Where Does Gratitude Come From?
Have you ever sent someone a birthday card, a Christmas card or graduation card with a financial gift inside? When you do that do you usually receive a Thank You note or a Thank you? Do you expect one? Would it be nice to receive one? When you receive a gift from someone, do you always remember to express your gratitude and thanks? Just wondering. One writer observed,
“If we meet someone who owes us a debt of gratitude, we remember the fact at once. How often we can meet someone to whom we owe a debt of gratitude without thinking about it at all!” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), Elective Affinities (1809), 2.4
October 13, 2013
Luke 17:11-19, Where Does Gratitude Come From?
Doug Scalise, Brewster Baptist Church
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Have you ever wondered where gratitude comes from? I’ve met people who have very little in the way of material things and others who are blessed with abundance who have an attitude of gratitude. I’ve also met people with little who grew bitter and felt victimized and those with much who live with an attitude of entitlement and selfishness. I know people who are incredibly healthy and some who deal with significant afflictions who still manage to count their blessings. And I know others who take their health for granted or whose spirits are broken by their physical hardships. Why are some people grateful and express their gratitude and others do not? Today’s Gospel lesson is about gratitude and giving thanks, listen to it:
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.”
A man with a severe heart condition had just inherited a million dollars. The family was reluctant to tell him; afraid the shock would be too great and cause a fatal heart attack. Instead they called their pastor and asked him to come and break the news to him gently. The pastor came and in the course of the conversation asked, “Joe, what you do it you inherited a million dollars?” Joe responded, “Well, pastor, I think I would give half of it to the church” And the pastor fell over dead.
Most of us are not in the position of having a million dollars which we can give to the work of the Lord. Many people feel more like the man who lived with his wife, two small children, and his elderly parents in a tiny hut. He tried to be patient and gracious, but the noise and crowded conditions wore him down. In desperation he consulted the village wise man who asked, “Do you have a rooster?” “Yes,” the man replied. “Keep the rooster in the hut with your family, and come see me again next week.” The next week the man returned and told the wise man that living conditions were worse than ever, with the rooster making all kinds of noise and a mess of the hut. “Do you have a cow?” asked the wise man. The man nodded fearfully. “Take your cow into the hut as well and come see me in a week.
Over the next several weeks, the wise man instructed the poor man to make room for a goat, two dogs, and his brother’s children. Finally the man couldn’t take it anymore, and he kicked out all the animals and guests, leaving only his wife, children, and his parents. Then suddenly the hut seemed very spacious and peaceful, and everyone was very grateful.
The family in the little hut had much more than the ten lepers in the story in Luke 17. They had their health, they had each other, and they had enough to support themselves. Rather than health, the lepers had an incurable disease eating away at their bodies. Instead of a crowded home and schedule filled with family commitments; their disease isolated them from family, friends, and their faith community. Instead of being able to enjoy the satisfaction of work and earning a living; most likely they had to rely on charity in order to eat. “Leprosy” is a generic term used for a variety of skin ailments and diseases; including what is still called leprosy today. Leviticus 13:45-46 states, “The person who has the leprous disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head be disheveled; and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, “Unclean, unclean.” He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.” Even though leprosy excluded the sufferer from associating with others, the human need for community is so strong that the ten lepers in the Gospel story had formed a fellowship. There is power in community and fellowship, if we’re sick, if we’re lonely, if we’re searching, if we feel like an outsider; becoming part of a community, a fellowship, a group is helpful. This is part of the power that gangs have on young people who don’t feel or find that bond anywhere else in their life. The lepers’ small group gave them strength to go on regardless of their hardships. I can’t state strongly enough the value and benefit of being a part of a Christian small group.
