The text for today was selected at a sign back in January. As I began to do the research on modern-day groups of outsiders that came upon the world of gamers that is a growing population in our world. To many people because games are in many of the new games are in cyberspace, the gamers are often unseen, often misunderstood, and for many are strangers and outsiders. And then this week, the C-word blew into our lives through the Internet. Ben and Suzy Thomas.com used the word cancer, grade 3. In a video, Ben reported, treatable, but not curable, and no happy ending. Ben said, everything is not okay. Remember this text from Luke, which tells the story of Jesus in the healing of the ten lepers. Has been with me way before I knew about Suzy and her tumor. Before I was doing the research into games for the introduction and the cultural context. Before we knew, the slides have been created and ready for the service. But in God's hand of providence, the connection between Ben and Suzy is that Ben leads an international ministry to people who are athletes who play games, who use games as an introduction into people's lives for ministry, to reach people for Jesus Christ around the world. In ancient Greece, outsiders would become friends through the competition of the early Greek games. The games near mountain lipists began to promote peace between warring cities. The Olympic Games now, summer and winter, have become what we refer to as an international movement. Ben played football. We all know that football has changed. The leather helmets, the plastic helmets, the high-tech helmets. We know that there's fantasy football that started back into the 60s and has grown into a full-blown internet around the world's phenomenon. Where people select their games, select their leagues, select all kinds of things. Some of it's free, some of it's people playing. But yet there's a culture divide. I remember when a young airman came to me and he said that his father was upset with him because he and him playing video games for three hours on the internet with his computer. His response to me was, my dad can sit there for three hours and watch an NFL game or sit there for three hours and watch a NASCAR race in front of his big screen TV. And all he does is watch, at least I play. We've moved from the computers to the handhelds. We've moved from the field to the stadium, to board into card games, to internet games on handheld devices. When I was at Shepherd Air Force space, we saw the transition between what students wanted to participate in. They stopped wanting to watch movies on our 29-foot high-death projection screen TV that we had for them. And they wanted to play games. Angry birds and words with friends are games that you can just drop into. If you have a few moments, you can play a little bit. You can keep up. Susie are missionary to people who play sports and games on fields and in stadiums. But there's a new generation. There's a new generation of gamers who spend time and effort every week. You realize it on the internet. They spend three billion. That's with it be hours per week. People do around the world playing games. That's how big it is. Young people by the time they're 21 in our cultural situation. 98% of them will have read between red books for between two and 3,000 hours. Yet a young person who is a gamer will have by the time they are 21 have spent over 10,000 hours on their game learning to improve their skills, interacting with others. That 10,000 hours is equal to the amount of time if you have perfect attendance. If someone attends from 5th grade to 12th grade. That's how much time in the classroom. That's how much time they spend that 10,000 hours. How do we reach these neighbors with the gospel? These people who learn something. What do they learn? The people that pay attention that no gamers that live in that culture. Gamers particularly those that use role-playing games are optimistic. They come back again and again. Do you realize because they can track these things that when gamers are out there playing, they fail 80% of the time but they keep coming back? They're optimistic about their game, about their participation. There's a social factor. There's fabric. There is collaborative work that they do. It's a coordinate and connect and do things. You know that if you play a game with someone, whether it's checkers or chest or tennis or golf or an electronic game, that you're going to enjoy that person and think more of them because you spent that time playing that game together. And people enjoy the work. They enjoy it. A lot of it has to do because they feel like they're part of something epic, something larger than themselves. And Dr. Jane McGonagall says they become super empowered, hopeful individuals. There is a whole franchise of chartered schools based upon game learning that their first graduates from high school will graduate in 2015 in a few years. And so they're going to watch them and see how do they do in our traditional colleges. These students that have been trained again and again through game learning with all the academic skills that other people have who put the time in and learn that way. Now, I picked them as outsiders because one of the things I noticed in this text is that Jesus traveled in places where outsiders and the unclean lived. He traveled on the border. He traveled where it would not be uncommon to bump into people that would make other people uncomfortable. And so, as I look at this text and as I think about following Jesus, I want to ask myself, am I willing to follow him into the uncomfortable borders of my life? Where people who are different from me, people that I might consider