Grace on the Borderlands

Me: Orientation

There have been seasons in my life when it felt like I was stuck in a cycle of doom and gloom...

...when everything seemed to be falling apart...

...and I couldn’t see the way forward.

I remember my undergraduate years...

...eight hours from home and far from my support system...

...the people who cared for me...

...and helped me find my footing...

It was a lonely time...

I still remember my first breakup as a sophomore; it was painful, confusing, and isolating.

I didn’t know how to process my emotions or where to turn for guidance.

Back then, there weren’t LGBTQ role models in religion or culture...

There is no one to look to who could show me what hope and wholeness might look like.

So when the teasing came, the grades slipped, and the stress and isolation piled up.

...it all felt like a season of loss that wouldn’t end.

Looking back… I can see how hard I was trying to hold it together...

...to keep moving, to keep believing...

...but it felt like faith was slipping through my fingers.

We: Identification

I am certainly not alone in feeling these seasons...

We have all had our Job seasons...

...times when it feels like the losses just keep coming and God’s voice is hard to find...

I have prayed prayers that felt like they went nowhere...

...maybe you’ve been there too…

...those prayers for healing that seem unanswered,

...those cries for gun violence to end on the streets,

...those pleas for clarity that meet only silence...

Sometimes I find myself wrestling with the same doubts and fears again and again...

...and maybe that’s familiar for some of you...

...wondering if your faith is strong enough,

...if your identity is enough,

...if God still sees you through the noise.

I think of immigrants in our community who left everything behind, hoping for safety or opportunity...

...only to face systems that don’t always welcome them.

I think of our queer siblings who have carried wounds from churches that should have been places of healing....

I think of those who are lying in hospital beds right now...

...praying for strength...

And I think of those who have lost jobs, relationships, or confidences, wondering what comes next...

It’s in these moments that faith feels both fragile and fierce.

We know what it means to trust God...

But we also know how hard it is to maintain trust when things are unexpected.

Yet, even in those places of exhaustion and uncertainty, God’s grace keeps showing up...

...quietly, faithfully, reminding us that we are not alone.

Let's discover how God shows up in those moments...

God: Illumination (2 Timothy)

When Paul writes to Timothy, he is not speaking from comfort or success...

...he is writing from a prison cell...

He is chained, isolated, and uncertain about what comes next.

But even from that place, he says something remarkable...

“God’s words cannot be imprisoned.”

“God’s words cannot be imprisoned.”

Paul’s body may be bound… but God’s grace is not.

That is the heartbeat of this passage...

The gospel doesn’t stop when life gets hard.

The good news of Christ’s resurrection can’t be silenced by walls, circumstances, or even our moments of doubt.

Paul reminds Timothy and us to “remember Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead.”

We’re being encouraged to hold on to the center...

To hold on to what’s unshakable...

When everything else feels uncertain...

...when faith feels fragile...

...when you’re worn down by struggle and grief...

...to remember…

...to remember that Christ has already conquered death itself.

This is that moment we Wesleyans call justifying grace...

...the grace that meets us right where we are and reminds us that...

...we are loved...

...we are forgiven...

...and made right with God...

...not because we got it all right, but because Christ did.

It’s the grace that takes our faltering faith and says...

...you still belong.

It’s the grace that speaks freedom into our failure...

...and mercy into our mistakes...

It’s that grace that whispers...

... your chains do not define your worth...

...by your past...

...or by your doubts...

...but by the love of a God who refuses to let you go!

Hear this:

“If we are disloyal, he stays faithful because he can’t be anything other than what he is.”

Friends… this is the miracle of justifying grace.

Even when we forget who we are…

God never forgets who God made us to be.

We are held, not by the strength of our belief...

...but by the steadfast character of the One who calls us beloved.

That is the good news Paul knew from his prison cell...

...that grace doesn’t depend on us reaching up to God...

...but on God reaching down to us again and again.

God: Illumination (Luke)

That’s the good news, Paul knew from his prison cell...

...that grace doesn’t depend on us reaching up to God...

...but on God reaching down to us again and again...

That same faithful, reaching grace comes to life in the story we heard from Stephanie.

St. Luke tells us of Jesus traveling along the border between Samaria and Galilee.

That’s important… Jesus is moving along the margins...

You see, Samaria was thought to be foreign, dirty, something to stay away from...

Yet, Jesus breaks through this tension, keeping Samaria and Galilee apart...

...where people who don’t usually belong together, now find themselves walking side by side....

It’s in this borderland that ten people with leprosy call out, “Jesus, Master, show us mercy!”

In the first century, leprosy wasn’t just a skin disease...

...it was a social sentence...

...to be an outcast, cut off from family, community, and worship.