The lepers saw in Jesus someone they believed could make a difference in their lives. They asked the Master for mercy. Jesus didn’t say, “Sure, you’re healed.” He required them to step out in faith. He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” Why did he say that? Again, according to the Book of Leviticus, the priests were the ones who certified that lepers were clean. If the priests declared them to be clean, they had to wash all their clothes, shave off all their hair, and bathe. Seven days later, they had to shave off all the hair on their head again, including their beard and eyebrows. (They would look like the opposite of the Red Sox). In addition to all that, there were numerous offerings and sacrifices to be made and a ritual to go through. Sometimes obeying Jesus may require steps which seem beyond reason or possibility. Yet, as they stepped out in faith, trusting Jesus at his word, God provided for their need and they were healed.
This is a two part story. The first part in verses 11-14 is a healing story; the lepers cry for help, Jesus responds, when they faithfully obey, they’re healed. The second part of the story in verses 15-19 is the story of the salvation of an outsider. We’re told the man is a Samaritan which means in the eyes of Jewish people at the time he is a social outcast, a religious heretic, and he has leprosy. He’s got three strikes against him. Yet it’s the foreigner who returns to Jesus who welcomed and healed him. It’s the outcast who glorifies and praises God and expresses gratitude to Jesus. How easy it is to forget, to let other things crowd out, praising and thanking God and expressing our gratitude to Jesus. We express our thanks and gratitude through using our gifts, time, talents, and resources in service to God. We express gratitude through our worship, praise, and prayers.
When the foreigner returns to praise God he receives a second blessing. Jesus says, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” The other nine were healed of leprosy but only the tenth received the blessing of wholeness and salvation. The Greek word translated “made well” carries with it the idea of rescue from impending disaster or a superior power. So this is a story about ten who were healed and one who was saved.
God has given us life, health, our family, friends, faith community, love, joy, peace, grace, mercy, the hope of salvation, a beautiful creation in which to live – the list goes on and on. Does God know how grateful you are for these things? How does God know? When we recognize how much God has done for us, like the Samaritan, our gratitude tends to flow naturally in response. I read a story about a man named George White who lived in a rented room at the YMCA in Chicago. He had one set of clothes, shoes wrapped with rubber bands to keep the soles from flopping, and a threadbare black overcoat. He spent his mornings napping in a metal chair in the back of the 18th district office. Two officers, Kitowski and Mitch, took an interest in the old man, occasionally slipping him a few bucks. They found out that Billy over at the G & W Grill gave him a hot breakfast every morning, no charge.
The two policemen and their families decided to have George as their guest for Christmas dinner. They gave him presents, which he carefully unwrapped. As they drove him back to the Y, George asked, “Are these presents really mind to keep?” They assured him they were. “Then we must stop at the G & W Grill before I go home,” he said. With that, George began rewrapping his presents. When they walked into the G & W, Billy was there as always. “You’ve been good to me, Billy,” said George. “Now I can be good to you. Merry Christmas.” George gave away all his presents on the spot because generosity is natural when a grateful attitude prevails.
We can give without loving, but we can’t love without giving. Love is the foundation of gratitude. Legalism asks “How little can I give?” Love asks, “How much can I give?” The Samaritan leper who was healed, was so overwhelmed he returned to Jesus overflowing with love and gratitude and words of praise. The outcast, the marginalized one gives God glory and Jesus praise. The poor man in Chicago had nothing, and gave away all his gifts as a way of saying thanks to Billy who had been good to him. We also choose what our response to God will be. We can be like the nine who receive the blessings of God but who return no thanks and praise to Jesus and who are healed but not saved. They missed the larger blessing that comes with feeling and expressing gratitude. Or we can be like the one who returns to Jesus and is saved in the giving of thanks. One preacher (Fred Craddock) observed, “It is often the visitor or stranger in the church who sings heartily the hymns we have long left to the choir, who expresses gratitude for blessings we had not noticed, who listens attentively to the sermon we think we have already heard, who gets excited about our old Bible, and who becomes actively involved in acts of service to which we send small donations. Must it always be so.”
