28th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. 2 Kings 5: 14-17
2. Psalms 98: 1, 2-3, 3-4
3. 2 Timothy 2: 8-13
4. Luke 17: 11-19

• Learning who you are
• Naaman was a great man in his home country of Aram.  He was a man of undisputed bravery, a man highly regarded by his king.  In spite of all of that Naaman had not come to know God, and so was a man in need.  He thought that he came to Israel for a physical healing, but God's dreams for him were bigger than that.
• When you think of "healing", what does that include?  Is it just a matter of the physical, does it include the emotional, the social, the mental, ...
• What are some things that you have been healed of?
• What/who brought that healing about in your life?
• Was it a process, or an event?
• If you were to relive those events again, would you change anything?

• Revelation
• We all want to be evangelical in the sense that we want to share what makes us happy.  Successfully married men and women rejoice when a friend gets engaged, we look with eager anticipation when a pregnancy is announced, we want to pass along bits of advice to that colleague who just got recently promoted.
• What's the best way for us to reveal God to others?
• Do you think that most "unchurched" hunger for God, for community, for union and just do not know it yet?
• How can we awaken that longing in them, and be authentic to our own brokenness at the same time?

• Creative perseverance
• As we grow in age, it becomes increasingly difficult to just keep on keeping on.  Things that used to be easy gradually become harder and harder, the joy that used to mark things that we did gradually fades, and we ask ourselves, when did this change from being a source of enjoyment, to being a chore?
• As you have aged, matured, how have you known when to leave something behind?
• How do you adjust to that loss?
• Have you really been honest with yourself?  Is it maybe time to admit that you're never going to go skiing again, or that your bungee jumping days are finally over?
• Who cares if the garage of your life is full of things that you cannot let go of?

• Growing through loss
• When we seek a healing, we often want for things to "go back the way that they were" so that we can resume life as though nothing had ever happened in the first place.
• Think back to a time when you were restored in some way.  That might have been getting a job back, healing a relationship that had suffered, receiving a loved one back after a serious illness or injury, ...  Were things really just as they had been before?
• Was that good or bad?
• Why?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Who am I in God's eyes?
2. Do others find me winsome for God?
3. What do I need to let go of today?
4. Where is a painful healing going on in my life today?

I Hate that Name

Minding my own business in the local watering hole.
Enjoying a little brew and relaxation that I've missed for so long.
I thought that it would be good to be back.
Then I hear an old familiar voice ring out

Hey, Simon, Simon the leper, is that really you?
What are you doing here, I mean, with all these people?
For some reason, my friend Jacob's voice
Has always had a piercing quality about it.

I'm not sure if that's just a matter of the pitch,
Or something deeper about Samuel.
But what I do know,
Is that it's annoying every time that he opens his mouth.

I almost want him to think that I'm still a leper,
Just so he'll keep his distance.
But then I realize that will only make him have to yell.
So I turn, pull out my certificate from the priests, and tell him I'm well.

Samuel runs over, hoists his ample backside onto a stool and turns to me
His face familiar, with a few more lines and creases
Witness to life he's lived in my extended absence
And he bellows "so where have you been?"

How do I tell him that I've been in exile in my own country?
That the spaces between villages and cities all look alike.
Nothing but wild animals and other lepers out there.

Occasional furtive contacts from loyal family members.

So I give him an answer that he'll understand.

"Here and there, up and down the coast, sight seeing if you will."

"So what brought you back" Samuel asks.

"Because, in all the places that I visited, this is the only one I call 'home'" I say.

Samuel gets quiet for a blessed moment, looks at my glass, and says 

"Barkeep, my friend's glass is unaccountably low.

And I'll have a round of what he's having.  Put it on my tab."

And then I know I'm truly home again.

Shalom!