Seek The Welfare Of The City
Stories
Object:
Contents
What's Up This Week
"Seek the Welfare of the City" by Frank Fisher
"Oh Yeah, Thanks a Lot" by Ron Lavin
"Praise" by Ron Lavin
What's Up This Week
God calls us to walk against the world's flow, bringing forth actions and attitudes that are the total opposite of everything the world around us deems right. In "Seek the Welfare of the City," Frank Fisher calls us to be lights of hope in the darkness of exile and despair. Ron Lavin touches on the importance of gratitude in an ungrateful world in "Oh Yeah, Thanks a Lot." He also describes a revolution of praise in a world bent on bitterness and revenge in "Praise." The question is: Which way are we flowing?
* * * * * * * * *
Seek the Welfare of the City
Frank Fisher
Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7
Tis' a gift to be simple. tis' gift to be free. Tis' a gift to come down where you ought to be. And when you find yourself in a place just right, t'will be in the valley of love and delight. When true simplicity is gained to bow and to bend we shall not be ashamed. To turn, to turn will be our delight. Until turning, turning, we come round right.*
There was a time things were simple. There was a time when you were free. But while you've certainly been turning around and around, you're no longer free and life is no longer simple.
For your name is Naboth. You're a Jew: a follower of the most-high God; until recently an artisan who dwelt in Jerusalem. Your work as a silversmith was highly prized throughout all of Judah. It provided you and your family with a very good living. And it left you time to worship in the temple: the place where the fumes of frankincense wafted your prayers on high. Mighty were the walls of Jerusalem. And strong were her soldiers. You knew nothing could ever make your city fall. After all, with the Lord on your side, Judah was invincible.
You'd seen reverses in your country's fortunes. But you'd also seen good fortunes flow right back just as the Assyrian horde flowed back to their country and away from Jerusalem's walls. Then, the Babylonians came. They tore down Jerusalem's walls and destroyed and desecrated the temple. You, Jerusalem's other artisans, and your country's nobility were taken off to Babylon as captives. Of course you thought your God was vanquished too. For you thought a god was tied to a particular land. And with God's worshipers taken away you were sure God was either beaten or dead.
But then, words came to you from God's prophet Jeremiah. A thrill ran through you when you understood not even the defeat of your God's people could destroy your God. Now you thought, God will tell us how things will truly come round right. God will tell us how the Babylonians will be broken and how we'll be led back to the valley of love and delight called Jerusalem.
God's words, however, surprised you. God wouldn't rescue you or lead you home. Instead, God told you to seek the welfare of your new home in Babylon. God told you to build houses, to plant gardens and to raise families.
Those words should've made you despair. But instead they gave you hope. Yes, you were in the midst of a strange people who lived in a strange land. Yet God was present even in the strangeness. God will be present even in the midst of your years of captivity. God will never desert you.
You'll bow and bend. You'll turn to new ways and let a new land be your delight. And you'll trust and work toward the day when God's turning path will lead you to what comes out right.
Tis' a gift to be simple. tis' gift to be free. Tis' a gift to come down where you ought to be. And when you find yourself in a place just right, t'will be in the valley of love and delight. When true simplicity is gained to bow and to bend we shall not be ashamed. To turn, to turn will be our delight. Until turning, turning, we come round right.*
There was a time when your life was simple. There was a time when you were free of war and fear. But while you've certainly been turning around and around, you are no longer free from war or fear and life is no longer simple. For your name is Jill. You're a citizen of the United States of America. You live in a land that treasures its freedom. Once this freedom included the freedom from the touch of war. Sure there were other dangers in your land. There were places were crime caused pain and death. But it had been long indeed since war's devastation moved from other's lands into your own.
Then came September 11th in the year 2001. With all the others in your country you saw horror unleashed on that day. You now face the fact that your land of love and delight has changed. Perhaps, you know, it's been changed forever. You may never again know the simplicity of traveling without high security. You may never know again a time when terrorists are always a part of someplace else.
At these realizations you could despair. In addition to being a part of your land, you are also a follower of the God who's struggled against evil since the beginning of time. So you'll trust God knowing in the end evil cannot triumph. You will trust God knowing terror cannot rule forever. You will trust God knowing even in the face of the turning we call death we will find life in God's hands. For death itself is only a pathway to resurrection.
You go on with your life, knowing someday and somehow the twisting and turning of life will come round right.
