Luke 17:11-19
11On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, 13they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. 15Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 17Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? 18Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”


I imagine that most of you have heard of or maybe even know a great deal about what is known as the Prosperity Gospel, some may even believe in it – and it is understandable why you would want to.  Being that it is the title of today's message, we probably need to start with a little background on it before we go any further, so that we all are starting on the same page.

My personal awareness of the Prosperity Gospel (or Prosperity Theology as some call it), started with the nationally bestselling book, The Prayer of Jabez.  It is a book based on 2 Bible verses 1 Chronicles 4:9 & 10.  Jabez himself, after these two verses is never mentioned again.

The two verses read: “Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, "I gave birth to him in pain."  Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, 'Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.' And God granted his request."

Now there is a lot of God stuff in The Prayer of Jabez, but the overarching message is that of Prosperity Theology.  While it is full of good things to consume (as one reviewer aptly put it), "as a final touch the chef sprinkled just a little rat poison over the plate."  In this case the poison is the author's constant suggesting that he has found the magic prayer, the magic words that will make God give you everything you want.

And that's the Prosperity Gospel.  It says that God gives those whom God favors prosperity...and like I said as we began, it is understandable why people would want to believe it.  Some people estimate that 10s of millions of people practice it.  The most famous among those who teach it include names like Kenneth Copeland, Kennith Hagin and Joel Osteen.

In some form or another they teach of a Prosperity Gospel that says God gives those God favors all the material and physical possessions they desire.  Those whom God favors are the pious; people who confess  the loudest, believe the hardest, faithfully tithe.  All that is asked is that they “believe, receive and act upon God's promises.”  If you do you will be healthy and wealthy.

Scott McKinght, a New Testament scholar and Professor of Religious Studies at North Park University, gives this helpful understanding of how to conceptualize the Prosperity Gospel, “God could be seen as The Vending Machine God: put in faith and out pops blessings – money, homes, cars, beautiful spouses, clever kids, good neighbors, big churches, and plush vacations. For the prosperity gospel, humans are The Happiness Machine: receive the blessings, rely on the promises, act on the commandments and you can put on a happy face – a big one. Every day, from the moment you get up to the closing of your eyes, happiness is the aim of life. In the prosperity gospel, God is there for us; we are here for God to bless.” He concludes his thoughts saying, “To quote my father, Hogwash!”

Which brings us to today's scripture. (At this point you may be asking yourself, “it does?” but stick with me).  For me today's story about the 10 lepers is a great critique of the core values of the Prosperity Gospel.

The end of this month is the 493th anniversary of Martin Luther's nailing his 95 Theses to the doors of the catholic church in Wittenburg. It was his way of saying that The Church had lost it's way.  It was a call for the church to abandon the false teachings it had adopted over a period of time and to reform itself more in the image of the teachings of the Bible.

As we look at what I consider to be a false teaching of The Church, I think Martin Luther is probably a fine place to start.  As the reforms of the early church were taking place, reforms his 95 Theses helped to usher in, Dr. Martin Luther was asked to describe the nature of true worship.  His answer was to the point. To answer the question of what the nature of true worship is like, he said, the tenth leper turning back.

On a first read though, you could almost use the story of the 10 lepers as proof for a Prosperity Gospel. Remember? It asks you to “believe, receive and act upon God's promises.”  The lepers believed, calling Jesus “Master.” They received his instructions and they acted upon them...and they were healed of their leprosy.  It does sound a bit like McKinght's "Vending Machine God."

But the curious part is the part to which Martin Luther calls our attention – the tenth leper turning back.  This is where the values and foundations of the Prosperity Gospel begin to unravel.

While all ten of the lepers were healed, only one of them returned to give proper thanks and show gratitude to God.  Jesus tells the one, “your faith has made you well.”  This is where it gets interesting.  If you read closely, this leper did not do what Jesus told him to do.  Jesus says, “Go and show yourselves to the priest.”  As a matter of fact, Jesus' question of where the other nine are seems a bit disingenuous – they are going to show themselves to the priests!  This one leper didn't do it.

He decides to come back.  So “believe, receive and act upon God's promises" begins to unravel.  He is clearly not acting upon what Jesus said, yet he remains healed from leprosy.  The question is why?

