Love insists
Sermon by Pr. Michelle Sevig on the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost + Sunday, October 12, 2025.
Have you ever noticed how some folks just live their lives from a place of abundance and gratitude? You know the kind of person I’m talking about: the one who sees a glass not just as half full but rather overflowing, the one who would give you the coat off her back, the one who can always stretch a meal to accommodate last minute friends and guests, and the one who finds ways to compliment and look for the good in everybody.
Developing a conscious practice of gratitude and living gratefully can strengthen the immune system, improve sleep, and lower blood pressure. Living gratefully makes us more helpful, generous, compassionate, forgiving, outgoing, and reduces feelings of loneliness and isolation.
If living a grateful life leads to so many positive results, why isn’t everyone hopping on the gratitude train? The story from this week’s gospel reading can shed some light on that. Ten men with a skin disease approach Jesus begging for mercy. He simply says, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” They follow his directions, and as they go on their way they are made clean.
Only one of them, we’re told, realizing he is healed immediately returns and falls at Jesus’ feet offering praise and thanks. We also learn that he is a Samaritan — a cultural outsider, and therefore the most unlikely one to practice gratitude. Jesus observes the situation and then sends him on his way, saying “your faith has made you well.” (saved you, made you whole again)
“But this gospel story is about more than gratitude. It’s about the gratitude of a foreigner who receives welcome. It's about identity–about inclusion and exclusion, exile and return. It's a story about the kingdom of God–about who is invited, who belongs, and who thrives in the realm where God dwells.” Debie Thomas, a favorite theologian of mine, asks, “What does it mean that in Christ we all are one? What is our ongoing responsibility to the stranger, the alien, the Other? What happens to difference at the foot of the cross?”
I’ve been thinking about these questions a lot this past week as helicopters have been hovering over my neighborhood in Edgewater, and schools are on lockdown because ICE agents are arresting parents as they pick up their children from preschool. I’ve been pondering questions about identity and belonging as we commemorate National Coming Out Day this weekend, and so many of my transgender colleagues and friends are terrified and angry about their true identities being ignored, and their human rights being stripped away. I’ve been wondering about how we can all thrive in the realm of God’s love and healing, even when there is unrest in our own neighborhoods, city and world.
Earlier this week the bishops of our denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, wrote a letter that addresses the civil unrest we’re experiencing, saying “our faith compels us to stand where Jesus stands–with and for those whom society often seeks to exclude, erase or diminish.” The letter reminds us that “Our shared confession, that every person is created in the image of God, (Genesis 1:27) grounds us in the conviction that all people possess inherent dignity. The incarnation of Jesus Christ reveals God’s profound solidarity with humanity—especially with those who are marginalized or oppressed. The gospel we proclaim insists that our neighbor’s need is the occasion for our love and that our public life is shaped by justice, mercy, and a commitment to the common good.”
This bold letter, signed by most of the 65 bishops, acknowledges that “(we) are living through a time when vulnerable communities are being scapegoated and attacked. Immigrants and refugees are vilified, though Scripture commands us to welcome the stranger. People of color continue to bear the devastating weight of racism woven into the fabric of our society. Transgender people, beloved by God, are being targeted with laws and rhetoric that deny their dignity and even their right to exist. These assaults on our siblings are not political abstractions—they are deep wounds in the body of Christ.”
We, like the lepers in today's gospel story, cry out for mercy. Because we are all wounded and in need of healing from the Holy One. Where we build walls or draw lines of division, God dwells and erases anything that divides us and them. The Holy One breaks down barriers that divide, and embraces everyone–even a foreigner with leprosy. Jesus hears the pleas of all who cry out for mercy and gives healing and wholeness, whether we express our deep gratitude or not.
How will we live into the fullness of life that Jesus gives? In this time of division and fear we, as people grounded in our faith, insist on love. The bishops say in their letter,
“Love insists on the dignity of every human being.
Love insists on justice for the marginalized and oppressed.
Love insists that the church must reflect God’s diverse, life-giving community.
Love insists that we listen, speak, and act with respect, even in disagreement.
Love insists on hope, trusting that God’s kingdom of justice and peace will prevail.”
We come to know this love more fully as we live out our baptismal calling to resist sin and live lives that are grounded in gratitude and grace. This morning we’ll baptize Joel, a sweet, active and talkative toddler who’s been sitting with his mom and sister in the front pew nearly every Sunday since he was born. During the baptismal rite, I’ll ask his mom and the whole congregation to profess their faith in Christ Jesus, reject sin, and confess the faith of the church, the faith in which we baptize. It’s a time for all of us–newly baptized–and those baptized long ago–to center our faith in the cleansing waters of baptism that wash us and make us whole again. In baptism, we are marked with the cross of Christ forever. That cross is not only a sign of our hope—it is also a summons to follow Jesus into solidarity with those who suffer.
In the power of the Spirit, let us be bold. Let us be faithful. Let us insist on Love—in our words, our actions, our public witness, and our life together. So that ultimately, we can return to the source of our life, our healing, our hope with thanksgiving. Because living with an attitude of gratitude is good for the healing of our soul and makes us more helpful, generous, compassionate, forgiving to all of our neighbors…and ourselves.
Come to the table of mercy to be refreshed and renewed–joining the one leper who returned full of gratitude and praise for everything God has done for you. Amen.