Tis' a gift to be simple. tis' gift to be free. Tis' a gift to come down where you ought to be. And when you find yourself in a place just right, t'will be in the valley of love and delight. When true simplicity is gained to bow and to bend we shall not be ashamed. To turn, to turn will be our delight. Until turning, turning, we come round right.*
There was a time when life was simple. There was a time when your life was free from stringent demands. But while you've certainly been turning around and around, your life's no longer simple. And you are no longer free: free that is from the demands of one who beckons into the darkness and offers followers the burden of a cross.
For your name is your own. You're a part of First Presbyterian Church. Once you lived in a place you may look back to as a time of delight. Then all you had to do was open wide your doors and worshipers would fill your pews. Then, your land was at peace, and you lived without danger from war. Then it may have seemed the call to pick up your cross and follow was something experienced only by other people who lived in other places. The time that was then no longer exists.
Now you can literally tear your doors down and worshipers will no longer automatically come to you. Now war has come to your midst. There it joins other evils such as poverty, crime, and sickness. Now these evils may make you feel just as much an alien as did God's people who were taken from Jerusalem to exile in Babylon.
To make matters worse into these times of uncertainty comes a time of even greater change. For you're walking the path called transformation, and you're discovering transformation will be a journey into a land without maps, and a way without certainty.
You also may have grasped transformation in this land and in this time may be the way of the cross. For it will be a way of opening yourselves to God; of asking God who you are; of asking God where God calls you; of asking God who you should love; of trusting that for you as a follower of Jesus the cross is the only way to the land of love and delight.
It's time to trust that in to the turnings of a path of exile, God will somehow in someway, in sometime, make us come round right.
T'was a gift to be simple. t'was a gift to be free. Tis' now a gift to come down where we're called to be. And when we find ourselves in a place just right, t'will be in Christ's valley of love and delight. When true simplicity is gained to bow and to bend we shall not be ashamed. To turn, to turn will be our delight. Until turning, turning, Christ will lead us round right.*
Nothing will be what it once was. Your life will never be the same. This church won't ever be exactly the same. But your life in God's path goes on.
So build houses of faith in this strange new land and live in them; plant gardens of service here and feed your neighbors with what they produce. Reach out in love and service to bring in all those around you so you may multiply there, and not decrease. Seek the welfare of the this strange place and time where you now are in exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf.
For this is now your time and this is now your changed land and changing church. And only in the turnings of the cross you will find the land of love and delight.
*Text taken from Simple Gifts by Shaker Elder Joseph Brackett Jr., 1848.
Frank R. Fisher is a second-career interim/transitional pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA). He currently serves as the interim pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Bushnell, Illinois. A former paramedic and administrator for the Chicago Fire Department, Fisher is an Oblate of the ecumenical Abbey of John the Baptist and Saint Benedict in Bartonville, Illinois.
Oh Yeah, Thanks a Lot
Ron Lavin
Luke 17:11-19
"Another day." On a certain day, long ago, I awoke and said, "Another day. If only I could sleep all day... I'd like to go back to sleep, but the pain makes it impossible."
"Another day. I'll get up and do something, but what can I do? No purpose. If I could only find a purpose and find something to do, maybe I could get my mind on something other than the pain."
"Another day. I must begin with prayer. Sometimes I wonder if it does any good. Sometimes I 'm sure that if I didn't pray I'd go insane. Sometimes I doubt. Some of the others say that prayer does no good, but I am helpless. I must pray."
The day I awoke with these thoughts I looked around me and saw the others. Look at them. They are like pitiful animals. I am an animal too. If only I could be human again. "O Lord, if only I could be a man again... but if not, give me strength to endure."
Some of them have committed suicide. Some have gone mad with the pain. All of us look forward to death. Then maybe we will know a time when our bodies are not racked with pain.
Pain. You see a man's toes or fingers drop off and you know that it is only a matter of time before it will happen to you. No cure. Even those who want to help can't come near. They are afraid and they can't stand the smell, the smell of rotting flesh. All of us have rotting flesh.
All of us. Before this happened I was one of those people called an outcast. The Jews call us "impure Samaritans." Here everyone is the same. Your color of skin, your nationality, your status in life, your background, how much money you have -- none of it makes any difference. All of us are the same -- lepers, part of a pack of lepers.
