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Sunday October 11,
1998
Luke 17:11-19
Focus Text: "Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice." [17:15]
II. Gratitude: "This Attitude
is No Platitude"
I don't believe I have seen anything quite like it since. Twenty some "street kids" wearing jeans and leather jackets filed into our sanctuary for Sunday morning worship. They stood out in our little church where an average of 100 people gathered for worship each Sunday. They had come to say "goodbye" on my last day as pastor of that little church where we had built a ministry to teenagers -- none of whom were "church kids." There were more teens in the basement of the church on Friday and Saturday nights than there were worshipers in the sanctuary on Sunday morning.
It was no easy thing to do for these kids. They found safety in numbers, but still -- they were obviously out of place amongst the church folk. I get tears in my eyes to this day when I recall how they stood up after the benediction and applauded. "Thank you!" -- They said -- again and again. "Thank you Rev."
Along with the assistance of many lay people from area churches and mountains of patience, we had built a ministry to young folk on the "edge of the Ghetto" in Rochester, New York. Many of the teens found hope and help and healing through the love, acceptance and forgiveness of our volunteer staff.
Of all the people who came to say "Thank you" that day -- these young folk were the biggest surprise of all. In addition to my cup -- my heart and my eyes were overflowing that day.
****
One day, long ago, ten lepers were healed of their dreadful, hopeless disease. Only one gave thanks to God. And that one was the least likely -- he was a Samaritan, "a foreigner" -- but he was that one who brought God's heart to overflowing that day!
There is a critical principle embedded in this short story from the Gospel of Luke:
Gratitude is the key to wholeness and a sure indicator of the maturity of our relationship with God.
Notice carefully what happened to the ten lepers. All ten were physically cured of their disease. They were free from their illness. Nine went about their business. Only one leper was "made well". The old King James version of the bible uses the broader term with Jesus saying to the Samaritan, "Your faith has made you whole." Nine lepers got a new chance at life, but the one received a new life!
The Samaritan discovered the key to fulfillment in living and the highest joy the human spirit can know -- namely to live in relationship with the One who created him. Luther said it this way, "The purpose of life is to know God and enjoy him forever." Ten men were extremely fortunate that day because they were suddenly absent their disease and transported back to their pre-leprous days. One man was doubly blessed because he was transported to a higher way of living in a post-leprous new life. They went back. He went forward.
The key is the attitude of gratitude and this is no platitude -- it is a master key to life's true riches! There are a few essential lessons behind the "Samaritan's Discovery." The heart of that discovery and the true gift of wholeness Jesus came to bring means that the one who receives only the blessings God can give and does not draw closer to God in gratitude will miss all that life is meant to be. But the person who recognizes the action and compassion of God behind the blessing begins to partake of the fullness of life. Nothing can bind our spirit closer to our Creator more than gratitude.
Let's look at four principles of gratitude which can help us get more life out of living!
I. Living with Gratitude is a Decision
Jesus told the ten lepers to show themselves to the priests -- the Old Testament book of Leviticus spelled out the requirements for lepers to be readmitted into society when they were cured. The rules were strict and the process took eight days after which a lengthy series of offerings had to be made. It is easy to understand how someone who had been separated from community, family and friends throughout a long period of suffering might be anxious to get through the "re-entry" system.
So it was on that day with the ten lepers. They obey the words of Jesus to go to the priest and begin the ritual purification process and while on the way, they discover they are "cleansed" -- cured! [See note on v.14]
Can you imagine what that must have been like for them? I could not count the times I've prayed with families who are waiting for results of a biopsy. The words, "It was not cancer," have brought joy to so many hearts and celebration to many families. But there have also been other times when the diagnosis was not good -- dread and sadness followed.
It is understandable that these "god-forsaken" lepers might be so anxious to get back to their lives that they neglected to take the time to go back and say "Thank You." Except for one and here's the key -- mark it down; "...when he saw that he was healed {he} turned back..." His gratitude was a decision. He SAW and he TURNED BACK. The others saw and kept going. Gratitude is when we see the blessing and decide to take the time to turn to the one who blessed.
How has it gone with you today so far? Have you taken time yet to "see" the blessings? Gratitude is a decision.
II. Living with Gratitude Recognizes Life is a Blessing - Not a Belonging
Does it ever occur to you that the things we appreciate most are those that we've lost? Lost love, lost job, lost health. Who was it that said, "Youth is wasted on the young." I can remember going through a three month struggle with what I thought was a terrible cold or flu. It turned out to be walking pneumonia. I clearly recall waking up one morning thinking to myself that I could not really remember what it felt like to feel really good.
And how many people do you know who never feel good? A while back, I was asked to visit a neighbor of a friend of someone in our church. The fellow had had a stroke and was paralyzed. I offered to visit the fellow since they did not have a pastor, but it would have to be when my schedule of parish duties and calls lightened up some. It was during a time when there had been much grief and illness in the church -- and it was the Lenten season.
