First Presbyterian Church
Word-wrangling
Sermon for October 14, 2007
by Pastor Susan Barnes

Our psalm reading today is a song of communal thanksgiving. The God of Israel is the real god and has liberated Israel from its enemies. As Walter Brueggemann said, it is about “the triumph of the power of liberation over the power of control.” 1

Listen for the word of God as we read it together in Psalm 66:1-12.

1 To the leader. A Song. A Psalm. Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth; 2 sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise. 3 Say to God, "How awesome are your deeds! Because of your great power, your enemies cringe before you. 4 All the earth worships you; they sing praises to you, sing praises to your name." Selah

5 Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds among mortals. 6 He turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the river on foot. There we rejoiced in him, 7 who rules by his might forever, whose eyes keep watch on the nations-- let the rebellious not exalt themselves. Selah

8 Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard, 9 who has kept us among the living, and has not let our feet slip. 10 For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried. 11 You brought us into the net; you laid burdens on our backs; 12 you let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a spacious place.

This ends our reading of the psalm. This is one of the places in the bible that speaks of God as testing us with trouble and problems. Verse 11 and 12 say “You brought us into the net, you laid burdens on our backs, you let people ride over our heads. But its not interested in how or why the trouble happened, but on how and why God released and restored the people. God's awesome deeds have kept us among the living.

Our gospel reading is also about release and restoration. Pay attention to the use of the words clean and healed.

Listen for the word of God as it is found in Luke 17:11-19.

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."

This ends our reading of the gospel.

I remember when my mother had to read this text in church. She was practicing at home aloud and she said the word leopard instead of leper. I suppose she was thinking of Daniel in the lion's den when she said Jesus and the ten leopards. Or maybe she was thinking that a leopard can't change his spots and neither can a leper.

You can imagine what happened. Every time she said the word leper after that, she had to consciously think “don't say leopard” which didn't help her read the word ‘leper' correctly. She knew the story wasn't about Jesus and the ten leopards, but once your tongue twists like that, it's hard to get it untwisted.

That's why it's good to read aloud the Bible text at home before you have to do it at the microphone. You never know what tongue twisters might be in store.

I read a story about a pastor who was tired of his lay leaders going to the microphone, opening the Bible to read the passage aloud for the first time Sunday morning during worship. The lay leaders would stumble over words and make the listeners anxious for him, so they couldn't listen to the words of scripture.

So this pastor chose a passage that was particular hard to read—it was from the begats, full of Hebrew names as unfamiliar as Zelophohad and Mahershalalhashbaz 2. Evidently that cured this lay leader of never practicing the reading ahead of time.

Whenever I give the lay leader the reading, I try to remember to look for hard Hebrew or Greek names so we can talk about them beforehand.

It's especially hard for us to read passages aloud if we are unfamiliar with them. We don't use the word leper very often anymore; probably we say ‘leopard' more often than leper. These days, medical people are encouraged to use people-first language, rather than disease- first language. So we would say “a person with leprosy” instead of leper. That would certainly help my mom avoid saying leopard instead. In Greek, the literal translation is leprous men; so the phrase “men with leprosy” is more accurate than leper, which is what our NRSV pew Bibles have.

In biblical times, leprosy described many different skin diseases. The disease we call leprosy today was just one of them. Because people didn't know how illnesses were spread, they took extra precautions. To be healed is different than being clean. Once you are healed, you can be declared clean, but until a priest declares you clean, you aren't clean.

According to the law, lepers had to yell out “unclean, unclean” whenever anyone approached so no one else would be contaminated by their uncleanness. In order to declare the healed person clean, priests had to make a sacrifice. Once that was done, then the person could return to the clean community. Without being declared clean, a leper had to be alone or live with other lepers. (Leviticus 23:45,46, 14:23, Numbers 5:2-3).

These ten men with leprosy asked Jesus for mercy. He didn't give them money, and he didn't heal them, he just told them to go see the priests. And on their way to doing that, they were made clean. Before the priests saw them, they were clean!

