A Promise Coming- Isaiah 65:17-25. Sermon preached on November 16, 2025

            “Unlimited or misplaced vengeance pervades our societies. . .  and [it] always has.”[1] This has been the same daily story, the same lived experience, that we deal with since the beginning of our story as a people. When we have the option to locate, or create, a different story, we do not easily do so. We would often prefer something different, but today’s text asks us to think differently.  

            This choice, the choice of vengeance upon other which leads to a personal type of suffering, is also the story that God’s children lived with, and lived through, since the time of Abraham.

It is the story of the Israelites during the time where Isaiah wrote to the exiles as he concludes his book. 

And it is also our story today as we move closer to Advent and the celebratory work of the incarnation—even if our hearts are fresh off the work of memory as the Body of Christ. 

            So, I wonder, what is there each day that we can take hold of to find hope? To locate hope? 

            Isaiah 65 has that word for us. And rather than offer this word just as something ‘out there’ or even in Advent, which comes sooner than we think. Perhaps this hope is a thing that we can reach out towards and grasp. A lived change that no one might see coming, but a change that will lead us toward Christ the King? 

            The word that Isaiah has for us begins powerfully with something that only God can do. This passage begins where everything began… Creative Creation. 

Move 1- Creative work

            The creative work begins with the Lord first. And in this affirmation, we instance where God encourages us to find, and practice, hope.

            Historically the exiles who read Isaiah’s words have been through a great deal and so any practice where hope is called out, or called forth, would be challenging. Just as it would be for us. Yet the prophet asks them to put their faith into practice in spite of what they are dealing with on a daily basis and believe. 

Isaiah accesses the people’s hope in the same way that God draws us towards himself in relationship… in creation.

            The creative work here from the prophet is attributed to the voice of the Lord solely and totally. God does this work. Only God creates in this way. The word that captures this is “bara.” It is the word that opens the Holy Scriptures. And while human authors will write it, no human can create like this. For “in the beginning God created…” Again only God creates in this way. 

            Unlike ‘asah’ (to make or do) or ‘yatsar’ (to form… like the potter who works the clay and forms something from the clay), ‘bara’ never takes a human subject. ‘Bara’ is not our word. You and I cannot ‘bara’ anything. It is God’s word only and always. This is God’s work, as it is God’s word alone. God’s prerogative. Rooting all subsequent anthropology, morality, and stewardship in God’s authorship—not ours.[2]

            “Bara” does not, for instance, take a few eggs, maybe a bit of milk, some cheese and ham, maybe a nice pepper or two, and then make a nice omelete for breakfast as you and I might have done this morning. That is not an act of ‘bara.’

“Bara” takes nothing and out of nothing… ‘behold, I create new heavens a new earth’ says the Lord.  

Creation taking place. A place where there was weeping and mourning because the exiles had been through so much. Lost so much. Suffered so much. Relationally doubted that God was ever going to hear their prayers. Care for them. Provide for them. Come back to them. This was the place where that was natural, expected, anticipated, the place where these people (much like you or I could dwell and live each day) and it becomes a place of rejoicing. Something new coming back to them… to us. 

            Creative acts. From places where nothing existed before. Not creation as transformation. Like eggs becoming breakfast. 

            This is how our text began and God says, ‘I am doing something new, different, exciting. Transformational. Because this is what I do because you and I are in relationship and I will not leave you, even if the evidence that you see each day makes you think that I am gone or a long way off.’ 

            God wishes to create something new, and in fact IS, creating something new for us that will bless and bring us home.  

Move 2- 

            And you can see how this creative place, this place where God uses, ‘bara,’ this becomes the place, the moment, where in verse 25 something that is not natural, something that is not possible under normal circumstances becomes possible. This is the place, and the moment, where we see the promise of Christ presented yet again in the words of Isaiah. 

The wolf and the lamb together. The lion and the ox eating together. The dust being the serpent’s food. Normally these things are not possible; unexpected. But in the new place that God creates for us and with us… it is possible. For with God all things are possible—even if we think we dwell in a place of exile and suffering. Even as we think that God no longer listens and vengeance and separation are the order of the day. 