The pack. Once in a while you've got to try to get away from the pack, but it's no use. You must come back. You must leave wherever you go and come back. Those who are not lepers throw words and stones at you. They are afraid. You get used to it. You get hard. I am hard. Can anything soften me?
Then someone shouted, "The woman who brought food says that a man named Jesus of Nazareth is passing by on his way to Jerusalem. They say he's a healer... that he even has cured lepers." The ten of us rose with excitement. We hoped he wasn't just another charlatan. He wasn't.
Someone said, "He doesn't look like a miracle worker. He is plainly dressed, but look at those eyes. There's something about his eyes that almost seem to beckon us to come." Those about Jesus scattered. He came closer. He looked at us. Then he reached out for us. He didn't throw stones. He didn't back off. He came closer. As with one voice we said, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us."
"Go show yourselves to the priests," Jesus said. We departed, confused. "What does it mean?" "Does he want us to pray again?" "I'm so tired of praying and having nothing change," someone said. "Why doesn't someone help us?"
"Wait," I said. "the priests are the health officers... They are the ones who declare lepers clean... clean... but we aren't clean. Why, you are... So am I... The sores are gone. It has been years since I smelled fresh air. We are clean. We are all clean. Thanks be to God. Feel. See. Touch. Smell. Everybody is clean."
One man said, "I've got to rush home and see my wife and children." "Don't you think we ought to...." I started to say, but it was too late. He was gone.
Another said, "Back to my business. I can see my friends again." "Shouldn't we...," but he was running toward his home. My voice trailed off in an unanswered question as my friends scattered.
They all ran away, all but two of us. "Don't you think we should go back and thank the one who did this?" I said. "Yes, we really should," said my companion. "But there is so much to do, so many people to see. I must go back to my farm." He only half heard my question. Then he said something I'll never forget. "Oh yeah, if you go back, be sure to thank him for me, too. What's his name?" "His name is Jesus," I said evenly. "Yeah, tell Jesus, 'Thanks a lot from all of us.' "
"Aren't you grateful?" "Of course. But the others left. I have to go, too." I stood there alone as I watched him depart.
Then I ran back to Jesus, feeling sick to my stomach about the others. "Look what God has done," I shouted at the crowd around Jesus. I was as good as dead. Now I'm alive. Praise the Lord Jesus." I fell at Jesus' feet. The only words that came out of me were "Thank you. Thank you for giving me back my life."
Then Jesus spoke. "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?" I couldn't reply. I couldn't tell him that they thought other things were more important than expressing gratefulness. After an awkward pause, he said, "Arise and go your way, for your faith has saved you."
I got up and walked among the crowd, as one of them. No smell. No stones. I was cleansed inside as well as outside. Maybe the others were just cleansed outside. Without gratitude, are we really fully healed?
Praise
Ron Lavin
Psalm 111
Pastor Roy Lang went to the lecture by Dr. Granger Westberg at the University of Arizona Medical School in Tucson, Arizona. Dr. Westberg, a Lutheran pastor, had taught the connection between faith and health in medical schools as well as seminaries. The audience consisted of doctors, nurses, and pastors of different denominations.
"Recent research shows that there is one thing more than anything else that causes damage to one's health," Westberg said. He then asked the audience to guess what that one thing was.
"Smoking cigarettes," one woman said. "No," Westberg replied, "that's certainly not good for you, but that's not it."
"Anger?" a nurse shouted. "No, anger certainly hurts health, but the research I'm quoting shows something else that destroys health more than anything else."
"Eating wrong foods? Being over weight? Genetics?"
"No, those factors are all a part of people getting sick, but there is one thing no one has mentioned that is the most important factor in illness."
"The answer is revenge," Dr. Westberg said. "According to the research I've read, revenge, more than anything else, ruins our health. That's why Jesus said that we should love our enemies." He quoted several articles in medical journals supporting his point.
Then Dr. Westberg asked another question: "What's the one thing that encourages physical and mental health more than anything else?"
"Proper diet?"
"Good family life?"
"Exercise?"
The guesses went on, but no one guessed right.
"The answer is praise," Westberg said. "People who praise God and other people tend to live happier and healthier lives than those who don't." Then he nailed down his point with a memorable phrase: "The proper attitude is gratitude."
