Twenty-First Sunday After Pentecost
 
Ruth 1:1-19
2 Timothy 1:8-13
Luke 17:11-19
Psalm--111
 
This gospel is a story about brokenness. Lepers were declared unclean and were consequently isolated from others.  They were feared because we always fear what we do not understand. Robbed of human dignity, their lives shattered, they lived with only one hope, that Jesus would help them.

We all understand brokenness, perhaps not like this, but the desperate cry for mercy escapes from us, too. Sometimes our cries are muffled because we do not know where to turn or what to say. Alienated from God and from wholeness, our stories also are about . . .

Twenty-First Sunday After Pentecost
 
Ruth 1:1-19
2 Timothy 1:8-13
Luke 17:11-19
Psalm--111
 
This gospel is a story about brokenness. Lepers were declared unclean and were consequently isolated from others.  They were feared because we always fear what we do not understand. Robbed of human dignity, their lives shattered, they lived with only one hope, that Jesus would help them.

We all understand brokenness, perhaps not like this, but the desperate cry for mercy escapes from us, too. Sometimes our cries are muffled because we do not know where to turn or what to say. Alienated from God and from wholeness, our stories also are about brokenness.
 
But this gospel is a story about healing and power. Jesus restored the health of those ten lepers as mysteriously as they had been stricken. Life was turned around for them. There would be no more standing apart, no more inward shame and questioning. There would be hope.
 
Christian friends, so it is with us. Our stories as God's children are filled with examples of God breaking into our lives and picking us up, supporting us through troubled times.  Today many of you will be offered Communion, thanksgiving, and to give thanks to our LORD as the one leper did out of God's grace. Today God says to us, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."
 
      We thank You, LORD, for blessings
      You give us on our way;
      May we for these be grateful,
      And praise You every day.
 
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - We don't need more to be thankful for, we just need to be more thankful.