God has chosen not to leave us alone.  

For as chapter 65 began, God wonders if His people will choose to dwell close by Him? Will they remain close enough so that he can transform them yet again? 

God states that He is here. It is the reverse of the call of Isaiah from chapter 6 where God wonders who will go for Him. Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? At that time Isaiah said, ‘I am here send me.”

Now God is saying I am here, who will return to me and find that I have not moved. For God is faithful. God is steadfast. And in both God’s faithfulness and steadfastness, we once again find a reason and place to hope and trust in Him.  

We are being asked to come home to God. Return to the creative place that God makes for us. 

            This is where the prophet, as the mouthpiece of God, gives us the messianic word in our text. A word that we will consider and remember in a few short weeks. 

For where else could this creative work take shape outside of God and God’s creative acts and movements? Where else do we find hope like this outside of God and God’s presence? 

Where else but in God do we find reconciliation and hope taking shape when so much of the discourse, and so much of the daily experience that we live with is vengeance, pain, suffering? Where else expect in, and with, the creative God who is at work all around us in places and moments where the worldly evidence suggests that this is not so. 

            In those moments and places God says, ‘I am creating something new for you where you will find space to rejoice and believe yet again that I am with you preparing to do something that will heal and restore you for that is my nature and that is the nature of our relationship. 

Move 3- Banah

            And this creative work, though, does not stop with God… it extends into partnership with us. 

            For two verses of this text stand out as partnering verses in this work: verses 21 & 22. The wording that sticks out is: “to build.”

            On the surface the wording of these two verses could sound like the opposite of what Babylon did to the Israelite people. For at a first glace the verse seems to state that we going to spread out and build and build and get bigger and bigger. But when we look deeply at what God says through Isaiah’s words, we once again find a far richer idea that links back up with the creative acts of God that are taking place. 

            The people hearing Isaiah 65, like you and I today, we are not only going to physically build these things (vineyards & houses), but this word underscores a sense of care and concern that is much deeper and longer lasting. When used in other places in God’s word, this idea underscores a sense child rearing and building and watching over a family. Lovingly. Deeply. Compassionately. 

            Not hording fruit—to use Isaiahs’ imagery. 

            Not building a house bigger than my neighbors so they might become envious of me or being to think that I look better than them. 

            Instead, once again this is building as an act of creative, but this time the creative act is one of caring. 

            So yet again, the care of God, the creative care of God, the promise of God care for us, leads back into nature and presence of one who is coming in a few short weeks for us. Even through all we deal with and all we struggle against; God is with us. 

Conclusion 

            God keeps his promises to us. As the Lord did in the life of the Israelites. While the children of Israel may have wondered for a great while if God was indeed going to be faithful and care for them, that did not stop the Lord from creatively working in their lives when they wondered if God was still present or active. 

            And so, as we continue to care for our community, and wonder about our choices of faithfulness in this community, the question comes for us: can we see the promise of God coming? The promise is creative. And the promise calls us to be partner with him in the work.  

 

DM

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[1] Marylynne Robinson. 

 

[2] All exegetical work came from www.biblehub.com. 

Won't you be my neighbor?

When I was part of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, a formative time of my academic year, I always had my eye on graduation. Not terribly surprising I am sure. Every student looks forward to the time when their classwork is done and the move to the part of the work. Well, as that time came closer and closer I learned that each graduating class selects their own commencement speaker.  

My class wanted to aim high; aim as high as we could. And so as I came to the meetings, I was surprised to hear how high we sought to go...  

We first wondered who was the highest ranking Presbyterian in our government. At the time it was Condoleezza Rice, who served as 66th Secretary of State. Her father was a Presbyterian Minister from Alabama. Doubting she would be accessible or able to speak to our class during commencement, we looked elsewhere.  

The next person in line was a famous alumni of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and on National Cardigan Day, I have been thinking about him a lot: Fred Rogers. I enjoyed his television show as a boy with my family. 

Mr. Rogers was often the selection to speak at PTS graduations. I do not know how often he was to speak to the graduates based on his work with PBS. But his influence on my life, and on the life of an entire generation, cannot be denied. 

