Luke 17:11-19
Is it possible that the beauty of a sunset could be the beginning of faith? A theology professor tells the story of a friend who, facing a cancer diagnoses and a long road of treatment, took a journey to the European Alps to fulfill a lifelong dream. In the Alps, surrounded by the beauty of creation, she felt an overwhelming gratitude welling up in her and a desire to say 'thank you.' This desire puzzled and unsettled her. Where was this coming from? Who would she say 'thank you' to? This question remained with her as she returned home and it set her on a path to knowing Christ as the creator and redeemer of the whole world. Her faith began with a simple thank you. Gratitude that brings us to Jesus changes us.
In this story Luke indicates that thanksgiving gives way to faith which in turn becomes sozo: salvation, wholeness. The Samaritan leper realizing that he has been healed, stops, turns around and praises God in a loud voice, falls down at Jesus' feet and thanks him. For me it is as lavish as the woman who pours perfume on Jesus' feet and washes them with her hair. This is an equally evocative expression of love and thanksgiving. The loud voice, the falling down, the thank you's uttered amidst tears and laughter - they belong to a man who sees Jesus and responds with unrestrained passion and thanksgiving. As for the others they are thankful I am sure, but they are racing to the priest, thinking about getting cleared for re-entry back into their families and the community. And on their way they do not stop to say thank you.
Have you ever wondered what this Samaritan was doing amidst the other Jewish lepers? Was it the leperasy that broke down the barriers so they could see their common humanity? So that together with one voice they could say: "Jesus, Master, Have Mercy on Us" Have you ever wondered what happened to this Samaritan after they were are all healed? Because the truth is this Samaritan is still an outsider. If he were to go to the priest would he even be received? This Samaritan turns back to the Jewish man who just told him to go to the Priest, and in his turning, in his unrestrained thanksgiving, through his faith in Jesus he receives sozo - salvation: wholeness! It is the thanksgiving that he lays down; that he shouts out that prepares the way for his full restoration. This is Luke's second story about a Samaritan, I think he is being intentional and instructive in this; he is working on the assumptions of the hearers, he is breaking down barriers, he is telling them that the salvation of God is for all people. And guess what? The outsiders they just might be the ones who see it, turn around and receive it while the insiders pass on by.
Thanksgiving is what this Samaritan outsider expresses that the others do not. It is the reflexive, intuitive response muttered by the woman in the Alps, it is the broken perfume bottle by Jesus' feet. It is a discipline that we practice by which we learn to see the mercy and grace of God all around us. Through thanksgiving we grow in joy, we grow in faith. It is what enables us to persist in the darkest times. It is intimately connected with our salvation: "Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honour me; to those who go the right way I will show the salvation of God" (Psalm 50:23). They are the words of Jesus himself who "on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body that is for you..." He gave thanks ... Eucharisteo. Communion. His brokenness - his body and blood - has become our salvation. The bread and the wine. The eucharistic life - the life that we partake in and celebrate each week - is a life of thanksgiving.
Hear the beginning of the eucharistic prayer:
The Lord be with you
And also with you
Lift up your hearts
We lift them to the Lord
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God
It is right to give our thanks and praise
It is indeed our right
It is our duty and our joy
at all times and in all places
to give you thanks and praise....
The children are usually upstairs for the eucharistic prayer and I think it would be wonderful if we could draw their attention this prayer today - to notice the words, the instruction to live lives of thanksgiving because it is our duty and our joy. Sometimes thankfulness overtakes us, it is as easy as our very breath. And sometimes it is a great challenge to be thankful in the face of the suffering that surrounds us all. Yet we learn with Christ, with Paul, with our brothers and sisters that turning to God and giving thanks even in the midst of suffering offers us a way through our pain - a way of seeing and experiencing the mercy of God.
This morning at Moms' Group we discussed this text from Luke. In our meandering conversation we discussed the miraculous way in which thanksgiving can give way to faith, we heard how some people practice the discipline of thanksgiving individually and with children. We sat in silence as we considered how lament and grief co-exist with thanksgiving; some women shared how gratitude sustained them in the darkest times. At the end of our time we prayed, we gave thanks for simple, beautiful things: for trees alive with colour, for sunlight through lead glass windows, for a hand to hold, the company of a friend, a cup of coffee; for the people we hold dear: those who are with us and those who have passed on. We gave thanks for the love and faithfulness of God. For salvation. For joy. For the hope that we have in Christ who gives us the strength to endure: to make it through the hard days, the diagnoses, the losses. And as we offered our thanksgiving I felt the tears begin to roll down my face. Is not thanksgiving where we learn humility? Who am I God to know these graces, these mercies? May I too say thank you with a loud voice, fall down at your feet and worship you.
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