People's Prayers: Prayers of the People: One out of Ten ~ 18th Sunday after Pentecost '25 RCL Yr C

For Sunday, October 12, 2025 ~ Readings: 2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c; Psalm 111, 2 Timothy 2:8-15,

Luke 17:11-19

But his servants approached and said to him, "Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, 'Wash and be clean'? So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean. [2 Kings 5:1-14]

…the Lord is gracious and full of compassion…The works of his hands are faithfulness and justice; all his commandments are sure. [Psalm 111:4b; 7]

Remind them of this, and warn them before God that they are to avoid wrangling over words, which does no good but only ruins those who are listening. [2 Timothy 2:14]

Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" [Luke 17:17-18]

In the reading from 2 Kings, servants asked Naaman if he might have agreed immediately to the healing ritual that Elisha prescribed if the activity had been more difficult. After all, a mighty warrior only does difficult tasks of great importance, not simple and ordinary things. Perhaps we, as ordinary mortals, feel the task of truly living into our faith through taking time to stop doing to just be in a few moments of personal prayer or reading over the previous Sunday Scriptures, or a page in a daily booklet of meditations, is just easy enough to get to sometime later on. We escape into checklists of giving money and attending church services as doing our basic duty, with perhaps a volunteer activity here and there. But in moments when we are looking for inspiration or feel a need to look beyond the ordinary, we often wander off to another river, rather than one before us. Once there we may not realize until too late that we are in over our heads by the lures of this temporary world, and yet, for now, swimming to God’s shore seems too easy.

We in this country fail, in epic proportions, to avoid wrangling over words,

especially in the midst of political or human divisions, attempting to out shout and out insult one another on social media, however muted or even anonymous we feel behind the computer or phone screen. We also fail to understand the reality that such arguing changes no minds, causes one’s own trenches to become deeper, and only ruins those who are listening [2 Timothy 14] as well as the one wrangling. But, of course, who of us will listen to the arguments of anyone we have already decided is wrong? Are we all ruined and in exile from one another and from God? The Letter to Timothy brings our focus back to do our best to present ourselves to God in all that we are, say, and do.

In the Gospel reading, 10 lepers who begged Jesus for healing were told to present themselves to the priest. After they did and realized they were all healed, they all went on their merry ways ~ except this foreigner. Only 1 out of 10, the Samaritan foreigner, turned back, in faith, to thank Jesus. How often do I forget to give thanks ~ true, sincere thanks for spiritual and other healing gifts to my soul?

For me, the readings this week seem to particularly mirror where I see my own conscious and unconscious behaviors and responses to upsets in my body, mind, and/or spirit. I am all-too-often in self-imposed exile from God. I do my own wrangling over words and thoughts, ignoring the wonders of Creation around me, complaining to myself about all the injuries from others (real and imagined), and celebrating only myself when wellness or some other good fortune occurs. Time to get out the NO WHINING banner, return from the exile I chose to choose again to be in the faith-filled life where I am planted, remembering why and for Whom I was created. Remembering that in the exercise of the faith I claim, I don’t need to be a mighty warrior saving the world, nor a self-absorbed couch potato drowning in hollow entertainment. Now is the time to realize that I don’t require my faith to be too difficult to acknowledge, to live in, or for me to be grateful. It is past time for my faith to be conscious again and to present myself to God in Christ, each day, directly, and through all that I think, do, and say. Now and always it is time for me to remember to whom I am faithful so as to be one who immediately turns to Christ in thanksgiving for all things great and small.

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY

Leader: ~ Eternal God, shine again in the darkness that covers us in times of hardship and when we distance ourselves from You. Restore our conscious faith, that we may always give You thanks for healing us, in ways known and unknown, as we walk each day toward our salvation in Christ.

Gracious, Compassionate Lord

RESPONSE: We return to You with thanks and praise

~ Eternal God, open the eyes of the souls in all who hold political authority on and over the land and sea and in the air across your diverse Creation. Guide them to see you in every human face, every grain of sand, every field and star and ocean, and especially in themselves. Fill them with the desire to govern in all good faith, justly, and humbly. We pray especially for: add your own petitions

Gracious, Compassionate Lord