As Bethesda prepares to handout turkeys again this next week I was reminded of something that Mr. Rogers once said in the face of a hard world: "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping." 

These words came from Fred's mother as young Fred watched the news and was afraid of what he saw and heard reported by the anchors. Her wise words spoke to him about how to change his perspective and look for something positive when everyone around him saw only the negative and the deficit. This was a lesson that he would seek to pass on to generations of children who watched his show and saw those cardigans zipped up each day and a new song was sung to them.  

This is also the challenge that the church should be seeking to adopt as well. 

Find the helpers. Be the helpers. And together we can help move the change the world out into the community where God sends us. It is not always easy but as Mr. Rogers reminds us, if we look, we can see people who are helping. And I wonder, if we might join in the work of helping in this community?  

Inheritance--Ephesians 1:11-23. Sermon preached on November 9th, 2025 as we honored All Saints Day

             In a few minutes we will once again participate in the work of memory. . . memory on multiple levels. 

            Every Sunday as we come together in the larger context and shape of worship, we are remembering important teachings from Jesus, and we also remembering how they shape our relationship with God. Memory is behind much of what we do in worship—we remember where God has taken us from and where God carries us to and towards. 

            Yet today we are also remembering the table which is set before us. 

These elements of bread and the cup, they also bring to mind the sacrifice of our Savior in vivid details. In themselves, the bread and the cup, they tell us the story of his love and of his suffering, death, and resurrection. These simple elements also whisper to us about our hope for our future. They speak about God’s reconciliatory work that is accomplished in Christ Jesus. 

            But they are not the only symbols which sit before us. 

For we are also here to remember something/someone else. 

For every one of us, those physically in this space, those watching at home live, and those watching at a later date, we recall those who are not with us any longer. 

This is another act of memory that is crucially important in the context of worship. Those lives speak to us, and even if they did not worship here, or directly teach us any lessons of faith that we share with our families and our children, they tell us something about the Lord and, again, his reconciliatory, healing, work in Christ Jesus. 

So, as we participate in the All-Saints memorial soon, we remember our friends, our family, our loved ones who have entered the Church Triumphant. Even if they are not on THIS year’s list. . . they are on OUR list. 

            Memory. It is something that Paul speaks about in Ephesians 1 to us and to the church in the city of Ephesus. The Apostle does this with a few key terms and phrases. I want to draw you attention to them now. 

Move 1- Inheritance. 

            The first of those terms is: Inheritance. Before he invites the church to remember Paul pulls their eyes, he draws their eyes, forward to that which God promises to give the church.  

But this is not just a promised reward that is given to the faithful people or to a faithful church only—that would be good, and I would like that. This inheritance is more than something that we can deposit or count. Only occurring in the New Testament generally in this one verse, Paul has a deeper theological understanding that he wishes to convey to the pluralistic community of Ephesus for inheritance. 

“Th[is] verb underscores the believer’s secure place in God’s redemptive purpose, portraying salvation as an “inherit[ed] appointment” accomplished in Christ.”[1]

That’s a mouthful, but it is truth that we cannot deny. 

            Because we are unified with Christ, linked with Christ in a bond at our conversion, the believer is held secure with the Lord always and forever. This has been promised upon in the Old Testament by God, taught to us in Jesus in the gospel, and as Paul writes to the Christians in Ephesus, it is our source of future hope today. 

For our presence and our relationship with Christ is neither an accident nor a casual thing. We were, and we are, chosen by God. It is our inherited place that persists regardless of the daily circumstances—long after trials and struggles. We are in Christ, and we are chosen by God—as are the people who God calls you to care for, to serve, and to love. 

            We remember our inheritance as we remember the Table before us and those who are now resting, and celebrating, with the Lord. As we have this inheritance to fall back on, to rest in at a future date, it is our calling to share this good news with others and to help them learn of it, so that they can build their own relationship with Christ Jesus.  

Move 2- memory

            Inheritance is one concept that Paul spoke about in our text today and it is profound. But I want to remind you of a second one: Memory.

