The Thanksgiving of a Leper

Gospel: Luke 17: 11-19

In this story we find a group of lepers from rival ethnic communities - some were Jewish, some Samaritan.  If these men were not lepers they would be regarding each other as unclean and as enemies.  Yet the fact that they are all lepers and regarded as unclean by all makes them live together as a community, supporting each other and living in harmony.  For they all share the same condition of being unclean in the sight of all.  

Jesus comes along and heals them of their uncleanness; only one came back to give thanks.  Is this not the story of humanity in miniature? We are all lepers, all unclean before God.  This ought to make us live together in harmony, but it does not, for some of us do not think they are unclean at all.  Or rather, we invent some other difference - race, ethnicity, religion - to pretend that we are better than some other group of people and oppress them.  In point of fact, however, we are not.

In spite of all this Jesus has made us all clean.  Today is a day for us to be that one healed leper and return to give thanks for being healed.  As we have all shared in the condition of uncleanness, so we all share in the condition of being made clean.  Let this be our thanksgiving: that we commit to living in harmony with one another, recognizing these common bonds and putting aside all other human inventions that separate us and tear us apart through illusory differences.