"THE SECRET SHOPPER - DOES YOUR STORE CARRY GRATITUDE?"

In today’s gospel reading Jesus was passing through Samaria and Galilee and came across ten lepers.  Lepers.  Leprosy.  We don’t see or hear about people with leprosy much today.  In fact the last time most of us thought about lepers was probably in the context of Mother Teresa’s life and ministry.  Leprosy is an awful, incurable skin disease.  Lepers were shunned by people who did not have leprosy because lepers looked bad with their open sores, and the disease is infectious.  In fact lepers were avoided.

I wonder what it would be like to feel avoided.  Oh not the simple – I haven’t done what so and so asked me to do for him so I will avoid him until I do it – but to see people walking by you and not acknowledging you: people who might say something to you if you were not so different from them.  I wonder if that is how Teresa felt the first couple of Sundays when she started attending our church.  I noticed that people would walk by her with no malicious intentions, but just sort of didn’t know what to say or do.  I was one of those people.  Teresa is in a wheelchair you see. 

Or is it how Angela feels from time to time when she comes to church and is sitting in the pew.  Sure she’s blind, but I’m sure she can sense when people walk by.  Can’t you tell when someone approaches you from behind?  Do you say hello to Angela?  Do you wonder if you need to describe yourself or remind her you said hello a couple of weeks ago?  I don’t know what it feels like to be avoided, except sometimes when I am walking in the morning and someone walking towards me crosses the street until they get past me, and then crosses back over.  However I think that is due to respect for my big muscles rather than the response to fear of someone different.

Jesus had no fear.  Jesus, the human form of God, had no fear of those who were different and these whom others might avoid.  In fact He went out of His way to see the ten lepers: verse 12 says the lepers stood afar off.  Fortunately for them, as for us too, they knew Jesus.  So they saw Him coming and lifted their voices asking Him to have mercy on them.  Perhaps they also knew that Jesus had healed at least one other leper.  It says so in Luke chapter 5, verses 12 to 15.  Or perhaps they had the gift that we can all have: faith.

And guess what?  Jesus responded to their request.  Jesus responded and sent them to go show themselves to the priests because He was cleansing them.  Before we go any further, you might ask yourself why Jesus asked them to go show themselves to the priests.  I mean when you and I call on Jesus for help and He answers our prayers, we do not necessarily hear the next message from Jesus as “go show yourself to Teena, Sue, or Bob.”  Though I think sharing with each other how God is working in our lives helps us all grow.  However leprosy was such a serious disease that lepers were kept away from everybody else and all the other people in the community knew whom the lepers were.  So even though the lepers were healed, before they could rejoin the community, the priests – who in those times served many roles including administering the laws of the land – had to certify that they were not lepers any more: that they were clean.

Had these lepers had anyone else attempt to help them?  We don’t know that.  What we know is this: after Jesus had told them to go show themselves to the priests, they obeyed and went even before they had been healed.  Were they so desperate that they were willing to try anything or is that gift again?  You know, faith?  What Rev. Bob preached about last week?  Well, on their way to see the priests the lepers were healed and cleansed.  Healed and cleansed of this awful disease.

You and I might do like nine of the lepers did and hurry on to the priests.  Amazed at the miracle, crying and dancing for joy, and already anticipating the whole new life that is going to start.  And you know, the temple might close before we get there: we better hurry.  We would thank the Lord later.  Sort of like when you got that tax relief cheque just at the time you needed it, and rushed to the bank to deposit or cash it before the bank closed, and thanked the Lord later.  Sometimes so much is going on it seems difficult to find time or the heart to thank God.

You know, the United States, indeed the world, has experienced and continues to experience troubling times.  Perhaps none of us here can imagine having your work place struck by an airplane, loosing your job, loosing loved ones, and having 22 other things to deal with in the space of 24 hours.  Or having your neighborhood bombed and fleeing with nothing except the clothes on your back, not knowing where to go or what is going to happen.  But God can not only imagine what that would be like, God knows what it is going on with each person and situation – in New York as in Afghanistan.  Just as God knows what is going on in each of our lives, and what was going on in the lepers’ lives and minds.

