Insights

Rev Gav

What does it mean to fish in the margins?

Luke 17:11-19

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’ When he saw them, he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 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?’ Then he said to him, ‘Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.’

Reflect

Today’s Bible Reading has me so excited that I don’t know where to start! It speaks right to the heart of Fab Church and who we are, whether we are visitors, guests, or members!

If you know me well, you will know I’m a fisherman, or to use the politically correct term, an angler. Fishing is my thing and, without blowing my own trumpet, I’ve gotten pretty good at it — well, good at letting the big ones get away — and as Helen reminds me often, it’s called ‘fishing not catching’. Anyway, there’s a term us anglers use and it’s called ‘fishing in the margins’. It refers to the fact that, often, the big fish are right at the river’s edge, lake bank, or sea rocks because that is where the food is located — in the shallows, on the border between land and deeper water. Fishermen can be seen banging out a lure or bait for miles when the fish are typically right at their feet. The best fishing is in the margins!

Today’s Bible Reading is all about margins, and the word ‘margin’ is where we get the word ‘marginalised’. The marginalised — those who are oppressed because of their race, ability, gender, sexuality, age, and so on — because they are not accepted in the deeper waters of society — are found in the borders or in-between spaces, and this has a profound influence on how we be church, and where our ministry of bringing the gospel and expressing Christ’s love, should and must take place. Therefore, let us now turn to the reading itself.

“On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee.”

Stop right there! Is Luke having a moment? If you are travelling the border between Samaria and Galilee you are not heading towards Jerusalem, therefore, either Luke has failed his Geography class or… he knows exactly what he’s doing. This opening sentence is a sign — no, a massive billboard — designed to catch your attention — one that points to the location being significant, and where is Jesus? He’s in an in-between place; he’s in the margins; and Luke wants you to know that this is very important for the story that follows.

“As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him.”

We read that in this border village, the people who approached him were ‘skin-diseased’ and the significance of this is that, to a Jewish person (and especially a rabbi), they would be ritually unclean and need to be ritually cleansed.

“Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’ When he saw them, he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were made clean.”

The people suffering with the skin disease kept their distance for several reasons — yes they had to be careful not to spread their infection — but the religious purity codes, rendering them ritually or spiritually unclean, meant they were socially and religiously isolated and all that came with this isolation — no intimacy, no emotional support,  no financial support, and so on. They not only lived in a physically liminal space, but an emotional, mental, and spiritual wasteland, and it was people’s obedience to the religious law that kept them at a distance.

Now, if we think about this, it was not their skin disease that rendered them unclean, but the enforcement of societal law and religious purity codes (which in that culture and at that time were one and the same ting) that forced them into the margins.

Jesus instructed the people suffering with leprosy to fulfil the Jewish purity code and present themselves to the priests, and then something remarkable happened. Before they got there, as they travelled, they were completely healed.

“Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan.”

The story gets even more interesting. The one who turned back to Jesus, fell at his feet, and thanked him was a Samaritan and a foreigner, but — and this is the coolest part — he did not obey the religious purity code! He didn’t present himself to the priests — God’s representatives — or did he? To whom did he present himself? Jesus.

This man had been marginalised because of his race, religion, social status, and health, and he had been completely healed and cleansed. Note that, in the narrative, the words for ‘healed’ and ‘cleansed’ are used interchangeably. In other words, it was not just a physical healing that took place but that the man was made whole.

“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?’ Then he said to him, ‘Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.’”

Jesus did not berate the man for not following the purity codes but applauded him for praising God, and to put the final nail in the coffin, Jesus asserted that it was his faith — his acting on his trust in Jesus — that brought him to wholeness. Remember, faith in Jesus Christ is not the same thing as belief in Jesus Christ, but is an actionable loyalty, allegiance, and faithfulness. To have faith means to do something.

The man was saved, and this is a reminder that salvation is not something that happens to us when we die, but salvation is what happens in the here and now when people live out their faith in Jesus Christ. It has practical, real world, physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual consequences. Salvation changes lives in the present.

So, what does this story mean for us?

Jesus was ministering outside the societal and religious borders and the story takes place in the margins. In other words, God’s work is not limited to the formal structures of the Church, and God’s heart is to reach those in the margins — the marginalised — to heal them, cleanse them, and bring them to wholeness in Christ. This is the very reason FAB Church exists.

We are a church without walls and without borders. We have a presence, through each Guest and Member in existing marginalised communities — communities where people have illnesses such as cancer, communities where people are a different gender or sexuality, communities where people dress differently, communities where people have problems with addiction, their mental health, or physical ability, and so on. FAB is a safe place and a vehicle through which Christ can move — where the gospel is proclaimed and we are witnesses to God’s love.

Each of us has a role to play because each of us is ‘in’ the world, therefore, today, think about the borderlands in which you inhabit, the liminal spaces you occupy, the wastelands you are called to wander, and the margins in which you are able to cast a line — and go and be fabulous to everyone.

Amen.

Credits

Photo by Karl-Heinz Müller on Unsplash

Inspiration from Simon Cross on Substack.