Four years ago, just about this time of year, lightning struck my house and it burned. There was some irretrievable loss, but from the experience came real healing—and, over time, substantial spiritual gain. The pivotal moment was on Tuesday after the fire on Friday. I was driving up and down the streets of East Frankfort, looking for a house. Insurance had declared mine a total loss. I needed to stay on the east side of town because of grandchildren. Tears dripped as I discovered there was next to nothing for sale in my price range. In fact, there were four possible houses.
As I wailed in God’s direction that there were only four possible houses, there came a voice in my head that was NOT MY THOUGHT. The voice said, “Mary, you only need one.”
True. I stopped at the house I live in now and…well, it was perfect for me, was an estate, so I even got much of the furniture, was an affordable price–and I have been very happy here ever since. Almost daily I still thank God for my house. I am convinced God found it for me and made it happen. Not a miracle like the ones in today’s readings, but such a perfect expression of God’s love that it changed my life.
I was content in the other house, but, as my children and I sifted through the rubble, I learned they had never liked it. You see, we had had to leave the farm to move there soon after their father died. That had been some 20 years earlier—but, for them, the house on Hillwood represented a dark, hard time in our family history. The fire, the aftermath, the move—all has been healing for them, as well as for me.
Four years later I still live daily in gratitude to God for this house. The gift of it still moves me daily to generosity.
The thoughts and memories have created an interesting mix in prayer this week as I read today’s Scriptures. They are all about people in hard times who experience something wonderful from God.
II Kings 5:14-17
This text is but part of a story that is told in II Kings 5. Naaman was a Syrian general who had defeated the Hebrew army. They took captives. Among them was a young Hebrew girl who served Naaman’s wife. Naaman had leprosy, and the nameless girl urged him to go to Elisha, the Hebrew prophet, to be cured. He did. Elisha told him to wash in the Jordan seven times to be cured. At first, Naaman was resistant because it was such a simple thing, but his servants urged him to try it. He did, which led to the snippet of story we have today.
Naaman was deeply grateful—and it changed his life. It changed his understanding of God. He had to express his gratitude. If he couldn’t do something in the ordinary pattern of gratitude (give Elisha a gift), he asked for some earth from God’s land to take so he could worship the God of the Hebrews in his own country and life.
Luke 17:11-19
The Gospel story is very similar. As Jesus continues his journey to Jerusalem and the cross, a group of lepers call to him from the necessary distance. They ask for Jesus’ mercy. Jesus tells them to do an ordinary thing—to follow the Jewish protocol to show themselves to the priests. They go. As they do, they are cleansed of their leprosy. One, a Samaritan, once he realizes this, starts to “glorify God in a loud voice,” and returns to Jesus in gratitude. He falls at Jesus’ feet and thanks him. Jesus appreciates the gratitude and wonders about the other nine who were healed but who have not returned to give thanks.
II Timothy 2:8-13
St. Paul’s letter to the young evangelist Timothy pulls out some subtleties from the two stories of cure and gratitude. Paul had been cured of a leprosy of the soul—his intense resistance to Christianity. It is now twenty-five or more years later. He is in prison—probably in Rome awaiting the trial that will cause his death. Now he reminds himself and Timothy of the cure he has had and of the need to persevere in faith, for “if we have died with him we shall also liv with him; if we persevere we shall also reign with him.”
The phrase that jumps out at me is “But the word of God is not chained.” Indeed, with Paul it is not. With a chain on his foot in a dank prison, he continues to write letters that enable him to spread the Gospel to us today—along with millions of people through two thousand years of history and his friend Timothy.
Putting It All Together
The Word of God is not chained. It is not chained to believers—or to believers of a particular mindset. God healed the general of an opposing army through the good will of an unknown girl and the action of a prophet. Naaman came to know “there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel.” Through his mule loads of Israeli soil, God’s glory and power moved beyond Israel to Syria.
The Samaritans had been left in Palestine when most of the Jews were taken to Babylon. When children and grandchildren of the exiles returned, there was disdain between the two groups. Jesus, because he traveled through Samaria several times, began to heal the mutual prejudice. Still, he remarked of it, as he did today, “Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?”
And Paul, imprisoned by Roman authorities because Christianity claimed Christ as Messiah and denied Caesar as god, spreads the Word of God in letters from a Roman jail.
Through it all, the psalm response carries the message and theme: “The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.” The Word of God is not chained. Never has been. Never will be.
Gratitude, Thanksgiving, Praise, Worship, and Conversion
In Psalms class this week, Fr. Harry spoke of a natural path from gratitude to giving personal thanks to giving God praise to then bowing in awe to worship, to finally experiencing a conversion—a change of mind, heart, and life.
That happened to me when God found me the house I needed. Not a miracle like being healed of leprosy, not a gift of a level of faith ready to be martyred for Christ. A simple, everyday intervention of a God who loves.
But my gratitude is real and has persisted these four years. While I continue to pay the mortgage, this is God’s house. Though small and ordinary, God extends hospitality through it in multiple ways. And the people who come here, the sense of community that abides here—it all continues to fill me with gratitude and thus convert me.
I suspect most every reader has a memory of a time when God provided at a time of intense need. Perhaps today it would be good to recall that time and move from gratitude to thanksgiving to praise to worship to conversion.
Or, have you missed the full experience of the power of gratitude because you were among “the other nine” who did not give thanks?
Prayer:
Thank You, Lord, for the gift of my house and the strong sense of gratitude you continue to give me. Thank You, Lord, for working with me through my life in mostly very ordinary ways that nonetheless have extraordinary effects because they come from You. May I always be grateful, praise, worship, and be continually converted by awareness of Your goodness to me.