            Memory serves an additional purpose that helps reinforce and remind us of our inheritance that is promised and delivered upon because we are in Christ. 

Besides being theological for Paul in nature and reminding us of our union in Christ as the Church, and besides reminding us of our relationship with God that endures throughout the generations, and of the work that God did to choose, memory has an active position and purpose that we see at work here. 

            For Paul, the memory that he speaks about to the church at Ephesus is positive. 

Paul’s work of memory takes the shape and structure of positive memories when it would be possible, and perhaps permissible, to only dwell on the negative—a task and position that we see often around us. 

Paul thanks the Lord for all the good things, good moments and wonderful blessings that he has witnessed in the life of the Ephesians where ministry is being done for the glory and honor of God. This is not an easy task for Ephesus was a city where Jesus was taught but so was every other faith and religion—some to a higher level and passion than God. 

            It would be easy to let that news cause our shoulders to slump a bit; to think that this (whatever this is) that it won’t work here… in this context. But the Ephesians do not do this, and Paul thanks the Lord that he was able to witness it firsthand. 

            Dwelling on the negative, remembering the negative, that is a very 21^st century thing to do. As you know, we see this happening in so many places and with so many people. 

            Without a posture of gratefulness as a church, and as individuals in the church, we lose our way and our memory of how good God has been for us fades. 

We lose our focus, and we lose our sense of calling in the Lord. We lose our way when we are not grateful in the work of memory that we do. Memory is a crucial part of what we do today at our All-Saints Day memorial and at the Table for the two services are linked the memories that we have of Jesus breaking bread and pouring the cup.

And memory is also what we will do at Bethesda over the next 2 days as we help a pair of families remember. . . 
Conclusion

            Memory and inheritance are why we need to come time and again to moments like this as a church. I hope that as we continue, and as you hear the names, and partake of the sacrament your memories of a faithful God, a God who has given you a great inheritance, will bubble up. And as they do, perhaps this will be the time when you can that blessing with someone else. 

  

DM

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[1] https://biblehub.com/greek/2820.htm  

Change what??

Today I had a doctor's appointment. Nothing serious. Just something that I needed to attend to before Jennifer and I head north to Pittsburgh for JonMark and Autumn's wedding on Sunday afternoon. So, arriving 20 minutes early, as recommended, I checked in and took my seat in the waiting room among a crowded space of patients and families. 

Suffice to say, I had plenty of time on my hands before the doctor was able to see me. (And no, I not about to complain about having to wait... and I am also not about to talk about the need to be patient when it is not your/my turn). 

While I sat in the waiting room, I spent some time reading. Today I read some selections from Wendell Berry. 

Truthfully, I first encounter Berry's writing while I was working on my doctoral thesis at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. My cohort members and I did not appreciate his work and we felt it was out of place in the class that we were taking. We were in a class on pastoral leadership and his essays were about agrarian lifestyles and choices. We could not see the connection.  

Years later I have grown to appreciate Berry's wisdom and the slow tempo by which he develops his thesis. 

So sitting in the waiting room and watching the room empty and the fill again and again, Berry's words "The Body and The Earth" spoke to me. 

We are so busy trying to fix and to do everything that we seldom stop and stay. . . Wondering when will it be my turn, literally, we stop being present and choose to just "be." As our attention wanes so does, as another author put it so well, our ability to ask the Lord, "Help me to stay [here] well." Which I take to mean, "help me to dwell in this space as you meant me to." 

I sat in that waiting room for almost 40 minutes. I tried as hard as I could just to 'stay well' but I am not sure I succeeded. I kept wondering when would it be my turn. A few times I tried to pray for the others people in the room but those prayers devolved quickly as the door opened and someone else's name was called. 

Perhaps this is something that we do together. . . what would it look like for you to "stay well?"

Taken by the Hand. Jeremiah 31:27-34. Sermon preached on Sunday, October 19, 2025

            How do you live through the demise of a single paradigm, of one reality, and still have the necessary faith to grow as a Christian? How do you believe that God is continuing to watch over you when the physical evidence all around you suggests that this is not true? 

