Proper 23, Year C,
2016
Rev.
Adam T. Trambley
Oct 9, 2016, St.John’s Sharon
This
morning’s readings point us toward gratitude and giving thanks. The gospel tells the story of the ten lepers
who are healed, but only one of whom returns to tell Jesus, “Thank you.” We also can find a surprising attitude of
gratitude in our first reading from Jeremiah.
In talking about gratitude this morning, I first want to look at the
question of our overarching approach to life, before looking at specific ways
the readings instruct us in giving thanks.
Our
approach to life is where any discussion of gratitude has to start. To oversimplify a bit, in the area of
gratitude, we can look in one of two directions. The first is that the universe owes us
nothing and every breath is a blessing, everything we have is a gift, and every
aspect of our life is the result of the overflowing generosity of our Almighty
Creator. The second and less commendable
stance is to believe that we are fundamentally entitled to a certain number of
things and a certain level of experiences.
Anything that doesn’t go our way, any perceived slight or deficit, and
any moderately painful occurrence means that somebody failed us in some way. Whether
that somebody is a family member, a human leader, or the Lord God Almighty,
they need to be suitably reprimanded for our inconvenience. Most of us tend to bounce back and forth
between these two attitudes depending on our mood and how our day has
gone. But the more we live in a place
of acceptance and the less we live in a place of entitlement, the happier and
more grateful we will be.
When
we are honest, we know that everything is a gift. We have nothing on our own. God made us.
God made everything we have. God
made the time that we spend. God made
the air we breathe. God made the food we
eat and the water we drink. God made the
photons of light we see and the waves of sound we hear. God made the intricately complex chemistry of
our brains that lets us learn and choose and imagine and love. God made the families and communities and the
church we are a part of. God made the
hands the we work with. God made the
trees that are used for the paper for our money. God made it all. Everything comes to us as a gift. Even when the things God made don’t seem to
work the way we want them to, they are still a gift from God. When our bodies are in pain, when those we
love let us down, when our communities aren’t what they once were, when our
toys break, and when we ourselves make bad decisions that hurt ourselves and
others, even then, everything is still a gift from God. Even then, maybe especially then, we are
called to find some way to be grateful.
This
situation where everything was a disaster is what faced the Israelites in our
first reading. Jeremiah is writing to
the exiles in Babylon. They are in
Babylon because the Babylonians have destroyed their city, destroyed their
temple, killed a number of them, uprooted them from their homes and their way
of life, and forced them to live in the middle of a city where they speak a
slightly different language, have different ways of doing things, and where all
the Israelites are now at the bottom of the social pecking order. If anybody had a good reason to sit down and
pout, it would be the Israelites in exile.
But
Jeremiah gives them pretty specific instructions not to pout. “Seek the welfare of the city where I have
sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf,” Jeremiah writes. He says, “where I,” and he’s speaking for God
here, “where I have sent you into exile.”
God did this. God sent them into
exile here. Even this is a gift from
God. The Israelites may feel like it is
a white elephant gift where they got the last pick, but it is still a
gift. In God’s eyes, the city of Babylon
is not necessarily a bad gift for them.
God’s people just need to treat it like a gift and act out of an
attitude of gratitude.
The instructions for those activities are pretty straightforward. First, pray for the city. Pray for its welfare. Pray for its prosperity. Pray that it and all its people, even the people you hate and who you hate for a good reason, are going to thrive. Because, by the way, you are only going to thrive if this city thrives. Babylon may be a gift to the Israelites, but the Israelites are also going to be a gift to Babylon. Second, God says to put down roots. Treat this city as a gift you can love. Build houses and plant gardens. Find a nice Babylonian girl and settle down and have children and let them get married and have grandchildren. Be part of the fabric of the life of that community. Be concerned about what happens there. Jeremiah tells the exiles that these are God’s instructions.
Now
these instructions are especially surprising because the exiles were planning
to leave as soon as they could. They
wanted to go home. But Jeremiah said, in
effect, you have to appreciate the gift you have. Don’t ignore what you’ve been given to wait
for the gift you want but that you haven’t received. Jeremiah’s words are still good advice in any
situation. We need to be grateful and
work with what we have. God gave us what
we have for a reason, so instead of looking at what we don’t have, we should
take full advantage of what we do.
