water streaked the walls and the beautiful murals. The plaster began to fall, the carpet was stained, and the pulpit Bible was ruined by water. All this because a little nail decided to quit!

But what of the nail? While holding the shingle, it was obscure but it was also useful. Buried in the mud it was just as obscure, but now it was useless and would soon by eaten up by rust!

The moral of the story – every member is important to the church! You may, like the nail, feel obscure at times, but just like the nail, your absence is felt. When you are not present for worship, in some way the body of Christ hurts. We are ALL a part of the Lord’s ministry.

The importance of the nail is the idea of our sermon this Sunday. A small nail holding one shingle on the church roof has a very important part to do in the body of Christ. And if that nail has an important work to do, imagine what you and I have to do in the body of Christ.

Jesus in our gospel lesson this morning to speaking about the body of Christ. This is Luke's version of the Beatitudes speaks about those who are in the body of Christ. He says: And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

21* "Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. "Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh.

22* "Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of man!

23* Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.

The body of Christ, the church is made up of people who have experienced the brokenness of this world. For Jesus said that if you are poor, in sorrow, if you hare hated, then you are in the body of Christ. The body of Christ is made up of those who have experienced the brokenness of this world, sorrow, grief, hunger, poverty, all those things that remind us that we are not perfect, those are the people who are in the body of Christ.

In this picture of the saints, the body of Christ, Jesus is speaking to the human condition. He is telling us that as our lives live in the brokenness of this world, we are blessed. We don't need to be perfect or to pretend that the sinfulness of this world does not affect our lives.

We are blessed regardless of what we are experiencing.

I think that thought is important in this day and age. A saint is not a perfect person here on earth, but rather, a saint is one who knows the brokenness of this world and then turns to Christ for comfort and rest. In our world, we want the best, we want fame and fortune, and if we don't get it we think there is something wrong with us. That is the theology of prosperity. It says if you are right with God, then everything in your life should be right, too.

But Jesus is clearly saying something about the theology of the cross. Jesus knows that we are living in an in between time. We are saved, meaning we are saints, but at the same time we are sinners, who have not been fully redeemed. So he is saying that even though you are a saint, redeemed by the blood of Christ, your live might not, will not be perfect. So blessed are the poor, blessed are the hungry, blessed are the those who weep, because one day your full redemption will come.

Jesus is telling us that we are blessed now in spite of all the brokenness around us and we are to use that blessing to walk with the saints around us.

Jesus is telling us that we are like that nail, we need to hold the body of Christ together by loving each other.

Billy Graham says "Church-goers are like coals in a fire. When they cling together, they keep the flame aglow; when they separate, they die out."

We need each other in the body of Christ. Though we might think of ourselves like that nail, we are indeed important in the body of Christ. When we cling together the body grows and the light shines.

This is demonstrated very clearly in the following:

Randy Frazee has written a book called "The Connecting Church." He has a son who was born without a left hand. One day in Sunday School the teacher was talking with the children about the church. To illustrate her point she folded her hands together and said, "Here's the church, here's the steeple; open the doors and see all the people."

She asked the class to do it along with her – obviously not thinking about his son's inability to pull this exercise off. Then it dawned on her that the boy wouldn't be able to join in.

Before she could do anything about it, the little boy next to his son, a friend of his from the time they were babies, reached out his left hand and said, "Let's do it together." The two boys proceeded to join their hands together to make the church and the steeple.

Frazee says, "This hand exercise should never be done again by an individual because the church is not a collection of individuals, but the one body of Christ."

Let's do it together is the key phrase here. As the body of Christ, we must do it together. We must help each other in our faith. We must touch each other with the Spirit of Christ. We in the body of Christ are important to each other. WE touch each other in that body of Christ. WE tough when we pass the peace each Sunday morning. We touch when we reach out of hand an say good morning. We tough we we offer a shoulder for one to lean on. We touch when we extend an hand to help another through grief.

The following story is about how indeed touching each other in the body of Christ, reaching out to each other in worship can be very Christ like.

TOUCH IN CHURCH

by Ann Weems. Reaching for Rainbows, 1980, Westminster Press

What is all this touching in church?

It used to be a person could come to church and sit in the pew and not be bothered by all this friendliness and certainly not by touching.

I used to come to church and leave untouched.

Now I have to be nervous about what's expected of me. I have to worry about responding to the person sitting next to me.

Oh, I wish it could be the way it used to be;

I could just ask the person next to me: How are you?

And the person could answer: Oh, just fine,

And we'd both go home strangers who have known each other for twenty years.

But now the minister asks us to look at each other.