"The healthiest hour of the week is the hour of worship," Westberg said. "When you worship God, you praise him with self-forgetfulness. If you really want to be healthy, join the choir. Then you can praise God at choir practice as well as on Sunday morning."
When Pastor Roy Lang got back to his church, he told the choir director what Dr. Westberg had said. "I told you that singing was good for you," the choir director said.
The next Sunday in his sermon Pastor Lang repeated what he had heard about praise. The title of his sermon was "The Attitude is Gratitude." His text was Psalm 111:1: "I will extol you with all my heart." Among other things, the pastor pointed out that praise of God is traveling on the road less traveled. "Most people go on the broad road of bitterness, hatred, and revenge. That road leads to destruction," he said. He also told the congregation what Dr. Westberg had said about how healthy it is to sing in the choir.
The next Wednesday at choir practice there were eight new choir members who showed up.
Within the next several months, Pastor Lang and Dr. Westberg got better acquainted. Pastor Lang invited Dr. Westberg to speak at a Lutheran pastors' Bible study. At this Bible study, Westberg told the group he was working on an idea called "The Nurse in the Church" that would help bring a long-neglected ministry of healing back into the church.
Pastor Lang picked up on the suggestion, presented it to the executive committee of his church and then the church council. The vote was favorable and the first "Nurse in the Church" program in the country was started at Our Saviour's Lutheran Church in Tucson, Arizona, where Pastor Lang served.
Since the University of Arizona School of Medicine was across the street from Our Saviour's and since the Dean of that School was a member of Our Saviour's, a natural connection was made. A nurse was hired by both the church and the medical school. She reported to both groups.
After a year, the pastor reported to Dr. Westberg that the program was a success. Dr. Westberg reported that other churches were picking up on the program of a part-time nurse on the church staff and that he was writing a book on the subject.
"Praise God," Pastor Lang said.
" 'Amen,' to that thought," Dr. Westberg replied.
Ron Lavin is the award-winning author of more than 20 books, including Turning Griping into Gratitude, Way to Grow! and the popular Another Look series (CSS). He is the former Pastor-Director of Evangelical Outreach for the Lutheran Church in America, and was a pastor of five thriving congregations, all of which grew substantially under his leadership.
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StoryShare, October 14, 2007, issue.
Copyright 2007 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
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What's Up This Week
"Seek the Welfare of the City" by Frank Fisher
"Oh Yeah, Thanks a Lot" by Ron Lavin
"Praise" by Ron Lavin
What's Up This Week
God calls us to walk against the world's flow, bringing forth actions and attitudes that are the total opposite of everything the world around us deems right. In "Seek the Welfare of the City," Frank Fisher calls us to be lights of hope in the darkness of exile and despair. Ron Lavin touches on the importance of gratitude in an ungrateful world in "Oh Yeah, Thanks a Lot." He also describes a revolution of praise in a world bent on bitterness and revenge in "Praise." The question is: Which way are we flowing?
* * * * * * * * *
Seek the Welfare of the City
Frank Fisher
Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7
Tis' a gift to be simple. tis' gift to be free. Tis' a gift to come down where you ought to be. And when you find yourself in a place just right, t'will be in the valley of love and delight. When true simplicity is gained to bow and to bend we shall not be ashamed. To turn, to turn will be our delight. Until turning, turning, we come round right.*
There was a time things were simple. There was a time when you were free. But while you've certainly been turning around and around, you're no longer free and life is no longer simple.
For your name is Naboth. You're a Jew: a follower of the most-high God; until recently an artisan who dwelt in Jerusalem. Your work as a silversmith was highly prized throughout all of Judah. It provided you and your family with a very good living. And it left you time to worship in the temple: the place where the fumes of frankincense wafted your prayers on high. Mighty were the walls of Jerusalem. And strong were her soldiers. You knew nothing could ever make your city fall. After all, with the Lord on your side, Judah was invincible.
You'd seen reverses in your country's fortunes. But you'd also seen good fortunes flow right back just as the Assyrian horde flowed back to their country and away from Jerusalem's walls. Then, the Babylonians came. They tore down Jerusalem's walls and destroyed and desecrated the temple. You, Jerusalem's other artisans, and your country's nobility were taken off to Babylon as captives. Of course you thought your God was vanquished too. For you thought a god was tied to a particular land. And with God's worshipers taken away you were sure God was either beaten or dead.