Jesus tells him, "Your faith has made you well.”   In The Message version of the Bible,  Eugene Peterson interprets this as, "your faith has healed and saved you.”  We need to get in a little deeper on this thing the Martin Luther called true worship, so lets look at the original words used here. The Greek word here is sesoken, which comes from the root sozo and can mean a number of things including: healed, made well, saved. The King James Version translates it as, "Your faith has made you whole."

One thing is for certain, no matter how you translate it, this one leper (who didn't actually act upon Jesus' instructions) received something more than the others.  In the eyes of Jesus, while the others were healed of leprosy, the one was made whole.  In the eyes of Jesus, while the others were healed of their earthly afflictions, the one was healed of his spiritual afflictions.

You see there are more important things up for grabs here than simple healing.  The key to understanding this passage and understanding the problems with the Prosperity Gospel is, just as Dr. Martin Luther suggested, understanding worship.

The one leper who came back recognizes what God has done for him through Jesus and he risks what he has been given to give praise to God.  That is the key to understanding worship, understanding this passage, understanding our relationship with God and understanding the problem with the Prosperity Gospel.

The Prosperity Gospel ultimately focuses on claiming what God gives you.  But, like with the one leper, worship does not focus on claiming what God gives you, it focuses on recognizing what God gives you and returning to God..even at the risk of losing what you have in order to return.

Be it worship, stewardship or life in general,
being healthy and wealth is one thing,
being made whole is another. 

Be it worship, stewardship or life in general,
the thing that Dr. Martin Luther was pointing to
was a sense of gratitude rather than a sense of privilege. 

Be it worship, stewardship or life in general,
we will find our wholeness,
we will find our sense of completeness,
we will find our sense of well being,
not when we claim what God gives us
but when we recognize what God gives us
and are grateful
and we return all that we are back to our God. 

When we do God will look upon us and say, “Your faith has made you whole,” and that...that is more of a blessing than any thing we could posses here on this earth could ever be.  So, thanks be to God.


There is also a Children's Sermon to go with this message.

Matthew 9:35-10:8
Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. 36When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

10:1Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. 2These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.

5These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.



Has your Christianity affected your pockets? That's the question John Wesley would sometimes ask about churches he would visit. Has your Christianity affected your pockets?

Yes, today's message is about “stewardship.” I will pause here for all of you who might feel the need to groan or roll your eyes.  Look, this is not a lot of fun from this side of the lectern either.  It is hard enough to get people to listen to you talk non-stop for 15 to 20 minutes, but when you start talking about things they don't want to hear...well, it is much, much more difficult.

So, here's what I'm going to do: I promise to tell a lot of stories (some old some new) and I'll keep it relatively short and hopefully focused.

There once was a Sunday School Teacher asked her eager students if they would give $1,000,000 to the missionaries. “YES!” they all screamed!! “Would you give $1,000?” Again they shouted “YES!” “How about $100?” “Oh, YES we would!” they all agreed!! “Would you give just a dollar to the missionaries?” she asked. They all exclaimed “YES!” just as before except for little Johnnie.  “Johnnie,” the teacher said as she noticed the boy clutching his pocket, “why didn’t you say 'YES’ this time?” “Well,” he stammered, “I actually HAVE a dollar.”

Now that may be funny and you might be tempted to dismiss it's point because it is in a joke and isn't really true, you know, in REAL life, but it's not just a point that only shows up in funny stories, it shows up in real life.

Leighton Farrell was the minister of Highland Park Church in Dallas for many years. He tells of a man in the church who once made a covenant with a former pastor to tithe ten percent of their income every year. They were both young and neither of them had much money. But things changed. The layman tithed one thousand dollars the year he earned ten thousand, ten thousand dollars the year he earned one-hundred thousand, and one- hundred thousand dollars the year he earned one million. But the year he earned six million dollars he just could not bring himself to write out that check for six-hundred thousand dollars to the Church. 