I'm worried about that hurt look I saw in that woman's eyes.

Now I'm concerned, because when the minister asks us to pass the peace,

The man next to me held my hand so tightly

I wondered if he had been touched in years.

Now I'm upset because the lady next to me cried and then apologized

And said it was because I was so kind and that she needed

A friend right now.

Now I have to get involved.

Now I have to suffer when this community suffers.

Now I have to be more than a person coming to observe a service.

That man last week told me I'd never know how much I'd touched his life.

All I did was smile and tell him I understood what it was to be lonely.

Lord, I'm not big enough to touch and be touched!

The stretching scares me.

What if I disappoint somebody?

What if I'm too pushy?

What if I cling too much?

What if somebody ignores me?

"Pass the peace."

"The peace of God be with you." "And with you."

And mean it.

Lord, I can't resist meaning it!

I'm touched by it, I'm enveloped by it!

I find I do care about that person next to me!

I find I am involved!

And I'm scared.

O Lord, be here beside me.

You touch me, Lord, so that I can touch and be touched!

So that I can care and be cared for!

So that I can share my life with all those others that belong to you!

All this touching in church – Lord, it's changing me!

Let's do it together, let us touch one another.

Amen

Written by Pastor Tim Zingale October 29, 2007

You may freely use this but please give credit. Not for commercial use.

Reformation Suday sermon

Reformation Sunday

October 28

Jeremiah 31:31-34

"Rags to Riches

“Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”” Jeremiah 31:31-34, RSV.

Grace and Peace to you fro our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen

A beggar lived near the king's palace. One day he saw a proclamation posted outside the palace gate. The king was giving a great dinner. Anyone dressed in royal garments was invited to the party. The beggar was on his way. He looked at the rags he was wearing and sighed. Surely only kings and their families wore royal robes, he thought. Slowly an idea crept into his mind. The audacity of it made him tremble. Would he dare?

He made his way back to the palace. He approached the guard at the gate. "Please, sire, I would like to speak with the king."

"Wait here," the guard replied. In a few minutes, he was back. "His majesty will see you," he said, and led the beggar in.

"You wish to see me?" asked the king.

"Yes, your majesty. I want so much to attend the banquet, but I have no royal robes to wear. Please, sir, if I may be so bold, may I have one of your old garments so that I, too, may come to the banquet?"

The beggar shook so hard that he could not see the faint smile that was on the king's face. "You have been wise in coming to me," the king said. He called to his son, the young prince. "Take this man to your room and array him in some of your clothes."

The prince did as he was told and soon the beggar was standing before a mirror, clothed in garments that he had never dared hoped for. "You are now eligible to attend the king's banquet tomorrow night," said the prince. "But even more important, you will never need any other clothes. These garments will last forever.

"Oh, thank you," he cried.

But as he started to leave, he looked back at his pile of dirty rags on the floor. He hesitated. What if the prince was wrong? What if he would need his old clothes again... Quickly he gathered them up. The banquet was far greater than he had ever imagined, but he could not enjoy himself as he should. He had made a small bundle of his old rags and it kept falling off his lap. The food was passed quickly and the beggar missed some of the greatest delicacies.

Time proved that the prince was right. The clothes lasted forever. Still the poor beggar grew fonder and fonder of his old rags. As time passed people seemed to forget the royal robes he was wearing. They only saw the little bundle of filthy rags he clung to wherever he went. They even spoke of him as the old man with the rags.

One day as he lay dying, the king visited him. The beggar saw the sad look on the king's face when he looked at the small bundle of rags by the bed. Suddenly the beggar remembered the prince's words and he realized that his bundle of rags had cost him a lifetime of true royalty.

He wept bitterly at his folly. And the king wept with him.

The beggar kept hold of his dirty rags and would not fully embrace the righteous clothes that the king gave him.

He was given the gift of royalty but would not fully accept it.

On the Reformation Sunday, we are reminded of the grace that God through Christ has fully given us.

And like that beggar, we don't fully accept it. We want to hang on to our old ways of earning heaven for ourselves. We cannot give up our rags to fully embrace the riches that God through Christ has given us.

The beggar was given the new clothes as a gift and we are given salvation as a gift.

Salvation through Christ is a free gift from the Father to his sinful children.

As we leaned in confirmation class, Grace is God’s free, unmerited love for sinful people. It is fee and unearned, there is nothing you or I can do, say feel or think to deserve God love for sinful people. God gave freely from the cross of Christ for you and me.

This morning we are going to look at this gift of salvation and our relationship to Jesus Christ.this salvation is a gift. We can do nothing to earn it, or make it better. God decided to do this for his sinful people.

