17th Sunday after Trinity 2025
Luke 17. 11-19
The Very Revd Dr Paul Shackerley: Dean of Brecon
What is interesting about today’s story in Luke is that it is an interruption to Jesus’ journey towards his destination, Jerusalem. One thing about the life and ministry of Jesus is all the interruptions to his life. Jesus was preaching when people lowered their paralysed friend through the roof. On his way to heal Jairus’ 12 yr old daughter, the woman with the issue of blood interrupted his walk. Here on his way to Jerusalem, the ten lepers called out to him for healing.
In Christ’s life the interruptions are invitations to a deeper relationship. In all the Gospels we see Jesus in action, and the remarkable effect He had on people. Just a few hours with him, or just a few minutes, is enough to make people realize that Jesus welcomes all kinds of people. He never hints that he’s too important or too busy or too good for anyone, however poor or sick they are. It doesn’t matter who you are. In Jesus we meet an astonishing union of tenderness and toughness. One moment he’s blessing children, the next he’s confronting rulers. It was a surprise to the lepers that He would even come to the borders of Samaria. They meet Jesus in an unexpected way, interrupting his journey and delaying his destination with their shouting.
I recall my days as a Church Army Evangelist working in St Andrew’s Church, Kingsbury, London. I worked with an experienced priest who visited his congregation every day, said his prayers every morning and evening and Mass every day. I was having a conversation with him outside the church one day that I often remember. He taught me a great deal, and with great humour and wisdom. I was so fortunate that we had five years serving together that grounded me in the craft of being a Deacon and Priest in the Church.
I was grumbling about his call the previous day for me to visit George. George was 82 and had been the church treasurer for 30 years and drove a yellow Allegro car. The things we remember. I was getting ready to go to the gym for my daily workout. George had been to his GP that day, who gave him some suppositories for his constipation, and he wasn’t able to administer them. I said, ‘that’s not my job’. Fr Mann said, sternly, ‘well, you were a medic in the Royal Army Medical Corp. You must be used to medical things’. I confessed that I had never administered suppositories to soldiers!
I visited George and did what needed to be done. But that day outside the church, Fr Mann said to me, ‘remember two things Captain Paul. Interruptions are your work. Secondly, ‘you are not fit to administer the chalice at Holy Communion, if can’t hold a toilet brush’. He was talking about acts of service, love and kindness and compassion. Fr Mann always gave his parishioners attention whenever they needed, when they called unannounced – except when he was eating lunch or dinner. You see, there was a deep learning for me, but also a great gift to carry into my vocation as Deacon and Priest. When faced with interruptions to our routine, daily tasks or destinations, they are our call to serve and can be sent by God. Because interruptions to life are the stuff of life that cannot be avoided. And Christ never avoided interruptions.
All these interruptions, all these annoying diversions pulling you away from your intended work (or play), pulling you away from what you think you are meant to be doing or intended to do, are in fact the very stuff of life. And rather than fight them, the only successful way of dealing with them is to accept and embrace them as God’s gifts of possibilities to shape and build relationships. Gifts sent by God. Accept and embrace and maybe even welcome the interruptions, rather than despise or resent them. At the very least, changing one’s response to these interruptions, viewing them as an essential aspect of life rather than a negative, unwanted force getting in the way of life as something inherently bad is potentially a good recipe for a calmer mental state or composure, rather than being irritated by the disturbance and interruption. To live constantly in opposition to what life inevitably will throw our way – the spanners in the works, the bumps in the road – is a prescription for frustration, anxiety, or mental illness.
This isn’t to say that one should not strive to simplify one’s life to keep interruptions at a minimum. There are great benefits to strategizing ways to reduce stress, and if interruptions cause you great stress, then by all means draw up some healthy boundaries in your life to keep interruptions and distractions from becoming overwhelming. There is no way to control everything that comes at us. So rather than fight it to the point where it becomes an unhealthy obsession, why not just accept it as an essential aspect of life? By accepting interruptions in advance, by embracing them, by not fighting them when they rear their ugly heads but instead by dealing with them head-on as (some of) the very stuff of life.
We see this acted out by Jesus in this story by how He embraces interruption as opportunity to bring healing and deepen relationship. We are told Jesus was ‘on His way to Jerusalem’. That was his destination that would see the end of His life of service to heal the world. Then comes the interruption to His journey that delayed reaching the capital city of His death. How often have we waited to get to a destination only for our planning to be interrupted (like this week’s Deans meeting on Wed-Thurs…. the train hits a cow and delays one Welsh Dean getting to the gathering). When we are in a hurry to reach our destinations, whatever they are in the day, we can easily miss/dismiss the signs and wonders that God present us with. There are always possible acts of compassion and kindness, or even healing for those who cross out path and routines with interruptions.
The lepers were not meant to speak with Jesus. There is something intrepidly daring and reckless about the lepers. Because of their illness they are outsiders. They kept their distance. Excluded from their communities they once belonged to. They had to keep their distance. What a risky interruption for Jesus because of the audacity of the lepers. Healing was on the way because Jesus heard him and stopped his journey to his destination. He took the interruption seriously. Jesus saw their physical suffering and the mental anguish of the separation from friends, family, community. And Jesus responded.
In Christ’s life the interruptions were invitations to deeper relationships.
Jesus may interrupt our lives with someone apparent, like someone in need asking for help or a listening ear. Perhaps some interruptions are opportunities for us to be blessed by offering kindness and generosity in our desire to relate to other human beings in some way, small or great, familiar or stranger. Perhaps the frustrating and irritating interruptions we face are invitations by God to pause, rest, reflect and listen. Taking time out for self-care. When we come here to this Cathedral to receive Christ in word and sacrament, we interrupt our daily routines to be with God and in fellowship with other Christians. Here, we scan this holy place to say ‘thank you’ to God as the one leper did who interrupted Christ’s journey and returned to Christ.
As C.S. Lewis wrote: “The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one's 'own,' or 'real' life. The truth is, of course, that what one calls the interruptions are precisely our real lives, the lives God is sending us day by day.”
The Very Reverend Dr Paul Shackerley
Dean of Brecon
