Sunday 13th October – 28C

LUKE 17:11-19
Ten lepers made clean:
one turned back in praise of God
and was declared whole.

From a distance
the ten cried out for mercy:
reconnection with their own —
acceptance, inclusion.

The Teacher,
passing through
the ill-defined and much-avoided
in-between
shared by Galilee and Samaria,
encouraged their following the law.

They went
and on the way
one,
outside the dominant faith and community,
became aware:
he was clean;
it was God’s doing in the word of the Teacher;
mercy, acceptance, inclusion
were his
and
he was whole.

He worshipped God
and thanked the Teacher
in ways that can discomfort us,
who unaware,
take these three for granted.

Unawareness, a disease much harder to treat
than blotchy skin.
Following the way of the Teacher,
taking him at his word,
may we become aware
and made whole.
        © Jeff Shrowder, 2013.
  More for Sunday 28C…