Sermon Notes for November 19, 2017
Read Luke 17:11-19, where ten lepers are healed, but only one returns to express his gratitude.There are times when it is easy to say thank you. For instance, when something goes incredibly right in your life. Or when a disaster you thought was headed your way gets averted. And in our story today, ten men get their lives returned to them.
Because finding out they had leprosy ended their lives. It was not just that it was fatal, though it was. Leprosy meant that they were immediately cast out, away from their lives, from their homes, from their friends and family and everyone they loved. Leprosy meant that they were doomed to exile until the disease finally ended them.
To be healed from that, to have their lives given back to them, must have been mind blowing. All of a sudden they could return to the loved ones they thought they had said goodbye to forever. They were given hope again.
In our passage, Jesus does not heal the ten right then and there, but sends them to the priest for examination. It was only the priest's okay that could end their unclean status, that could usher them back into normal associations. I think took a real act of faith for them to turn around and start walking, to assume healing and head into temple as if they were allowed to be there. But it was in this act they were healed, while they were on the way.
All ten were healed; only one turned around. I have to believe that all of those other nine lepers were just as happy for their healing, just as glad to imagine they might be able to go home to their towns and families—perhaps for the first time in years. They were so thrilled, they may have been thanking God the whole way. They did exactly as they were told and presumably also enjoyed healing. They received the blessing promised them.
But for one, that wasn't enough. The one who turned back. The Samaritan was so grateful that he had to find some way to show it. He had to go and thank Jesus in person. He had to make it clear just how grateful he was. Have you ever been so grateful you didn't entirely know how to express it? You were given a gift or shown a kindness that you did nothing to deserve and you just had to respond somehow.
I have felt like that. In 2016 Hurricane Matthew came up the east coast of Florida. At the time I lived in a house that was a block and a half from the ocean on one side and another two blocks from a river on the other. As Matthew hit category 4 status, the area I lived in was ordered to evacuate. The problem is, I didn't really have anywhere to go within reasonable driving distance. I have two dogs, one of whom is over 80 pounds and the other doesn't like people. The few shelters that took in dogs, usually have weight limits that my epileptic husky is well over. But friends of friends of my parents in New Jersey happened to live in Tallahassee and offered to take in me and my dogs for as long as we needed shelter. They welcomed us into their home and gave me their bed, giving me a place to wait and worry and be safe while I did it.
I had never met them before and words cannot express how grateful I am to this family and to the email chain that sent us there. I thanked them profusely, tried to buy them dinner and later sent them a gift. I talked to God just as much that week, saying thank you for having a place to go, for having my loved ones safe, and finally for things not being as bad as they could have been.
I'm sure we all can think of reasons to thank God if we try. Mike Minix tells a story that goes:
There was a father and mother of a young man killed in the military in a little church. One day they came to the pastor and told him they wanted to give a monetary gift as a memory to our son who died in battle. The pastor said, "That's a wonderful gesture on your part." He asked if it was ok to tell the congregation and they said that it was. So the next Sunday he told the congregation of the gift given in memory of the dead son.
On the way home from church, another couple were driving down the highway when the father said to his wife, "Why don't we give a gift because of our son?" And his wife said, "But our son didn't die in any conflict! Our son is still alive!" Her husband replied, "That's exactly my point! That's all the more reason we ought to give in thanks to God."
This Thanksgiving, really think about the gifts and joys in your life. Think about the things you have to be grateful for, especially when it is so easy to gloss over them.
The protestant reformer Martin Luther described faithful worship as this tenth leper moment. Worship isn't obligation; it is the return of a thankful heart to the source of its healing. It is awaking to new possibilities of a healed life lived close to Christ. It is delighting in what we have seen, the healing that, in spite of everything, has given us back our lives. Worship can be our moment to delight with our dear comrades, with the crazy ones, with the communion of saints and with our small children in the messiness of our lives, these beautiful golden days. Worship can be that thanksgiving overflowing.
Father Thomas Merton once said
"To be grateful is to recognize the love of God in everything [God] has given us - and [God] has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of [God's] love, every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense graces from [God]. Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder and to praise of the goodness of God. For the grateful person knows that God is good, not by hearsay but by experience. And that is what makes all the difference."
It is easy to be grateful to God when disaster passes us by. With practice we can learn to continue to be grateful even when things are going well! It is harder in our everyday lives when people cut us off in traffic or when an appliance breaks or we have one of those days when everything seems to go wrong. It seems almost impossible when real tragedy strikes our lives. And yet, we can always, always chose to find some way to be grateful.
There was once a pastor who always responded to the question "How are you?" with "I am grateful." She chose to respond to the world with an attitude of gratefulness regardless of what else was going on. Gratitude is indeed a response to the blessings of life, but it is also a choice to see those blessings, name them, and express our gratitude in word and deed.
Gratitude, like faith and hope and love and commitment, is not an inborn traits that some have and others don't, but rather gratitude is more like a muscle that can be strengthened over time. And as you practice giving thanks and more frequently share your gratitude, you not only grow in gratitude but create an example for others. More than that, you create a climate in which it is easier to be grateful and encourage those around you to see the blessings all around us.
So today, I invite you to try to respond to the question "How are you?" with "I am grateful." Try it for a few weeks. See how it impacts your outlook on life and on God. In fact let's practice right now. If I were to say to you "How are you?" You would say....
Try responding with gratitude for awhile and see what it does for you.
Let us pray: How are we Lord? We are so grateful to you. We are grateful for the big things like survival, support and friends and for the little things like electricity, warm socks and a cup of coffee. Thank you Lord. Thank you. Amen.
