Our Response To Slavery
The Rev. Jeff Ross
St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Lewes, Delaware
Sermon for October 10, 2010
Proper 23 Year C
Luke 17:11-19: On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."
The great storyteller and Episcopal Priest, Martin Bell offers a story about the other nine leapers in the Gospel lesson today. Why were they so eager to get on their way? Why did they not turn back to give thanks for being restored by Jesus?
In one of my favorite books, The Way of the Wolf, Martin Bell offers some perfectly plausible explanations. He suggests that one was a mother anxious to get home, one was angry that they were not healed faster, one was sure there was a clear scientific explanation for what happened, one was anxious to pursue this “Kingdom” that Jesus had spoken about so much, and one man was disappointed he did not have to work harder to be healed. You get the picture. It is an all too common experience that when God enters into our lives, human beings can respond is some profoundly different ways. Some see it for what it is and rejoice. Others can miss what happens before their very eyes. Indeed, even our language can be misleading.
You see, I believe there is a significant difference between the definition of healing and curing. Curing involves the cessation of an adverse condition. I can take an aspirin to make a headache go away and I can put ice on a sore ankle to reduce the swelling. Healing comes from a different perspective and is more of holistic term. It is not necessarily the end of a physical condition, (although that may well be part of it), but rather involves the whole person; body, mind and soul. Not all cures heal: consider how polio was treated for many in the first half of the 20th Century -- a course of treatment helped patients to recover, but many never regained the ability to walk unassisted. Similarly, not all healings bring a cure to all that ails us. The sacrament of reconciliation brings us into the healing presence of God, yet it make take us some time to adjust and rebuild relationships in the reality of God’s Grace.
Which brings us back to Luke’s account in today’s Gospel. What was so different for this one? What made him turn back? What made him pursue wanting to be made “well”? The difference is clear -- he did not merely recognize the change in his physical condition in that he was cured. He wanted more -- he wanted to be in relationship with the source of his restoration! He had the faith to recognize Jesus and to give thanks to God. He moved from simply being cured, into being fully healed. His faith had made him well!
The account of this leaper is a revealing lesson for us. It tells us a great deal about human relationships, reconciliation and healing. Perhaps most importantly, there are no easy band aids or fixes when you seek healing. It almost always involves the recognition of some major insight and perhaps even amendment of life. Frequently heart patients must adjust their diet and exercise routines, a diabetic has to constantly watch their sugar intake, a lung cancer patient has to give up tobacco -- all of them have to make changes to be healed. The Samaritan leaper had to look and see who Jesus truly is and had to respond to this recognition by demonstrating his faith at Jesus feet. His desire for a fuller relationship, to be made well, called for him to engage the Incarnate one. He could not just walk away -- we wanted healing and true relationship.
Now, I have spoken about the difference between curing and healing, and the lengths we have to be willing to go to be made well. In the context of this Gospel, I’d like you to consider another example -- that of human slavery of African-Americans in this country. For many of us, this topic may seem to be one that is firmly resolved in the past. The Civil War is long since over and the ink has dried on the Emancipation Proclamation. If you share this perspective, I would submit to you that what you are seeing is a cure, but not healing. Martin Luther King, Jr. once stated that the most segregated hour in the United States in Sunday morning. Look around and you will see in this place very few people of color -- and two blocks away a church is packed with few Caucasians. The crisis of unemployment touches our national life more so than it has in recent memory. Yet, the rate for blacks is almost twice that of whites. The same is true of the high school drop-out rates and the incarceration of black men. We have not healed the scars from over a century ago. Like the nine leapers, we have just moved on and lulled ourselves into thinking it is all behind us.
The history of our own parish is part of this mixed bag. In 1681, the people of this town wrote to London and the Society of the Propagation of the Gospel asking for them to provide a clergy person to pastorally care for this town. Ultimately, Fr. William Beckett came and helped us build our first church building. Yet, the SPG paid his salary from the proceeds of a sugar plantation that used slaves in the Caribbean. What’s more, he owned two slaves that worked the glebe given to him by the parish. He did not free them on his death, passing on their ownership to his daughters. Yet his successor caused quite a stir by being perhaps the only clergy person in Sussex County willing to baptize black children. In so doing, The Rev. Arthur Ussher was making a public recognition that they were human beings who possessed souls. He advocated that all slaves needed to receive Christian education and be baptized. It is hard to imagine how these meager steps could be understood to be so provocative.
Our Episcopal Diocese of Delaware has been endeavoring to be like the Samaritan and turn back; to really be made well by taking another look into our past and seeking reconciliation and healing. We know that while our Nation has taken some steps forward, we have not really found the “cure” when so many have been left behind. We look at our baptismal covenant and recognized our responsibility to “respect the dignity of every human being” and we know we all have more distance to go. As a step along this way, we have prepared a document that tells the truth about some of our history which is available in the office. We have also agreed at Diocesan Convention to set aside a day for reconciliation and repentance. I will be going to the Cathedral on October 30 and I hope you will join me. I can even give you a ride.
The question for us today in the Gospel is will we be like the one who turned back? Will we seek healing in a broken world? It is not easy -- it may mean facing some challenging realities and leaving behind some false constructs. It can be painful, but such is the way of the cross which is also the way to life. Our catechism commends to us all of us to “carry on Christ’s ministry of reconciliation in the world”. The Church is to “restore unity between all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.” For our nation to move forward, we need to turn back and be healed. The cure is not complete -- we need to be well! Amen.
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