He telephoned the minister, long since having moved to another church, and asked to see him. Walking into the pastor’s office the man begged to be let out of the covenant, saying, "This tithing business has to stop. It was fine when my tithe was one thousand dollars, but I just cannot afford six-hundred thousand dollars. You’ve got to do something, Reverend!" The pastor knelt on the floor and prayed silently for a long time. Eventually the man said, "What are you doing? Are you praying that God will let me out of the covenant to tithe?" "No," said the minister. "I am praying for God to reduce your income back to the level where one thousand dollars will be your tithe!"

Stewardship means “taking care of.” In the context of the church we understand it as “taking care of the gifts God gives us” or more specifically, “taking care of the gifts that we are watching over for God.” You see, in the church we recognize that what we have is not by our doings, it is by the grace of God.  Or as today's text says, “God has given to us without us giving God anything – without payment.” Some translations say, God has given to us “freely.” The original Greek is something more like God has given to us “gratuitously.”

In the remainder of that part of this verse Jesus tells the disciples to give. It is clear from the language and the context, that he is taking about their talent, their time, their valuables – basically, give of yourself.  Further more, he uses the same language here: gratuitously. So, a better translation may be, “You have been given to gratuitously, so give gratuitously.”

Do you give gratuitously? Has your Christianity affected your pockets?

Tony Campolo tells of being invited to speak at a ladies meeting. There were 300 women there. Before he spoke the president of the organization read a letter from a missionary. It was a very moving letter.  In the letter the missionary expressed a need for $4,000 to take care of an emergency that had cropped up. So the president of the organization said, "We need to pray that God will provide the resources to meet the need of this missionary. Brother Campolo will you please pray for us?" 

Tony Campolo, who is very outspoken said, "No."  Startled, she said, "I beg your pardon."  He said, "No, I won’t pray for that." He said, "I believe that God has already provided the resources and that all we need to do is give. Tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to step up to this table and give every bit of cash I have in my pocket.  And if all of you will do the same thing, I think God has already provided the resources." 

The president of the organization chuckled a little bit and said, "Well, I guess we get the point. He is trying to teach us that we all need to give sacrificially."  He said, "No, that is not what I am trying to teach you. I’m trying to teach you that God has already provided for this missionary. All we need to do is give it. Here, I’m going to put down all of my money I have with me."  He wrote, "I only had $15 in my pocket so I wasn’t too worried about that." So he put down his $15 and then looked at the president of the organization. Reluctantly, she opened her purse and took out all of her money, which was about $40, and put it on the table.

One by one the rest of the ladies filed by and put their money on the table, too. When the money was counted they had collected more than $4,000."  Tony Campolo said, "Now, here’s the lesson. God always supplies for our needs, & he supplied for this missionary, too. The only problem was we were keeping it for ourselves.  Now let’s pray & thank God for His [sic] provision." 

We don’t own any the “things” in our lives.  They are gifts given gratuitously from God and we are only stewards.  They are things for this life and not the next and we are stewards of them - acting on God’s behalf in this world, in hopes that God’s will might be done on earth as it is in heaven – in hopes that we might be lucky enough to experience the kingdom come on earth.

Just as God has given gratuitously to us, God encourages us to be gratuitous givers.  God looks to us to give not for recognition, but as a response to God's love for us.  We have already been given the greatest gift that we will ever receive.  “No greater love as anyone than this, that they lay down their life for their friends.”  Jesus gave his life for us, so that we may have the life of eternity.  Jesus gave his life for us, so that we may experience an abundant love beyond compare.  Jesus gave his life for us, so that we may feel a deep joy that pervades all our relationships.   Jesus gave gratuitously.

We are tempted when stewardship season comes around to say, "How much are we supposed to give?  How much are we supposed to hand over?"  And we must realize that that's the wrong question.  Look at it this way, if you opened an account with a stock broker, wouldn't  you be surprised, maybe even upset, if the broker asked you how much of the account he or she was supposed to manage?  Of course you would be surprised; because your expectation is that they would manage all of it in your interest.  It is the same with God.  Would Jesus say that we are to love God with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, and 2% of our income?  I doubt it.  Give to God gratuitously.

On World Communion Sunday, the concept of “giving of yourself” is raised to a level few humans achieve – but we are all called to try.  We must ask ourselves, as painful as the questions may be and as painful as the answer may be, has my Christianity affected my pockets?

The good news is we can count on God. What we must remember is God is counting on us.