Friday, October 11, 2013

Today’s text

Luke 17:12-19

As he entered one of the villages, ten men suffering from a virulent skin-disease came to meet him. They stood some way off and called to him, 'Jesus! Master! Take pity on us.' When he saw them he said, 'Go and show yourselves to the priests.' Now as they were going away they were cleansed. Finding himself cured, one of them turned back praising God at the top of his voice and threw himself prostrate at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. The man was a Samaritan. This led Jesus to say, 'Were not all ten made clean? The other nine, where are they? It seems that no one has come back to give praise to God, except this foreigner.' And he said to the man, 'Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you.' 

Reflection

What does it mean to be well? Ask a sick person, any sick person … and they will have an immediate answer.

To be well is to be rid of this miserable condition that limits my life and ties me to this chair, this bed, this house. It is feel energy flowing through your torso, your arms and legs again so that you can get up live the life you have known and want to resume.

To be well is to breathe deeply the sweet air of morning and feel the joy of being alive. It is freedom from the sickness or condition that holds you back and stirs fear of losing your abilities or even your life.

This begins to touch the meaning of ‘being well,’ but it does not come close to the kind of ‘wellness’ that Jesus brings and invites us to enter.

For him and those who seek his way, wellness is a life of gratitude in relationship to the Source of all life and goodness. It involves seeing … and faith as a way of seeing.

“Your faith has made you well,” Jesus says to the sole leper who returned to give thanks. He healed 10, but only this one was well. Only one returned to give thanks. Only one returned to the Source of blessing, mercy and compassion.

Only one saw in Jesus the face of that invisible and all-gracious Source.

Wellness is not the absence of debilitating illness and symptoms. It is the presence of sight, the kind of sight that sees the heart and smile of God in every beauty, every grace, every good person and thing that graces this earth.

Wellness is the gratitude that springs from the center of the soul when you feel and know this Source is love and loves you.

Wellness leaps to life when we see and feel the smile of God behind every good thing. It gives thanks and seeks to live in prayerful relationship with the One from whom all blessing flows.

Those who see and live this way are well, no matter how sick or healthy they are at the moment.

Pr. David L. Miller