Proper 23c 2025; 12 Oct.
Luke 17:11-19; Jack Hardaway
EUCHARISTIC FAITH
A friend of mine from growing up died a week ago.
He was my best friend from the age of 11 to 20 years old. An important time.
We lost track of each other, our lives were busy and took us in different directions and in that stupid way that stupid people do, we never made the effort to reconnect.
And now it is too late.
It was a friendship that saved me. A friendship during a very difficult time of growing up, as a teenager who didn’t quite fit in.
All those years have poured back over me, all the stories and memories.
We trusted each other, mostly, and were thankful for each other, usually, in our own way.
My regrets on not reconnecting are staggering.
I’ve been ruminating on this and today’s gospel reading of Luke’s thankful Samaritan leper.
There is a lot going on in this short lesson and a lot of questions, and all those things are eclipsed by the glaringly obvious lesson about being confronted with trust, thanksgiving and loathing, not just for an outsider, but someone who is revolting.
The faith that saves is Eucharistic, the Greek word for Eucharist, is used in this lesson, giving thanks.
We see the faith that saves in not only a leper, but a Samaritan leper, and that faith that puts us to shame is a faith that is overwhelmed by thankfulness.
The faith that saves is Eucharistic.
The trust that saves is staggeringly thankful.
This is a story of mercy that leads us into trust and thanksgiving, it leaves everything else unresolved and unanswered as we are confronted with our own lack of trust, our own lack gratitude and the question of will I have the faith that saves? The trust that rescues.
Our country and our culture have lost the capacity for mercy, for trust and for thanksgiving.
The Gospel lesson todays shows us what we have lost as a nation. All we have left is loathing.
The Gospel lesson reminds me of the trust and thanksgiving that made a friendship that saved me.
Saving faith is Eucharistic.
Trust rescues us.
Death is so final.
We hope that there is a deeper communion to come, that is not here yet.
For now, death ends everything.
The regrets that death brings can only be healed by thanksgiving and trust in the one who cleanses us of the stupid ways we waste our relationships.
Thankful for what we shared, hopeful for what will be.
The finality and unresolvedness of death ends all the things that didn’t get to be said, that didn’t get to happen, that didn’t get answered.
All it leaves us with the very long walk into thanksgiving and hope.
Who do we loath?
That is where we will find our salvation, they show us the faith that saves.
Luke slaps us in the face and the faith with that truth over and over again.
We worship the crucified messiah, who was marred beyond human semblance.
Whose unclean blood cleanses us. Who was loathed. Who trusted. Who is the Eucharist. Who is mercy in the flesh.
Will I trust?
Will I be staggeringly thankful?
Will I dare to risk to love?
Trust. It rescues us.