Tag Archives: Lepers

Dedication

March 26, 2025 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

“‘A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord.’”
Leviticus 27:30 (NIV)

Dedication is one of those words that I know its meaning but when you ask me to simply and clearly define it, it sort of escapes me. So, I looked it up this morning. It’s actually a Swiss army knife of a word. The American Heritage Dictionary actually had eight different definitions. For our purposes today, I’d like to focus on just two of them:

Selfless devotion.
The act of setting apart or consecrating to a divine Being, or to a sacred use, often with religious solemnities; solemn appropriation.

Today’s chapter is the final chapter of God’s instruction manual for the newly appointed Hebrew priests and the Hebrew people back in about 1500 B.C. God finishes the manual with a chapter about dedications and tithes. God has already talked about the offerings, sacrifices, and festivals that He wanted His people to weave into the fabric of their lives. He ends with instructions around acts of dedication that go above and beyond what has already been prescribed.

God tells His people that they have a choice to dedicate servants, houses, and land to God. What’s more, God tells them to consider a tithe (10 percent) of everything they have and everything their land produces belongs to Him. God has already told them that everything that they have been and will be blessed with are God’s divine and generous gift (Lev 26:3-5). In reality, all of creation, including all we are, have, and are blessed to acquire are God’s. God asks His people to gratefully embrace this truth and show it by consciously and willfully setting aside ten percent of everything as a tangible “thank you” back to God.

Why?

As I meditated on this question in the quiet this morning, my mind and heart found themselves wandering back to this pesky human problem of sin that began in the Garden of Eden. God gave everything in the Garden to them for their consumption, save one thing. They were given 99.9% of everything the Garden had to offer, but they couldn’t abide surrendering their appetite and desire to have it all.

I appears to me that God is, in effect, asking His people to turn their hearts back to Him in a way that reverses the Eden Problem. He has generously shown up, miraculously delivered them from slavery, and now promises to abide with them and bless them with life, provision, and land. As with Eden, He’s blessing them with everything. What He asks is that they recognize this and reserve just ten percent to offer back as an on-going “Thank you” card.

First, this requires a spirit of “selfless devotion.” It’s so easy to think that my paycheck is mine. It’s my job. It was my hard work that earned it. It’s my money. But, wait a second…

Who blessed me to be born in the wealthiest and most materially blessed nation in the history of the entire world?

Who blessed me to live in a place with a great educational system that taught me everything I know?

Who saw to it I was born into a family who provided for me, cared for me, and taught me everything I needed to succeed in life?

How blessed have I been to enjoy almost sixty-years of health, opportunity, and affluence?

Did I do one thing to make any of these things happen? Did I do anything to deserve the amazing lot in life that I’ve been afforded?

No.

And that’s the point that God is asking me to tangibly and metaphorically remember every day, every month, and every year of my life. Take ten percent and “set it apart” in a willful act that says:

“Everything I have is from you anyway, God. I wouldn’t have any of it if it wasn’t for you. And, it’s all yours anyway. Someday, any day now really, I’m going to die and my body will return to dust and ashes just like you said. Not a single thing I think I own or consider to be mine is going to mean anything at that point. Adam and Eve weren’t content with 99.9% of the Garden. They had to have that last one-tenth of a percent. I don’t want to live like that. I don’t want to be like that. Here’s ten percent, God. I dedicate it to you. I gratefully give it back to you.”

In the quiet this morning I am reminded of the ten lepers whom Jesus healed. One came back to say, “Thank you.” One of ten was grateful. Ten percent made a willful choice to turn around, trek back to Jesus, and offer his thanks. Jesus response?

“Where are the other nine?”

Wendy and I are consciously willful about being generous with the money and things with which we’ve been blessed. We talk about it. We practice it. We weave it into the fabric of our everyday lives. I don’t want to be like Adam and Eve, discontent with God’s gracious and generous blessing and deluded into thinking that anything (let alone everything) I think I own is really mine. I want to be a ten-percent person like the leper who came back to say “thanks.”

The further I get in my spiritual journey, the more I come to understand that the extent of my generosity is a leading indicator of the depth of both my spiritual understanding of the economics of God’s Kingdom, and my gratitude for God’s insane generosity towards me.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!

Chapter-a-Day

Jesus & Customer Research

December 29, 2023 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

“So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”
Luke 17:10 (NIV)

In my daily vocation, I have spent my career in the research and assessment of customer service and satisfaction. It’s been a fascinating journey in many ways. In particular, I love that there are so many spiritual parallels.

For example, our research team often tests different dimensions of customer service to discover their impact on customers’ overall satisfaction. Some dimensions of service are revealed to be penalty variables while other dimensions of service are reward variables.

A penalty variable is something that won’t increase customer satisfaction if it’s demonstrated, but it will definitely diminish customer satisfaction if it’s not. For example, if a customer has a problem and calls Customer Service, the simple act of resolving the problem is typically a penalty variable. It’s very much like when our daughters were young and had household chores they were expected to do, such as cleaning their rooms. If I saw that the room was clean, I didn’t seek them out to embrace them, celebrate the completed task, and shower them with praise. Why? Because it’s a routine household task I simply expected to be accomplished. If, however, they didn’t clean their room I definitely sought them out to complain and threaten them with penalties or punishment if they didn’t meet the expectation.

