28th Sunday in Ordinary Time ©

INTRO:
There was once an incredibly wise and compassionate rabbi who served a congregation in a small European village.

The villagers loved the rabbi and often came to him to pour out their hearts with their woes.

Why is God making my life so difficult?
Why must I suffer more than others?
Why can’t my life be as profitable as his or as comfortable as hers?

The rabbi heard it all repeatedly.

Then the rabbi produced a plan.

He announced to the congregation, “Place your troubles in a bag with your name on it,” the rabbi said. “On Friday, just before the start of Sabbath, we will hang the bags on the great tree in the center of the village. Everyone will be allowed to exchange troubles and go home with those of your neighbor rather than your own.”

On Friday, just before sundown, the villagers gathered beneath the tree with bags in hand. They tied their bags to the branches, and the rabbi offered a blessing.

Then the rabbi directed: “Now, if you will all move about inspecting the bags, you may choose someone else’s troubles to take home, thus freeing yourselves from your own.”

The villagers rushed to the tree and began peering into the bags of those they thought had happier lives than they did. But before long the villagers grew quiet, moved by what they read of the plight of their neighbors’ struggles and disappointments – and feeling foolish. And wiser. Each family then sought out their own bag and walked home to celebrate Sabbath.

The rabbi smiled. It was just as he had hoped.

CONCLUSION

There is this tendency in life to COMPLAIN about what we have or do not have versus what JESUS commends in the one person with leprosy; to be grateful!

This story is NOT ABOUT leprosy, but the attitude of GRATITUDE.

That one PERSON WITH LEPROSY is you and I, and it is that grateful attitude that CHRIST wanted in the early church and wants in us today.

For everything that we have in life is something for which we are to be grateful. Think about it and be grateful!