Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7

29:1 These are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

29:4 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:

29:5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce.

29:6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.

29:7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

Timothy 2: 8-15

Keep your mind on Jesus Christ! He was from the family of David and was raised from the death, just as my good news says. And because of this message, I am locked up in jail and treated like a criminal. But God's good news isn't locked in jail, and so I am willing ot put up with anything. Then God's special people will be saved. They will be given eternal glory because they belong to Christ Jesus. Here is a true message:

If we died with Christ, we will live with him.

If we don't give up, we will rule with him.

If we deny that we know him, he will deny that he knows us.

If we are not faithful, he will be faithful.

Christ cannot deny who he is.

Don't let anyone forget these things. And with God as your witness, you must warn them not to argue about words. These arguments don't help anyone. In fact they ruin everyone who listens to them. Do your best to win God's approval as a worker who doesn't need to be ashamed and who teaches only the true message.

This is the witness of the early Christian community.

Thanks be to God

Psalm 66 - VU 784-785 parts 1 & 2

Luke 17:11-19

17:11 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee.

17:12 As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance,

17:13 they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"

17:14 When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean.

17:15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.

17:16 He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan.

17:17 Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they?

17:18 Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?"

17:19 Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."

This is the witness of Luke.

Thanks be to God

It was interesting for me to read the commendation in Timothy that we ought to avoid wrangling over words…these sage words of advice might have helped me out a little bit in recent weeks. You all probably know that ministers in congregations have responsibilities to the other courts of the church to serve. And so, just as Jack has taken on work by chairing a presbytery committee recently for which I commend him, and which is part of his ministry here at Trinity, I had come here already serving on a national committee - the Permanent Committee on Governance, Planning and Budget Processes. The first week of October my Trinity work week was in Toronto where I was at those meetings where we talk about how we in the United Church make decisions.

Well, as a student of feminist and contextual discourse, I've come to believe something about how we make our decisions. Process determines outcomes and are not neutral and when we claim we're being “neutral” mostly what we're doing is buying into the dominant messages of our time, which in our day reflect a society dominated by multinational corporations and consumerism - the Empire of our day just as surely as the Empire of Jesus' day was Rome. To make a long story short, much of the 3 days of meeting we had was infused with tensions that perhaps I brought to the meeting with my dissatisfaction with General Council Executive's cutbacks they adopted in June. They cut 2 million dollars from their budget, and I'm not really disputing that that might have been necessary, but I do take issue with cutting the Canadian Social justice staff positions and even more so with taking $500,000 from our overseas grants. I have a lot of reasons where and why I think they could have got that money and some of it could have started with the fact that they didn't cut a single management position (there are 17) even though they cut more than 10% of the staff compliment. And I think they could have done something about the salaries they make - all over $100,000. I don't think this is what we think should be happening to our M&S dollars. And I'm past angry and frustrated about it.

You know, I've worked all my life on United Church committees, as have many of you. The first one was the session of my congregation when I was 15 and I've been on one almost ever since. I feel like I've put a lot of work into our national work because I believe that it has been a place where we've lived out the gospel call to try our best to bring about Jesus' Kingdom of God. And moments like this, after all I've invested, and seen others invest are devastating…Indeed across the country there are hundreds of activists in the United Church who are more than disaffected by this decision and no doubt some will leave and wonder what's the point.

It's not so dissimilar from what some of you I think have felt. Hours at Out of the Cold. Torturous long nights at meetings. Fundraising efforts, and overcoming arguments and disputes. And there have to be moments when you've wondered…for what? Where's the results? Are the pews full? What about the coffers of the church? Do you feel a little heavier just listening to me rant?