But then, words came to you from God's prophet Jeremiah. A thrill ran through you when you understood not even the defeat of your God's people could destroy your God. Now you thought, God will tell us how things will truly come round right. God will tell us how the Babylonians will be broken and how we'll be led back to the valley of love and delight called Jerusalem.
God's words, however, surprised you. God wouldn't rescue you or lead you home. Instead, God told you to seek the welfare of your new home in Babylon. God told you to build houses, to plant gardens and to raise families.
Those words should've made you despair. But instead they gave you hope. Yes, you were in the midst of a strange people who lived in a strange land. Yet God was present even in the strangeness. God will be present even in the midst of your years of captivity. God will never desert you.
You'll bow and bend. You'll turn to new ways and let a new land be your delight. And you'll trust and work toward the day when God's turning path will lead you to what comes out right.
Tis' a gift to be simple. tis' gift to be free. Tis' a gift to come down where you ought to be. And when you find yourself in a place just right, t'will be in the valley of love and delight. When true simplicity is gained to bow and to bend we shall not be ashamed. To turn, to turn will be our delight. Until turning, turning, we come round right.*
There was a time when your life was simple. There was a time when you were free of war and fear. But while you've certainly been turning around and around, you are no longer free from war or fear and life is no longer simple. For your name is Jill. You're a citizen of the United States of America. You live in a land that treasures its freedom. Once this freedom included the freedom from the touch of war. Sure there were other dangers in your land. There were places were crime caused pain and death. But it had been long indeed since war's devastation moved from other's lands into your own.
Then came September 11th in the year 2001. With all the others in your country you saw horror unleashed on that day. You now face the fact that your land of love and delight has changed. Perhaps, you know, it's been changed forever. You may never again know the simplicity of traveling without high security. You may never know again a time when terrorists are always a part of someplace else.
At these realizations you could despair. In addition to being a part of your land, you are also a follower of the God who's struggled against evil since the beginning of time. So you'll trust God knowing in the end evil cannot triumph. You will trust God knowing terror cannot rule forever. You will trust God knowing even in the face of the turning we call death we will find life in God's hands. For death itself is only a pathway to resurrection.
You go on with your life, knowing someday and somehow the twisting and turning of life will come round right.
Tis' a gift to be simple. tis' gift to be free. Tis' a gift to come down where you ought to be. And when you find yourself in a place just right, t'will be in the valley of love and delight. When true simplicity is gained to bow and to bend we shall not be ashamed. To turn, to turn will be our delight. Until turning, turning, we come round right.*
There was a time when life was simple. There was a time when your life was free from stringent demands. But while you've certainly been turning around and around, your life's no longer simple. And you are no longer free: free that is from the demands of one who beckons into the darkness and offers followers the burden of a cross.
For your name is your own. You're a part of First Presbyterian Church. Once you lived in a place you may look back to as a time of delight. Then all you had to do was open wide your doors and worshipers would fill your pews. Then, your land was at peace, and you lived without danger from war. Then it may have seemed the call to pick up your cross and follow was something experienced only by other people who lived in other places. The time that was then no longer exists.
Now you can literally tear your doors down and worshipers will no longer automatically come to you. Now war has come to your midst. There it joins other evils such as poverty, crime, and sickness. Now these evils may make you feel just as much an alien as did God's people who were taken from Jerusalem to exile in Babylon.
To make matters worse into these times of uncertainty comes a time of even greater change. For you're walking the path called transformation, and you're discovering transformation will be a journey into a land without maps, and a way without certainty.
You also may have grasped transformation in this land and in this time may be the way of the cross. For it will be a way of opening yourselves to God; of asking God who you are; of asking God where God calls you; of asking God who you should love; of trusting that for you as a follower of Jesus the cross is the only way to the land of love and delight.
It's time to trust that in to the turnings of a path of exile, God will somehow in someway, in sometime, make us come round right.
T'was a gift to be simple. t'was a gift to be free. Tis' now a gift to come down where we're called to be. And when we find ourselves in a place just right, t'will be in Christ's valley of love and delight. When true simplicity is gained to bow and to bend we shall not be ashamed. To turn, to turn will be our delight. Until turning, turning, Christ will lead us round right.*
Nothing will be what it once was. Your life will never be the same. This church won't ever be exactly the same. But your life in God's path goes on.
