The 19th Sunday After Pentecost (Proper 23C), Oct. 10, 2004
Ruth 1:(1-7) 8-19a; Psalm 113; 2 Tim. 2:(3-7) 8-15; Luke 17:11-19
From the earliest days of God’s relationship with Abraham, God marked him and his descendents as being separate from all the other peoples of the earth. By the rite of circumcision, by the prohibition against the worship of foreign gods, by exclusive dietary and other religious observances, by the laws that governed and limited the nature of the commerce and social contacts with other people, the chosen people were distinguished.
In the second century before Christ, the uniqueness of the Jews came to be an offense to Antiochus Epiphanes, who sought to make them conform under threat of death (1 Macc. 1:41-50). More than a century later the Romans recognized their distinctiveness with certain legal privileges. Yet in spite of the clear “setting apart” of the Jews, even from the beginning Abraham was told, “all clans on earth will bless themselves by you” (Gen. 12:3). That gentiles would ultimately have a place among the people of God had been part of the message of the prophets of the Old Testament.
Without ignoring or even overriding the genuine differences in ethnicity, language, culture, or heritage, Jesus made numerous exceptions to the practice that his ministry was primarily among the Jewish people. He ministered more than once to Roman centurions — even commending one as having such faith as he had not seen “even in Israel.” He received the Greeks who had come to Philip seeking him, he healed the daughter of the Syro-Phoenician woman, and initiated a conversation with a Samaritan woman. In today’s gospel, he healed 10 men who suffered from a skin disease that rendered them unclean for socializing and worshiping with others, and then specifically commended the one who returned to give thanks, pointing out that of the 10, this one was a foreigner — a Samaritan.
In the beloved passage from Ruth, we have the account of a foreign woman — a Moabitess — who followed her mother-in-law Naomi back to her home in Bethlehem after both had been widowed. Ruth forsook her own people and religion to keep herself with Naomi, thereby coming to be numbered among the chosen people. Her marriage to Boaz made her the great-grandmother of King David (see Ruth 2:17). The great king of Israel, then, was one-eighth of foreign blood.
The specifics in Ruth and Luke find their fulfillment in Paul’s teaching that “those who are chosen” (2 Tim. 2:10) are all who put their trust in Christ, regardless of their background.
Look It Up
Reflect on Paul’s teaching in Romans 9:22-33.
Think About It
How does today’s psalm contribute to the message in the other lessons?
Next Sunday
The 20th Sunday After Pentecost (Proper 24C), Oct. 17, 2004
Gen. 32:3-8,22-30; Psalm 121; 2 Tim. 3:14-4:5; Luke 18:1-8a
