One of Kati and I’s favorite things to do is to play Monopoly.  In fact, we are up to about a half dozen different versions.  It is a fun game.  Kati by the way has a degree in accounting and economics and is pursuing her masters, so you would think that she would beat all the time, but I manage to hold my own.  Monopoly is the quintessential American game.  It is the American dream of wealth and property in game form.  It is the game where savvy financial moves and a little bit of luck make all the differences.  Where the poor man can own Boardwalk with a hotel on it in just a few trips around the board.  It is a fun game.  It is a fun game because we hope that it mimics real life.  A few trips through the calendar and maybe I too can own Boardwalk or at least Park Place.  But maybe Monopoly is a little too much like real life.  A game of life that is too focused on money and power.  In real life, it is symptomatic of a crisis.  A crisis that is coming to fruition today.  I just got back from the Dallas area where homes are being bought faster than they can go up.  Hundreds of 800,000 dollar homes and more.  Massive car dealerships.  Even more massive malls. Temples built to excess. Thousands have mortgaged everything to appear or at least live as though they are rich.  This is a crisis to look on the outside what we are not on the inside.  To look popular, rich, important, sophisticated.

          Jesus was familiar with this crisis, as well. As we read through the gospel, we are constantly confronted with instances of Jesus encountering the rich.  A few weeks ago, we talked about the rich man and Lazarus. And in a few weeks, we will talk about the rich man who asks Jesus, “how difficult is it for those with wealth to enter the kingdom of God?” In both cases, their wealth gets in the way of the spiritual life that they should have.  Their fine purple robes and gold chains hide the spiritual poverty that they feel on the inside.  The crisis that the church in America is facing with so many popular, powerful, and rich Christian ministers and organizations getting in trouble with the law provides a vivid modern example of this same situation, this same crisis.  It is literally a crisis of faith. 

          Our passage for the day illustrates this crisis without all the fluff of the riches of modern society.  These ten lepers are healed by Jesus.  The horrible sores and scars that had marred their bodies for so long are now gone.  They have been made clean.  Jesus does this throughout his ministry.  We read about it in other places.  Jesus even cleanses lepers in other places, but this story is different.  One of the lepers who has been healed turns back.  The Samaritan turns back, praises God, and gives thanks to Jesus for what he has done.  Jesus then asks this foreigner to rise and go on his way because his faith has made him well.  I think I’ve read that passage many, many times and never noticed the irony.  All ten were cleansed, but it is the faith of this one that has made him well.  And well in a different way than the others.  The Greek word that is used here means more than just to be made well it means to be saved.  And not just saved him now but continually.  His faith, his faith has changed everything.  The others have been cleansed, but he has been saved.

          The crisis that I pointed to earlier is evident in the reaction of the nine cleansed lepers.  In a small, but very real and very important way for them, they have been made rich.  Their outsides are cleansed and beautiful again, but nothing has changed on the inside.  It is the lowly Samaritan that wishes to be made truly whole on the inside and outside.  By going back, by praising God and giving thanks to Jesus Christ, the Samaritan shows his faith and shows that the changes that happened on the surface, went all the way to his heart and soul.

          Historically, this has been the way we have done church.  The early church would baptize a new member shortly after they started coming to a particular church.  They would have them walk down into these large tiled pools either in the center of the worship space or in a connected room.  They would walk down into their waters of baptism, would rise out of the waters cleansed, reborn into the new life and resurrected life in Christ.  And it was then that they would be taught the secrets of the church where they would go through what we know today as confirmation.  The outside was cleansed and now the inside, the heart, mind, soul, would need to be changed, as well.  They had a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, they knew Jesus was their savior, but the consequences of that action had not taken hold.  This is our crisis today.

          The mass of people clamoring to get into churches on Sunday, particularly at megachurches, is a mile wide, but often the faith of those same church goers is an inch deep.  The way we know is the statistics that track the amount of people who attend churches for a few weeks and then leave shortly after.  One of my first encounters with church is an example of this.  I answered the alter call at a Baptist revival.  I had a religious experience, but there was nothing else there.  So I never attended church.  The other nine former lepers had a similar experience.  Big religious experience, no depth for them.

          How different are we though?  Obviously, something has touched us and made us be here.  All of us at least have some faith to bring us to this church this morning.  But is it that the kind of faith that the nine former lepers had or the cleansed and saved Samaritan?  Have we had the big religious experience and then never grown from there?  Every statistic about the current climate of the Christian church in America says the same thing.  Churches do not need to be bigger, they need to be deeper.  We can do the surface level faith.  We know how to act religious.  How do we change and grow what is on the inside?

          Every Sunday, there is a Sunday School class in the parlor where we strive to learn more about God’s word as a way to get to the heart of God’s will for us and to grow in faith. Throughout the week and month, various groups, particularly women’s group meet.  The youth bible study happens following Sunday worship.  Even the monthly service of Wholeness and Healing.  All these provide opportunity for growing in faith.  They provide moments to work on what is on the inside.

          There are other times though that we might not think of as moments for spiritual growth.  Participating in worship on Sunday morning, singing with joy, being with one another, being filled by the Holy Spirit builds us up.  Moments of service to church and community are other moments.  Next week as we do the church wide clean up, we are offering our thanks to God for the gift of this church, we are being good stewards, and get to work in fellowship with our neighbors and friends.  Speaking of stewardship: as we give to the church through tithes, offerings of time, and even remembering the church in our wills, we are doing exactly what that Samaritan did, giving thanks to God.  Being transformed and showing that transformation on the inside and outside alike.  But with all of these things, what I am most excited about is all the new opportunities for growth that are on the horizon for this church.  New evangelism and mission projects, the Trunk or treat event that the church will host on Halloween night, and so many others that we have not even conceived of yet. 

          Jesus is our healer, but do not settle just for being healed on the outside.  Work to grow in faith and be continually healed on the inside, as well.