So build houses of faith in this strange new land and live in them; plant gardens of service here and feed your neighbors with what they produce. Reach out in love and service to bring in all those around you so you may multiply there, and not decrease. Seek the welfare of the this strange place and time where you now are in exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf.
For this is now your time and this is now your changed land and changing church. And only in the turnings of the cross you will find the land of love and delight.
*Text taken from Simple Gifts by Shaker Elder Joseph Brackett Jr., 1848.
Frank R. Fisher is a second-career interim/transitional pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA). He currently serves as the interim pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Bushnell, Illinois. A former paramedic and administrator for the Chicago Fire Department, Fisher is an Oblate of the ecumenical Abbey of John the Baptist and Saint Benedict in Bartonville, Illinois.
Oh Yeah, Thanks a Lot
Ron Lavin
Luke 17:11-19
"Another day." On a certain day, long ago, I awoke and said, "Another day. If only I could sleep all day... I'd like to go back to sleep, but the pain makes it impossible."
"Another day. I'll get up and do something, but what can I do? No purpose. If I could only find a purpose and find something to do, maybe I could get my mind on something other than the pain."
"Another day. I must begin with prayer. Sometimes I wonder if it does any good. Sometimes I 'm sure that if I didn't pray I'd go insane. Sometimes I doubt. Some of the others say that prayer does no good, but I am helpless. I must pray."
The day I awoke with these thoughts I looked around me and saw the others. Look at them. They are like pitiful animals. I am an animal too. If only I could be human again. "O Lord, if only I could be a man again... but if not, give me strength to endure."
Some of them have committed suicide. Some have gone mad with the pain. All of us look forward to death. Then maybe we will know a time when our bodies are not racked with pain.
Pain. You see a man's toes or fingers drop off and you know that it is only a matter of time before it will happen to you. No cure. Even those who want to help can't come near. They are afraid and they can't stand the smell, the smell of rotting flesh. All of us have rotting flesh.
All of us. Before this happened I was one of those people called an outcast. The Jews call us "impure Samaritans." Here everyone is the same. Your color of skin, your nationality, your status in life, your background, how much money you have -- none of it makes any difference. All of us are the same -- lepers, part of a pack of lepers.
The pack. Once in a while you've got to try to get away from the pack, but it's no use. You must come back. You must leave wherever you go and come back. Those who are not lepers throw words and stones at you. They are afraid. You get used to it. You get hard. I am hard. Can anything soften me?
Then someone shouted, "The woman who brought food says that a man named Jesus of Nazareth is passing by on his way to Jerusalem. They say he's a healer... that he even has cured lepers." The ten of us rose with excitement. We hoped he wasn't just another charlatan. He wasn't.
Someone said, "He doesn't look like a miracle worker. He is plainly dressed, but look at those eyes. There's something about his eyes that almost seem to beckon us to come." Those about Jesus scattered. He came closer. He looked at us. Then he reached out for us. He didn't throw stones. He didn't back off. He came closer. As with one voice we said, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us."
"Go show yourselves to the priests," Jesus said. We departed, confused. "What does it mean?" "Does he want us to pray again?" "I'm so tired of praying and having nothing change," someone said. "Why doesn't someone help us?"
"Wait," I said. "the priests are the health officers... They are the ones who declare lepers clean... clean... but we aren't clean. Why, you are... So am I... The sores are gone. It has been years since I smelled fresh air. We are clean. We are all clean. Thanks be to God. Feel. See. Touch. Smell. Everybody is clean."
One man said, "I've got to rush home and see my wife and children." "Don't you think we ought to...." I started to say, but it was too late. He was gone.
Another said, "Back to my business. I can see my friends again." "Shouldn't we...," but he was running toward his home. My voice trailed off in an unanswered question as my friends scattered.
They all ran away, all but two of us. "Don't you think we should go back and thank the one who did this?" I said. "Yes, we really should," said my companion. "But there is so much to do, so many people to see. I must go back to my farm." He only half heard my question. Then he said something I'll never forget. "Oh yeah, if you go back, be sure to thank him for me, too. What's his name?" "His name is Jesus," I said evenly. "Yeah, tell Jesus, 'Thanks a lot from all of us.' "
"Aren't you grateful?" "Of course. But the others left. I have to go, too." I stood there alone as I watched him depart.
