Rochester, MN UCC - "Healed and Made Whole" - Luke 17:11-19

Each week in worship we read a “Call to Worship.” This piece of liturgy is in the form of call and response- the leader speaks, and the congregation responds. An example of this from the Easter season is the call, “Christ is risen,” and the response, “Christ is risen indeed.” These responsive readings intentionally reflect the pattern of the Christian life- the call of God and our response as those who know themselves to be saved and loved by God.

In this week’s story from the 17th Chapter of the Gospel of Luke, a group of ten lepers approach Jesus and call out to him, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” Jesus responds by telling them to go and see the priests and on their way, they are made clean. After they are healed nine of them go on about their lives. But one of them, after being healed, returns to Jesus and gives his thanks and praise to God. Each of them received a “call” from God, each one of them had been blessed by God’s healing in their lives, but only one of them responded to this call with a life of faith and thanksgiving. Nine were healed, but only one was made whole.

God has blessed each and every one of us time and again in our lives. We have been saved, loved, healed, guided, and provided for countless times. As incredible as these times were for us, we can forget about them in the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives. We can allow God’s blessings to slip to the back of our minds. When this happens, we miss the opportunity to be truly transformed, to not only be healed but also to be made whole.  My prayer is that God will help us all to remember all the blessings in our lives and will guide us in our efforts to respond to these blessings with lives of thanksgiving, generosity, and praise.

Pastor Andrew Greenhaw