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Repeat Business

The Rev. Joseph Winston

October 14, 2007

Sermon

Grace and peace are gifts for you from God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.1
Every business in the world, whether it be the smallest mom and pop store or
the largest multinational corporation, is built on one undeniable fact. You must
have repeat business to survive. There are many reasons why this basic law exists.
One obvious explanation is the cost of advertising. It is very expensive to attract
new customers and a company can save a significant amount of money if it retains
its existing customers. Another factor in why the same customers need to keep
coming back time and time again is that their loyalty gives the business a fixed
revenue stream. With this well-known income, not only can a company do the
things that it needs to do like pay the bills but it also can go to the bank and use
its past performance to obtain a loan for future growth.
1
Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians
1:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:2, Philemon 1:3

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The importance of having the same person come back and buy something
on their next visit has created an opportunity for those people who like to study
these types of causes and effects. Even though we give these individuals many
different names like market researchers, behavior analysts, or economists their
basic function is the same. They all want to know why you return to a place where
you have already been.
Their work in this field has identified some basic reasons on why consumers
return to the same stores. One of their key findings can be summed up in the
phrase “brand loyalty.” This behavior is seen when a person purchases from the
same company time and time again. In the days of our parents, it might have been
apparent in their devotion to one of the three big automakers. Some families only
purchased Chevy products and referred to Fords as “Found on the road dead.”
Others were just as staunch defenders of Ford. They are the ones who had t-shirts
and bumper stickers which read, “I’d rather push a Ford than ride in a Chevy.”
Wal-Mart might be a better example today. Last week’s news contained an article
about a couple that was married inside a Wal-Mart super center. Chett Eldridge
and Dannalee Hornback had their entire wedding inside a Wal-Mart located in
Western Ohio. These two Wal-Mart employees met during employee orientation.
He proposed to her in the furniture department. The actual service was held in
lawn and garden and the reception was catered by Wal-Mart’s bakery.
The two questions of Jesus found in today’s Gospel lesson, “Were not ten made
clean? But the other nine, where are they?” are questions about repeat business.
Why do some people come back while others do not?

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In order to answer this question of repeat business, we need to carefully hear
what Jesus told us today.
On His way to the cross, Jesus enters a part of the world that even to this day
disagrees with the way that the Jews read the Old Testament and worship God
(Luke 17:11). This location tells us that it is very unlikely that anyone would want
to hear Jesus much less come back to Him. Someplace, in inside this territory Je-
sus starts to enter an unnamed town.2 However, before He goes into the village ten
men approach Him (Luke 17:12). Normally, this would not be all that interesting.
This time it is because this group coming toward Him is some strange combina-
tion of Jews and Samaritans joined together in their common illness. Rather than
keeping their distance and warning Jesus to stay away as required by the law that
these men share, these infected people keep coming near to Jesus and they yell
out to Him, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” (Luke 17:13)3 Jesus looks us and
tells all of them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests” (Luke 17:14). This com-
mand from Jesus sends the men on their separate ways. The Jews head off toward
the temple in Jerusalem and the Samaritans set their faces to their holy moun-
tain Gerizim where they worship God. Sometime later, they all notice something
miraculous. They have been completely healed. One of the group sees this change
and he yells out to God, “Thank you!” (Luke 17:16) In direct defiance to Christ’s
2
The exact location is unknown and the different manuscripts have different readings.
Luke Timothy Johnson; S.J. Daniel J. Harrington, editor, The Gospel of Luke, Volume 3, Sacra
Pagina, (The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1991), p. 260
3
The requirement for the men to stay away from others is found in Numbers 5:2-3 and the
command that they warn others is in Leviticus 13:45-46. This is the only time in Luke/Acts that a
non-disciple uses the title of teacher (ἐπιστάτης) translated by the NRSV as master. Ibid.

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command to see the priest, the formerly sick man turns around and heads back
to the outskirts of the city. There before Jesus, he falls on his face and he tells
Jesus how much this healing means to him (Luke 17:17). Now the narrator tells
us something that he neglected to tell us earlier. The man who came back is not a
Jew. Rather the one who has fallen down and is worshiping Jesus is a Samaritan.
This brings us back to the two questions raised by Jesus. “Where not ten made
clean? But the other nine, where are they?” (Luke 17:18) Before the man has a
chance to answer, Jesus asks a third question, “Did none of the others return and
thank God but this stranger?” (Luke 17:19) Rather than waiting for an answer, Je-
sus gives the foreigner a command. “Get up,” He tells the Samaritan. And despite
what the NRSV tells us, Jesus really informs the man, “Your faith has saved you”
(Luke 17:19).
The use of three questions one right after another in today’s Gospel lesson tells
us that these are rhetorical questions. Jesus is not asking these questions because
He expects an answer from the Samaritan. The queries from Christ are there to
remind Christ’s followers of all ages something that Jesus has told us earlier in the
Gospel according to St. Luke.
A few chapters earlier, Jesus sent seventy of His followers into the world.
Some of these men went to Jewish settlements and others went elsewhere. After
their mission, they came back to Jesus with the message that Christ’s Word had
conquered the evils found in the town. Jesus informed the disciples that even more
authority would be given to them. However, this power from God was not a cause
for celebration. Instead, Christ’s followers should rejoice because they had been

