Thankfulness as a path of Faith

October 14, 2007 October 13, 2013 – retooled and repreached Thankfulness as a path of faith 2 Timothy 2:8-15 Luke 17:8-19 Year C Makeover’s have become really popular these days – their lives. Extreme makeover is not just a show about houses that have rebuilt – but about people who have been rebuilt. We hear the stories of their past- we hear their dreams for being fixed – we watch their progress as they go through countless surgeries or other things will totally erase their past. We celebrate with them as their share with the community the new them – after they have lost weight, or whatever they needed to do. There are a lot of shows that use this as a concept – but I would imagine that an even more exciting show – would be extreme makeover follow up – what happens to these people after the show- how do they deal with the changes after all of the excitement is over with. Do they become the person they were before the makeover? Or do their lives really change. And are they really emotionally prepared for these changes. Afterall, the changes that are made are always cosmetic changes – things are fixed on the outside – but who these people are on the inside is never addressed. What inner habits may have created the outer reality is never addressed. What scars have been permantly formed from being the person they are, is never even talked about. But I think that for ages, we have all bought into the concept of living happily ever after – but we don’t want to hear the real story of what that means. Imagine being a young man, in the prime of your life, just married the woman of your dreams, and one day she notices some white spots on your neck – and your life as you know it is over – because she has to report to the community and the priest that you have leprosy – and have to immediately move away from the community. Or imagine that your first child has been born two months ago – a son to carry on your name – and you too are diagnosed with leprosy- Or after a long period of trying to find your life work – you realize that you want to go into farming with your father – and as you celebrate your new found life – you lose it to leprosy. The laws in the book of Levitcus are very clear – if anyone notices a swelling in his skin or a scab or boil or pimple with transparent skin they are to be brought to the priest for examination. If the spot turns white – or if it looks more than skin deep, then the priest must declare him a leper. It could happen to anyone at any time in life. If they were a leper- the most important thing was protecting the rest of the community from they – so they were to live outside the gates of the city. They were to keep their distance from everyone and to declare to all that they were one of the untouchables. Life as they knew it was over – no family, no job, no meaning in life. Just gathering together with other lepers – totally dependent on the goodness of others to live. I could imagine that anyone in this condition would think of themselves as likely candidates for an extreme makeover. Even back in that day – they had heard of an extreme makeover – they listened to that man Jesus as he talked about makeovers. They listened to his sermons as he talked about being restored to community. How even though the whole world treated them as outsiders, that there was a God who loved them and would treat them like anyone else. No one really knows why Jesus would have been in this no man’s land on his way to Jerusalem. He was somewhere between Galilee and Samaria. Galilee was the home of the Jews, the people he was trying to reach with his message. Samaria was the home of their cousins – those who were no longer considered Jews. Yet Jesus noticed that these were the people most likely to listen to his message and to apply it to their lives. So as he was traveling to Jerusalem, this was the perfect place to stop and to preach. As he passes by the lepers – they cry out – Lord have mercy on us. To ask for mercy is to ask for what it due to you – what you deserve but for some reason it has been denied you- They wanted their lives back – they wanted the right to return back to their lives, their wives, their children, their jobs, their community – all the things that made life worth living. They had heard enough to know that Jesus had the power to give them just what they asked for. With no special potions, no special words – Jesus tells them that they will be healed. All they need to do is to show themselves to the priest, so that they can be restored into community. They don’t even question Jesus – they immediately go back to their lives. Only 1 returns to thank Jesus for what he has done. Jesus gives him an additional blessing and tells him that his faith has made him whole. The others are healed on the outside – and yet Jesus knows that this one has been made whole on the inside too. Jesus was in between Galilee and Samaria – his audience was mixed – we really have no idea how many of the lepers were Jewish and how many were Samarian. We never hear what happens in their lives after they return. What we do know that the one who thought to return to thank Jesus was a Samarian. Maybe he did not have a priest to return to. Maybe he did not have a family or life to return to. Maybe his mom had always taught him to say thank you – we don’t know what it was that made this one leper out of ten return to Jesus. What we do know is that this one was different – when all ten asked for mercy – nine were looking for cosmetic changes. Leprosy back then was understood as any type of skin condition. One was looking for changes in mind, body and spirit. Nine lepers were looking to get on with their lives – one wanted to live. Nine were looking for the acceptance of society – one was looking for the acceptance of God. One was looking for their past to be restored – one was looking toward the future. Nine were looking