            These are the questions that Jeremiah’s people, and perhaps Jeremiah himself, are struggling with on a daily basis. The Israelites are in exile. Jerusalem has been burned; its walls torn down. Judah, like is northern brethren, have been conquered. All the while the prophetic voices have cried out to the people with one constant refrain: repent, return to the Lord, and we might be spared.

            Yet the people continued down a pathway that led them away from God and away from trusting in God to be their source of strength and provision. But they are not the only ones. 

These questions might also be the same questions that the people in the church and community are grappling with today as we look out at the landscape where God sends us.  

            How can we remain faithful when the evidence suggests that God is not at work around us? 

            We know that God takes us by the hand, holds us in our time of grief and pain, but what does it look like when that paradigm shatters? How do we find, or how do we remember that God is going to establish a New Covenant with us when the pain of losing something previous is so strong and so stinging? 

Move 1- an active God

            As we begin to address and confront that struggle, we come to the familiar words of Jeremiah 31 that we hold so closely to. So, the first task that we try to undertake is one of memory. Yet that too does not mean this work is going to be easy. Memory. We attempt to bring to mind the truth God is still active when the evidence others put before us suggests that God is not. 

            If you remember, way back at the end of August, we read and considered the story of Jeremiah’s calling together. In chapter 1 God tells the young prophet that he is destined, called, as God’s servant and mouthpiece, to bear witness to “pluck up and break down/to destroy and to overthrow/to build and to plant.”[1]

            Those words are powerful and young Jeremiah probably had to take a step back when God said them to him.

As we thought about those words, we remembered how strong they sounded in our ears. How polarizing they can be. And we knew that they were probably stronger in Jeremiah’s called ears for he did not think that he was able to do this work that God sent him out to do. And yet again both we, and Jeremiah, are called to be God’s voice and God’s hands. For God is active in us and in the world around us. 

            Now here, over 30 chapters later, the active God speaks. 

Jeremiah hears these hard words again, and in hearing them, they gain some added potency—some added passion in his heart. 30 chapters later God is still actively at work in Jeremiah’s live and in the life of the people—even if those people are not convinced that God is still listening and still present. 

Even if those people thought that God abandoned them as the Holy City fell and the culture of the day laxed, God is still there. . . still listening. Still calling us outward. 

In verse 28 God says these words… “to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy…”[2] And here we feel and hear the call of Jeremiah repeated. 

Again, they are harsh words from God. Yet also words that demonstrate that God is actively around His people. Not to harm them—do not make that mistake. But God is actively around the people—and around the prophet—calling us forward. Calling us to seek Him. Calling us to respond to Him. Calling us participate in the work of the Church.  Calling us to be faithful to the Covenant that God begins yet again. 

Move 2- taken by the hand

            But in the face of this call, the people let go… 

This conclusion cannot be forgotten. It is vitally important as we think about the New Covenant that Jeremiah presents, and that you remember so clearly, In the face of this familiar passage to these exiles, and to us, the people, let go.

            Jeremiah 31 contains some of the most memorable wording in all of the prophets. The New Covenant being spoken about; being offered. Such beautiful language. You probably said the words in your heart as I read them out loud in worship today.

Jeremiah 30-31 begins the section of Jeremiah’s message that is considered to be the Book of Consolation. For here God is consoling His people when they think that all is lost and that God is no longer actively-present and that God does not care for them any longer. God is consoling them when they need the Lord the most.

            They are a long way from home. They cannot worship as they like—or where they would like. Their freedom is stripped away regardless of how they define that freedom. Their leaders have been taken from them. 

God knows this and so the Lord offers them a word, a reminder, that He has not forgotten or forsaken them. God offers them a reminder that He is still as active as He has ever been. 

            This comes in the form of the reminder of their past. God reminds the exiled Israelites that previously the Lord has taken them by the hand and lead them from Egypt into the Promised Land. God reminds them that their cries, their prayers and petitions, were heard. And in that statement, all of the memories of travelling through Egypt, across the Red Sea, through the Sinai Desert, and into the Promised Land rush into them… but so does more memories of an active God. 

