Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7,
Psalm 66:1-11, 2 Timothy 2:8-15, Luke 17:11-19
We are in need of some thanksgiving.
Take a look around. There is plenty
of cause to be worried: too much unemployment and underemployment; a government
shut-down and its collateral damage on working men and women who have no
control; there is armed conflict in Syria and too many other places in the
world; there is so much suffering occurring in all corners of the world. And
this list doesn’t even touch on the challenges that we each have within our
families and in our daily lives.
“Looking at these dimension of our
life, you might wonder why I call for thanksgiving. Wouldn’t lament be more
appropriate? Or a cry for justice? Or the call to action? Certainly these are
also possibilities and have their time and place. But just now, and given
today’s gospel, I am reminded that of all of our responses to events, blessed
or challenging, great or small, one of the most powerful, and often overlooked,
is that of thanksgiving.”[1]
In our reading from Luke, we find
Jesus and his disciples continuing on their journey towards Jerusalem. As they are walking through a between
place, a no man’s land, a group of people call out to Jesus to heal them. At
first glance this might seem like a strange place for Jesus and his disciples
to encounter a group of people. Where they were was outside of the
reaches of regular society. They were walking through the land of the marginalized,
those deemed unfit to be a part of “normal” society. But it is in this
very place where Christ is needed most; the place where his love and radical
welcome have the most impact. And it is in this desolate place that Jesus
encounters a group of ten lepers.
These people with leprosy, which in
the 1st Century was any skin disease, were viewed as unclean. If anyone came
into contact with them, they too became unclean. Because of this, lepers were
cast outside of villages, completely cut off from their family and the rest of
society. Jesus tells them to go show themselves to the priests because “only a
priest could declare a leprous person healed, or clean.”[2]
This cleansing process was not a simple process because it involved offerings
in the Temple
and several rituals as it is stipulated in the Laws of Moses. Once the person
was declared clean, the person could be reinstated society. So it was with
great joy that the ten lepers set out to show themselves to the priests, but
the joy overflowed in one of the lepers and he ran back to Jesus to give
thanks.
Now on the surface this gospel
reading is about the healing of 10 lepers, and about a complete restoration for
one of them, but there is something deeper illustrated in this story... we get
to see a completely honest moment of gratitude. When the one returns to praise
God and thank Jesus, he is blessed for a second time. Allow me to reframe this
in another way:
It is powerful to name a blessing
when it is received. Picture this, “you’re at dinner with family or friends,
and it’s one of those meals, prepared with love and served and eaten
deliberately, where time just stops for a little while and you’re all caught up
and bound together by this nearly unfathomable sense of community and joy. And
then you lean over to another, or maybe raise your glass in a toast, and say,
“This is great. This time, this meal, you all. Thank you.” And in seeing and
giving thanks, the original blessing is somehow multiplied. You’ve been blessed
a second time.”[3]
“Praise is…[our]...instinctive
response to the creative love of God, the river’s flowing back to the sea.
Children are taught how to say “thank you,” but they do not need to be taught
how to feel it. To praise, in the original meaning, means almost to shout for
joy.”[4]
Praise is more than just a verbal exchange between each other, or an
exchange with God, it is a feeling. It is that sense of joy that stirs us
in the very depths of our souls. When we feel this way it is in our
nature to share that joy. That joy comes from our relationship with God
and in response to the goodness God shows us we give glory to God for all the
blessings of our lives.
“Jesus’ life is framed by people glorifying God, with the
shepherds at his birth and the centurion at his death. And here it marks Jesus’
work of healing and restoration. To respond rightly to Jesus is to praise and
glorify God.
The Samaritan’s thanksgiving and prostration at Jesus’ feet;
his recognition that God is at work when Jesus notices and heals hurts and
brokenness that are not noticed by others; his understanding that to thank
Jesus is to glorify God: this is the manifestation of faith that makes [him] well.
And this seems to come easiest to the people who have received most from Jesus,
the ones who are otherwise ignored, scorned, untouched. The one who has been
given much also loves greatly. Love that springs from gratitude is the
essence of faith.”[5]
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