for changes – one was looking to be transformed. He was changed from the inside out. He was not the same person that he had been. He knew that from this moment on, once he had been touched by Jesus – things would never be the same. His life would be so much more than those dreams of the life that had been taken away from him. God had shown him a love that he could never imagine in a million years. When you look at your life, which one are you – one of the nine or the one who stood out? Bear in mind that in those days- to say thank you was the last thing that you said to someone when the knew the relationship was over. If you knew you would never see the person again – you said thank you. The nine others had their lives restored – they were a part of the community again – they probably were not quite ready to saw good bye to Jesus Nine Reasons They Did Not Return Why did only one man cleansed from leprosy return to thank Jesus? Someone has made a list of nine suggested reasons why the nine did not return: One waited to see if the cure was real. One waited to see if it would last. One said he would see Jesus later. One decided that he had never had leprosy in the first place. One said he would have gotten well anyway. One gave the glory to the priests. One said, "O, well, Jesus didn't really do anything." One said, "Any rabbi could have done it." One said, "I was already much improved." That's not surprising, is it? I doubt that more than ten percent of us are ever truly grateful to God. In fact, it often seems that the more we have, the less gratitude we feel. King Duncan, Collected Sermons,www.Sermons.com – whereas the one – realized that no matter how hard he tried – things would never be the same for him- he could never go back to the man he used to be. That gesture of thanks seemed to really make a difference to Jesus. But this is not a sermon on gratitude – but on faith. 4 men were standing on the el platform, when one fell in the path of an oncoming train. The other three immediately went into action and grabbed the man and put him back on the platform. The three became instant celebrities. They were interviews by all of the news shows, they received a letter from the mayor, people on the street would walk up to them and say thank you for what they had done. One day they were interviewed by a talk show host who asked if they had ever heard from the man rescued. As a matter of fact they hadn’t. the man never even bothered to say thank you. I am sure he was thankful, he was grateful, he was glad to have his life. But he never bothered to say thank you. But this is not a sermon about being thankful, it is a sermon about being faithful. It is our faith that makes us well. Now Thank We All Our God You can even be thankful during the most difficult of circumstances in life. It's true! We see an especially inspiring example of a brave and thankful heart in the story behind one of the church's most popular hymns, "Now Thank We All Our God." This particularly hymn was written during the Thirty Years War in Germany, in the early 1600s. Its author was Martin Rinkart, a Lutheran pastor in the town of Eilenburg in Saxony. Now, Eilenburg was a walled city, so it became a haven for refugees seeking safety from the fighting. But soon, the city became too crowded and food was in short supply. Then, a famine hit and a terrible plague and Eilenburg became a giant morgue. In one year alone, Pastor Rinkart conducted funerals for 4,500 people, including his own wife. The war dragged on; the suffering continued. Yet through it all, he never lost courage or faith and even during the darkest days of Eilenburg's agony, he was able to write this hymn: Now thank we all our God, with hearts and hands and voices, Who wondrous things hath done, In whom the world rejoices ...[So] keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed, and free us from all ills, in this world and the next. Even when he was waist deep in destruction, Pastor Rinkart was able to lift his sights to a higher plane. He kept his mind on God's love when the world was filled with hate. He kept his mind on God's promises of heaven when the earth was a living hell. Can we not do the same - we whose lives are almost trouble-free, compared with the man who wrote that hymn? Whom can you say "thank you" to? Erskine White, Together in Christ, CSS Publishing Company I am sure that we can all identify with these stories. Some probably were healed – some did go on with their lives – some were genuinely grateful for being saved on that night, some probably even remembered that courageous seminary student who saved them. They just never got the chance to say thank you in person to him. Having no idea of what difference it would have made in the life story of the one who gave his legs, his hopes, his calling to save them. We are all grateful for the saviors that God has sent into our lives – who have given us life in so many ways. We really are grateful in our hearts – even though we don’t think to say it with our lips. Today is a perfect day to write a note, to make a phone call, to take someone out to lunch – to say thank you for all of the in our life. But this is not a sermon about being thankful – this is a story about being faithful. This is not a sermon about the nine lepers who went on with their lives – it is a sermon about that one who had been transformed and given new life by Jesus Christ. Jesus told the Samaritan- that his faith had made him well – not his thank you. It is our faith that makes us well- not our thank you’s. The more faith is focused on Christ – the easier it is for us to remember to say thank you for each and every gift that we have been given. Faith is about what we do with our whole lives, not just how concerned we are about our present condition. Someone pointed out that in Matthew – Jesus says that we should be made perfect. By perfect who means whole and