unclean. Unacceptable. Luke gives us a story about someone who was two times unclean. Not only was he a leopard, but he was a Samaritan. Do you know people that in your lives that you bump into that might be considered a two-time loser? Someone that you think no one can reach, someone who is outside not visible, but yet Luke gives us this story of Jesus' compassion to a desperate man and his friends. On the way to Jerusalem, he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered the village, he was met by ten lepers who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. When he saw them, he said to them, go and show yourselves to the priest. And as they went, they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice and fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now, he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, we're not ten cleansed. Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? And he said to him, rise, go on your way, your faith has made you well. See, we all know those of us who have come to the feet of Jesus that apart from the grace given by Jesus Christ, we are all unclean. Then when we read this story, we need to be drawn to the lepers. The outclass, the unclean because we know that apart from God's grace and God bringing that into our lives. Verse 12, as he was going into a village, ten men with leprosy met him and they stood at a distance. See, they understood the social protocols. They understood that they had to stay out of the way because they had leprosy. They did that because the Bible said, this is a way you control leprosy in your community. They were to be fed, they were to be cared for, but they had to stay away because they did not have the understanding or the ways of making sure the disease was not transmitted to other people. We're going to look at leprosy a little later on. They were the outsiders. Let me read a passage from Paul that Ephesians chapter 2 verses 11 and through 13. He's writing to Christians. Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles and the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made of the flesh by hands. Remember that you were at the same time separated from Christ. Alienated from the commonwealth of Israel's strangers to the covenants of promise. Having no hope and without God in the world but now in Christ Jesus, you who are once far off have been brought near by the blood. Anytime we think of someone as an outsider we have to remember that apart from the grace of God be, apart from his sovereign grace working in our lives, working in our history, working in our story, we would still be there. That we were alienated, that we were outside and it's only, only because we've been brought near by the blood of Christ. There's a young man that I was fascinated with when I was young, still fascinated by him but no longer a young. A man that was referred to in his generation of boredom of Yale, Class of 09, went to Princeton Theological Seminary because he wanted to go to the hardest place in his generation you could go to to be a missionary. And in the turn of the century the hardest place anybody could think to go was at the end of the stand. A place where the gospel was unwelcome, a place where the gospel was illegal. A place with languages that were not written down and bored and went. He was from a rich family. Now boredom of Yale never got to Afghanistan because he died of a disease in Egypt while he was studying languages and Muslim culture. When boredom of Yale died his charity giving equal that of Carnegie. But he wanted to give his life to people he didn't even know had never met. Because he saw it as a grand adventure of going where God wanted his grace to go the hardest place. And so when we look around us and say I don't understand gamers, I don't understand the internet, I don't understand. We cannot give up on what we don't understand because there are people there who need the blood of Christ who are outsiders like we used to be to be drawn in. Ben and Susie had a fundraiser a while back. I picked up because we had choices, I picked up a man from Egypt who was an AIA Egyptian missionary there. And I pray for him and I think about that and I think about all the troubles that have gone on in Egypt and I wonder how is he doing, how is he doing, is he safe? Because he's taking care and reaching out through sports ministry to people as a Christian. Now we need to understand that common grace is given often to desperate people for mercy both in and out of the covenant. That's one of the things about this passage. Why did Jesus respond? They are so desperate. Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. They wanted the mercy of God. They saw him as their only chance. They were desperate. They cry out because they know that they can't approach him. And so an allowed voice in public drawing attention to themselves as lepers. You're supposed to be quiet. You're not supposed to be seen. But what does Jesus do? He responds in his grace in their cry for mercy. I know in my life that that crying out for God's mercy and desperation is not just what you do at the beginning of your walk with God with your salvation, but that cry of desperation for God's mercy is something we come to in that point that we get so low, we get so dark, we get so lost, that we cry out again. Because we need that mercy because we feel what leprosy does to you. Leprosy takes away your ability to feel pain. Dr. Paul Brand in writing with Philippians, he tells of a story in India to illustrate what it means not to have the ability to feel something. There was a shed in the back of the compound that he took a key and tried to turn it and he couldn't turn it and it wouldn't work. And this young boy comes and says, let me do it. Let me do it. I can do it. And so this young boy, who was the leper, took that key and put it in the lock and turned and turned and turned and it worked. But Dr. Brand looked at him and he saw the blood flowing out of his hand because he turned because Dr. Brand had stopped because of the pain. The young man's strength went through because he didn't feel any pain. There are times in our lives when we are beyond feeling pain and we need God's grace. We need him to come into us and renew us and give us the ability to feel pain to understand the blessing of pain.
