Believing Is Seeing

Luke 17:11-17; 2 Kings 5:1-15

October 13, 2013

There’s a praise song that goes “open the eyes of my heart, Lord.”

If you’re a medical student it’s not much by way of an anatomy lesson – for that you’re better served by “head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes.” But it’s a pretty good faith lesson, and one that calls into question the old adage that “seeing is believing.”

The truth is, often times, that believing is seeing. That is to say, we perceive what our hearts tell us to expect to see. We see what our hearts lead us to see. The condition of my eyes, as it were, depends upon the condition of my heart. I perceive what I am open to perceiving.

These two fascinating healing stories from today’s lectionary pivot on that pattern. Ten broken, wounded, sick people call out to Jesus for help. Jesus gives them simple instructions, which they follow and are healed. They all experienced healing, but only one of them experiences wholeness. As the NRSV translates it, all are made clean and one is made well. The Greek in the text is crucial. The word describing what happened to the ten translates well as “healed” or “cleansed.” The word describing what happened to the one who turned back to give thanks is often translated as “saved,” and it carries with it the idea of being made whole.

It’s what happens when we see with our hearts what God has done for us and give thanks.

It’s remarkable just how difficult that is so often. How many times do we make Rube Goldberg contraptions of our lives or of situations within them? We go five times ‘round the block to get to the next-door-neighbor. We go to absurd lengths to prove ourselves worthy of what has been given to us. Seriously. How many perfectly healthy relationships – parent and child, sibling-to-sibling, spouse-to-spouse – get undermined by one or the other – or both – trying to prove that they deserve the love that has already been given to them with no strings attached?

That’s basically what’s going on with Namaan. He is told how he can be healed and gets angry because it is too simple. He needs to prove himself worthy of being made clean, yet that healing is offered as a gift. Step into the waters, and you will be made clean. You will be healed.

Look with the eyes of a grateful heart, and you will see clearly.

Gratitude is the fundamental attitude of faith. Give thanks with a grateful heart. A heart filled with gratitude is a heart open to the presence of the Holy in God’s world. It would not be wrong to say, simply, that to give thanks is to have faith.

Thomas Merton put it this way: “to be grateful is to recognize the love of God in everything God has given us – and God has given us everything.”

I’d say it ever so slightly differently: in gratitude we recognize the love of God in everything God has given us – and God has given us everything.”

I’m not sure there’s any real difference between the two, and far be it from me to try to improve upon anything that Thomas Merton wrote. But I do want to emphasize the way that a grateful heart opens the eyes of faith.

God has given us everything. That is true whether or not we are grateful. But in our gratitude we recognize the love of God in all that God has given us, and that makes all the difference in our lives.

It was what made the tenth leper whole. It was what opened Namaan’s eyes to perceive the presence of the Holy and worship God.

Open the eyes of my heart, Lord.

*****

Looking at your own life with the open eyes of your heart, for what are you thankful?

As you give thanks, what response of faith is being called forth in your gratitude?

What difference, in your life, does gratitude make?