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Completing the Circle                      Luke 17: 11-19                 Oct. 14, 2007

In Disney’s award-winning Broadway play and blockbuster movie The Lion King, Elton John’s “The Circle of Life” is the signature song.  It is the background music for one of the most touching scenes – the “baptism,” sort of, of the young lion Simba, just before he is held up for all of the animal kingdom to see.

The song, as well as the theme of the Circle of Life, play out again and again throughout the story, you’ll recall, as Simba learns where he is in this inevitable circle while he gradually becomes the king of the jungle.

The song, and the related theme, remind us, I think, that so much of life is, indeed, circular.   Listen to the words:   

It's the Circle of Life,
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the Circle
The Circle of Life

Thinking about life as a circle – or perhaps a series of circles – is helpful, I think.  It lines up nicely with our experience.

Because, for most of us, life is not a project with a beginning, a middle and an end.  We rarely get to declare victory, spike the ball and do our touchdown dance.  On the contrary, life, for most of us, is a continuum, a process that never really ends.  It goes around and around, day after day, week after week, year after year.

The seasons – in this part of the world, anyway – are a good reminder of this circularity.  Fall follows summer which follows spring which follows winter. 

And certainly life itself – particularly for us as people of faith – is the greatest reminder of all.  We believe that God is somehow mysteriously involved in the creation of our life – that we are literally born to be in relationship with God – that God is present with us as we live out our days, and that when we die, we are, again mysteriously, reunited with God, completing the circle.  Ours is, indeed, a path unwinding in the circle of life.

If you think about it, the entire Biblical record is yet another example of a circular pattern.  A pattern spanning thousands of years and millions of lifetimes to be sure, but a circular pattern none the less. 

The Biblical writers don’t specifically use “circle of life” language. But the Bible, if you look at it as a whole, is none the less the story of the actions of God and God’s people, moving – through time – in patterns which, like never-ending circles, repeat themselves over and over again.

And the notion of Covenant – our theme for today – is at the center of it all. 

In the end, you see, you can distill the entire Biblical message down to a story of God, God’s Covenant with God’s people, and God’s people’s response to that Covenant.

It all starts, in the Book of Genesis, with Abraham. God called Abraham and promised him that he would possess the land of Canaan and that his offspring would be as numerous as the stars.  He also promised that Abraham and his descendants would be the Children of God.

Hundreds of years later, God’s Covenant with Abraham is renewed, following the deliverance of the Children of Abraham from their bondage in Egypt, with the giving of the Ten Commandments.  God tells the people – this time through Moses – that if they obey and keep the Covenant that was laid out with Abraham, that they will be “a holy nation, a kingdom of priests and a treasured possession” (Ex. Ch. 19).

And then finally, again, hundreds of years later, at the Last Supper, Jesus tells his disciples that his blood would be shed to seal a New Covenant – a Covenant that extends and expands the reach of God’s promise to all the world.

For certain, God is the primary actor in this ever circling Covenant drama which plays out in Scripture.  God creates everything, God Promises that God’s people will prosper and live in a Kingdom of God called Canaan, God delivers God’s people from bondage and renews the promise; and then, God provides the ultimate sacrifice – the son, Jesus Christ – to move the circle forward again with a New Covenant of Salvation.

God’s people need only respond.  We, as God’s people here in this place, need only find a way to complete the circle.

Our Gospel Lesson for this morning gives us some insight into how to go about doing just that.

Here's the scene: Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, and he comes near to a village and encounters a group of people who are afflicted with leprosy. The laws of that day said that lepers were not allowed to have contact with "normal" society. And so they have to shout to Jesus from a distance. They call out, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us."

This was a rather interesting group of people, by the way.  At least one of them was a Samaritan.  A fact that becomes important later in the story.

The life of lepers, we know, in the First Century, was very miserable. Most of them had to hover outside of the city limits like this group, untouched and carrying what was considered the greatest stigma of that day.  People believed that they somehow caused their illness to afflict them.

So it was probably with both desperation and hope that these lepers call out to Jesus. And Jesus responds to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests."