It's a gift that we wish we didn't have when we hear about Ben and Susie and the baby and we hear about other people that are in such great pain. Can you imagine not being moved, not having the ability to feel the pain, the sympathies with other people? When we look at outsiders, people who are not welcome, people who are off at a distance, we need to welcome them in the gospel. Now, one of the things that can happen with anything in life, anything that is good, is that we can become an addict, we can become addicted. Now in my reading, one of the things I found is that one of the things that the internet industry that creates these role-playing games, creates these games is they don't want addicts. They want, guess what America, lifelong customers. If you're an addict, you're going to be destructive. You're not going to be a lifelong customer because your life isn't going to be very long if you're an addict. You're an addict if you know that it has a disproportionate interruption of the normal relationships in your life, whether it's at work or at home. You can be addicted to golf. You can be addicted to television. You watch it disrupt your family relationships. And yes, you will hear about people who get addicted to video games. Staring in, playing, having to win, having to figure it out. But that's not why they're created and the people recognize that people have that. You know what they're doing in China and in South Korea because a lot of the young men are moving towards addiction is in these role-playing games. If you play longer than three hours, you know what happens to the game? You get half the rewards for twice the effort. They want to say slow down, go outside and play. The we console interrupts children and says time to go outside and play because they don't want addicts. They want lifelong customers. You and I and looking at God's grace and thinking about the times that we become desperate. You need to realize that we come back because he is mercy. He is Jesus, master, have mercy on us. But what's the result? Thanksgiving is in service of the result of being at the feet of Jesus. Look at this turnaround. He's away. He leaves. He realizes that he's clean and he comes back. And he falls at the feet of Jesus no longer separated by distance because he's cleansed. He can come to the feet of Jesus and he's giving thanks, putting himself in the position of service, of being a servant. Down at the feet, bowing down, perhaps holding on. I want you to walk away with a lot of things from this sermon. But one of the things I want you to walk away is the ability to say because God has been merciful to me, I am going to be a thankful person. That is something that is going to describe my day, my life, my attitude. That I will see the cup half full. That I will see the things that God brings into people. Yes, you're going to be realistic, but you're going to give thanks. You're not going to allow what's not there to run your life. The problem is we live in a world because it is consumer based in our culture where we are taught to look for what we don't have. That you need something else, you need this, you need that. You need the economic ability to buy this, to have this home or that. But yet we are because of His mercy and His grace. We are to be the most thankful people at His feet say, I want to serve you. It's not what I can get. It's what you have given me already. I recognize that and that is what colors my world that helps me look at my world. And I want to serve you. I want to bow at your feet because you are the Lord of my life. You see angry people aren't thankful, are they? Because anger is all about me. Bitter people are not thankful because bitterness is about me. Prideful people are not thankful. But if you have truly experienced the mercy of God, if God's mercy has come into your life and changed you and touched you, no matter what happens in your life. No matter what sadness may be a part of your life, you are going to be thankful that you have experienced the mercy of God because it overcomes anything else. It gets you through the sadness. Sometimes when I am preaching and doing sermons, I find something and I write something down and I say, can I say it? Because I didn't read it someplace else. What's the leopard going to have? What do we have? Clean scars. That lepers, those lepers, whatever stage they were at, whatever scar tissue we are, we don't know what that healing meant. Whether there had been wounds or whatever else that might have marked them as a leopard, they would have clean scars. Some of us have clean scars that people can see and some of us have clean scars because of God's mercy that people can't see. We look at each other and we wonder, how is the mercy of God? How is the mercy of God affected their lives? It's affected everyone that we see. And so we live in a world of pain. That is a sign. Now we need to realize that sometimes faith is expressing and giving thanks. Now when Jesus says to this foreigner, this Samaritan rise and go, your faith has made you well. We