Week 28, Cycle C, 10-12-25

  

Have you ever had an experience of being an outsider?  

 

Maybe you’ve been the new kid at school and really didn’t know anyone. 

 

Was it a bit lonely at recess as you didn’t have anyone to play with?   

  

When some other kids invited you to play a game with them did that make you feel happy?  

 

Or has anyone here ever moved across country to start a new job? 

 

Did you spend the first few days or weeks eating lunch on your own and felt a bit isolated? 

 

When someone asked you to join them for lunch did you feel more accepted and welcomed? 

 

I’ve had a few experiences like these over the years. 

 

When I first moved back to Indianapolis and started working at IU Indianapolis, I would eat lunch on my own.   

 

There was a food court on campus close to my office, but very few of my co-workers there. 

 

After a week of being on the job, I noticed many of my co-workers left at lunchtime with a gym bag over their shoulder. 

 

I was not a person who typically worked out at lunch, but one of them finally invited me to join them for their mid-day run.  

 

They said it was fun. 

 

At that time, I would never have used the words “run” and “fun” in the same sentence. 

 

Running was something that I really did not enjoy at all. 

 

But eating alone was a bit lonely, so I decided to join them. 

 

I told them I was not much of a runner, so they recommended that I join the slow group that usually only ran about 2 miles. 

 

This worked out well, as the pace allowed us to carry on a conversation, and I got to know the people and felt welcomed. 

 

Within a few months I started to enjoy running and eventually ran a half marathon a few years later with my co-workers. 

 

I was no longer an outsider. 

 

Today we heard two stories about outsiders, both of which had leprosy. 

 

This was a debilitating disease of the skin and people were isolated from the community to prevent it from spreading. 

 

In the first reading we heard about Naaman plunging in the waters of the Jordan being healed from leprosy. 

 

I’d like to share a little prelude to the story of Naaman. 

 

Naaman was an outsider from the people of Israel, being an Aramean army commander, and was not a member of the Jewish faith. 

 

A little girl who was the daughter of Naaman’s wife servant from Israel told him to go to the prophet Elisha to be healed.  

 

Elisha told Naaman to wash seven times in the Jordon River to be healed. 

 

He at first doubted that the Jordon’s waters were any better than his own country and refused to follow Elisha orders. 

 

Naaman’s servants encouraged him that Elisha was a prophet of God and to follow what he prescribed, which brings us to what we heard today. 

 

In his gratitude Naaman wanted to give Elisha gifts for the healing, which he refused. 

 

In response Naaman asked for a token from the land of Elisha’s God, two-mule loads of earth, as a reminder for him to only pay honor to the Lord. 

 

He converted to the Jewish faith in his gratitude for being healed and was not longer an outsider. 

 

 

In the Gospel Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem and ten lepers encounter him. 

 

As lepers they were to remain outside of the Jewish community of worship by order of the priests to keep from spreading the disease. 

 

They had heard of Jesus and called out to him to have pity on them. 

 

Jesus must have known that they longed to return to worship in their faith communities and orders them to show themselves to the priest. 

 

The only way they could return, was by the priest’s approval. 

 

The only one who returned to give thanks to Jesus, was the one who least expected, an outsider or the outsiders, a Samaritan. 

 

Samaritans were shunned by the Jews as they did not worship the God of Israel.  

 

But this Samaritan came back to thank Jesus by falling at his feet in honoring him as God.    

 

Jesus tells him that his faith is what saved him.   

 

He was no longer an outsider. 

 

He was now an insider through his faith Jesus, who came to save not only Jews, but all the nations, even Samaritans and Arameans.  

 

All of us are outsiders in some way or another. 

 

We are from many different cultures, nationalities, or political ideologies, which may divide us from the world’s perspective. 

 

We may also feel like we’re outsiders due to sin that we think distances us from God.  

 

We may be struggling with addictions, infidelity, or broken relationships with family that we think as a leprosy to keep us separated. 

 

But whatever we may view that separate us, we come together each week united in our faith in Jesus Christ, in this Eucharistic celebration. 

 

Eucharist, which means thanksgiving, is the gift given to us by Jesus to heal and reconcile us to be one in him. 

 

Each time we come together in the Eucharistic celebration, we can receive the grace of Christ in Holy Communion, which gives us power to become like him. 

 

Like Naaman and the Samaritan, we can choose to follow what he calls us to do and respond in gratitude to Jesus, no longer as outsiders, but as members of his kingdom united in faith to spread his mercy, peace, and most of all love.