Responsible Thanksgiving
November 23, 2008
Luke 17:11-19
11On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, 13they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" 14When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean. 15Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 17Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? 18Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" 19Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well." (Luke 17:11-19 NRSV)
On Thursday, we will all gather somewhere to celebrate what former White House Press Secretary, Tony Snow, once declared to be the most American of holidays: Thanksgiving. It is one of the few days of the years when things actually do come to a grinding stop. The mail isn't delivered. The banks close. Most stores and restaurants are closed. And while the football games will be played as usual, for most of us, things will actually stop for a brief 24 hours before the crazy busyness of the Christmas season begins the next day.
So it seems appropriate at this moment to stop for a bit and consider what it really means to give thanks. And that is why we find ourselves today hearing this somewhat strange story about ten lepers, a miraculous healing, ten who are obedient, and the one who is made whole.
As I'm sure most of you know, in Jesus' day leprosy was probably worse than a death sentence. Because it was believed that illness came from sin, it was assumed you were a sinner or you wouldn't have the disease. Because it was considered contagious, no one would risk touching you and you were forced to leave your home, your job, your family and live with other lepers. And because you were considered ritually unclean, you were unable to enter the temple, unable to go to a priest, unable to do much of anything except stand by the side of the road and yell for mercy.
The only good thing you could say about the disease was that it broke down the barriers between the lepers. It no longer mattered if they had been rich or poor, educated or uneducated, religious or secular, male or female, Jew or Samaritan. As far as the world was concerned, they were all the same-dangerously unclean.
So they stood by the side of the road, far away from the crowds, hollering for mercy and hoping that someone-anyone-would throw a coin or two in their direction.
For the most part, the lepers were somewhat invisible. Most folks avoided looking at them. For one thing, they looked horrible. But for another, can you imagine how uncomfortable you would be passing them by? You know that feeling don't you? How many times have you averted your eyes from some rough looking, dirty guy walking your way obviously wanting a handout? If I just look the other way, he'll think I don't see him. I won't have to hear his pleading and his long sad story. I won't have to decide if I really can part with enough cash for a hamburger or a drink. If I don't make eye contact it will all be okay.
Lots of folks just walked by. Few folks really saw them.
Then Jesus came.
I guess they'd heard of him because they called his name. Perhaps they had heard of his miracle working ways and they were praying he would perform yet another miracle that day. So they called out his name in both hope and desperation. And the wonderful thing is thatnot only did Jesus hear them, he saw them!
These days it seems like everyone likes Jesus. He is much more popular today than he ever was in his own lifetime. In his own lifetime, he so shocked people that many called for his death. But today, everyone seems to like what they hear about Jesus. Granted some aren't too sure about the resurrection and the son of God claim. But everyone-agnostics, Muslims, Jews, Hindus-everyone seems to want to believe that once there was a man who truly saw people and loved what he saw!
Where others would look at someone and see their race, their gender, their handicap, their status, their money, Jesus saw only their hearts. As his mother, Mary, once predicted, when Jesus looked at people it was if the powerful were thrown off their thrones and the lowly were lifted up. Those who others refused to see, Jesus saw clearly and loved.
And that is probably why all ten of them did exactly what he told them to do.
"Go and show yourselves to the priest." So they went.
Talk about stepping out in faith! Those ten lepers with their itchy, scaly skin and their tattered beggers' rags left their place on the side of the road and headed to the priest. Talk about obedience! No priest in his right mind would have seen them! They had leprosy! Yet they went on their way as if Jesus' command made sense-as if they had already been healed. And in doing so, they were healed!
Now this is where the story takes a really unexpected turn. 10 cried mercy. 10 were obedient. 10 were healed. But one-just one-looked at his healed body, turned around, and headed back toward Jesus so he could worship and say thank you.
Okay-so maybe only 9 were obedient! 9 did exactly what Jesus told them and one did not-and he was the one made whole!
The gospels are full of stories like this one. When Jesus heals someone, he generally (if not always) gives them an instruction. First, he usually sends them to see a priest. Seeing the priest was important because only the priest could declare you cured and clean and allow you to be in fellowship with others. It was kind of like needing a doctor's excuse to return to work or school. The person who was ill needed the priest to say to everyone else: "This person is cured. She is no longer unclean. You need not worry, all is well!" And other times, Jesus would give them the additional instruction to not tell anyone what had happened. Scholars call this the "Messianic secret" and spend much time speculating on why. But the thing I have noticed is this-most of the time the folks who are healed are obedient only up to a point. They will do what Jesus asks them as long as it doesn't keep them from sharing the good news with as many folks as they can!
This fellow knows a great thing has happened to him. He's been healed. He can go back to this family, his job, his place of worship! In his mind, what has happened to him is so wonderful, so very wonderful that it can only come from God. And if it can only come for God then that man back there-that Jesus-must be awfully close to God so he turns around, he goes back, he throws himself on the ground and worships Jesus expressing his gratitude for what Jesus has done for him.
People often talk about being twice blessed and they usually use that phrase to describe being blessed more than once: two children, two healings, two wonderful things that happened to them. But someone once defined twice blessed to me in a different way-a way that has stuck with me through the years. He said to be twice blessed is to not only be blessed by God but to also realize that you are blessed! In other words, to be twice blessed is to have an attitude of gratitude.
And Jesus recognizes that attitude in the Samaritan and says, ""Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? 18Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" 19Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."
Ever wonder what happened to the other nine? They aren't bad guys. They received a great blessing that day. And they followed Jesus' instructions to the "t." But unlike the Samaritan leper, they didn't have an attitude of gratitude toward God for what they had been given.
Rather than an attitude of gratitude, some may have had an attitude of entitlement. God owed them a miracle!