This is the gift which makes saints out of sinners. Luther liked to say that we are at the same time saint and sinner. Saint because we have the promise of salvation and sinner because that promise is not fully realized yet.

A pastor tells the following:

“A pastor friend said he was trying to get a nonmember to at least examine the claims of Jesus. But this person would bring up this argument: ‘Well pastor, I’d come to your church, but there are just too many hypocrite that go there.’

The pastor looking that man right in the eye said, ‘oh nuts don’t let that keep you from coming. One more won’t make or break us.’”

Yes, the church is made up of saints and sinners. But there is a quality about us which shows other that we are different. We know Christ.

Our sainthood is showing. As we live in this world, we bring a measure of Christ into it. Christ is there to give us the strength to live and in that living we show others who we are. We are saints and sinners at the same time.

And in that relationship with Christ, we find the power to live life among all the brokenness in which we encounter each day. It is Christ’s love for us which enables us to carry on.

It is this love which says to a brother who goes to the grave of his sister, places flower on the headstone, stand there in silent grief shedding no tears. It is this love from Christ which says it is all right to cry, to shed a tear, to feel sorrow, loneliness and the pain of death. it is this love of Christ which continues to say to that grieving brother, I will redeem those tears, I will bring victory out of the sting of death. I will bring you the assurance of the promise there is a resurrection for all who believe.

It is the love of Christ which says to a widow who sits in a chair that has finally molded itself to her say, as she watches the news, the local forecast and the the sports in which she has no interest. She rises from her chair and goes to the TV set. Time to call it a day. She pats the set twice on its top and says. ‘night night. it is the love of Christ which say to this lonely widow, I have come to free you from this loneliness. I have come to help you break the bonds of this despair. I have come to free you so that you can live life to the fullest. I have come to free you from this loneliness and allow you to become a member of the community of Christ in which you will have brothers and sisters who will keep you company.

It is the love of Christ which says to a man who has just lost his business and is wondering how he will support this family now that he has no income. it is the love of Christ which says, I am with you to give you the courage and the strength to try again. It is the love of Christ which assures him that God the father will provides as he does for the birds of the air, and the lilies of the field.

It is the love of Christ which says to a couple who are struggling with their relationship that He can come and help each one forgive the wrong, and in that forgiveness, they can continue to love each other.

It is the love of Christ which says to those who are living with chronic illness, even though you have prayed for healing, my grace is sufficient for you as I give you the courage to live.

It is the love of Christ which says to those who are burden with guilt, guilt of wrongs which have been done, guilt of feeling that somehow you are responsible for the wrongs of others as they were in your care such as parents, teachers and pastor.

It is the love of Christ which says to each person here today, I love you in spite of yourself and because of that love you can have the courage, the strength and the conviction to change, to begin again in and through my love for you.

It is the love of Christ which says to each of us here today, that you have been changed, you are saved and in that salvation you can be “little Christs” to those around you. You are indeed saint and sinner and in that paradox you can live in the love of Christ and because of that love you can reach out a hand to those around you who are encountering the brokenness of live.

It is the love of Christ which says to each of us that you have been given a gift, a gift of salvation, it is not something that you have earned, it is given freely and with that gift you are challenged to be engaged in this world as both saint and sinner.

God says in Jeremiah: and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Amen

Written by Pastor Tim Zingale on October 22, 2007

You may freely use this as is or in parts. Please somehow give credit if possible, thanks! Not for commercial use.

20th Sunday after Pentecost Proper 23 Lectionary 28 October 14

20th Sunday after Pentecost

Proper 23

Lectionary 28

October 14

Luke 17:11-19

"Lord Have Mercy"


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

Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen

Traveling one day along the border between Galilee and Samaria, on His way to Jerusalem, the Lord Jesus approached a village where ten seriously ill men came out to meet Him. Ten lepers met Jesus, ten men afflicted by the worst disease imaginable in Jesus' day. Leprosy was incurable, leprosy was disgusting, leprosy was revolting. Leprosy was considered proof that you were the vilest kind of sinner. God was really punishing you for something really bad. If you had leprosy, you actually watched your body rot away. Your fingers, your ears, your nose dropped off. You died a slow and painful death, cut off from society, cut off from family and the only friendships you had were others like you. Nine others in this case that kept reminding you as you looked at them how really bad you were. Ten lepers, ten dying, decaying, stinking wretches met Jesus and cried, "Jesus Master Have mercy on Us."

They must have known this was their only chance to escape the awful consequences of their disease. If Jesus did nothing for them, surely their lives would end in a slow painful death.