In the first verse of today’s Gospel Luke reminds us that Jesus is “On the way to Jerusalem,” where he will give up his life for us. Jesus was willing to totally commit his life and future to God. Lou Holtz who was a successful college football coach once said, “The kamikaze pilot who flew 50 missions was involved – but never committed.” The church can’t reach its potential unless we’re committed. If we understand how blessed we are, we’ll be grateful and committed. Years ago, while on a short term mission trip, Pastor Jack Hinton of New Bern, North Carolina, was leading worship at a leper colony on the island of Tobago. There was time for one more song, so he asked if anyone had a request. A woman who had been facing away from the pulpit turned around. “It was the most hideous face I had ever seen,” Hinton said. “The woman’s nose and ears were entirely gone. The disease had destroyed her lips as well. She lifted a fingerless hand in the air and asked, “Can we sing, Count Your Many Blessings?” Hinton was overcome with emotion. Later he stated he would never sing that song in the same way again. Where does one find the faith to Count Your Many Blessings when your leprosy hasn’t been healed? A writer answered that question this way: “Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy — because we will always want to have something else or something more. Gratefulness makes us aware of the gift and makes us happy. As long as we take things for granted they don’t make us happy. Gratefulness is the key to happiness. Practicing gratitude is so central to my spirituality.” — David Steindl-Rast, Sacred Journey (October 2001)
What kind of leper are you going to be?
Mark Buchanan wrote, “The Christian life …is about giving and thanksgiving. It is about dying to self, and abounding in gratitude. Like Christ, we are called to live cruciform lives – arms stretched wide in giving and receiving. And through Christ, we are released to live eucharistic lives – arms stretched wide in thanking and rejoicing.
Here’s an irony: almost all deeply thankful people, at least that I know, have less of everything – less health, wealth, beauty, opportunity: everything – than entitled people. That’s because their thankfulness is not so much a response as it is a choice. It’s a resolve. It’s a conviction. They choose thanks over complaint, over coveting, over self-pity. In the eyes of the thankful, all life is eucharistic – literally, a good gift, a good grace (though sometimes well-disguised). They choose, therefore, over and over, to give thanks in all things and for all things, sometimes in spite of many things.
And they also choose the obvious outworking of thankfulness: generosity. Real gratitude always engenders rich generosity. Eucharistic living always flows into cruciform living, a life of giving yourself away. God lavishes his grace upon us, not that we would bottle it, but that we would channel it. He’s not looking for holding tanks. He’s looking for sluices. Grace abounds so that it might overflow.
This weekend is Canadian thanksgiving. It is a good gift – a eucharist – to yearly be reminded: be thankful, be generous. It’s an even better gift to daily live thus.”
“Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.” God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say “thank you?”
— William A. Ward (1921-1994)
Love that springs from gratitude is the essence of faith. The verses at the top of the bulletin today express the experience of the Samaritan leper:
“You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever.” Psalm 30:11–12
What kind of leper are you going to be?
Prayer of Gratitude
O Lord, may we find it in our hearts to be grateful no matter what.
May we praise you for what we can do
and praise you in spite of what we can’t.
May we thank you for what is and what isn’t,
for what is going well and for what is not.
May we thank you for what brings us joy
and even for that which brings us grief,
for if our grief testifies to anything,
it testifies to the depths of our love.
Bless us and keep us, dear God, we pray,
and turn our hearts ever and always
toward your all encompassing light,
you who are our creator and savior,
our redeemer and friend. Amen and amen.
~ written by Sarah Buteux.
Blessing 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, 28
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Be Thankful
Be thankful that you don’t already have everything you desire,
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?
Be thankful when you don’t know something
For it gives you the opportunity to learn.
Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.
Be thankful for your limitations
Because they give you opportunities for improvement.
Be thankful for each new challenge
Because it will build your strength and character.
Be thankful for your mistakes
They will teach you valuable lessons.
Be thankful when you’re tired and weary
Because it means you’ve made a difference.
It is easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are
also thankful for the setbacks.
Gratitude can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful even for your troubles
and they can become your blessings.