But then a transition happens. 

God reminds the people that He established The Covenant with them, and then, the power of the statement hits. The Lord says that this is a covenant that they broke. God did not break it. God could not break it. They broke it.  

            This is the moment where I am struck in the text. 

            For if God is holding these beloved people by the hand—which I take to be both a loving and yet firm embrace. How is it that the covenant is shattered? What has caused this break to happen? 

            We do not know. The audience is left to figure this out for themselves. And each of you will have a different response and image that comes to mind about how that covenant was broken. The people hearing Jeremiah say that they covenant was broken are also left to wonder how each of us break away from God’s hand ourselves in our daily lives. But it is a striking image to consider. 

            How do a people, chosen by God. . .marked by God. . .  cared for by God. . .  willingly let go of God’s hand and break off the relationship? 

Because it is not just the people back then, the Israelites in Jeremiah’s day that do this, but by extension as we find and consider this message, the implication is that we do it as well. And again, there is great passion and power in this moment of Jeremiah 31. 

 

            To Break is not only a Jeremiah-based word but it happens through the entire cannon of Bible. It is word with a rich application and that richness helps us to apply it personally as well. 

            This verb, to break, occurs over 50 times in the Old Testament. It is in the Torah, it is the Writings, and it is in the Prophets. 

So, this is not an isolated theme or concept that God, through Jeremiah’s voice presents to those Israelites from a time long ago. It is a message to the Church today. How, or why, do we break away from the One who takes us by the hand, provides for us, protects us, and calls us to be different? Why do we leave behind the active God who calls us to be different? 

            For regardless of the context, scripture is clear. The church does this. 

Move 3- letting go
            And knowing this, seeing this, God again acts. I believe it is in God’s very nature to act. To reconcile the Divine nature to the human nature. Rather than just taking us up again by the hand like an irritated parent might do to a child. And rather than just dusting us off and getting us moving again back on the road of life, God decides more drastic steps are needed to help us heal and be restored. 

For God will not let us go.

            If God tried the first time simply to hold our hand and move forward with us, this new steps in the form of New Covenant, is more involved. God will write His very message upon us in a place that it cannot be forsaken or forgotten. It will be imprinted upon us in a profound way. Try as we might the message will stick upon us. Sinful choices and moments will not erase it from us. The call sticks in us and for us. 

And we, like the children of Israel, we will be different. We will be saved for in the New Covenant God will not let us go. 

Conclusion

            This is truly the message of hope and gospel that the people around us need. For we find countless moments every day—and this is not hyperbole—where that is what is needed the most. 

            There are more moments each day where hope can be forgotten. Moments where the people that you meet need a reminder that tried to simply hold their hand, and when that was not enough, God wrote the very message of the Word upon us for God is active and present, and God will not let us go. 

            And we call that revelation: the New Covenant. 

            I hope today that you will seek out someone who needs to hear and learn of that new covenant and I hope that you will share it for everyone, from the deepest of faith outward, needs to be reminded about it right now. 

 

DM

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[1] Jeremiah 1:10 CEV. 

 

[2] Jeremiah 31:28 CEV. 

It's all in how you frame the moment.

Right in the middle of Matsiko's visit with us, Jennifer and I were out at Watson Farms. 

After saying good-bye to the children of Matsiko for the morning, I rushed over the farm. There I found Jennifer and Emma waiting for me bundled under a blanket. It was a cloudy morning--well it was a cold morning by South Carolina standards. The wind was whipping across the field and cutting through her jacket. The weather report indicated that rain could come at some point during the day as well. 

Jennifer had a craft fair at the farm and today she was selling her soy candles and lap quits.

As I walked up to her, I carried a fresh cup of coffee in a travel mug and 20 pounds of weights for the canopy that she was sitting under. It was a precarious walk that I made. Emma was holding one of the canopy legs down. Again the wind was strong and as I plopped down the weights I relaxed a bit. "That should hold things in place," I thought.

Emma left to run errands and for the next several hours Jennifer and I greeted people and enjoyed our time together. But like I said, it was cold. . . oh so cold. 