"Jesus, Master, have mercy on us " Can you imagine the air was filled with tension as the ten lepers, as ten lives hung on the words or actions of the Man of Galilee. "Jesus, Master, Have Mercy on Us".

He didn't touch them.

"Jesus Master, Have mercy on us".

He didn't wash them.

"Jesus, Master have mercy on us."

He didn't even pray for them.

Finally, finally after what seemed to be an eternity for these desperate men, Jesus spoke: "Go, show yourselves to the priests." In other words, Jesus was saying, go to the priests for certificates of cleansing. They weren't healthy--but they were to go and get a health certificate to proclaim they were healed. Jesus said, "Go get a physical examination."

Can you imagine their situation. They must have stood and looked at each other and then started to debate this command. They might have said, "But we have already been there and they couldn't do anything for us. You have got to be kidding.

Go show ourselves to the priests. They had surely expected something more, something else. Something of their desperation, and their growing, but doubting faith and confidence led these ten men to turn and start walking toward the priests. Something about this man of Galilee led them to obey, to go, to do what they had done before, but this time Jesus had told them to go.

Then it happened. At some point, some instant--quite by surprise---those ten outcast lepers were changed. Every diseased cell in their bodies were changed. Every cell suddenly sprang into full health signaled by an unseen force. A force of events which began in a twinkle of an eye, in a flash of excitement as one of the ten noticed his body becoming healthy.

Who was the first to notice? We don't know, but with tremendous swiftness the reaction must have sped through the group. In amazement, they stopped, looked at their hands, their feet, at each others ears, they were whole, they had been changed, Jesus had done it again. His reputation was true. Ten suffering human beings had been touched by the Son of God. Ten suffering men had encountered the touch of a loving God. Ten suffering men had been touched by the creating hand of God that was still very much at work in his world.

Can you picture them bounding down the road to the priest, now running, now leaping, now dancing, wondering how the priest would react... anticipating the glee, the excitement of their families as they would return home--healthy, alive, with a health certificate proclaiming to all what had happened. All ten men caught up in the joy, the excitement of the moment.

But one of them halts in his tracks. He stops, he smiles, he turns, now walking, now running...back to the Master, back to this man of Galilee, back to this one who touched him with this mysterious force. He comes back, "shouting, laughing, proclaiming glory to God with a joyful and thankful heart." He runs back to Jesus, falls at his feet and gives the Son of God thanks for the great healing that had been done.

Only one of the ten who were touched by the love of this man of Galilee had seen beyond the miracle of healing to the one who had dared to risk for him. He saw Jesus for who he was? One who cared, one who loved, one who wanted a relationship with everyone on the face of the earth. He saw the Son of God as a man of love, a builder of relationships, he saw the miracle as Jesus' way of building a bridge between the falleness of creation, the brokenness of disease and the loving hand of God who wants to reach into that brokenness with his creating and redeeming power, He saw Jesus.

Jesus saw 10 men who were suffering and he not ask them about their faith, but spoke the word and they were healed. Today it seems to me that many Christians judge others in their faith because they have not lived up to expectations.

I was asked several times why I was not healed as I struggle with polio and its late affects. Where is your faith, some said? Have you earnestly prayed? Have your cleansed your body of all sin?

I live day in and day out with knowing that my faith will carry me through this chronic illness and if one day healing comes, so be it, but if it doesn't, I know that my Lord and Saviour walks besides me as I wheel through live.

But notice Jesus does not ask any questions before He healed them only afterwards. Afterwards He asks why only one came back in gratitude.

Then notice Jesus response. "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?" Only one in ten came back to give thanks. Only one in ten. Why, Jesus is asking, why only one in ten?

By dwelling on the fact that only one in ten came back, Jesus is telling us very plainly he wanted the thanks. He wanted them to see beyond the miracle to the miracle worker. He wanted them to come into a relationship with him.

What is the ratio for us today? Is it the same, one in ten. Let us try to examine in the next few moments why these nine cleansed men wandered in the valley of ingratitude when they should have been by the mountain of the one from who all blessings flow.

Perhaps one reason they walked in the valley of ingratitude was they suffered from a lack of sensitivity and imagination. They never stopped and reflected on what happened. They didn't think about who, or how this happened. They just took it for granted. They were healed. Their lives could go on, they had a lot of catching up to do, so they thought better be about it. They couldn't see beyond the gift of the miracle of healing to the one who gave it to them. They never saw the giver.