I don't know if the Samaritan could go to a Jewish priest and be declared clean. I don't know what the laws were. But I'm guessing he would have lower priority. Perhaps he had the least to lose by turning back to thank Jesus.

And Jesus told him “your faith has saved you.” He was saved because he recognized that his healing came from God, through Jesus. He was saved because he knew Jesus' community had something more important than the priestly community. Throughout his ministry, Jesus performs some tasks typically done by priests. Some of it is to show us that Jesus was acting on God's behalf, I think. Some of it is to demonstrate that the temple as an institution was not the holy place it was supposed to be; it had been infected by the Roman empire and economy so that it no longer served God's people the way it was supposed to.

When Jesus called him a foreigner, he was using a word that meant “non-Jew.” Once again, the outsider understands Jesus, while the insiders do not. The other nine didn't recognize that Jesus was acting on God's behalf.

In our epistle reading, Timothy is encouraged to remember Jesus Christ.

Listen for the word of God as it is found in 2 Timothy 2:8-15

6 Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David-- that is my gospel, 9 for which I suffer hardship, even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But the word of God is not chained. 10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, so that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.

11 The saying is sure: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; 12 if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will also deny us; 13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.

14 Remind them of this, and warn them before God that they are to avoid wrangling over words, which does no good but only ruins those who are listening.

15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved by him, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth.

This ends our reading of God's word.

Let's listen to the choir.

Here are the verses I have trouble with: “ The saying is sure: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will also deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.”

If Jesus denies us when we deny him, that makes logical sense. It doesn't make theological sense, though. The history of the old testament, the Hebrew Bible, shows us that God keeps covenant with the people of Israel no matter how often the people of Israel break it. But verse 13 says if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself. That makes theological sense. So how can these two contradictory statements go together?

One theologian says “ the point is presumably that the two lines serve different purposes: the first is to warn the casual and to stiffen the resolve of the frightened, the second to comfort the broken and to give renewed hope to the despairing.” That made sense to me. Christians were being persecuted until they denied their faith; they needed to be challenged to act as a community and support one another in these persecutions. But those who despaired that their sins would keep them from Jesus needed to hear words of comfort.

Then the theologian goes on to say “However, it is the nature of such epigrammatic summaries of Christian faith are open to different interpretations, intended to stimulate more than to teach.” 3

I found that less than helpful.

Samaritans were not well-bred people; they were bad people. Samaria had been conquered by Assyria, its leaders deported and its people turned to the Assyrian gods for a while. But even after they tuned back and worshiped Yahweh, they were still despised by their ethnic and religious relatives in Judah. They were not welcome at the court of the Jews in the temple in Jerusalem. I suppose they could go to the court of the gentiles.

Jesus used this non-Jew, this man with leprosy, as one who is saved, because he turned back to praise God.

The phrase “word-wrangling” caught my eye. One mother I know told me she is awfully tired of wrangling over words at her house. What time is bedtime—is bedtime with the child in bed, or does it also include lights out, tv off, gameboy off, and the books closed with no flashlights.

Sometimes people use words to manipulate or accuse others; they do what they can to deflect any criticisms by changing the subject or accusing others of irrelevant sins. Perhaps that's what the false teachers were doing in Timothy's church. The Greek that gets translated as wrangling over words is really one word, and it can mean word-battling, or word-fighting, or any sort of violence with words.

I think most of us have heard people use words in cruel ways, out of fear or anger or despair or addiction or illness. It's hard for us to hear those words. I believe people say cruel things when they have forgotten to show gratitude, and recognize their blessings from God.

The advice given to Timothy when that happens is “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved by God, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth.” When we are truly praising God, it is impossible to use words in a cruel way.

So when we hear those cruel words, we need to hold on to the truth. Jesus remains faithful. When we know what it's about, we don't get our tongues twisted – we don't wrangle with words. A leopard can't change its spots, but Jesus can change us. Our faith can make us well, too.

1 Brueggemann, The Message of the Psalms, p. 137.

2 He didn't have to read these particular names. They are just long names I am able to pronounce easily for no good reason.

3New Interpreter's Bible, XI, p. 844.