But guess what else church?  We have a choice about how we respond to God’s presence in our lives.  One leper, once he noticed that he was healed, made a choice to come back and thank Jesus.  That leper, it says in verse 15 and 16 glorified God with a loud voice and fell down on his face at Jesus’ feet.  In case you forgot, that leper was the Samaritan – the foreigner J 

What is most important though is that one out of ten lepers healed came back to say thank you.  Only one out of ten!  When I read or hear this gospel story, I like to think that I would have said thank you to Jesus.  Most of us probably want to think so too – that we live a life that is filled with gratitude to the Lord.  Do we?

Sandy attended a meeting at her job and was informed that a secret shopper had been in and the results were poor.  Do you know what a secret or mystery shopper is?  About a month ago the Sunday Post Dispatch ran an article entitled “Undercover faces in the crowd: the person next to you in the checkout line could be a mystery shopper hired by a company or competitors to improve customer service.  A secret shopper is a person who visits an organization and gathers information on how service is delivered, unbeknownst to the employees providing the service.

So the secret shopper had walked in the front door at Sandy’s workplace and was greeted by no one even though a couple of employees were sitting behind the counter.  Now at one time or another we all go shopping and want to simply walk in, get what you need, pay for it and walk right out. 

However the secret shopper in this case was looking for more than that.  The secret shopper tried on some items, dropped some noisy items on to the floor, and thought about attempting to walk out of the store with an item that was not paid for.  Instead the secret shopper stayed a little longer and walked upstairs where she found another employee having a personal argument over the phone.  The secret shopper continued to make noise, pick up various items around the store, but got no attention.  Eventually – 55 minutes after she came in – the secret shopper left without anyone saying a word to her.

Imagine if you could watch videotape of the past 24 hours of your life.  What would you see?  You would be essentially a secret observer in your life.  When Jesus helped you wake up yesterday, did you thank Him or did you hit the ground running with all the things you needed to do on Saturday?  When Jesus made sure that all your clothes were where you left them – wherever that might be – did you thank Him for that?  What about the hot water and cold water that enabled you to take a shower?  And the electricity and natural gas that powers a lot of your life?  Thank Him for that?  What about the safety and civilization that the United States has experienced heretofore?  The food in your pantry?  For the freedom to eat high fat, low fat, lean meat, muffins, whatever you can afford or choose to eat?  Thank Jesus for those things?  But this is the easy stuff: it can be easier to praise God when the going is good.

What if you had a secret observer when your car failed inspection?  You had it repaired and it failed re-inspection.  Then on the way back from the re-inspection you had a flat tire that could not be repaired.  And so you bought two new tires, got some more repair work done and got re-inspected and failed again.  All in the space of 10 days.  Well, because I was thinking about what I would be sharing with you today, I did remember to thank Jesus that I had a car and the means to repair it ... yes that was my car that continually failed inspections.

Or what if you had a secret shopper in your life when you had $15 left until your next pay cheque?  A pay cheque that would not be coming for another two weeks, and all you had was a quarter tank of gas and no food at home?  Believe it or not, Jesus cares about that and if you lift up your voice to Him as the lepers did, He will have mercy on you.  Many times as a student I was in precarious financial positions and God would come through time and time again.  Someone would invite me to their house for a meal.  The price of gas would go down.  The weather would be good so I could walk or ride the bus to work to save on gas for the car.  Someone would give me clothes.  I hope that I thanked Jesus for those gifts.  I like to think so.

I hope that we can all think of situations – most not as bad as having leprosy, but some maybe as bad or seemingly worse – in which we cried out to Jesus for mercy.  And He answered. 

I trust that you thanked Him.  And guess what?  He is ready and willing to continue listening and answering.  Ask the Lord for help then fall on your face at God’s feet and glorify God with a loud voice.  In advance.  God will answer again.  Amen.

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