Other Sermons from
The Choice to Move
Luke 17: 11-19
Harpeth Presbyterian Church: October 21, 2007: David Jones
Please keep your Bible’s open. I think it will help you with the sermon.
Luke 17: 11 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was
going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he
entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, 13
they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14
When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And
as they went, they were made clean. 15 Then one of them, when he saw
that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16
He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan.
17 Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine,
where are they? 18 Was none of them found to return and give praise
to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Get up and go
on your way; your faith has made you well.”
In this passage, Jesus points to one leper out of ten and says, “Be like this guy.”
“Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they?”
Clearly, we are to be like this leper.
So, what does he do that the other nine don’t?
He gives thanks. He is thankful. On the Sunday of our Stewardship dinner, this is a doorway for a stewardship Sunday. “You, be thankful.”
But I want to go deeper to this leper. He makes choices.
What is truly fascinating to me about this text is that Jesus tells them what to do. “When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.”
They go. All ten. They all do as Jesus told them to do.
And as they went, they were made clean. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back…
When he gets back, Jesus will say, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they?
One leper, does right, the other nine, bad lepers (or bad former lepers).
What I want to point out to you, the other nine, the ‘bad’ lepers who ‘should’ have come back we’re doing exactly what Jesus told them to do!
When I pointed this out to the Wed. night study group, Jay Boone came up with another bracelet to replace the WWJD (What would Jesus do?). It is the DDWJS (Don’t do what Jesus says) bracelet. What’s DDWJS? “It’s my don’t do what Jesus says bracelet.”
The other nine do what Jesus says. The one who is praised doesn’t.
Here’s where Choice Theory helps.
Choice Theory, as you can guess, points out to us our choices in life.
For example, when the phone rings, what do you do? Answer it. Why? Because the phone rang.
When you approach an intersection, what do you do? Stop. Why? Because the light was red.
No, that’s not right. According to Glasser, you didn’t answer the phone because it rang. You answered the phone because you chose to.
You didn’t stop at the red light because the light was red, you stopped at the red light because you chose to.
Glasser says the key to a healthy life is recognizing and claiming our choices.
William Glasser, founder of Choice Theory, and his wife were at home. His wife said, “I’ve been calling (Amy), (their daughter) all day and she doesn’t answer the phone. She said she was going to be home. I’m worried about her.”
William said, “She’s got that big chair, she’s probably sitting in it reading and not answering the phone.”
She said, “I’m worried and I want to drive over and check on her.”
They did. She had been sitting in the chair reading.
Mom said, “I called you all day, why didn’t you answer the phone?”
“I was reading,”
“Didn’t you hear it ringing?”
“Yes, but Mom, I’m not a phone answerer.”
She chose not to answer it.
You answer the phone because you choose to. Your life is the result of your choices.
So what choice does the one leper make?
His choice, and the choice of the other nine are best understood in movement.
When Jesus comes near, they keep their distance. From a distance they cry out to him, “Have mercy on us.”
Leprosy is defined by distance. Once you had it, you were declared unclean and society dictated you had to live on the outside of town and not go near anybody.
Why did they live alone? Soceity told them they had to. Glasser, and likely Jesus would say, “They chose to.”
What’s interesting is that Jews and Gentiles lived separate lives, except in this leprosy community. If they can live together as lepers, why not as people?
When Jesus came, they chose to keep their distance. Jesus tells them to go see the priest, move back toward people. They do. As they move back toward others, they are healed.
Here is where choice theory really helps. In choice theory, if you want to understand mental and emotional pain, look at your relationships – specifically how you are relating to others. If you want to understand physical pain, like a broken leg, you look at the leg. According to Glasser, the problem with most psychology is that they treat psychological pain, mental and emotional pain, as if it were a broken leg. They diagnosis something is broken in the brain. They give a diagnosis, DSMV diagnosis – the key two words are “you are”. You are depressed. You are bipolar. You are…
Choice Theory, the call is to look at our choices, specifically how we choose to relate.
In this text, the society chose to separate from them because of their illness and the lepers chose to accept the imposes separation.
In choice theory, if you have mental and emotional pain, then the place to look is not at your brain but your relationships.
Chances are, if a friend comes to you with a pain, a problem, though that problem will have many names, the root will likely be relational, a problem in relating.
Again, notice in the text all the movement. As lepers, they moved away from others. Jesus sends them back toward the community. One chooses, outside of instruction, to move back toward Jesus. Pain. Movement. Restoration.
When you suffer mental and emotional pain, look at your relationships.
In the history of humanity, we have needed others to survive. We are not a snake who can go off and live by itself, we need others. The need for other people has been hardwired into our heads. If we don’t meet that need in sufficient ways, the result is pain.
