Luke
17:11-19
11 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through
the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he entered a village, ten lepers
approached him. Keeping their distance, 13 they called out, saying,
"Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" 14 When he saw them, he said to
them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they
were made clean. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned
back, praising God with a loud voice. 16 He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet
and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus asked, "Were not
ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? 18 Was none of them found
to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" 19 Then he said
to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."
Then one of them, when
he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He
prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him.
· It’s a blessed coincidence that this reading
from Luke’s Gospel is done today, on this weekend we put aside for the festival
we call Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving in Canada is based more or less on the time
of the harvest and that is truly a time to be grateful. These readings are not
chosen for the festival; they would have been done on this Sunday, Thanksgiving
Day or not. We should just say God is good.
· There are quite a few things we could speak
about today. Some Sunday readings are tough to preach on, while others – like
today’s – are an “embarrassment of riches”, as it were.
· Jesus is faced by ten lepers who ask for a
healing. He tells them to show themselves to the priests, the officials of the
Temple who would see that they were healed and then could re-admit the men to
the community from which the disease had separated them. One returns to express
his gratitude to Jesus and that man was a Samaritan, a man from outside the
Jewish culture. Yet he is the one who expresses his gratitude in word and
posture. (He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet…)
· This story emphasizes the mission of Jesus and
his disciples to all the world. The Samaritan was outside what was understood
to be God’s people… and so were all of us, but he and we were sought out and
found by Jesus the Messiah. That is something to be grateful for. Not just
today, but every day. In response to the call of Jesus, the Church continues to
offer the Great Thanksgiving when it gathers. The Great Thanksgiving is a
translation of the word for ‘thanksgiving’ in the language of the time, namely
“Eucharist.” We may call it the
Lord’s Supper, but it is the way we give thanks.
· One way to think about it is to say that those
who are aware of and respond to the goodness of God with gratitude understand
how creation works and in that gratitude, show that salvation is present and
working in their lives.
· Gratitude and thanksgiving are part and parcel
of the Christian life. We are led to say ‘thank you’ for whatever we might
have, even the blessings we have received in our lives to this point. If we are
thankful and don’t express it, we are not completing the cycle of gratitude as
it were. To refuse to be thankful or to withhold gratitude could even be a way
to hurt someone.
· In the past, various things have been said about
gratitude and thanksgiving. Many of the Psalms are based on the attitude of
giving thanks. There is even an old saying within the church about the value
and the power of prayers of gratitude. This one come from a teacher and
theologian, named Eckhart von Hochheim who died in 1328. He is known in Church
history as ‘Meister Eckhart’ and this saying is attributed to him: “If
the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "Thank You", that
would suffice.” It appears that prayers that are simple,
meaningful, and sincere mean the most.
· In this holiday dedicated to the attitude of
thanksgiving and gratitude, to simply pray “Thank you” would be the absolute
best place to start... and to end.
Then one of them, when
he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He
prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him.
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