18th Sunday after Pentecost • Year C

Historical Collect

O Lord, sustain your Church with your perpetual mercy. Without you, in our weakness we will surely fail. Therefore, keep us ever by your help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation; through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (Gelasian Sacramentary, 7th Century)

Thematic Collect

Holy Father, your mercy and wholeness come to us as pure grace. Grant that we who have been raised to new life in Christ Jesus may respond with lives of gratitude and love; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen.

The Common Thread

It may not look like, or feel like it, but the Lord has visited his people and given them food. He has sent redemption to his people and caused his wondrous works to be remembered in this blessed food: his body, his blood. We have not earned this rescue from otherwise certain death. Indeed, we have been faithless, however much we try to be faithful. Yet God, has been and will remain faithful to his people, to those who believe, those who have faith in his deliverance. Let us remember to praise him and give thanks as best we are able: by receiving his grace through the means he established (Psa 116:12–13).

First Reading • Ruth 1:1–19a

Faith and commitment jump out of the text. Ruth was committed to Naomi but it would take faith to follow her to Bethlehem. (And so much depended on her going there [Matt 1:5].) If Ruth went back to her homeland, security may have more certainly awaited her. Yet she went in faith with Naomi to the uncertainty of Bethlehem. For Ruth, the future lay with God, not with her kinsmen. So, she went to Bethlehem and by the grace of God, became the grandmother of King David, and thus, she is in the lineage of the Lord.

Psalm • Psalm 111:1–10

The Lord provides food for those who fear him. Even so, he provided food for Naomi and Ruth—but he provided much more than food. He provided family, security, and the Messiah. Ruth faithfully feared the Lord more than her present or even future condition—and the Lord provided.

God is just as faithful today toward those who turn their backs on the easy way. Follow him to new lands and discover that “the works of his hands are faithful and just.” (v7)

Second Reading • 2 Timothy 2:1–13

Think of what Ruth endured with Naomi “for the sake of the elect.” (v10) She remained with her mother-in-law after her husband, father-in-law, and brother-in-law all died. There was now no one to take care of this Moabitess but God. She traveled with Naomi from Moab to the east of the Dead Sea, around that sea and into the land of Judah. All accounts indicate that they made the difficult journey alone, likely traveling along the Jericho Road through the Judean Mountains at the north of the sea. When they arrive in Bethlehem (though this pericope does not get into it yet), she works hard in the fields before Boaz comes on the scene.

We too, are called to endure much “for the sake of the elect,” just as Ruth and Timothy were called to do. We have no idea what the future holds, only that we are to be faithful and go into the future where God waits with redemption. “If we endure, we will also reign with him.” (v12)

Gospel • Luke 17:11–19

Too often, we focus on our faith. The verse that leaps off the page for the preacher is, “Your faith has made you well.” It should leap; it is a powerful teaching. Yet the point of the pericope is not faith. Jesus makes the statement about the leper’s faith almost as a parting aside. “Go your way. Your faith has made you well.”

The text is primarily about the power of God. Jesus has cleansed ten lepers. What a feat! No one could do this aside from the power of God working through him.

One thankful leper returns to give thanks. Surely this is also a sign of the leper’s faith. But the point is the power. The very power that cleansed the lepers also provided the power to believe and be thankful.

The same power is at work today, in those who go their way in faith, journeying where the Lord sends them.