Where does pain come from? Pain comes from the opposite place as pleasure. Pleasure comes from moving toward others, getting closer to others brings pleasure. Pain comes from moving away from others. Moving apart brings pain. Death is a separation. A friend who leaves town. In the same household we experience pain of moving apart. Adolescence is painful because it is a movement away.
Look at the ten men in the text, they were unable to have healthy relationships with others, so they chose an unhealthy one.
What we see in these men is the consistant human choice in response to relationship pain. If we can’t have a healthy relationship, because we must relate, we’ll choose an unhealthy relationship. If we are unable to create authentic relationships, we’ll create inauthentic relationships.
Consider food.
When I leave the hospital, having been with people under the stress of surgery or difficult news, I can feel lonely. How do I fill that loneliness? Food. A strawberry blizzard from Dairy Queen. I don’t have anyone else with me so I replace it with food. We relate to food like a friend.
Abuse of drugs and alcohol is, at its root, I believe, a relationship problem.
Addiction is a relationship problem, instead of healthy relationships with people, a substance is substituted. The drug of choice gives a numbing to the pain, it also substitutes for the purpose we find in relationships. I have to get my drug today. An addict will do anything to get the fix. Again, it is a substitute, a companion, which takes the place of inauthentic relationships.
For some of us it is money and material things. Relate to car, what you own, etc.
For some it is sex. Sex is a definite moving toward… but it isn’t authentic, it doesn’t involve mind and soul so it doesn’t last. Physically, there are only so many ways we can relate to someone. Intellectually there are an infinite number.
We can choose most anything. In the children’s sermon, Dr. Seuss’s Gertrude McFuzz had a terrible relationship with Lola Lee Lou, but instead of pursuing a healthy relationship with her or another bird, she tried to have a relationship with her feathers.
Maybe you don’t have feathers, but you might be trying to relate to your car, your clothes, or your house.
We can choose anything to relate to in our search for relationships. We can choose a physical ailment. A man with an ulcer. Governed his life. Told him what to do everyday. Was his purpose. When he had surgery and the ulcer was gone, it was like a lost friend. The lepers had related to their disease. They even formed an inauthentic community around it.
Here’s where Glasser’s choice theory becomes interesting. He even says misery is a choice.
Misery is often a replacement for authentic relationship. What a person who is lonely does is withdraw into our heads. I knew a woman, not at this church, who lost a child. The pain of that loss became her companion. It was all she talked about.
Depression can be a companion. Have you ever known anyone who was always negative? No matter what you tell Aunt Bessy, she’ll find something wrong with it. Depression is a companion.
If you offer her something to change her demeanor, she’ll feel threatened. Her glum is the companion she can count on. Try and take it away from her and she’ll treat you like an ally cat backed into a corner.
These companions are seen as the faithful friend. This darkness is always there. It doesn’t matter how irresponsible we are, we’ve always got our faithful friend to count on.
When we lose one, we feel grief.
When we don’t have authentic relationships we substitute inauthentic. We hold onto them. We don’t like change. The misery you know is often a lot less frightening than the health you don’t know.
That’s where the ten lepers were when they encountered Jesus.
a. Suffering the pain of isolation, loneliness.
b. Relating to and through their symptom. They were lepers in a group of lepers. It is a mixed group of Samaritans and Jews, united, inauthentically, by their leprosy. All they knew was leprosy.
For the lepers, they cried out because their inauthentic relationship wasn’t working.
But they don’t understand it is from their choice.
“You are isolated by your own choice. Yes, people are afraid of you. Yes, if you try to go back to society, they may throw stones at you. But you are still here because you choose to. Your pain isn’t from your disease, it is because you have chosen to move away from the world and only relate through your disease. Move back toward people.”
It is not insignificant that the one who returns is a Samaritan. He wasn’t bound by the Jewish rules.
Again, why do you answer the phone? Not because it rang, but because you chose to. Why did you stop at the red light? Because you chose to.
Why am I out here as a leper? Because life chose it? No, because I chose to. Why am I moving back toward others? Because Jesus told me to? No, because I chose to. In choosing to move back toward others, I am made well.
His pain came from the separation. He chose, at great risk, to start moving toward others. In doing so, he was healed.
He moves toward Jesus.
I move toward others and am healed, I can also choose to move toward Jesus.
Jesus says to him upon his return, “Your faith has made you well.” The other nine were healed, but he is well.
17 Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten
made clean? But the other nine, where are they? 18 Was none of them
found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19
Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”
That’s your stewardship sermon. Did you hear it.
Why pledge to the church? Because it’s stewardship season? Because you should? Because the light is green? No, because you choose to.
Choose to move toward the church, in a real relationship. Move toward God in Christ as we experience him, encounter him here, together. And move toward each other.