Giving Thanks: Sermon Luke 17:11-19

Lord, open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit, that as the Scriptures are read and your Word is proclaimed, we may hear with joy what you say to us today. Amen.

An atheist was taking a walk through the woods, admiring all that evolution had created. "What majestic trees! What powerful rivers! What beautiful animals!" he said to himself. As he was walking along the river, he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. When he turned to look, he saw a 10-foot tall grizzly bear charging right towards him. He ran as fast as he could. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the bear was closing, He ran even faster, crying in fear. He looked over his shoulder again, and the bear was even closer. His heart was pounding and he tried to run even faster. He tripped and fell on the ground. He rolled over to pick himself up, but saw the bear right on top of him, reaching for him with his left paw and raising his right paw to strike him.
At that moment, the Atheist cried out "Oh my God!” Time stopped. The bear froze. The forest was silent. Even the river stopped moving.
As a bright light shone upon the man, a voice came out of the sky, "You deny my existence for all of these years; teach others I don’t exist; and even credit creation to a cosmic accident. Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to count you as a believer?"
The atheist looked directly into the light "It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask you to treat me as Christian now, but perhaps could you make the bear a Christian?" "Very well," said the voice.
The light went out. The river ran again. And the sounds of the forest resumed.

And then the bear dropped his right paw. Brought both paws together...bowed his head and spoke: "Lord, Bless this food which I am about to receive, for I am truly thankful."

Once again we come to the holiday season. It is amazing how quickly this year has flown by because it seems only yesterday it was last Thanksgiving. The Thanksgiving holiday in this country began as a celebration at the end of harvest time. The farmers and their families would celebrate and be thankful for a bountiful harvest. Thanksgiving has become synonymous with the pilgrims being rescued from starvation by the surrounding native tribes. The first national thanksgiving proclamation was issued by the Continental Congress in 1777. The first presidential thanksgiving proclamation was given by President Washington, in 1789 he offered thanks “for the many signal favors of Almighty God”. The tradition continued off and on until President Lincoln called for a federal holiday on the last Thursday in November and a thanksgiving proclamation has been given by the President every since and in 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared the fourth Thursday in November to be Thanksgiving day and it was approved by Congress in 1941.

Things have changed someone here in the year 2007. Often we here people facetiously refer to Thanksgiving as Turkey Day, because turkey is traditionally served. We have a tendency to secularize everything in this country and so any mention of giving thanks to God might go against the PC agenda. Thanksgiving is not just a national holiday it is a Christian holiday, it is a time of gathering together with friends and family, it is a time to break bread and share food together, and it is a time to offer thanks and that makes it essentially Christian in my book. However, as Christians we should not limit our thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday in November but offer it to God each and every day.

Our story today from Luke is one of healing and thanksgiving. Within this story lie two things we should be thankful for each and every day not matter what condition we find ourselves. The story is about ten lepers who are seeking healing from Jesus. Their first step was to approach Jesus and this is the first thing we should be thankful for. That is we have a Savior, a God that is approachable. We have a God who cares about our needs and is open to hear our prayers. The lepers took a big chance in approaching Jesus. This was a big no-no in this day and time. In fact, lepers were supposed to stray away from people and if anyone came near to them they were to cry out “Unclean, unclean!” as a warning. Perhaps they heard about Jesus’ previous healings of other lepers. Perhaps they heard about the kindness and mercy Jesus showed to others and it gave them the courage and the hope to break this social taboo.

Do we bring our troubles to Christ? Do we come to the feet of Jesus like so many have done before or do we try to work through things on our own? Too many times we feel as though we can do things on our own and we don’t need ask God for help. I remember a couple of years ago I was putting together a bookshelf. I wanted to do it by myself. I spread out the pieces and grabbed my screwdriver and set to work. My mom came by and said “let me help you” “No, I can do it on my own.” The work became harder and harder and I was getting more and more frustrated until I just shouted out and threw down my tools. I finally had to ask for help and we finished the project. Now if I had simply accepted the offer for help in the first place I would have gotten the thing put together quicker and easier and I would not have gotten frustrated and angry.

We sing the song, “What a Friend we have in Jesus.” What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. We give thanks because we have a Savior and a God that is not just a Creator and a Sustainer, but a friend we can come too anytime, anywhere.

Not only does Jesus hear our prayers, but Jesus also works to solve our problems. Jesus helps us in our time of need and prescribes solutions to our problems. However, the solutions are not always what we expect. Jesus tells the lepers that approached him to go show themselves to the priest. Wait a minute that was something that was done after the healing. Those lepers must have looked down at their rotting flesh and thought Jesus was crazy. Aren’t you supposed to wave your hand and heal us? However, something inside them told them to do as Jesus said. Luke says that it was only as they walked to the priest that their skin was healed. They had to have faith enough to follow the instructions no matter how silly it seemed at the time.

This reminds us of Naaman in the Old Testament. Elisha told him to wash seven times in the Jordan River and at first he wouldn’t do it because it seemed to far fetched. It required something of him. The solutions that Jesus provides us are not always easy. Sometimes they require life altering changes. We must have faith enough to follow the prescription. We go to the doctor when we are sick. The doctor might give us a prescription to take in order to heal us. We take the prescription to Walgreens or wherever and have it filled. But if we don’t follow the doctor’s directions we will never be well. If we take too much medicine we might get sicker than we already are and if we don’t take the medicine at all we will never get well either. Jesus will offer us a prescription to heal our problem. We must have faith enough to follow the directions. We give thanks that God cares enough for us that he gives us a plan for healing.

Finally, we give thanks for the final outcome. After the lepers realized they had been healed only one, a Samaritan, came back to thank Jesus. Why was he the only one? Perhaps, it was not his custom to show the priest the healing as it was for the Jews. Perhaps, the others just expected the healing and so no need to be thankful for it. Perhaps, they felt as though it was owed to them. We cannot take the blessings in our lives for granted and everything that we have is thanks to God. The blessings we have are uncountable. They are as numerous as the stars in the sky and there are new things each day that should evoke our thanks to God.

Thanksgiving is a time of remembrance and thanks. We remember the things that God has blessed us with and we offer thanks. It is good to do this and before you sit down Thursday to your turkey and dressing and pumpkin pie, I hope you will take the time to offer thanks to God. However, let us not limit our thanks to one day a year. Instead, let us remember to give our thanks to God each and every day. God listens to our needs and response to our prayers. Sometimes in ways that are confusing and mysterious, but if we have faith enough to follow the prescription then perhaps we can have a healing as well.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.