The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 23), October 12, 2025

Faith is Sight, in Addition to Trust

Faith may be “the assurance of things hoped for” and “the conviction of things not seen,” but it is also about trusting God’s present action and the ability to see what God is already doing. In our scripture passages for this week, the faithful notice and praise God’s saving acts, even when others do not see possibility, or anything to give thanks for.

Luke 17:11-19 continues the exploration of the nature of faith begun in last week’s reading. Jesus is “on his way to Jerusalem;” the material in these ten chapters consider what it means to accompany Jesus on this journey. In Luke’s account many who receive and respond to the Good News are in some way on the fringes: a young woman, betrothed but not yet married; an aged and childless priest; a prophetess; shepherds who slept in the fields with their flocks.

Here Jesus is going through a liminal space, the border between Samaria and Galilee, between the mutually hostile Jews and Samaritans. Here he meets another group of fringe people: lepers, who by the rules of Leviticus 13-14 must live apart until verifiably cured. Once again, it is one of these who responds in faith to God’s initiative in Christ.

The interpretive question in this passage is, what distinguishes the one who turns back, from the others? It is clear that all ten are “made clean” as they follow Jesus’ instructions to show themselves to the priests. But it is this one who turns back (instead of going to the priest? Before going to the priest?) whose faith makes him “well.” Oliver Larry Yarbough, in the Feasting on the Word commentary, notes that this can also be translated as “your faith has saved you.”

The structure of the story suggests that this has not happened for the other nine. Given that they were already made clean, the faith that has saved him / made him well must be related to his distinguishing action: he has turned around (always a significant action in the Gospels) and given thanks to God. The other nine are, presumably, also grateful for their changed circumstances; the tenth man seems to see in this something more than his own good fortune. Perhaps he has seen the kingdom of God breaking into the world. Perhaps his eyes have been suddenly opened to God’s immanence, to God’s consequent nature engaging with the world and opening new possibilities.

As Elizabeth Barrett Browning writes,

“Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.”

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7 may have been a shock and a disappointment to its intended audience, but Process, Open, and Relational thinkers may find familiar themes.

Early in the sixth century BCE, many officials and citizens of Judah are in exile in Babylon after their king Jehoiakim’s failed rebellion against their Babylonian overlords. The prophets Hananiah, and later Shemaiah, have proclaimed that God will act quickly to end the exile. While this is the sort of news that the exile would like to believe, Jeremiah speaks an unwelcome Word that turns out to be the truth: the people should settle in for a long stay.

 The fundamental message is that God is not limited to the geographical boundaries of Judah. Jeremiah encourages the exiles to trust in the promises of God even here, and to put this trust into action by putting down roots in Babylon: to build houses, plant gardens, and have children. God is concerned not just for their spiritual welfare, but also for their material well-being. They are not saved by holding themselves aloof from their foreign surroundings, but by embracing them and their bodily needs. The two are one and the same. As Bruce Epperly has written on this site, “Process theology is profoundly embodied….in process theology, the mind is embodied, and the body is inspired.”

Just as the exiles cannot separate their minds and their bodies, neither can they separate themselves from their enemies. To seek their own welfare, they must also seek their enemies’ welfare. This is not some arbitrary divine decree; it is not how God has chosen to work but how God must work. God works with the material conditions of our lives, and the material condition of the exiles is that they live side by side with their enemies. God cannot benefit them without also benefiting their enemies. The line between neighbour and enemy becomes blurred in such a situation. God is not limited by geography; nor is God limited by demographics. God will be the God of all people.

God can and will eventually redeem the people and bring them home, but only if they are willing to survive and thrive where they are in the meantime.

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Tim Bowman is an Ordained Minister in the United Church of Canada, serving Gladwin Heights – St. Andrew’s Pastoral Charge in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia. He is currently a ThM student at the Vancouver School of Theology, focusing on Process Theology. Tim is a contributor to Preaching the Uncontrolling Love of God, Edited by Jeff Wells, Thomas Jay Oord, et. al., and lives in New Westminster with his wife, child, and two cats.