Finally, I visited on a brilliant day when the sky was clear, the sun bright and the promise of spring was in evidence all around. I checked my watch as I rang the doorbell -- feeling a bit pushed for time and less than 100% happy to be making this call. I was a lovely house -- in fact it was a rather luxurious house and I wondered what it would be like to have the kind of financial strength it would take to own such a place.
A frail woman answered the door, welcomed me and took me straight to her husband's little room. He lay on his bed, paralyzed from head to toe. There was a small TV on a shelf on the wall. He was propped up on a couple of pillows. His wife explained that he could not speak and that he communicated only by opening and closing his eyes. "His mind is clear though," she said. She left me alone with him for about half an hour. I read scripture, prayed and talked a bit -- but it was tough. He cried.
When I left their home, the woman thanked me profusely and I stepped out into the brilliance of the day. Awesome! What an incredible gift to be able to walk out that door into the sunlight! With tears in my eyes I prayed, "Forgive me Lord!" Then I walked to my car. Drove back to the church. Talked with my secretary. And called my son to talk.
Do you see? It's all a gift. Life is not our due. It is a blessing. I have used the term "my life", or "my health" -- have you? But you know something? There things are not yours and mine at all. They are gifts with which we are blessed. Health, life, beauty and love are all blessings for which we must be grateful, not belongings which we own.
The Samaritan who went back to Jesus knew very well that the health he once again had was a blessing from God. How quickly it could all be gone. His heart was filled with gratitude for the one who gave the gift.
III. Living with Gratitude Maximizes the Positive and Minimizes the Negative
I do not recall the source but the words have stuck for many years:
Two men looked out...
from behind prison bars,
One saw mud,
The other stars.
Both men had the same circumstances. Both looked out the same window. What was the difference? Gratitude aims our spirits upward toward the stars. Ungratefulness aims us at the mud.
Try an experiment in your mind. Based on your experience with the people you know. Do you find most people are quicker to pick up on the positive or the negative? Which is easier to get started -- a conversation about how terrible thing are -- or one about how wonderful things are? Are most people you know more skilled at picking up on the positive things about people and things -- or do they seem more adept at picking up on the negative?
I wonder what the conversation was like in the everyday lives of the ten lepers who called out to Jesus. They lived wretched and painful lives. There must have been so much to complain about. Supposing you knew that out of those ten lepers, there was one who used to say, "Perhaps God will one day heal us? Let's keep our hopes up. Things are tough, but at least we have each other?" Which one do you suppose would be the one with the more positive outlook?
Paul's ancient advice to the church at Thessalonica is solid, life building advice for people of every era:
"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."
(I Thessalonians 5:16-18)
Why is this the will of God for you and me?
Because a grateful heart will maximize the positive things in our living and
minimize the negative. It recognizes and prizes the gifts of God all around us.
It is what God wants for us because it will lead to the next principle
which is:
IV. Living with Gratitude Draws More Blessing Into Our Lives
The one leper who was cured of his physical infirmity and turned back to say "Thank you," began to turn his heart Godward the moment he realized he was cured. And he went home that day with much more than a priestly diagnosis of "clean." His gratitude brought a greater blessing to his life -- he went home with a whole new life which was energized by faith.
I will never forget a visit with a dying woman at the hospice unit where I served as an "on call chaplain." She was a young mother and it was difficult to see her, her two young children and her husband going through the anguish of a life cut-off too soon. I received a call that she wanted to talk with me late one Saturday evening. When I arrived, she said, "Pastor, I am sorry to bother you so late. I know you have so much to do tomorrow."
It hit me like a spiritual "ton of bricks". So much to do??? My God -- how fortunate could I be?" This woman had very little left to do. Once again I encountered something I had discovered in clinical training. Some of the greatest lessons I have ever learned have come from dying people. This young mother wanted to talk about her life and her relationship with God and I went to help her as God enabled me. But, I was the one who received the blessing. Something she had to say was so powerful, I would like to have her help me conclude this sermon. One of the things dying people frequently have to work through is a sense of anger and I assumed -- mistakenly -- that this would be a part of this last visit with her. A part of our conversation went something like this:
"Do you have any sense of anger with God?" I asked.
"Oh, heavens no!," she replied, "Not at all. I am sooo grateful!"
Quite honestly, I was taken aback. Inside I was thinking, "Grateful? How can you be grateful?" Outwardly, I simply said, "Really?"
"Yes. We had such a hard time having children. I miscarried three times before our first child was born. Then we were blessed with two. I had to have a hysterectomy after the second, we were so lucky to have them. My husband has been great through all of this... I think it's harder for him. I've never wondered if he loved me. I've been so blessed in such a short time and I think about all those people who never experience the love and the family that I have. How could I not be grateful.?"
She thanked me profusely before I left. And on the way home, I wept -- partly for what I learned about gratitude from her. She died the next day -- grateful!