Routinely I would have to stand and hold the tent legs from blowing away. The 20 pounds of weights were not enough to keep things in place. I smiled. This was not the worst thing that could happen today. But I could see in Jennifer's eye that she was struggling with the cold. Wrapped tightly in her blanket she tried to make the best of a hard day. She found her gloves in her coat and it helped--some. 

Shortly after lunch a woman came to our tent and talked with Jennifer. Upon leaving I witnessed an interesting moment. I could tell the woman was cold--just like us. Her hair was blowing around and she did not plan well to be outside. She walked behind our tent into the field holding her son by the hand. 

Stooping down she began speaking with him in a hushed voice. Then, reaching into her pocket she pulled out her phone and snapped a picture of what I thought was a weed. The wind blowing this knee-high yellow flower around. To this day I do not know what the flower was. She showed the picture to the boy and they headed off to enjoy the rest of their time together. Both smiling at what they just did.  

It was still cold and within the hour it began to rain. 

But in that moment, with a cold wind blowing around all of us, one person chose to see the beauty that was right before her. I guess that is a lesson that we can all learn. I wonder where is the place today that you can find God at work right before you? In the mess and pain of the day, can you see the beauty that is right before you from God? 

10 Lepers--Sermon Preached on October 13, 2025

             What a week we have just concluded as the Church. Last week I said, “If one generation becomes ashamed of the gospel and does not risk testimony, how will the next generation know [or learn it]?”[1]

            What we have just done in the name of the Lord, together, shows that we want the community, our neighbors, perfect strangers even, to know the gospel and to know the one whose name is written in that gospel. We are not ashamed of the gospel or of the one whose gospel it is. 

546 lunches were handed out. And while we might chuckle as we say, ‘I never want to see another turkey and cheese or PB&J,’ if a child came to our church, or if we know of one that needed a sandwich one tomorrow, I have no doubt that you, Bethesda, would care for both the family and the child. You would make that sandwich. 

For as I told some of my colleagues, when we can see the places where we can Be the Church, we cannot un-see those same places tomorrow. Your eyes are open, and you see where the gospel is needed.   

            You see once you experience the loving care from God, and once you participate in that care, it seems to easily flow from you to the other person. Giving out a sandwich, which was the first step, becomes just that… the first step. It does not mean we condone anything we saw, but instead, we are not ashamed to take Jesus into that place with us and as we handed out those paper bags of food to people, we hoped that feel the gospel living in us.

            

            Today we have a familiar story. The 10 lepers. We know them. You have been taught what they do, and you have considered why they do it. Yet I wonder if the miracle of their healing is more involved than what it appears on the surface? 

You see if the miracle is deeper, if it is far wider than what it appears to be on the surface, then the transformation is a thing that we can experience as well. And more than just experiencing something deeper and wider, we can share it as well, and the sharing of any miracle—be it leprosy being healed or sandwiches handed out children who need it—that is something that spreads the gospel. 

Move 1- the disease.

            So, what is the disease in the text? 

            Luke says that these men were inflicted with: LEPROS: a chronic skin condition that we might refer to today as Hansen’s disease. And as we have read about leprosy in the scriptures, there is some familiarity with it in our minds. We have some idea of what it could look like. Yet Matthew Theissen, as he studies this text and the word LEPROS, wonders if we shouldn’t widen our gaze and widen our definition of lepros. He says: 

The sloughing off [or flaking off] of the skin that resembles a decomposing corpse point[s] to the origins of impurity: death. Here [in our text], Jesus resists this deadly force, the very source of the impurity, not just healing a disease but battling the encroachment of death upon human life. In short, this is a healing that points to Jesus’ extraordinary power to defeat death and its minions even before he faces a Roman cross and a tomb.[2]

            So, again I wonder, what is the disease? What is Jesus healing these 10 individuals of? Is this physical? Are these 10 people just sick with something that will separate them from the rest of society and force them to stay away from the rest of the church? 

Is spiritual? Is what they are dealing with so bad that they are not allowed to come to church or worship with the rest of their community? Or is it more? Is it more divisive? And of course, I suspect you know I will say the answer is: Yes. 