We
can also take Jeremiah’s instruction to heart for ourselves in seeking the
welfare of the city where we live, and praying to the Lord for its welfare. Personally, this is one of my favorite verses
in the Bible, and one that I take as a serious part of my ministry. This call is why I like to prayerwalk in the
community and serve on city council or other boards. My particular expressions of seeking the welfare
of our city won’t be the right ones for everybody, but everyone can find some
way of living into this calling. Praying
for our community and investing ourselves in its success are ways that we can
express our gratitude to God for the many blessings that come to us from living
where we do.
Our
gospel suggests some other specific avenues to show our gratitude. Jesus and
his disciples are walking along the border of Samaria and Galilee. We know that the Jews looked down on the
Samaritans, and the Samaritans weren’t real fond of the Jewish people
either. So in this border area between
the two groups, who did Jesus come across? A bunch of lepers. People who everybody was afraid of because
they didn’t want to catch whatever skin disease the lepers had. Since they weren’t allowed to live in town,
they had to live out on the border. This
particular group of lepers recognized Jesus and called out at a distance,
“Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” They
weren’t going to get to close, because they didn’t want to give Jesus their
disease either. Jesus does have mercy on
them, and still at a distance, tells them to go show themselves to the
priests. Priests would be the ones who
could certify that they no longer had skin diseases and could come back and live
in town. (Gratefully that is no longer
the job of the priests today.) The ten
lepers walk away. On the way they
realize they are clean, so one of them, who happens to be a Samaritan, runs
back to say, “Thank you!” Jesus remarks
that all ten were clean and only the foreigner returned to say thank you. He says this so that we don’t miss the
point. The Samaritan didn’t need to be
reminded. Then Jesus tells him to go on
his way, for his faith has healed him. What
we need to remember are Jesus words: “Were not ten made clean? Where are the other nine? Was none of them found to return and give
praise to God?”
So
are we found returning to give praise to God?
Or are we part of those who couldn’t bother to be grateful? We’re here today. That’s a good thing. It’s certainly a step in the right
direction. Part of our returning to God
in gratitude is in the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving where we come to
God to offer ourselves, our souls and bodies, to God before we go out and do
the work he has given us to do. We come
to church and thank God for all that he has done for us.
Looking
a bit more deeply at the reading, we can see that what Jesus does for the
lepers, he does at a distance. The leper
approaches Jesus more closely, however, to give thanks. This principle holds true for us, as well. Our life is a gift from God whether we look
to him or not. Everything we have is a
gift from God whether we return to say thank you or not. We can look away from God and wander as far
afield as possible, and God can still shower good gifts upon us.
Returning
with gratitude, however, means that we approach God. We invite him more deeply into our
lives. We prostrate ourselves and
recognize that he is our Lord and the Lord of all that we have. One of the ways we invite Jesus in and
recognize God’s Lordship is to give of what God has given us. We are grateful for the time God has given
us, so we offer some it back to God by making time for prayer. We are grateful for the way he has made us,
so we offer to use the spiritual gifts he has given us to build up the Body of
Christ. We are grateful for our
financial blessings, so we offer the first ten percent of our income as a
tithe. We are grateful for the people we
love, so we pray for them, and talk to them about what God has done in our
lives, and maybe even pray with them or bring them to church if we are
able. We are grateful for the natural
world, so we intentionally use fewer natural resources through recycling or by doing
with less. When we express our gratitude
in our recognition that all things come of God and that of God’s own are we
giving back to him, not only are we drawing near to God, but we are recognizing
his blessing in all that we are and have, while also accepting those blessings
more fully.
Finally,
although the readings today don’t address it directly, an attitude of gratitude
will also spill over into giving thanks to those around us. Gratitude to one another makes a huge
difference in the depth and quality of our relationships. Recognizing what others have done for us and
offering thanks really matters, whether their actions were unbelievably
amazing, simply part of the normal service done by people who care about each
other, or just a very well-meaning attempt that didn’t quite pan out. Offering appreciation and accepting thanks
helps families, communities, and churches exhibit the kind of love we are meant
to have. And, if it isn’t too
stereotypical to hear a sermon about it in an Episcopal church, hand-written,
personal thank you notes are a really good thing.
So
let’s just take a moment, and on the count of three say, “Thank you,
Jesus!” OK, “Thank you, Jesus!” 1…2…3… “Thank you, Jesus!”
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