[Apply It]
1. Experiences like this sometimes make me wonder if I would be the "one" or the "nine" amongst the lepers. Jesus makes the point that the gratitude in this story comes from the most unlikely source. A Samaritan. I discovered the meaning of gratitude that night from what I would have expected to be an unlikely source. From a dying young mother!
2. How is your GQ? (Gratitude Quotient) Take time this week to practice gratitude. This will train your spirit to receive even more of God's blessing. In the development of the attitude in your living, you will discover one of the key dimensions of faith.
vv.11-17 Are peculiar to Luke and point to some of Luke's characteristic themes. God's care for social outcasts -- especially the Samaritans; healing brings praise to God and faith is the key to hope and healing.
v. 12 Ten men stood at a
distance -- In light of Leviticus 13:45-46, it was required that they remain separated
from others...
45 The person who has the leprous disease
shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head be disheveled; and he shall cover his
upper lip and cry out, "Unclean, unclean." 46 He shall remain unclean as
long as he has the disease; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be
outside the camp.
The fact that the ten are mixed race (Jew and Samaritan) shows
how incredibly hopeless the disease was.
v.14 Leviticus 14:1 ff details the requirement Jesus here asks them to fulfill. "were cleansed" = from "katharidzo" - to be cleansed -- thus "cured". The leper was to cry out "unclean, unclean" -- the intervention of God makes them "clean" once again. Contrast the word for "cure" = "iaomai" (v.15)
Important: "...as they went, they were made clean" There is a relationship between obedience and good outcomes. See Joshua 1:6-9
v.19 "You faith has made you well" In this case the KJV is more to the point with, "thy faith hath made thee whole". "whole" = "sesoken" From the root "sodzo" which is the root word for salvation or wholeness. Jesus dismisses the Samaritan with familiar words used also in 7:50, 8:48, and 18:42.
From II Kings 5: Naaman the leper, like the Samaritan is not an Israelite. This story helps to strengthen Luke's theme of God's desire to reach out to all who will respond to divine grace. As the Samaritan returned to praise God -- so the purpose of healing in the Kings passage is that God be praised in all the earth.
II Timothy 2:8-15 ~ Foundations for the Church - II. The Promise
This is the second in a series based on the lectionary passages from II Timothy during October. The four parts to this series are: I. The Certainty, II. The Promise, III. The Basis, IV. The Prize [See 10/4/98 for additional notes on the series]
II. The Promise
In his instructions to the young pastor/teacher Timothy, Paul points out that he endures imprisonment and hardship for the sake of an incredible promise.
1. The Hardship Paul Endures (vv.8-9)
The hardship is all for the sake of the gospel. Nothing is as important as the opportunity to bring the message of salvation to others. Though Paul is "chained" -- the word of God / Good News is not chained.
2. He is Faithful (vv.11-13)
No matter what may happen, the promises of Christ are certain because Christ himself is faithful. There is a promise of life to those who "die" with Christ. [See Gal. 2:19-20] There is a promise of victory to those who stay the course of faith. [See Rev. 3:21] The one who denies Christ will be denied. [See last week: II Tim.1:12 and Mark 8:38]
Yet, the foundations of the promise of life can never be shaken because they are as sure as the word of Christ -- he can not deny himself -- his own words.
3. You Must be Faithful (vv.14-15)
Verse 14 is an injunction to Timothy to keep the community of faith "on target" with the essentials of the gospel. They are not to get sidetracked with arguments. (Literally they are not to "fight over words" -- sound familiar?)
Verse 15 presents the task of the pastor/teacher in clear terms. We are not to "invent" or "come up with" a message -- but to "rightly explain" the "word of God" as in 2:9.
("rightly explaining" in NRSV or the old KJV "Rightly dividing" -- is "orthotomeo" which means literally "to cut straight". The sense is clearly and decisively teaching the "word of truth" which has been given to Paul / Timothy / us)
A Responsive Call To Worship (Based on Psalm 66)
Leader: Let us make a joyful noise
to God.
People: O Lord, our Lord, your name is more than glorious!
Leader: Let us praise the name of the Lord.
People: O God, your acts of love and mercy are awesome!
Leader: Let us worship and bless the name of the Lord.
People: We worship you Lord! We worship and adore your
holy name! The sound of praise will be forever on
our lips! Amen!
A Prayer of Dedication
We bring these gifts of love to you O Lord, as a token of our gratitude. In the best of times you give us life and love and length of days. In the tough times you give us courage and hope. O gracious God, receive these gifts and bless the persons they will reach, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
A Prayer of Confession
Open our eyes merciful Savior, that we might see more clearly the fullness of your gifts to us. We confess that our gratitude toward You comes short of the glory that is due Your holy name. Forgive us our meager praise and lose our tongues to glorify the wonder of Your name. Amen.
[Response to the Prayer of Confession: Sing first verse of "O For A Thousand Tongues"]