Thanks to the comment on http://www.wellsprings.org.uk/weekly_wellsprings/year_c/sunday_28.htm about the Samaritan leper who was healed by Jesus (Luke 17:11-19).
But one cannot simply go to the priests to be allowed back - he is a Samaritan and would only meet with contempt from any Jewish priest. Unable to take the route laid before the others, he returns to the One who healed him and praises God for the great thing that has been done for him.
Here is an intuitive response to Jesus' ministry. When our circumstances are such as preclude us from attending at church, what then? Jesus is still available - even if not within the religious culture. The same outcome that is assumed for the 9 lepers - that they would re-enter by the blessing of the priests the community they were barred from - is available to this one. Jesus has made him whole, and he longs for recognition; Jesus has restored his dignity, and he can celebrate life. But not in a religious form that is foreign to him - rather in a development of personal relationship with the One who has set him free.
The present-day church, then, has to learn once more that its structures are not able to relate to all who desire nurture for and celebration of their the relationship people have with Jesus. It may do so in 9 cases out of 10. But not always. Even since Jesus' time, there has been one who does not fit the mould. And for that one, Jesus was available.
Now, however, comes the interesting questions: Who stands in the place of Christ in today's world? It has been declared that the church (in which the Word of God is truly proclaimed and the sacraments rightly administered) was the presence of Christ in the world. But while it retains its exclusive culture (as the Jewish priests did), how can it fulfil Jesus' ministry to the ones who are excluded?
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