October 13, 2019 Ten Amazing Men

October 13 2019 Luke 17.11-19 “Ten Amazing Men” Pastor Jacqueline Hines

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Jesus was traveling to Jerusalem. Luke the physician and gospel writer tells us exactly where Jesus was geographically. Do you ever get those notices on your phone that say, “Will you allow this app to know your location?” Sometime it is alright. At other times, it is kind of creepy that a computer knows where you are, what you are doing, what you are buying. There is even evidence that you phone can listen to what you are saying, even whispering. One lady says she was talking to a friend about wanting to take a trip to Austria and the next thing she knew advertisements were popping up on her phone for trips to Austria.

Luke tells us that Jesus’ location was between Samaria and Galilee. The Samaritans were refugees. They were forced to leave the Holy Land after being captured by the Babylonians. As they settled in Samaria, they may have grown a little lacks in their prayer time and temple time. It could have been that the things of the world had so captured their imagination, that they had become so self-absorbed that the world could not tell that they were Godly by their love, by their love. The Samaritan woman with her five husbands fit a stereotype for some while the idea of a Good Samaritan was a surprising oxymoron to others.

Jesus was in a region between Samaria and Galilee – his home. Though he was born in Bethlehem of Judea (about 5 miles from Jerusalem), Joseph and Mary fled Herod’s massacre of children and took Jesus as a refugee in Egypt where he stayed for a couple years until an angel told him it was safe to leave. Joseph was still a bit nervous about returning to Judea, so he took his family to Galilee and raised Jesus in Nazareth of Galilee.

Jesus’ story reminds us that God can guide us to safe places. Whether we are between a rock and a hard pace or on a journey from sin to salvation, God can guide us to a safe place, even if that safe place is only in our hearts, where it matters the most.

On his journey, ten lepers approached Jesus.  We can all relate to being a leper. As humans we have all been isolated or rejected for one reason or another. We are all equal in that we all have bodies that get sick and wear out, keeping us home bound or in the hospital. We all have been felt alone after someone has lied on us cheated us or hurt us for reasons known or imagined.

What is so amazing about the ten men that Jesus saw on his way to Jerusalem was that they approached Jesus. That is just the best thing – to approach Jesus!!

Who comes to Jesus today? Just this week we were talking about how many societies and cultures find more interesting and entertaining people to go to besides Jesus. When the lepers came to Jesus, they were healed. Have you come to Jesus? Have you been healed?

I was told this week of Korean United Methodist who migrated from South Korea to North Korea and he lived in a leper colony in South Korea. He had some type of skin disorder that was thought to be leprosy – maybe it was. Many skin disorders tend to be grouped into the category of leprosy. Missionaries would come to make sure the lepers had food and other necessities. He said he remembers feeling so amazed when people would bother to come and help them when they were so alienated from the rest of the world. Somehow he got well and came to the US and told his story a few years ago in his United Methodist Church.

Surely we have all been healed to one degree or another. None of us live on this earth 100% healed. We do well to give thanks for ANY healing we have by God’s grace and we trust in the blessed assurance that we are not forgotten or forsaken when we do get sick. Our God knows and cares for each and every one of us, in sickness and in health.

Rev. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, lived from 1703-1791 was a man of fervent prayer and he believed in the power of God to heal and deliver.  One source tells us:

In his journal for December 15, 1742, John Wesley reports that he and a Mr. Meyrick both fell sick. But while Wesley recovered, Meyrick declined. On Christmas Day, Meyrick appeared to be dead. However, as Wesley and others cried out to God, Meyrick regained consciousness and then began to regain strength.

This incident was not isolated in early Methodism. Charles Wesley was healed from a severe condition when a woman commanded him to be healed “in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.” Methodist preacher John Valton reported healings, revelatory dreams, and even rainfall through prayer. The blind eye of early Methodist Ann Brookes was healed after Jesus touched it in a dream. Many people in Wesley’s meetings fell to the ground under conviction from God’s Spirit; one skeptical physician was converted when one of his patients was cured from her sickness.

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Early Methodists, like the early church, were amazing. They chased after God, they followed Jesus. They hungered and thirsted for the Holy Spirit to guide their lives. That is how they harnessed the power of God like a windmill harnesses the wind for electricity. 

We need the miracles, the visions, the still small voice, signs and wonders, the flood of goodness, fiery wall of protection, the breathtaking breakthroughs, wind blowing the storms back, the truth that sets us free and we need to be delivered. Such blessings come from God. They cannot be bought or sold or taken.

I went to a Pentecostal conference with my Presbyterian seminary colleagues the week of Labor Day. I had a dancing good time and received a prophetic revelation: Over and over again it came to my mind, my heart and my lungs - God is able. God is able. God is able. I understood deeply that night that God is able to do what seems impossible, to break strongholds of attitudes and mischief, to help men get out of the man box of muzzling women as well as all kinds of people getting along with all kinds of people regardless of their need for help and healing. I came away refreshed and revived and filled with hope for the future of the church.

We cannot survive as a church unless we chase after God, follow Jesus, and hunger and thirst for the Holy Spirit’s guidance in our lives. And in these days and times, it is an amazing thing to approach Jesus like those ten lepers did, for not many in this world seem to have an appetite for praise and worship and building faith. May we all go forth and make the church Amazing Again! Amen.