Square Pegs. Round Holes.

Sermon Notes Sunday 12th October

Luke 17:11-19 by Desiree Snyman

Square Pegs. Round Holes.

To the Crazy Ones

(Inspired by Steve Jobs, Think. Different.)

Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes, the ones who see things differently.

They are not fond of rules and have no respect for the status quo.
You can praise them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them,
but you cannot ignore them, because they change things.

…Maybe they must be crazy.
How else can you look at an empty canvas and see a work of art,
sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been sung,
or look at a scarred world and glimpse the kingdom of God?

While some see them as the crazy ones, we see the visionaries of grace.
Because the people who are bold enough to believe that love can change the world are the ones who do.

Who Were the Samaritans?

The Samaritans were a small community who claimed descent from the ancient Israelites of the Northern Kingdom. After the Assyrian conquest in 722 BCE, the Assyrians exiled the upper classes and brought in other nations to resettle the land. These new peoples intermarried with the remaining Israelites.

When the Judeans later returned from exile to rebuild the Temple, the Samaritans offered to help but were rejected because of their mixed heritage and differing worship. From that time, hostility grew between the two groups.

By Jesus’ day, Samaritans were seen as outsiders. Yet in Luke’s Gospel, they often appear as models of compassion and faith, showing that divine mercy reaches beyond boundaries of religion and culture.

 

More Than Thankfulness

At first glance, the story of ten lepers seems like a lesson in gratitude. Yet Luke always invites us to see differently. Jesus travels through the borderland between Samaria and Galilee, a space of transformation. The ten lepers, doubly excluded by illness and impurity, cry out from a distance, calling him Master (epistata), a word Luke uses for disciples. Jesus tells them to show themselves to the priests, and as they go, they are cleansed (katharizo). One of them sees he is healed, turns back, glorifies God, and gives thanks (eucharistōn).

Turning Back with the Samaritan

I have every confidence that all ten were grateful. If I step into the story, I find myself running with the nine to the temple, doing what I am told. They do what Jesus asks of them. It would not occur to me to do otherwise. The nine do nothing wrong; they follow the rules.

The Samaritan turns back and thanks Jesus. His worship recalls other moments in Luke where those who see God’s mercy glorify God: the shepherds at the manger, the widow at Nain, the bent woman healed, and the centurion at the cross. Jesus calls him a foreigner (allogenēs), the same word engraved on the Temple’s balustrade warning outsiders not to cross. The irony is striking: the one forbidden to enter the holy place now kneels before the true Holy of Holies. The excluded one alone sees that the glory of God has moved from stone temple to living mercy.

Seeing Differently

Something about the Samaritan enables him to see differently. The others were grateful and obedient, yet he follows a deeper call of the heart. What made him turn back? Why did he see what the others did not? His difference is his gift. It is the courage to see life differently, to step aside from the crowd, to trust an inner freedom that leads him toward love. This is where revelation happens. It is what allows him to kneel in wonder and hear Jesus say, your faith has made you well. Barbara Brown Taylor reflects, “I know how to obey. I read my Bible, say my prayers, pay my pledge, and keep the ship of the church afloat. But I do not know how to be in love. I am one of the nine, but I am intrigued by the tenth leper, whose passion is confounding.”

Turning gratitude into communion.

For the first time in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus says to a man, “Your faith has saved you”. He has said it before to two women, one who anointed his feet, and one healed of a hemorrhage. Later Jesus will say to a blind man who cries out, Son of David, have mercy on me, “Your faith has saved you”. Luke delights in these pairings, showing a Gospel that welcomes all.

The Samaritan’s faith is not mere belief but seeing differently, turning gratitude into communion. He does not just obey; he returns. He glorifies God where God is now found.

Where Is the Tenth?

Perhaps it is no surprise that the Samaritan fell behind. Even healed, he remains an outsider. And I wonder how many of our own temples still make others feel the same. How often do we forget those paused at the doorway, unsure of our language, customs, or songs? Church can be a hard place for those whose wounds still show. I am grateful for the Samaritans, those whose faith may yet heal me.
Their faith saves me too.

Barbara Brown Taylor writes,

“Where are the nine? Jesus asks… but where is the tenth? The one who followed his heart instead of his instructions, whose thanksgiving rose up from somewhere deep inside that it turned him around, changed his direction, led him to Jesus, made him well? Where is the one who loved God so much that obedience was beside the point?”

In the Company of Samaritans

In the company of Samaritans, we find a gratitude that heals, a gratitude that sees the Holy where the rules say it cannot be.

Blessed are the ones who see differently,
the square pegs in the round holes,
the ones who dare to believe that love can change the world,
because they are the ones who do.

Who are those that help us see differently today?
The ones whose minds and perceptions move to a different rhythm.
The neurodiverse, the dreamers, the artists, the questioners,
those who notice what others overlook,
who find beauty where others see disorder,
and who remind us that there are many ways to be whole.

They are our Samaritans.
Through their difference, we glimpse the wideness of God’s mercy
and the unexpected shape of grace.

Taylor, Barbara Brown. 1993.  The Preaching Life. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Cowley Publications.