A reward variable, on the other hand, is a dimension of service that increases satisfaction the more often and more consistently it is demonstrated. Soft skills such as empathy, courtesy, and friendliness are typically reward variables. Let’s go back to the example of our daughters doing their chores. As our daughter is cleaning her room and doing her chores, she steps into my home office to empty the trash. She sees my phone on the desk and stops to write “I Love Dad” on a sticky note and takes a selfie with it for me to find when I open my phone later that day. It’s unexpected. It’s considerate. It makes my day and fills my love tank and she is rewarded with my appreciation for her.

In today’s chapter, both penalty variables and reward variables are pointed out by Jesus.

The chapter begins with Jesus teaching His followers. He speaks of the attitude He expects His followers to have as they dutifully obey His teaching. Jesus uses the metaphor of a household employee who prepares his employer’s meal and waits until after the employer has eaten and things are picked up to take his own dinner break. In short, Jesus expects me to approach my acts of service as penalty variables. I don’t do them for praise or reward. I do them out of gratitude and a servant’s heart.

The chapter continues with Jesus telling ten lepers to go to show themselves to the priests. Because skin diseases were a cause for quarantine, a person healed of the disease had to show themselves to the priest to be declared “clean” so they could return to society. As the lepers are making their way to the priests, they realize that they have all been healed of their disease. Only one of the ten turned and returned to Jesus to thank Him. Jesus was impressed with the gratitude that he alone showed.

In the quiet this morning, I’m reminded of another of Jesus’ core teachings: “Whoever wants to be first must be last and the servant of all.” Along the journey, I’ve learned that this requirement is not only of my deeds but most importantly in the attitude of my heart.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day, Wayfarer Podcast

Losing the Truth of Loss

June 17, 2020 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. You shall not abuse any widow or orphan. If you do abuse them, when they cry out to me, I will surely heed their cry; my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children orphans.
Exodus 22:21-24 (NRSVCE)

I find it fascinating, as I read the laws of Moses in today’s chapter, that the Hebrews were commanded by God to take care of foreigners living among them, and to take care of socially and economically disadvantaged groups within their society. By the time Jesus arrived on the scene some 1500 years later, the Temple in Jerusalem had become a religious racket (which is why Jesus drove the currency exchange vendors out of the Temple). The religious system prescribed through Moses had become an institution that made money for the the chief priests and religious leaders who then leveraged their power and authority to line their own pockets at the expense of their own people, while they prejudicially looked down on anyone who wasn’t one of them. They religiously kept the rules that made them look pious while finding excuses for ignoring those that might require real compassion and generosity.

One of the reasons the early Jesus Movement grew so rapidly was the fact that Jesus’ followers were radically challenging the social structures of the day. There were no church buildings. They met in homes around the supper table and, at that table, everyone was welcome to sit together. Both women and men, Jews and non-Jews, and even slaves were welcomed to sit at the table with their master. Beyond that, the followers of Jesus took care of those who were socially and economically disadvantaged in the society of that day including widows, orphans, and lepers.

When Christianity became the state religion of Rome a few hundred years later, the Jesus Movement became a powerful religious and political institution almost overnight. The good news is that Christians would no longer be persecuted and fed to the lions in the Roman Circus. The way was paved for sincere teachers and theologians to meet together, debate, and establish core doctrines. With the authority of the Roman Empire, there was an opportunity for real change.

Interestingly enough, what followed was ironically similar to the very things Jesus criticized in the religious leaders of His own people. The movement moved from the supper tables in peoples homes to churches and cathedrals, which required a lot of money. Generosity to disadvantaged groups was curtailed as funds were shifted to lining the pockets of the church leaders and their churches and residences. Women were once again diminished as male dominance was established within the institution. Those who threatened the emerging orthodoxy, like the desert fathers and mothers, were branded heretics and either killed or forced to flee. Leadership positions in the church suddenly became positions of socio-economic and political power that were bought, sold, and traded by rich, powerful, and connected families. That’s how we eventually ended up with an eleven-year-old pope (Pope Benedict IX).

In the quiet this morning, I find myself asking a lot of questions. Our local gathering of Jesus’ followers has spent the last year grappling with the mega-trends we’re seeing in our culture and our world. There are fewer and fewer individuals claiming to be Christians. Churches, especially here in rural and small-town America, are closing for lack of members. Christianity is no longer accepted as the prevailing cultural worldview in our culture, and there is open and growing antagonism as the historic sins and failings of church institutions spark anger and resentment in many circles. Meanwhile, around the world, Christians are being persecuted and killed without earning much attention.

As a follower of Jesus, I find myself wondering if all of this is simply going to lead Jesus’ followers back to our roots. The history of the Hebrews and the history of Christianity both reveal to me that when the heart of God’s message to care for strangers, aliens, and disadvantaged groups is lost amidst the desire for social, economic, and political power, then there is a loss of spiritual potency and legitimacy. I can’t help but believe that the loss of cultural prominence is actually the road back to spiritual progress. The way of Jesus has always been about letting go, giving up, and leaving behind. The diminishment of self for the gain of others is not an optional path for those followers of Jesus who want an advanced spiritual placement. It’s foundational to being a follower at all:

“and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
-Jesus

I think that this has been lost. I confess that as I reflect on my own journey it’s clear that I am as guilty as anyone.

My heart and mind return to yesterday’s post. I want to stop being an ally to Jesus’ teachings and become an accomplice in putting them to work in tangible ways.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.