Jesus’ directive was unusual, we should note, because lepers were strictly forbidden to make any contact with the rest of society. By telling them to go and show themselves to the priests, Jesus was in fact asking them to have faith, to believe in their healing even before it had been accomplished.

Jewish law, you see, required that after a healing the healed person was obligated to go and present himself or herself to the priest to receive a blessing back into the society.  And Jesus was asking the lepers to start the journey to the priest before their healing had taken place.

So, showing their faith, the lepers begin that journey. And as they walk, they believe, and indeed they are healed.

But that’s not the end of the story.  This circle is still not complete.

Only one of them comes back, we learn, praising God in a loud voice. This one throws himself at Jesus' feet and thanks him.  Which one?  None other than the Samaritan.

Jesus, understandably, wants to know the whereabouts of the other nine who had been healed. “Was only this foreigner grateful enough to return and give thanks for his healing?” he asks.  “Why haven’t the others returned?”

We can only speculate as to why the others did not return and give thanks.  Perhaps they had places to go, people to see and things to do that they hadn’t been able to do in years.   Who knows?

What we do know is that Jesus' words to the one who came back were, "Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well." 

Jesus was saying to the grateful, Samaritan leper that his healing was now complete; or, more importantly, that his faith was complete. 

Two important truths can be taken from this story:

First, faith without gratitude is incomplete.

And second, the way to express gratitude is through action.  The Samaritan leper, after all, expressed his gratitude not just with words but with dramatic action.

As we learned before, God has acted, again and again, throughout history, to heal us, forgive us and draw us into a Covenant relationship.  Our part of that Covenant relationship is to respond to God’s actions with gratitude.

Over the past four weeks, we have been focusing, as a congregation, on what we modern-day people of God call Stewardship.

• We looked at what it means to have a proportional response to God’s goodness – we could call it proportional gratitude
• We heard from Peter Diehl that our response should involve four Ts:  Time, Talent, Treasure and Testimony – all expressions of gratitude
• We were reminded of how richly we all have been blessed – particularly as we look around the world, and called to respond with gratitude
• And we were reminded, just a few minutes ago, that the very planet on which we live is also a gift of God – and how we can gratefully respond

The conclusion of that stewardship focus is now about to unfold.  Four more steps, and this circle of our congregational life will, for now at least, be complete.

The first step, appropriately, is for us to pray together.  When we began this stewardship circle four weeks ago, we prayed the Liturgy for Stewardship, and that is how we’re going to draw it to a conclusion today.

Before we do that, however, just a word about the rest of the steps:

Following our liturgical prayer, we will have an opportunity to concretely express our gratitude in the best way that we modern, western, children of God can do so – by writing it down and then carrying it forward and placing it on this communion table.

There is something that happens in our brain when we write something down.  Something about the act of putting a commitment in writing that not only underscores its importance but increases the likelihood that we will keep it. 

That truth applies to lots of other areas of our life, by the way, but today it particularly applies to our Covenant with God.

You’ve noticed, I’m sure, that we are not asking you to sign this Covenant Card.  Our Stewardship committee discussed and prayed about this at length.  In the end, we concluded that no one, other than you and God, will know the details of the commitment you make today.  If you want to fold the card and make it even more private, feel free.   On the other hand, if signing the card makes it even more significant for you, feel free to do that as well.

Thirdly, there is something equally powerful about walking forward and presenting it to God. 

We Moravians do not have altars, by the way.  That’s a subject for another sermon on another day.  But that doesn’t change or diminish for a moment the importance of placing our commitment on this table.  In the same way that the Samaritan leper’s willingness to walk back to Jesus and express his gratitude completed his faith circle, the physical act of walking forward and placing your Covenant Card on the table is likewise an affirmative expression of our gratitude for the healing that is ours in Christ.

And Finally, at the close of our service today all of you are invited to adjourn to Hahle Hall for lunch.  Just as we celebrate other milestones in the life of our congregation with a meal shared together, this luncheon today is our first Annual Covenant Lunch.  Think of it as a celebration of our renewed commitment to the well-being of our congregation.

So join me now, good friends, as we complete our circle of faith together. 

                                                                        AMEN