Do you remember the Aesop fable, Androcles and the lion.?? "Androcles was a young boy who wandered off into the forest one day. Suddenly he came upon a lion which was groaning in pain. Androcles turned to run away as fast as he could, and as he glanced over his shoulder to see how close that lion was, he noticed the lion had not run after him. So Androcles, sloped, turned back to the lion to see what was the matter. He saw that the lion had a huge throne in his paw. Androcles pulled it out and helped the lion to his den where the lion was healed. A few days later, Androcles and the lion were captured. Androcles because he was a Christian and the emperor wanted some fun watching Christians being eaten in the theater, and the lion, because they needed one to do this deed. Androcles was pushed out into the big arena and the lion came charging from the cage on the other side. Androcles fell to his knees waiting for the huge mouth of the lion to devour him, but to his amazement, the lion stopped dead in his tracks, laid down and crawled towards Androcles , and began to lick his face and play with him. It was the same lion who Androcles had helped, the one who had the thorn removed. The lion saw beyond the act of help to the helper, and responded in likeness when the opportunity rose.

Aesop always has a moral tacked on at the end of his fables, this one being: "Gratitude is the sign of noble souls."

Can you see the giver? Can you see beyond the gifts, the blessings, the love, the touch of grace in your life to the giver? Do you see redeemer, the Son of God as you experience his touch in your life?

Maybe another reason that only one of ten returned to the healer, is the fact the other nine lacked humility. They saw in this act of healing something they were due. Human beings can develop such an inflated sense of their own importance that we take everything good that comes our way as if it were our due. We tend to take for granted as our due all those things that we have worked so hard for. We say we have paid our dues in life, now, now we can reap the rewards. And as we tend to take things for granted, as we tend to look only to ourselves as the foundation for living, we become more and more possessive, more and more greedy, more and more wanting only the best, the biggest.

In I Timothy 6:6 it says, "There is great gain in godliness with contentment." When a person views the world as owning him or her everything, then contentment is never achieved. In our contentment with the great gifts God has granted to us, we can see beyond the gifts to the giver. But if we always focus on the gifts, we never see the giver, if we never look beyond our selfishness for more, if we cannot see beyond the need for the best, then contentment with life will never be achieved.

In one of my church I was talking to a farmer one day during the beginning months of the summer. It had been a late spring, with more than the usual amount of rain, so there were some good wet spots in the fields. The crops were all planted and as far as my untrained eye could see, I thought they were doing well. So, I asked him how his crops were. He said," Those few wet spots I have aren't doing very well at all. "Then I said, "But those wet spots aren't your whole fields are they?' He said, "No!!" thank goodness." Then I asked, "How is the rest of your crop doing, those not in the few wet spots?" He looked at me, smiled and said, "It is the best crop I have ever seen on my land." As the harvest came, he was right. He had a record harvest and even the wet spots did better than he expected.

But, that attitude of starting with the negative, starting with the point that I have a few bad acres, when the majority of the land was doing great shows a lack of humility, shows a lack of gratitude, shows the thinking that many have, they want it all, all or nothing.

The ten lepers got it all. A new life, a clean bill of health, a return to family and friends. But only one could see the greatness, only one could see the magnitude of the gift, only one could see the blessing. We are all blessed by God in different ways, at different times with different blessings. Jesus is asking us to see beyond the gifts, beyond our own need of those things, to the giver. To be humble and accept with a grateful heart what we have. And in that attitude a peace, a contentment about living will come. We will see our blessings, our talents, our resources coming from God and then an amazing thing will happen. God will continue to bless us, usually more and more. He will lead us in ways that we would have never dared to go, ways that we can risk for our selves and others.

When God blesses us there is a double blessings. The one leper was doubly blessed. His body was made whole, but he saw beyond the healing to the healer and became for the church a symbol of the church's outreach to the whole world. The healing of the ten lepers and the thankfulness of the one showed the world what the kingdom of God would be like. God would liberate us from as Luther says, "sin, death and the power of evil," and in that liberation we have a freedom to live, a sense of joy in our relationship with a loving God, and an adventuresome attitude about life that lets us dare to risk, that dares us to reach out because we know that God and I walking through life are a majority one.

There is an old story about two grasshoppers who fell into a bowl of cream. One of them complained and groaned over his plight, and he sank to the bottom and drowned. The other kept singing and cheerfully kicked his feet until the cream turned to butter and he hopped away to freedom.

Life can be that way. A Swedish proverb says: "Those who wish to sing can always find a song."

May God and you walk through life kicking and singing.

Amen

Written by Pastor Tim Zingale

You may freely use this as is or in parts. Please somehow give credit if possible, thanks! Not for commercial use.