complete. We are thankful when one thing in our lives has gotten better, when we get what we ask for or what we need. Being faithful means that we are healed and complete in mind, body and soul. We are grateful for everything, not just the things in our lives that we have. We give all of who we are to Christ, not just our thanks. This is not a sermon about being thankful, but about being faithful, being whole, thanking God with all that we are. Greg Anderson, in Living Life on Purpose, tells a story about a man whose wife had left him. He was completely depressed. He had lost faith in himself, in other people, in God--he found no joy in living. One rainy morning this man went to a small neighborhood restaurant for breakfast. Although several people were at the diner, no one was speaking to anyone else. Our miserable friend hunched over the counter, stirring his coffee with a spoon. In one of the small booths along the window was a young mother with a little girl. They had just been served their food when the little girl broke the sad silence by almost shouting, "Momma, why don't we say our prayers here?" The waitress who had just served their breakfast turned around and said, "Sure, honey, we pray here. Will you say the prayer for us?" And she turned and looked at the rest of the people in the restaurant and said, "Bow your heads." Surprisingly, one by one, the heads went down. The little girl then bowed her head, folded her hands, and said, "God is great, God is good, and we thank him for our food. Amen." That prayer changed the entire atmosphere. People began to talk with one another. The waitress said, "We should do that every morning." "All of a sudden," said our friend, "my whole frame of mind started to improve. From that little girl's example, I started to thank God for all that I did have and stop majoring in all that I didn't have. I started to be grateful." We all understand and appreciate the importance of gratitude. How it can radically change relationships. In fact, one of the first things we were taught and that we teach our children is to express their gratitude. Someone gives them some candy and we say: “Now what do you say?” And the child learns from an early age the answer “Thank you.” And certainly we all know as adults that we appreciate being thanked. Yet, when it comes to giving thanks to our heavenly father, we so often miss the mark. And when it comes to giving our thanks to God, I don’t suppose there is any story in the Bible that is so endearing to us, so timelessly appropriate, as the story of Jesus healing the ten lepers. We have all heard the story many times, but like so many Bible stories, we never tire of it… Christ is always faithful, Christ always hears our cries of mercy. Christ always gives us love and life, but it is our response to Christ that gives us transformation and new life. It is our desire to say thank you that indeed makes the world a wonderful place to live for all people. What do you have to be thankful for today? How will you choose to live a thankful life today? Ten Broken Pencils by WESLEY T. RUNK Passage: Luke 17:11-19 • Lectionary: Proper 23 Item 3 of 20 | Back to Results Then said Jesus, "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Objects: Ten pencils with broken points and one pencil sharpener. Lesson: Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you like to write with pencils? (Let them answer.) Good pencils are very hard to find. Whenever I am looking for a pencil, I either cannot find one, or when I find the pencil, it has a broken point, or has never been sharpened. Do you have that problem? (Let them answer.) I have a little story to tell you about ten pencils that I found around my house, and every one of them was either broken or had never been sharpened. This is their story. I found these pencils in different places. One of them was on my dresser, several of them were in a kitchen drawer where they had been for several years. I even found one of them on the kitchen floor beneath the refrigerator. It seemed like everywhere I went I found a pencil, but all of them were broken in one way or another. On a shelf in a beautiful tea cup, I found some paper clips, rubber bands, and another pencil. Of course it was broken also. There were others in different places, like on top of the washer, since someone had forgotten to empty his pockets before sending his slacks to the laundry. There was another on my workbench, one in the garage, and a couple behind the cushions of the couch. Every one of them was broken, and they looked sad in their terrible condition. A pencil is meant to have a sharp point and to write; to leave them in this kind of condition was awful. So I decided to do what I thought should be done. I got out my special pencil sharpener and went right to work. Soon each pencil I sharpened looked happy and relieved to be back at work again. I could hardly work fast enough, I felt so good. But as I finished sharpening one and putting it down, it would disappear before I could pick up another. All ten pencils were sharpened like they had never been sharpened before, and not one of them who left even said thank you. Excuse me, that isn't true. There was one that said thank you. The one that I found on the floor under the refrigerator. It came back to tell me how grateful it was for what I had done for it. You know the story of my pencils is not original. Jesus told a similar story about something even more important. He told about healing ten men, only one of whom thanked God for what happened. I hope that you remember the story, but I hope even more that you remember to thank God every day for the wonderful things that he does for you. That is one of the most important parts of our life - to be grateful to God, and to praise him for all of the glorious things that he does to help us. CALL IN THE CLOWNS!, WESLEY T. RUNK, C.S.S. Publishing Co., 1988, 1-55673-071-3