make eucharist

 

SERMONETTE PREACHED at 
HOLY TRINITY, RINGWOOD EAST
ORDINARY SUNDAY 28 

 October 15^th 1989           (STEWARDSHIP SUNDAY)

READINGS

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7
Psalm 66:1-12
2 Timothy 2:8-15
Luke 17:11-19

Has it ever been your experience to feel a Hallelujah torn from within you and offered, silently or aloud, to the heavens?

To glimpse the moon last night, or to see again the blossoms, or to be struck by the force of Friday afternoon’s downpour; to experience the love of a friend or a child, to be torn apart by a piece of stirring music, poetry, drama or prose: these are moments that no word will suffice, except an offering of praise, silent or spoken, to the heart of the Creator.

There were ten lepers. Branded and hated by society, desperate for love and compassion, beyond touch or healing. Jesus touched. Had he not been crucified he may well have died of leprosy.[1] Jesus touched. Jesus healed. And nine went on their way.

But one came and threw himself at the feet of the healer, and gave thanks.

That man whose offering of tearful thanks was made at the feet of Jesus was doubly a pariah. He was a Samaritan. Like the woman at the well he should despise Jesus and be despised by him.

Just one came back.

A leper. An AIDS victim. A homosexual. A pariah in India. A black in South Africa. A Koori[2] in Australia. A Samaritan. At the feet of Jesus he made Eucharist: he gave thanks.

We too will now make Eucharist.

“Let us make Eucharist to the Lord our God.”

“It is right to make Eucharist and to praise God.”

 
We have much for which to give God thanks. We have much within our lives to offer to the service of God’s Kingdom. It is to that offering of thanks and of our lives that we are called each day.

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[1] Although I did not know it in 1989 this was a fallacy. Leprosy is not transmitted by skin to skin contact, but, like tuberculosis, by airborne droplets. On the other hand Luke the physician did not know that either!

[2] By 1989 my Australian sojourns had only been in Victoria. It was not until much later that I learned of other designation of First Nations people on the continent of Australia: Anangu, Murri, Nunga, Noongar, Pallawah. For kiwi readers, these designations are not entirely correspondent with iwi except insofar as Australian Indigenous nations are subsets of these regional demonyms, as hapu are a subset of iwi.