Luke 17:11-19
11 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, 13 they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" 14 When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16 He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? 18 Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" 19 Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."
Grateful
Thank you. One man came back and said, “thank you.” And he was a Samaritan.
Jesus wondered about the other nine. Where were they? I imagine, they were doing just what he told them to do – going to see the priest. After all, leprosy was contagious and feared, and so they had had to live outside the city, cut off from family and community life. It was only with the priest’s verification that they could return home.
So why did the one man come back? That he was a Samaritan, one who Jesus’ Jewish listeners would not expect to have good manners to a Jewish rabbi, just makes it all the more striking. Jews and Samaritans had a several centuries old feud – there was no love lost between these two groups of people. Samaritans were considered the deplorables, the “aliens,” the “undocumented” of the day by Jews – and vice versa.
So why did he come back? I don’t think it was because Samaritans, as a group, had better manners. But something in this man caused him, when he saw that he was healed, to praise God, turn around, run back and fling himself at Jesus’ feet to thank him.
Something was different about this man – and it wasn’t just that he was a Samaritan – although that made it all the more surprising. Was it just his nature? Or was gratitude somehow – through his upbringing or through his own actions – cultivated and nurtured so that his response was thankfulness?
I don’t think that any of us came out of the womb thanking our mothers. Perhaps some people are more naturally inclined to be grateful than others. I don’t know. But I do think that we all can grow in gratitude - I know that I have become more grateful just by seeing it in other people.
For example, this past week I received an email for the prayer chain. That’s not unusual. I’m glad to pray people’s cares and concerns and to share these concerns with our email prayer group. But this time the message wasn’t asking for prayer. It was thanking us for praying – and I have permission to share it with you. Helen wrote, “I'm a believer in miracles in today's world. How else could you describe my 93 year old brother recovering from blood clots in his lungs? He is back in his own home in Willmar …I just had to share the Good News, and maybe the prayer chain would like to hear a huge thank you from me for all their prayers too.”
Helen and her brother noticed God’s work in his healing. And they said, “Thank you.” And we rejoice with them. We are grateful for God’s surprising work in our world and in our lives.
But sometimes, we or those that we know and love, aren’t healed. Last Sunday I was invited to crash a family party that Bev Evans was having. It was ok. Bev said that I was a good “party crasher.” As many of you know, Bev has had MS for many years. She has been in and out of the hospital lots and lots of times. Her mobility is incredibly limited. At times she can barely move. And yet, on Sunday, there she was, delighted to be surrounded by family and full of joy and gratitude for life. Bev will never be healed of her MS but she has been made whole.
Bev reminded me of my mother. She is one who intentionally cultivated gratitude – especially after she discovered she had cancer. And she taught me a lot about it too. She loved to tell this story – so perhaps you’ve already heard it. At the cancer center where she received her treatments there was a bell in the lobby. Every time that someone had successfully completed their treatments, and were essentially cancer-free, they got to ring the bell and everyone would celebrate with them. One day, after a woman rang the bell a man leaned over to my mother and said, “I bet you are waiting for that day when you are done with treatments so that you can ring the bell.” She smiled and said to him, “Oh no. I will never ring that bell.” The man was embarrassed and started to apologize. But my mother went on to say, “I am grateful for every treatment. That’s what’s keeping me alive.”
I want to pause for just a moment. Because you might be thinking, “Oh great. Now she’s asking me to give thanks for cancer and MS and these other really bad things in my life.” No. We should never give thanks for illness or abuse or evil in the world. My mother didn’t give thanks to God for cancer. But, knowing that her days were limited, she – and we -- were more intentional about how we spent those days which turned into years. So she – and we as her family ---gave thanks for the gift of unexpected, intentional time together because the threat of cancer made each day more precious. God is at work – even in the midst of hardships – and when we see that and claim that – we too can give thanks.
Diana Butler Bass wrote the book, Grateful: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks at a time in which she did not feel grateful at all…and wished she could. But she was stuck, in part because as a child she had been abused by an uncle and this experience heightened her awareness of injustice – both personally and in the world around her.
Knowing this, a friend who had also known suffering, said to her, “Your life is like a garden, and it is not well tended. You need to grow your garden.”1
Diana took that advice to heart. She began to see that experiences, including suffering, are like the soil in her garden and from it can grow both negative emotions like hatred and shame and positive ones like gratitude. But,“left untended, certain emotions can choke out others, like the wild grasses that threaten the lettuce every spring” in her vegetable garden. She also discovered that “hard work on one’s knees is the surest way to tend the garden - both in prayer and in rooting around in the dirt of the soul.” She doesn’t know exactly how or when, but in the process, forgiveness began to sprout and instead of feeling pain, shame and fury she began to see her abusive uncle as a flawed and pitiful person. And then she noticed: gratitude had begun to grow in her.2
So how do we cultivate gratitude in the garden of our souls? Diana shares a whole list of things to do – but the thing that struck me the most was to engage in a “beloved community,” in order to practice together gratefulness as a way of life.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are here as Christ’s beloved community. In the midst of a world that is full of violence, anger and reeks of hate-speech, let us be a community of gratitude, nurturing gratitude in one another and giving thanks for God’s gift of Jesus who frees us and makes us whole.
Remember: Jesus cured all 10 of the lepers. But it was the one who noticed that he was healed, and took the time to come back to thank Jesus who was made completely whole. He received a double blessing.
So what do we do? A Benedictine monk once said, “Ninety-nine percent of the time we have an opportunity to be grateful for something. We just don’t notice it.”3 Or maybe, like the nine cured lepers who were racing to get to the rabbi to be declared healed, maybe we just don’t stop to think of it.
This is why, in the children’s message, I asked you to write down a gift of God for which you are grateful. I invite you to place it in the offering plate as a thanks offering from you to God. It is not a requirement. God has already made you a part of God’s beloved community. Jesus has already freed you and made you God’s child. God loves you. All of you. So let us be a community of gratitude, nurturing gratitude in one another and giving thanks for God’s gift of Jesus who frees us and makes us whole. Thanks be to God! Amen.
Pastor Pamela Stalheim Lane
Faith-Lilac Way Lutheran Church
October 13, 2019
Diana Butler Bass, Grateful: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks p.40
Ibid., p.41
Ibid., p.54