Their physical bodies are healed as this skin-flaking-off disease is driven away by Jesus. 

At the same time, their spiritual bodies are also healed in this moment by the Lord. For there is, perhaps, much more afflicting these 10 people than just a disease that makes them unable to be with other people because their skin is flaking off as Matthew Theissen suggests in his words. For Jesus, in his life and work, is not only defeating physical sickness but Jesus is beating back the very power of death itself. 

I wonder if in that conclusion and consideration we can find space to enter into this text and find some room ourselves to dwell in the story? For one person, one sick person… returns.  

Move 2- one returns.

            For if the healing is more than just a physical action (as I believe that it is), then the by-product of the healing in our text is more life changing also than a disease being driven off—or away. 

Jesus did not only drive away sickness from 10 individuals who yelled to him from a distance off. But I wonder if we can agree that He drove away so much more from these people. And further, if the Savior drove away so much more from these lepers, then the Church’s response after the healing, speaks volumes about their faith, about their worship, and our understanding of the Lord. 

            But let’s not get too far ahead of the story. . . 

            As we know, Jesus tells all 10 of them to go show themselves to the priest—and we can presume that they do this. We can infer that they turn on their heels and immediately head off searching for the local priest. A whisper on their minds and in their hearts. Something is going to happen. Something is happening. I bet they get a bit excited and wonder what will it feel like? 

            We do not know how it happens. Was it sudden? Was it slow? Did this healing take place as each step is taken almost like a progression as they drew themselves closer and closer to the priest’s physical location—which would be the Temple, right? The church building, huh. 

            You can almost feel the joy growing in them… step by step. I wonder what it felt like inside that first person to notice that something inside was changing. They were different. Becoming different! I bet they started running as they become more and more whole. And as they became different, they continue following what Jesus’ said and arrived at their destination. 

            He told them in verse 14, ‘go and show yourselves to the priest.’ This was what was required to verify that an unclean individual was once again clean—or healed. They were doing what Jesus told them to do. This is not an act of sin or defiance. Not one of these nine people is taking matters into their own hands. Rather they are following what Jesus said to do. 

            Yet after the healing takes place, only one person realizes that not only is their outside healed but their inside is cleansed as well. Restored. Remade. Not only is their physical body healed but the spiritual body is also healed in a way that exceeds any of their expectations as they approached Jesus on that road that day. This is where I feel the true miracle lies and this is where the repeatable message takes place.

 

            And your whole body is healed by the Lord, I believe there is only one proper response available to you. The response is the one given by the last leper who comes back to Jesus. 

            Testimony in the form of praise and worship of Jesus. 

Move 3- Giving thanks

            For one person. One man, realized that not only is his outside healed, which was the first miracle that he asked for, but his inside is cleansed as well. And when this realization hits him there is only one thing that he can do. He returns. 

            And returning to Jesus, he un-ashamedly falls before Jesus and the Word says, ‘he gave thanks.’ He had many options at his disposal in this moment. He could continue on his way, as he was told to do. But instead of all that, he came back to Jesus and put away any other thoughts for himself and thanked God for what the Lord has done in his life. 

            For when a miracle, regardless of how you quantify it, happens with you there is only one thing to do… give thanks to God. 

            The man was changed, inside and outside both, and he knew it. So, he came back to the Lord and just wanted to say thank you. That is the same response that we can offer ourselves for what we have experienced this week with Matsiko and with the lunch program for both experiences are transformational. 

            And as we have given ourselves to them, sure our feet hurt, and we are tired, but we are also changed, and we are not ashamed of the gospel, and we want to thank the Lord for the wonderful things that we can see which happened. 

Conclusion

            But the choice remains ours—as it remained the lepers. Everyone was healed… all 10. But the one who came back to the Lord, I wonder if he received something special from the Lord? A blessing by just being close to Jesus. 

  

DM

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[1] Olive Elaine Hinnant. From Feasting on the Word. Year C, Volume 2. 

[2] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-28-3/commentary-on-luke-1711-19-6  accessed on October 6, 2025.