remember from Mark's sermon last week that in this chapter 17 we've already had faith mentioned twice, haven't we? The disciples say, increase our faith and Jesus talks about the faith of a mustard seed and now in just a short turnaround. Jesus can say to this outsider, this Samaritan rise and go, your faith has made you well and people say, what kind of faith did he have? His faith was expressed through his ability to give thanks to Jesus Christ. Samaritan had enough faith to give thanks. And sometimes in the middle of darkness, in the middle of pain, in the middle of separation and isolation and loneliness and all those things, just the ability to say thank you Jesus begins to get us grounded. Get us back to the feet of Jesus. To be able to say thank you, I may not understand how you're working in my life, how you're changing my life, how you're giving me clean scars. But I can say thank you Jesus. I can use that as an expression of faith. Jesus sends them off. Jesus sends another Samaritan back to these people. You see, saving grace touches all of life. Our bodies, our community relationships, our spiritual relationships. You see, that's kind of the uniqueness of the narrative of using this story about lepers and I think about all the stories that the gospel writers could have used and how they selected the ones for us to learn from, to listen to, to know Jesus better. You see, lepers lived in social isolation. They lived in a lonely community. They couldn't touch their family. And you imagine not being able to touch your family but knowing even if you did touch your family, you would feel nothing in terms of that physical sensation. That if a parent would pick up a child, they would not know when to stop hugging, so their hugging might become a hurt. They would understand that they have no feeling in what that's like to live with. They couldn't go to the temple. They couldn't join with other people in worship. Jesus changed that. Leprecy is almost a thing of the past. We learned that we think that it has passed through airborne journey in moisture from people's lungs that have lepers. So if you stand far enough away, the moisture is not going to get you. If you wear gloves, do things, making sure that their wounds are cleaned. As we look at the leper, we need to realize we need to keep coming back to Jesus. We need to keep coming back and giving thanks and praising God. You know, when you look at this passage and you see the words that are used, that first of all you have that loud cry of desperation, don't you? That loud cry of the chorus of ten. And then at the latter part you have that loud cry of thanks and praise. The two places where God's name is lifted up with a cry out is in desperation and in thanks. Tell that our lives often bounce between desperation and thanks. You know, as I was thinking about the gaming world and about Christianity. Now people play games for rewards. Now, my father ran track. He was the class of O.A. to Cornell. What year? Grandfather, right? Grandfather, right. My grandfather. He always liked to tell a story. He ran against Jim Thorpe and beat him. So he was on an indoor track because my father was short. His legs were short. He could run an indoor track better than Jim Thorpe. But Celeste has a gold medal because back in those days they gave out real gold medals when you won events. They got a reward. What's the reward of Christianity? That's something God settled very early. Genesis chapter 15 when Abraham is coming back from a battle. He says, fear not. I am your shield, your very great reward. God is our reward. We get God. That is our epic story. That is what we are looking at when we think about who we will become as Christians. What Christians learn? Because we come from grace and give thanks. I think we should be the most optimistic people in the world. Realistic but optimistic. That we are connected to each other as a community of thanks and a community of hope, a community of healing, a community that reaches out. That we want to work, not to earn our salvation, but because we have been saved. Imagine Paul writing to slaves, people who are owned by other people and say, look beyond your master to Jesus Christ when you do your work. No matter what your work situation is, you should do it as unto the Lord. No, I am way past 10,000 hours. Wait 21 years old and look back at parts of their lives. But how do we spend our time? Gamers come back again and again for self-improvement. I come back hopefully again and again to be at the feet of Jesus. Is I go back and forth in my life between pitches, times of desperation and times of thanksgiving. Now with Ben and Susie, we don't know what the journey is going to be like. There may be times of great desperation, which will also be times of thanksgiving. There are those of you who may not have shared your story with us because you are feeling desperate. Share it that you might not be alone. So that you might come to that place of thanksgiving at the feet of Jesus. Jesus, I do pray for Ben and Susie for the baby. I pray for all of us that we might come to the feet of Jesus that we might experience your grace, your healing. The Father, we know that all healing is temporary, but your grace is eternal. So Father, if we come with that mixture of desperation and thankfulness today in our worship, we pray that it would be acceptable because we have been drawn near by the blood of Christ. Father, help us not to be poses. It's not to be an avatar but to be something real with each other. Thank you for this story and for what Jesus does. Help us not to overlook the outsiders in our world, in our lives. We pray this Jesus Christ in your most holy name. Amen.