This Sunday is week four of our “Grateful For…” series. Our Scripture readings are Colossians 3:12-17, Psalm 34:1-8, and Luke 17:11-19. Today’s theme is “Grateful for What God Has Done.” Like the grateful leper in Luke 17:11-19, we are invited to pause and notice what God is doing around us, because noticing leads to gratitude, which leads to faith and action.
You can also read the previous sermons in this series: Grateful for All the Wrong Things, Grateful for God’s Grace, and Grateful for All the Saints. I’ve shared portions of this sermon previously at both Ascension and St. Peter. The ending idea of this sermon comes from this 2016 column by David Lose. See also his columns from 2013 and 2010, this sermon by Martin Luther himself, and this Sermon Brainwave podcast.
Here’s the audio of the sermon and video of the entire service from Christ the King.
As you know, for the past few weeks we’ve been doing a series on gratitude, giving thanks to God. Sometimes, I think pastors pick sermon series because they think their congregations need to hear them.
Here’s my confession: This theme is as much for me as it is for you. I said four weeks ago that when we understand what God has done for us, when we grasp the extent of God’s love, it changes the way we see the world. Being grateful for what God has done for us changes how we live.
Well, I’m not always very good at keeping that perspective of gratitude. And when I do manage to feel grateful, I’m often really bad at expressing it. Let me give you an example: I’m terrible at writing thank you cards.
I was ordained as a pastor a little over six years ago, and on that occasion, I received gifts from family and friends, as one does. In my office at home, I have a list of all the gifts. It’s in a little green box with the thank you notes I planned to send. This is true; we moved it from Iowa to here. I don’t know the exact etiquette for sending ordination thank you notes, but I imagine they’re supposed to be taken care of at least within a year or so. Whoops!
And it’s not like I haven’t had opportunities to remember and do better. Not too long after my ordination, I heard a speaker talk about the importance of gratitude as a daily practice, so I bought a box of 100 thank you cards with the goal of starting each work day by writing one – sending five a week.
And I did it! I sent all 100 thank you cards, and it only took me four years to get through the box!
I don’t think my parents are watching online, but just in case, I should be clear that my challenges with thank you cards are not their fault. I remember as a kid every birthday and Christmas having to sit down and write thank you notes the same day.
I was taught you were supposed to say what you’re going to do with the gift, so people know you appreciate it. I still struggle sometimes to write notes that say more than, “Dear Grandma, thank you for the book. I am excited to read it. Thanks again, Daniel.”
Gratitude is not always something that comes naturally to me. I think that’s why I like this story of the grateful leper so much.
At the start of the story, these ten people don’t have much to be grateful for. Because they have leprosy, they’re considered unclean, and they’re excluded from society. They live outside the villages, and by law, whenever other people are around, they have to announce that they’re unclean so people can stay away.
In several senses, these guys are living on the edge of society. Luke says Jesus encounters them while going through the region between Samaria and Galilee.
That’s interesting, because if you look at a map, there isn’t really a region between Samaria and Galilee. They border one another. These lepers are living in an in-between space, not really included in either Samaria or Galilee.
And it’s not a happy border area. I won’t go into it now, but there’s a long history between Samaria versus Galilee and the rest of Israel. The Jewish Israelites don’t like or trust the Samaritans, and vice versa. These ten lepers are living in an in-between space, rejected by everyone. We probably shouldn’t be surprised Jesus enters into that space.
When they see Jesus pass by, they recognize him, and they call out for mercy.
Jesus follows the Jewish law and sends them to the priests who are responsible for certifying who is ritually clean, and on their way, they’re healed.
Nine of them keep going, but one of them comes back to praise Jesus. I wonder if it’s because as a Samaritan, he’s so used to being an outsider.
Luke doesn’t explicitly say, but we assume the other nine are Jewish. These ten are only together because they’re living in this in-between space rejected by everyone else. This Samaritan, this foreigner, he has more to gain.
He is not only cleansed from his leprosy; Jesus accepts him as an outsider. That’s good news for all of us, who are outsiders. The healing and wholeness Jesus brings are for both Jews and Gentiles like us.
This guy understands what Jesus has done for him, how much his life’s been changed. He throws himself at Jesus’ feet and thanks him. He’s overwhelmed with gratitude.
This sort of gratitude is both what builds faith and the natural result of faith. In fact, I don’t think you can have faith in God without gratitude. Faith comes from recognizing what God has done for you in Jesus Christ, and when you truly understand Jesus’ love for you, you can’t help but be grateful.
Martin Luther was once asked for the definition of “true worship,” and he responded, “The 10th leper.” Worship is living out gratitude. This is why we gather as Christians. This is the example we’re following today, right now.
