A Sermon by The Rt. Rev. Drew Smith: Proper 23 Year C
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Trinity Church Hartford 21st after Pentecost 10-09-16 Proper 23 Year C
Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow us, that we may continually be given to good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen
(On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”)
Who was it who taught you the most important words that were probably drilled into our heads when we were young? What were they? The first was to say “Please” and the second was to say, “__________” (thank you).
Thank you, thanks, I thank you. Today's gospel story about the ten lepers traveling together, who after calling out to Jesus were healed as they went on their way and were made clean, and then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice, threw himself on the ground at Jesus' feet and thanked him — this one was a Samaritan. — and then Jesus asked, "But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" ——— the story set me to thinking about thanking — about thanks, thankfulness, thanksgiving — and how thanks is a core response, value and practice of living in Christ Jesus.
How to define the word “thank”? There’s no real way to define it, (I can’t believe I am going to say this) it is what it is. “Thank” — It’s a really old word, coming down from the Dutch and Old English. And it implies gratitude, and kindly thoughts from something that has been done. You know it when you see it, feel it.
For thanks arises from within, it’s a learned response (it has to be taught) to something that someone — for it’s a social phenomenon — someone has done or given for you. It can be prompted (kick-started), — “Say thank you!” — or self-generated, and when it’s genuine, it is something that wells up from within our soul, our being.
And when that happens, we say we are “thankful.” Filled up with thanks. Filled up. Maybe not always? is there such a thing as thank half-full, or thank one-eighth-full? Maybe not: The beauty of being “Thankful” is that we are so moved, so filled with the kindness and change over what someone has given or brought to or done for us, that we are just filled right up to the top.
Might have been caused by a family member, a friend, a stranger. For us in the Christian community, we respond to God, filled up with thanks to God, most especially in Jesus Christ, for what God has given and brought to us — which is newness of life, God’s constant presence and love, the community in which we live and worship and serve, and the promise for life eternal. Then, as it grows and grows, thankfulness becomes so much more than a response to this or that — it becomes an attribute, a dye in the wool, a classic hallmark of the Christian community and of our individual lives.
Then, then, as we are filled up with thanks, to God, to others, thanks wells up and spills over into outward expression: expressions of gratitude. Giving thanks. Giving. Action. In word, (“thank you!”), in deed (acts of kindness and blessing, to others).
And in prayer. Classic Christian Contemplative Prayer always begins with the expression of thanksgiving to God, named, specific, thanks for the gift of God’s love, and all the other blessings — count ‘em!. Even the hear of our liturgy in which we worship today, is The Great Thanksgiving — our expressing to God, giving thanks, for the love of Jesus poured out for the world on the cross. And notice, there’s thanksgiving inside our Great Thanksgiving — The thanks Jesus gave at the Last Supper for the gift of the bread and the wine which he took and blessed and gave to his companions, and to us.
And thanksgiving to God is just that. Saying thank you. Unlike in employment or business or society, there’s no “thank-you gift”, there’s no payback anyone can give to the One who has given such blessing. There’s no way in the world we can pay God back for the divine love and grace that go before us and behind us, above us and beneath us, just as there’s no way we can earn our way into heaven.
So, in our parish intercessions, when we have opportunity for thanksgiving, perhaps we can pause there just a little longer…
If we cannot pay God back, there may be and should be our paying forward of God’s blessings to others, through personal kindness, generosity, invitation, working for social change and dignity and peace, even for the common-wealth of all people and nations — which may, God willing, engender further thankfulness, in others, to God.
When to be thankful? Here the Scriptures are abundantly clear: at all times and in all places, in all circumstances. For particular blessings, as when the leper was healed, for the blanket blessing of the world in creation, in the calling of Israel, for the Word spoken through the prophets, and in above all in these last days for the sending of Jesus. When? Always, at all times and in all places.
Sometimes it’s hard. Stuff of the world can be an onslaught, coming on at times like the destructive power of a hurricane. Yet, even when we feel inundated, it’s right for us to give thanks and praise: not to be in denial of the storm, nor Pollyannish, nor “positive thinkers,” but to search for blessings past, for promised blessing in the future, and by looking — maybe with help of another — to discover the surprise of God’s presence, love and work in even the worst of times.
Sometimes it’s hard because we can become so accustomed to the goodness that surrounds us from the love of God, that our eyes become dull and we forget who God really is, how God’s love opens the door for new life and our souls are not thanks-filled. Like the nine who went on their way, it’s all to easy to just move on and forget to give thanks. If that’s happening in your life, again it’s time to ask for help from someone, companionship, so that may our eyes may be reopened to see God’s hand at work in the world about us. We can do better than one of ten!
So, sisters and brothers, as whoever taught you said, do count your blessings, and say “thank you” regularly. I try to do that each night just before going to sleep. Practice, practice, practice: Keep your eyes peeled for what God is doing, how God is healing you and loving you and others and forgiving you and others and moving us all to serve with Christ for the renewing of the world. Then, being thankful, Say Thank you! Make thanksgiving, to God and to others, a mark of your life, a virtue for which we are known.
At all times an in all places, as at the end of our worship this morning we’ll hear, Let us go forth in the name of Christ,
And the people respond: ___________ (“Thanks be to God!”)
Yes.