I'm imagining that had to be the response of Jesus and the disciples in the gospel we've just read to their situation. I'd like us to take a slightly interpretative approach to this. Bartholomew - a little talked about disciple is sometimes cast as an old man. And in Syrian tradition, Bartholomew the disciple was originally named Jesus - a common name for men of that era and took the name Bartholomew meaning son of Ptolmay. So here's old Bartholomew, traveling with Jesus and the 12 and sees lepers in the distance. You never quite get used to this Jesus' attitude towards lepers…all his life he'd avoided them. Thank God, they called out in the distance, they called out my name - Jesus. And thank God the teacher didn't summons them closer, but we were stopped…in that strange land where you never know what it would be like if we had to sleep there at night. And there is so much to do, and what's the point anyway.

And then the one that returned. It would be the Samaritan. We don't have enough problems without cohorting with Samaritans. Old Bartholomew can't get used to that either. Where's the other 9 - all Jews like us - they're the ones it would be easier to receive. They're the results we're looking for? Were they healed at all. You know some days it feels just a little hard to get out of bed. Even the teacher seems frustrated.

Imagine the Samaritan coming closer, and lying on the ground. Imagine the tears for he can go back to his home. The thankfulness in the glassy eyes that old Bartholomew would never see again. Tears welling up in his own eyes, and bowing his head to ask the Father for forgiveness, he is grateful for the distracting work that has come. True he won't see the other 9, not now, not ever…and true God, the results of the teacher's ministry might not have been what he'd expected, or where he'd expected when he signed on. And true that even though it was to this “foreigner” (find root word), even though all that was true, the teacher was right…his faith, his faith had made him well. Will not my faith make my frustrated heart well when I look with thankfulness on this gift I'd not expected today - to be glad of the healing of a Samaritan. As a boy I'd thrown stones at them and as a young man I'd warned my daughters about them, and yet, now that I am old, God gives me this new chance, to see his healing work in the glassy eyes of this thankful stranger.

Old Bartholomew isn't the only one who needed to move beyond what he wants. I have. I resigned working on that committee or I've sent a letter off. I've lived a life of beating my head against brick walls and as I get older, and I think about Mohammed Ali, and I know I'm starting to tremor, albeit in different ways, I think this is not a wall I'm going to run against. Who knows…perhaps I'm wrong and the direction our national leadership is taking us is for the best and of God. I don't discount that possibility. But I do know that if I feel as I have about this all summer that its not where I feel called to live out my ministry in that particular arm of the church. And I think to myself, well…just because I'm not getting the kind of results I'd hoped for, and just because I'm not getting it the way I want them in terms of safeguarding social justice in the church…does that mean that the miracle isn't happening. The thing about the healing of the lepers story we heard today is this. We all know it is God, not just us, who is the maker of the miracles of transformation. We all know that it is God who acts through our Good efforts just as God acted in Jesus healing of the lepers and not Old Bartholomew who was there. It goes a step further. God is doing it, and God is deciding where and how it gets done. And if we want to get over our feelings of frustration and exhaustion and get past our sense of “what's the point/we're not getting results”, we've got to start believing some simple things:

It's not us who's acting it's God.

And if its not us who's acting, it's not our results, they're Gods.

And if the results are God's we've got to be satisfied that they might come in ways we can't control and wouldn't have imagined.

So, is God still behind the work for Global Economic Social Justice? - Absolutely.

Will God do that work exactly as Desmond Jagger-Parsons thinks God should. Perhaps, perhaps not. In fact, the good news is God gives loads of opportunities for me to work on my passion for justice, and if it's not in the place or the people I want it to be…well, perhaps its with the Samaritans, and perhaps that will be good for me.

Is God behind your work, to be the hands and feet of Christ in downtown Kitchener? Absolutely. To proclaim the Good News? Absolutely. Will God give results as you'd like to see them - with the kind of people returning to the church that you'd like to see and the resurrection of all of your memories and ways of doing things. Most likely not. Is that something to be sad about. Not in the slightest.

God says to us…behold I am doing a new thing.

God says to us as he said through the prophet Jeremiah as they were about to shut down Israel, as captives were being taken off to Babylon, marry, buy lands, have hope, my day of redemption will be here.

God says to us - its not just my work - its my vision of results too.

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