Then I ran back to Jesus, feeling sick to my stomach about the others. "Look what God has done," I shouted at the crowd around Jesus. I was as good as dead. Now I'm alive. Praise the Lord Jesus." I fell at Jesus' feet. The only words that came out of me were "Thank you. Thank you for giving me back my life."
Then Jesus spoke. "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?" I couldn't reply. I couldn't tell him that they thought other things were more important than expressing gratefulness. After an awkward pause, he said, "Arise and go your way, for your faith has saved you."
I got up and walked among the crowd, as one of them. No smell. No stones. I was cleansed inside as well as outside. Maybe the others were just cleansed outside. Without gratitude, are we really fully healed?
Praise
Ron Lavin
Psalm 111
Pastor Roy Lang went to the lecture by Dr. Granger Westberg at the University of Arizona Medical School in Tucson, Arizona. Dr. Westberg, a Lutheran pastor, had taught the connection between faith and health in medical schools as well as seminaries. The audience consisted of doctors, nurses, and pastors of different denominations.
"Recent research shows that there is one thing more than anything else that causes damage to one's health," Westberg said. He then asked the audience to guess what that one thing was.
"Smoking cigarettes," one woman said. "No," Westberg replied, "that's certainly not good for you, but that's not it."
"Anger?" a nurse shouted. "No, anger certainly hurts health, but the research I'm quoting shows something else that destroys health more than anything else."
"Eating wrong foods? Being over weight? Genetics?"
"No, those factors are all a part of people getting sick, but there is one thing no one has mentioned that is the most important factor in illness."
"The answer is revenge," Dr. Westberg said. "According to the research I've read, revenge, more than anything else, ruins our health. That's why Jesus said that we should love our enemies." He quoted several articles in medical journals supporting his point.
Then Dr. Westberg asked another question: "What's the one thing that encourages physical and mental health more than anything else?"
"Proper diet?"
"Good family life?"
"Exercise?"
The guesses went on, but no one guessed right.
"The answer is praise," Westberg said. "People who praise God and other people tend to live happier and healthier lives than those who don't." Then he nailed down his point with a memorable phrase: "The proper attitude is gratitude."
"The healthiest hour of the week is the hour of worship," Westberg said. "When you worship God, you praise him with self-forgetfulness. If you really want to be healthy, join the choir. Then you can praise God at choir practice as well as on Sunday morning."
When Pastor Roy Lang got back to his church, he told the choir director what Dr. Westberg had said. "I told you that singing was good for you," the choir director said.
The next Sunday in his sermon Pastor Lang repeated what he had heard about praise. The title of his sermon was "The Attitude is Gratitude." His text was Psalm 111:1: "I will extol you with all my heart." Among other things, the pastor pointed out that praise of God is traveling on the road less traveled. "Most people go on the broad road of bitterness, hatred, and revenge. That road leads to destruction," he said. He also told the congregation what Dr. Westberg had said about how healthy it is to sing in the choir.
The next Wednesday at choir practice there were eight new choir members who showed up.
Within the next several months, Pastor Lang and Dr. Westberg got better acquainted. Pastor Lang invited Dr. Westberg to speak at a Lutheran pastors' Bible study. At this Bible study, Westberg told the group he was working on an idea called "The Nurse in the Church" that would help bring a long-neglected ministry of healing back into the church.
Pastor Lang picked up on the suggestion, presented it to the executive committee of his church and then the church council. The vote was favorable and the first "Nurse in the Church" program in the country was started at Our Saviour's Lutheran Church in Tucson, Arizona, where Pastor Lang served.
Since the University of Arizona School of Medicine was across the street from Our Saviour's and since the Dean of that School was a member of Our Saviour's, a natural connection was made. A nurse was hired by both the church and the medical school. She reported to both groups.
After a year, the pastor reported to Dr. Westberg that the program was a success. Dr. Westberg reported that other churches were picking up on the program of a part-time nurse on the church staff and that he was writing a book on the subject.
"Praise God," Pastor Lang said.
" 'Amen,' to that thought," Dr. Westberg replied.
Ron Lavin is the award-winning author of more than 20 books, including Turning Griping into Gratitude, Way to Grow! and the popular Another Look series (CSS). He is the former Pastor-Director of Evangelical Outreach for the Lutheran Church in America, and was a pastor of five thriving congregations, all of which grew substantially under his leadership.
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StoryShare, October 14, 2007, issue.
Copyright 2007 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