They had to live outside the city walls, keep their distance, and cry “Unclean!” to warn others away...

I imagine our immigrant neighbors might understand that feeling...

...the ache of being far from home...

...the uncertainty of not knowing if you’ll be welcomed or kept at a distance...

Like the lepers, they know what living in the borderlands of belonging means.

But… Jesus, doesn’t turn the lepers away...

Jesus doesn’t turn immigrants away…

Jesus doesn’t cross to the other side of the road...

Jesus doesn’t put up fences or build walls...

Jesus doesn’t flinch...

Jesus doesn’t ask for papers or proof of worth...

Jesus simply sees them… really and truly sees them...

He tells them to do something curious...

“Go, show yourselves to the priests.”

That’s what someone would do after they were healed...

...but Jesus sends them before the healing takes place.

Their obedience… their trust… becomes a pathway to their healing…

As they go in faith—they are cleansed...

But one of them… turns back...

St. Luke makes it clear to the reader not to misidentify the one—only one who comes back is not from the Galilean side of the border...

...but from the Samaritan side...

No small detail… Samaritans and Jews didn’t mingle.

Centuries of history, conflict, and prejudice divided them...

To the Jewish audience, a Samaritan was the last person expected to show gratitude or understand the heart of God...

But here we have a foreigner… an outsider… who returns to fall....

...at the feet of Jesus and give thanks.

“Your faith has made you well,” says Jesus.

“Your faith has made you well...”

It’s not just physical healing but much more...

This is salvation—a restoration of the whole self...

In body and in spirit...

The Samaritan isn’t just cured but made whole...

...a restoration in the image of God...

This, my friends, is where the story of Paul and the story of lepers meet.

The same God who remains faithful in a prison cell...

...is the God who restores the forgotten along the roadside...

Grace cannot be chained, and love cannot be quarantined.

Even at the borders...

...between faith and doubt...

...belonging and exclusion...

...sickness and healing...

God’s mercy crosses over.

You: Application

Friends… this story isn’t just about ten people at the border long ago...

It’s about us… and everyone who has cried out, “Jesus, have mercy on me.”

Because the truth is… we all live somewhere between Samaria and Galilee...

...between belonging and exclusion...

...between gratitude and forgetfulness...

...between the faith that steps forward and the fear that holds us back....

...and yet… Jesus meets us there...

Right where we are...

As Christian followers, we hold that assurance...

That in the messy middle, on the road of our becoming...

Jesus calls us to take a step in faith...

...to trust that healing is already on its way.

Perhaps your “borderland” looks like a hospital room...

...or the uncertainty of a job loss,

...or the ache of rejection,

...the quiet loneliness of waiting for prayers to be answered...

Whatever your road looks like… know that Jesus walks that road and brings healing...

Like those ten lepers, we are invited to keep walking...

...to trust that grace is already at work in us...

...even before we see the results.

But there is something more...

We are invited not only to walk by faith...

But to turn back with gratitude!

To live as people who remember what God has done!

Because gratitude doesn’t just thank God for the miracle...

...it transforms us into people who carry God’s love into the world!

Isn’t this what the Eucharist is all about?

Isn’t this what our gathering in worship is all about?

To remember what God has done, to send us into the world to be a reflection of the light of Christ into the world?

We must embody God’s grace...

...by turning back in gratitude...

...living thankfully...

...and letting our lives testify that Christ

...still heals!

...still restores!

...still makes us whole!

We: Inspiration

Gratitude is more than a feeling...

...it’s a way of living that keeps our hearts open to God and one another.

For me, one of the ways I practice gratitude is simple.

I write thank-you notes.

Something sacred happens when I take the time to name what I am thankful for...

...to put pen to paper and tell someone, “You matter. You made a difference.”

Every note I write lifts my own spirit, because gratitude multiplies joy.

But there are other ways we can live out that gratitude together.

We can embody the love of Christ by helping transport immigrants to job interviews...

...or by sitting down with someone learning English and offering friendship through conversation.

We can visit the sick and truly listen—not to fix, but to understand...

...sharing stories that deepen our compassion and remind us that we belong to each other.

We can volunteer with our food ministries...

...share meals with those who are hungry each Sunday morning...

Pray with those who are grieving, and celebrate those who are healing.

Every act of gratitude becomes an act of grace.

When we live thankfully… our church becomes a testimony...

We show the world that faith is not just belief, it’s love in motion.

That healing still happens when hearts are open...

...and God’s grace still breaks through in ordinary acts of kindness.

So friends, let us be the ones who turn back...

Who will turn back and remember what God has done?

Let us respond with gratitude that moves our hands, hearts, and lives....

Because when we live thankfully, we don’t just say “thank you” to God… we become the thank you.

In the name of our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Amen.