I'm reminded of a scene from the Jimmy Stewart movie, Shenandoah. In the movie, Jimmy plays Charlie Anderson, a widowed father at the outbreak of the Civil War. Charlie has a large family to provide for and a large farm to tend. He was a hard working, hard loving man who went to church every Sunday and prayed a blessing over every meal. At the very beginning of the movie, you see Charlie watching as each member of his family finds their way to the dinner table. Then he bows his head and prays dutifully:
"Lord, we cleared this land. We plowed it, sowed it, and harvest it. We cook the harvest. It wouldn't be here and we wouldn't be eating it if we hadn't done it all ourselves. We worked dog-bone hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you Lord just the same for the food we're about to eat, Amen."
Unfortunately, there are a great number of people who dutifully go through the motions because they have been taught that is what they have to do to make God happy. They do so out of obligation or habit and not out of any true sense of gratitude or love. Many of them, like Charlie Anderson, are good, hard working folk but that is part of the problem. They feel God owes them for their obedience. And these are the folks that have the hardest time when life's difficulties comes knocking! Rather than an attitude of gratitude, they have an attitude of entitlement. For them, faith is not about relationship. Rather faith is a reciprocal agreement between them and God whereby they behave so God will bless them and God is supposed to bless them because they have behaved.
Charlie also shows us another obstacle to an attitude to gratitude and that is an attitude of ignorance. Charlie has been so hard at work that he failed to recognize the resources God gave him to do that work in the first place. Where did that land he worked so hard to clear come from in the first place? The creator God! Where did he get that his wonderful body that allowed him to operate the tiller, prepare, and cook the food? The creator God! Who should he thank for his good health? For the rain that watered his crops? For the family whose love he cherishes and who worked alongside him? God, the Father, maker of heaven and earth! And we play into that kind of attitude when we say speak of self-made men and women. We do so to celebrate the hard work by which they seem to single-handedly pull themselves out of poverty and obscurity. But no one is self-made-we are all God made! Those with an attitude of ignorance forget that fact. Those with an attitude of gratitude rejoice in it.
I also suspect that not all of the nine lepers were completely ungracious, but they had what I am going to call an attitude of ungracious procrastination. They had all the right intentions. They truly meant to return and thank Jesus. They were going to get around to it. But they knew they had to see the priest and be declared clean before they could approach him. So they went on toward the priest's house to get his blessing. Then after they got the blessing, they remembered they could now go home and see their family-and surely Jesus would understand the importance of family. So they went home, intending to thank Jesus the next day. But they got home and it was so great to be among the family and then you know there was work to do and before you know it days, weeks, and months had gone by without their taking the time to say thank you to the one who healed them. Oh sure, they thought of him briefly each day and they thought about how they ought to take time to show him how grateful they were-but there was the house, the kids, the boss, the neighbors-and they never got around to it.
When I first went in the ministry, I was surprised how open people were to the gospel, to the church, and to God in times of trouble. I'd go to the hospital and pray with them before a major surgery and they'd be so grateful when all went well that they'd assure me (even without my asking them) that they'd be in church soon because God had been so good to them. Sometimes they'd actually come. But most of the time, they'd never get around to it. I'd see them in the mall or at a play and they'd thank me and tell me how grateful they were to God but they just never got around to coming back.
And perhaps the greatest barrier for most of us to an attitude of gratitude is the one we discussed last week-the attitude of scarcity. We spend way too much time comparing ourselves and our situation to others. And there is always someone with more than us. You don't generally have to look far to find someone with more money, more talent, less struggles, better behaved kids, sweeter in-laws, a more meaningful job. . . . And so instead of an attitude of gratitude which celebrates what we have, we grumble and complain about all the things we don't have!
But the Samaritan leper-excuse me former leper-did not get caught in any of those traps. He knew he had been given something he could never earn or deserve. He recognized the source of that gift as God. And he didn't compare what he had been given with others. He simply turned himself around, praised the one who had blessed him and in doing so Jesus says he-and not the others-was made well.
The word translated "well" is the Greek word sozo which is also translated whole or saved. His faith which naturally expressed itself in gratitude made him whole while the others were merely healed.
Now I know that seems contradictory because we usually equate being healed with being whole. But the truth is that physical health will never make us whole. We were created to be in relationship with God. Without God something is missing, no matter how healthy our bodies may look. Wholeness comes not from the lack of sickness but from relationship with God. As a result, people who are dying may be very whole while a perfect specimen of physical health may be very broken indeed.
The broken, sick leper became the whole and so he responded in gratitude.
Not that gratitude is some sort of work that we do to earn God's favor or our salvation! Gratitude is the natural response to a true encounter with God. When we come face to face with the loving, gracious, creator God, the source of all good things, gratitude should be our natural response. When we see God as clearly as God sees us then how can we help but be grateful-for as one of my favorite psalms declares: "When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?" That is why the Christian mystic, Meister Eckhart, once said that if the only prayer you could ever say in your life is "Thank you" that would suffice. A true experience of the living God naturally expresses itself in an attitude of gratitude.
One of my favorite seminary textbooks was a book on John Wesley's theology called Responsible Grace and the point that the author made over and over was that if we have truly experienced God's amazing grace, we will want to respond to God's grace! We will want to sing God's praises so others will know God's love. We will want to live an ethical and moral life because it glorifies God and draws others to God. We will want to serve others because God loves them. We'll want to surrender all we are and all we have to God's service. And we'll give thanks to God in response to what God has given us!
So this thanksgiving, I would like to invite you to acts of responsible thanksgiving. Take the time each day during the coming week to give thanks to God for all God has given you and think of a different way each day to respond to God's gifts to you. Then share with me, by phone e-mail or commenting on our website or my blog, what you discover as you engage in some responsible thanksgiving!
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