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given the gift of salvation. What comes next in the text is very important since it
is the reason why Jesus is asking these three questions of us. In Luke 10:21, Jesus
prays to God and thanks Him for hiding the Word from the wise and revealing the
message to the ignorant.
This prayer to the Father means one thing. No one has discovered the message
of Jesus on their own: not the disciples who worked with Jesus, not the Samaritan
who was healed in today’s Gospel lesson, not you nor I. None of us have found
God. The exact opposite is true. God has come to each of us and given us some-
thing very special: faith. This trust, this feeling if you will, is all that we have to go
on in our walk with Christ and if we were more precise in our language, we would
say that our faith is a gift from the Holy Spirit that the Spirit keeps and maintains.
The answer why some people come back and give God thanks while others
do not then is this. Only God knows because God gives faith to some while with-
holding it from others.
One of the most shocking problems with Christianity today in the United
States is that we forget this basic fact that it is not our marketing expertise that
brings people to Christ. While this has always been a problem that has plagued
Christianity, this false teaching is especially true in our day and age. We have
Christian Churches in this country that are using ultra violent computer games
like Halo 3 as a way to lure young people into the Church. The New York Times
last Sunday had an article about the use of this program where players work ei-
ther by themselves or in groups to virtually kill others. This program has been so
successful for the churches that they have needed to rent extra hardware and one

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youth director stated for the newspaper that this is “the most effective thing that
we’ve done.”4 The increase of youth at these churches has caused the Focus on the
Family, one of the most conservative Christian groups that routinely condemns all
abortions, all use of stem cells, and anything but the most heroic intervention dur-
ing a person’s death, to say nothing negative about a game that allows you to
graphically blow up people.5
The first issue with this way of marketing Christianity is that violence prac-
ticed in the name of virtual “fun” is completely opposite to Christ’s message of
actually taking care of the others. Jesus has graphically warned us of the con-
sequences of causing people to stumble. Christ’s church should not be actively
hurting His Word by promoting ways to kill people on the computer. Next, Focus
on the Family cannot have it both ways. Either they are pro-life in every instance
are the are not. To even imply that Halo 3 promotes a style of living that is respect-
ful of all life is completely out of character with the rest of their work. Finally and
most importablely is the fact that we are not the ones who are selling Christ to the
youth of this country. This is the work of the Holy Spirit.
The last verse from our Gospel lesson in the NRSV reads, “Then he said to
him, Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” There are two
problems with this translation. First, all ten men had faith and we can see this in
their actions. They called out to Jesus for healing and they all followed Christ’s
4
Matt Richtel, Thou Shalt Not Kill, Except in a Popular Video Game at Church,
(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/us/07halo.html?_r=3&oref=
slogin&adxnnlx=1191848471-SSGyv2oVGRtZlRSjuwVEcg&pagewanted=
print, October 2007).
5
Ibid.

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command to present themselves to the priests. The result of their faith was that
they were healed. Thus, this English version cannot be correct because everyone
was given the gift of being made well. The second difficulty with the NRSV is
that the Greek tells us something else. A better translation would be, “Then He
said to him, Get up and go on your way; you faith has saved you.” The reason to
prefer this version is that the verb normally translated as salvation in English is
used in this sentence. Armed with this knowledge, we can see that the other nine
men had faith in a god that could cure what ailed them. Today we would say that
they trusted their doctor or that the medicine would heal them. The one outsider,
the Samaritan, had faith in something else. He trusted in a God that not only heals
the sickness that manifests itself as a physical disease but he also believed in a
God that removes the pain that we feel deep in our hearts. This is the faith that
you and I hold dear. We have been given by God healing in every part of our lives.
In the business world, it is very important to know who comes back to your
store because this information is worth money in your pocket. The Church also
needs repeat business to survive. The people who keep coming back week after
week pay the bills, sweep the carpet, and keep the building clean. The difference
between the two groups is very important to remember. Corporations by their own
power can attract and repulse their customers. Churches an only cause people to
leave Christianity because it is the work of the Holy Spirit to bring people to faith.
Then what are we to do about those who have left the Church because of our
problems or what plan of action should we take for the people who have been
given God’s gifts of healing but have never returned to thank Him? We can do no

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more than what Jesus did. Keep asking God the same questions that Jesus asked
Him. Where are the ninety percent that are not here today?
“The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus.”6

References

Johnson, Luke Timothy; Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., editor, The Gospel of Luke,
Volume 3, Sacra Pagina, (The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN: The
Liturgical Press, 1991).

Richtel, Matt, Thou Shalt Not Kill, Except in a Popular Video


Game at Church, (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/
07/us/07halo.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=
1191848471-SSGyv2oVGRtZlRSjuwVEcg&pagewanted=
print, October 2007).

6
Philippians 4:7.

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