I hope you get something out of this worship service. I hope you leave here inspired, maybe go home with 10,000 Reasons or This Is My Father’s World stuck in your head.
But the primary purpose of this worship service, the reason we’re here is to give thanks to God, to come before God as people and acknowledge who God is, acknowledge the truth that God is God and we are not.
One of the things we ought to get out of worship is the regular reminder to be grateful. We hear what God has done throughout history, and we are grateful.
We hear what God has done for others in our own community, and we are grateful. We recognize what God is doing in our own lives, and we are grateful.
As the Psalm says, we will bless the Lord at all times, because when we sought the Lord, the Lord answered us and delivered us from all our fears. Magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt God’s name together.
At the beginning of worship we confess our sins, our shortcomings, our need for Jesus. And then we hear the promise of forgiveness, so we can be grateful for God’s grace. We read from God’s word to hear stories of God at work.
Paul tells us “Be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” Those go together – knowing God’s stories leads to gratitude.
Our prayers include asking God to work in various situations, and at the same time we give thanks for where we have noticed God working.
We don’t always do this here, but traditionally, when we come to the Lord’s table for communion, we remind each other to give thanks.
It’s the part of the liturgy called the “Great Thanksgiving.” Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right to give our thanks and praise. It is indeed right and proper to praise God, not just in church, but all the time.
All of this of course is practice for our eternal purpose of praising God, but it also shapes how we see the world now.
Gratitude is the natural response to understanding what God has done, but it’s also something that takes practice. Gratitude requires noticing the world around us, noticing God’s activity, noticing the blessings God has given us.
Do you think the other nine who didn’t come back were ungrateful? Perhaps, but I doubt it. I suspect they were just as grateful, but they didn’t do anything about it.
Actually, I have some sympathy for them. Imagine how they felt when their Samaritan friend came back later and said, “So, I went back to see Jesus and thank him, and he was pretty disappointed none of you guys came back.” Probably a pretty awkward conversation!
Luke doesn’t tell us exactly what motivated him to go back. All he says is, “One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.”
He saw that he was healed. All 10 of them were healed of their leprosy, but only one of them, Luke says, saw that he was healed, and for him, it was more than just physical healing. Jesus says to him, “Your faith has made you well.”
He receives the blessing of physical healing, but he also is made whole by naming the blessing he’s received. He’s the only one who truly grasps what Jesus had done for him.
That seeing, that recognizing what God has done and choosing to be grateful, that’s the key, and that’s something we can practice.
We can practice seeing the world around us through a lens of gratitude. One of my friends in college would regularly pause in the middle of a conversation, right there on the sidewalk to say, “Stop! Appreciate.”
That’s what we’re trying to do today; that’s the point of this whole series, being grateful for what God has done.
It takes effort, intentionality to stop taking the world for granted and instead see through a lens of gratitude. It’s a lot easier to see the problems, to see the needs, to see what’s lacking, right?
Looking for things to be grateful for is countercultural, but if you spend the effort to look, there are always blessings for which you can give thanks. It’s the famous quote from Mr. Rogers, “Look for the helpers.”
Things are not always good. I’ve done two funerals in the last two days; I know this world is broken. There are very real, serious problems around us. I don’t know if you’re happy or sad about the election results, and in our state, it’s probably some of each. I suspect most of can say we voted for both winning and losing candidates.
But even if all your candidates won, you’re well aware things are not perfect. None of those candidates are going to fix everything. There are still plenty of problems that we need to care about. We are called to work for justice and peace in the world. It’s hard to keep a perspective of gratitude when tragedies and car crashes happen, when people are traumatized by threats of violence, when people we love lose their lives.
But at the same time, there are also blessings for which we can choose to give thanks, and maybe being grounded in recognizing what God has done for us gives us the strength to keep going through tragedies.
Jesus’ final instruction for the grateful leper is to get up and go on his way. Giving thanks leads back to action, to an active faith.
But our action as Christians is always in response to God’s action for us. Our love comes out of gratitude for God’s love. First and foremost we are grateful because we have been redeemed by God. Like the leper, we have been healed by Jesus, made whole.
May we follow his example of gratitude for what God has done.
Pastor David Lose writes, “Giving voice to gratitude is a choice with consequences, for as we express our gratitude, we affect those around us, even shape the reality in which we live.”
He talks about a friend he has who always answers the question, “How are you?” with “I’m grateful.” I challenge you to try that this week. “How are you?” “I’m grateful.”
I assume it will startle people, and that’s ok. I also think the response to “Bless you” after a sneeze should be “You too” so maybe I just like giving unexpected responses.
But perhaps it will give people a moment to pause and notice what God is doing around them. And noticing leads to gratitude, which leads to faith. Let’s practice.
How are you?
I’m grateful.
How are you?
I’m grateful.
Go on your way, your faith has made you well.