"Grace is Not Cheap, but it is Free"
Luke 17:11-19
In one Peanuts comic strip, Lucy who is in love with the piano-playing Schroeder is watching him play the piano--she's looking at him all google-eyed.
Lucy asks Schroeder, "Do you know what love is?"
Schroeder stops the music and says, "Love is a strong bond or attachment toward another, a decision to act in their best interest."
Then he goes back to playing the piano.
In the next box, Lucy looks at the audience and laments: "Gee, on paper Schroeder is just great!"
Is it possible for Christians to look "just great" on paper, but in reality, to not really be living out what we are called to do and be?
A friend of mine recently talked to me about his "home church" in Norfolk, VA.
He said that, when he was a kid, that church had a membership of over 1,000 people.
But mostly all it did was "Sunday stuff."
It didn't reach out to the community.
It was very inwardly focused, kind of like a club.
Eventually, the church lost members, and got to the point where it almost had to close the doors.
My friend tells me that the church is alive now.
More alive than it ever was.
It may not have a membership of 1,000, but they now have feeding events for their community every week.
They are known in their neighborhood as a church which is racially friendly, open to all, non-judgmental, and a place where people can find help.
My friend says, "That's what church is in my view."
In our Gospel Lesson for this morning Jesus comes across 10 lepers, and thus confronts those around Him with their worst fears and deepest prejudices.
Lepers were unclean, set apart, isolated.
They were outcastes who, along with prostitutes and tax collectors and beggars, had no place in the religious community.
But, outcastes such as these, were the focus of Jesus' ministry.
The religious establishment of Jesus' day was more concerned with who was "in" and who was "out."...
...who was good enough to be a part of their club and who was not.
So Jesus and those following Him are on their way to Jerusalem, and they "traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee."
And the word "Samaria" throws up a whole bunch of red flags, of course.
The Samaritans were a despised group, totally inferior.
If they could have gotten rid of them altogether, they would have.
What does our society do with the so-called undesirables?
What did Jesus do?
What does Jesus call us to do?
Are we doing it?
As Jesus entered a village, ten lepers--ten desperate people--come running up to Him begging, "Jesus, Master, show us mercy!"
And what does Jesus do?
He shows them mercy.
Jesus said, "Go show yourselves to the priests."
"And as they left, they were cleansed."
They were all healed.
They had all come to Jesus for salvation from their horrible disease, they were all healed, but only one of them "returned and praised God...
...He fell on his face at Jesus' feet and thanked him."
And this guy was a Samaritan!!!
Not only was he a despised and feared leper, but he was a hated Samaritan.
Talk about a double-whammy!!!
A double-outcaste.
It's sort of like that old saying, "I complained I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet."
You know, actually, Jesus reached out to everyone and continues to do so.
Jesus reached out to the religious elite.
He wanted to get through to them so badly.
Of course, they ended up having Him crucified...
...but He sure did reach out to them.
They felt they didn't need Him.
And they hated Him and what He stood for.
The outcastes, the poor, the marginalized, the prostitutes, the tax collectors, the lepers, the hated...
These folks responded to Jesus on a much larger scale!!!
And one of the biggest reasons was that they knew they needed help.
Also, Jesus showed them love and mercy, and nobody else much did.
Showing love goes a long way in bringing people to Christ.
As a matter of fact, it goes all the way.
It is the most important thing by a long, long shot!!!
But still, not everyone responds.
When Jesus saw that only one leper returned to thank Him, He replied: "Weren't ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?"
Then Jesus said to him, "Get up...Your faith has healed you."
This can also and perhaps more accurately be translated as "Your faith has saved you."
When the Samaritan leper saw that he had been physically healed and "turned around" and went back to Jesus to thank Him...
...this "turning around" indicates that he responded to the grace of Christ.
It's a description of a believer's reaction to God's grace.
His life was changed.
He gave his whole self to Jesus.
Not only was his body healed, his soul was healed for all time!!!
He was now a disciple.
He was now, as we would say today, a Christian...
...born again...
...a new creation...
...the old was gone, the new had come!!!
And so his number 1 one desire was to worship Christ in praise and thanksgiving for his new life--his salvation!!!
His number 1 desire was to be "with" Christ in relationship...
...to follow Him...
...and to learn from Him...
...and to serve others in love because Christ had first loved him...
...and to tell the world that they too can have this mighty seismic experience, if they too would only come and worship Christ!!!
Can you relate????
I think that we humans, too often, take God's grace for granted.
Sure we want to be saved.
And we may even think that if we recite the correct words and make everything "look good on paper" we are A-OKAY.
That's kind of an insult to God, don't you think?
Isn't that a bit like the 9 lepers who were healed but didn't want to have anything more to do with Jesus?
It's kind of like a "one-night stand."
It's kind of like "using" Jesus for what we want, and then throwing Him in the garbage once we get it.
Do we really LOVE Jesus if we act this way?
Do we really love Jesus if we have no desire to worship Him...
...to thank Him--which is what worship is?
Have we really been saved, if, we don't "turn around" like the one Samaritan leper who came back to Jesus, "fell on his face at Jesus' feet and thanked him"?
To have faith is to live it, and to live it is to give thanks.
And how do we give thanks?
We give thanks by coming and doing what you all are doing this morning.
We give thanks by loving one another.
We give thanks by showing our love through service to others.
We give thanks by being involved in the ministries of this church.
We give thanks by giving back!!!
German theologian--Dietrich Bonhoeffer--had an amazing understanding of what it means to respond to the grace of Jesus Christ.
He said that God's grace comes to us as a free gift, but it's not cheap!!!
He said that "Cheap grace is grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system."
"Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ..."
But "costly grace," although it is free is like the treasure hidden in a field, the pearl of great price, it is "the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his [or her] nets and follows him."
It is "costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ."
And that is the only thing that brings us true life--true salvation--true healing--true meaning!!!!!!!!!
A growing body of research has tied the regular worship of God mixed with Christian service to the world with a number of positive emotional and physical health benefits.
People who regularly worship and serve God have more energy, more optimism, more social connections and more happiness than those who do not, according to studies conducted over the past decade.
They're also less likely to be depressed, envious, greedy, or alcoholics.
They sleep more soundly, exercise more regularly, and have greater resistance to viral infections.
Now, researchers are finding that worship and discipleship brings similar benefits to children and adolescents.
[Studies also show that] kids who actively worship, serve God and others tend to be less materialistic, get better grades, set higher goals, complain of fewer headaches and stomach aches, and feel more satisfied with their friends, families, and schools than those who don't.
Jesus said to the one leper who returned to worship Him: "Get up...Your faith has healed you."
The word translated here as "get up" is the same word used in the New Testament to describe the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
So, Jesus is saying to this man, in other words: "You have now been Resurrected from the dead. Your faith has done this."
Have you been "Resurrected from the dead?"
In Ephesians Chapter 2 Paul writes, "God who is rich in mercy...brought us to life with Christ while we were dead...He did this because of the great love he has for us.
You are saved by God's grace...
...This salvation is a gift...
...It's not something you did that you can be proud of.
Instead, we are God's accomplishment, created in Christ Jesus to do good things.
God planned for these good things to be the way that we live our lives."
To have faith is to live it.
And to live it is to give thanks!!!
This is God's good plan for our lives.
Are we living it?
Amen.
