The Gospel of Luke tells us a story in which Jesus heals ten people of leprosy \u2014 and only one comes back to thank him (Luke 17:11-19).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
N.T. Wright begins his translation of this story like this: \u201cAs Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, he passed along the borderlands between Samaria and Galilee.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What are borderlands? What is a border? Well, obviously, a border is a location that separates two groups of people. We might imagine the demilitarized zone in between North Korea and South Korea: a 2.5-mile wide strip of land, protected by barbed wire fences, which humans have barely touched in 60 years. We might imagine the U.S.-Mexico border, where so many want a wall to go up. We might imagine simply the door we close to keep others out when we need our space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So Jesus is passing through the borderlands that separate two groups of people. On the Galilee side are the Israelites, the Jewish people. This is the group to whom Jesus belongs. On the other side are the Samaritans: related to the Jewish people, but their ancestry had diverged, and now they had slightly different scriptures and a different holy site. The differences were enough to dig a deep, prejudice-filled division between the two groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The borderlands are where these two groups are divided; it\u2019s also where they touch. And so when Jesus heals a group of ten lepers in the borderlands, at least some of them are Samaritans. We know this for sure because the one person \u2014 the only one \u2014 who says \u201cthank you\u201d was a Samaritan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can hear how unexpected that is in Jesus\u2019 response to the Samaritan: \u201cIs it really the case that the only one who had the decency to give God the glory was this foreigner?\u201d And then he says something that must have been shocking to the Samaritan man: \u201cYour faith has saved you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These two men come from two different groups of people who are fiercely divided because of differences in culture and faith. And yet here is Jesus, a Jewish holy man, telling a Samaritan man: \u201cYour faith has saved you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe things that are meant to keep Jews and Samaritans apart \u2014 the border, the faith \u2014 Jesus turns them into means of connection.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Jesus welcomes \u201cthis foreigner\u201d into what God is doing in and through the people of Israel: healing, blessing, connecting, loving. Where humans dug pits of division, God builds connection. That\u2019s what God does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.\u201d -Ephesians 2:13-14<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us are really feeling our own \u201cborderlands\u201d these days. The pandemic has made our \u201cbubble\u201d of personal space wider. Some of us are returning to in-person school or work after over a year apart. Some of us are starting a new life in a totally new place. And these things can make our world seem full of borders and \u201cforeign-ness.\u201d They can make us feel separate and lonely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All this is on top of the usual borders that divide us, whether we want them to or not; borders like race, class, gender, sexual orientation, career, faith\u2026the list goes on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you find yourself passing along these borderlands in these first weeks of the school year, may the Holy Spirit remind you: God is full of the power, creativity, and compassion that turn our borders into places of connection. So go ahead \u2014 <\/strong>expect<\/em> God to turn your lonely borderlands into the site of new community.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prayer:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
God, in Jesus you break down walls and heal divisions. When I feel lonely, separate, different, remind me that can\u2019t stop you from connecting me to you and to others. Encourage me when I pass through the borderlands, until I feel connected again. In Jesus\u2019 name, Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nPr. Kate<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pastor Kate<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Pastor Jim<\/a>\u00a0take turns writing weekly devotions for the Chapel of the Resurrection<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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