| May 18, 2003 | Bruce Miller | |
| Luke 17:11-19 | "What Do You Say?" |
At the height of Mark Twain's popularity, a newspaper reporter calculated that the American humorist was paid $5 for every word he wrote. Even today that is good pay for a writer. At the time it was exorbitant. In fact, it made the reporter angry. He wrote Mark Twain and said, "I can't believe you are such a great writer that your words are worth $5 a piece." Then he enclosed a $5 bill and said, "Please send me one of your $5 words." Mark Twain responded immediately. When the letter arrived, the reporter tore the envelope open and found his one word. Mark Twain had written, "THANKS!" That one word is still worth at least five dollars. In fact, it is priceless. The Bible tells us that God is the giver, and we are the receivers. "Thou openest thine hand and fillest all things living with plenteousness, "says the Psalmist. Or the epistle of James says, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above."
This is the heart of today's Gospel lesson and this sermon. We need to show our appreciation to our Heavenly Father. Our text reads more like a parable than a story, but it is a good story. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. Somewhere between Samaria and Galilee ten lepers rush out to meet him. They are pitiful. They are outcasts, the forgotten people of ancient society. Leprosy was to that world what AIDS has become to our own. And we do not know for certain exactly what modern ailment they had. The term leprosy probably covered a host of unexplained skin ailments. But whatever they had was feared. Victims of skin diseases were banished and forced to live apart from other people. The Bible tells us the lepers stood "at a distance" and called out to Jesus: "Master, have mercy on us."
Now here is the first point I want you to remember: Ten lepers came to Jesus for help. They had heard about his healing miracles. They hoped that he would heal them. They asked for help. You are probably asking yourself right now, how does this story relate to me or where am I in this story? You there - you do not have leprosy, but you do have other ailments that need to be healed. We all do (life style, maybe it is a habit, maybe it is your thought process, something you did, or a problem, etc.) I do not know - but you do. You ask for help, we ask for help, just as the lepers did
Let's look at the healing process. The actual healing is a mystery. As is so often the case, the healing, how one is healed, is hardly mentioned in the Bible. Jesus simply says, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." That's it! There was no special chants or ceremony, no pronouncements, no secret saves or expensive medicines. Just, "Go show yourselves to the priest." The way the healing is described in our Scripture is how we are healed. Go back to your life and show yourself to Jesus. That disappoints us. For some you do not feel fulfilled. We want to know more. It is too simple, too easy for us. We are intensely interested in miracles. We want to understand how Jesus did what he did. And does what he does for us. We are scientifically curious.
But in Luke's Gospel the actually healing is taken for granted. It is the sort of thing Jesus did all the time. This story is not about healing. It is about gratitude, and it is about needy people who ask for help. Do you take your healing for granted?
I recently read a story about a woman who lived in North Carolina. She said that she did not think there was a single atheist in North Carolina. That's a pretty bold claim. If it is true, I can think of a lot of people who keep their faith a pretty good secret. She was asked, "How can you say there are no atheists in North Carolina?" "Well," she replied with a twinkle in her eye, "What's the first thing people say when they accidentally hit their finger with a hammer?" She has a point. Out of our pain, we reach for God.
But on a more serious note, needy people still turn to God. When we are hurting, we instinctively turn to God for help. Isn't that why many of us are here this morning? In fact each one of us could probably think of someone who should be here! We have needs. Please note I am not talking about material needs. We are here because we need to be here.
Some of you live six days out of every seven alone. You have lost a husband or a wife, your children are grown, the house is empty. You have come to church looking for God, and for the fellowship of other Christians. You have come looking for a community of caring. You have come with a need. Others have recently known the burden of grief. For some it is the loss of a loved one. For others it is a broken marriage, a personal illness, a financial crisis, or a sin. For others it is a labor crisis at your place of employment. Yet the burden is the same. You are here, because you know God is here, and you know God is the only person who can help get your life back on track. You have come with a need.
Some of you have come to this church service genuinely seeking to lead a new life. You are not proud of who you have been or what you have done. You have done something that goes against the will of God, this is known as a sin. Or as someone once said - you have shown the willful disregard or sacrifice of the welfare of others for the welfare or satisfaction of thy self. Whatever the reason you have come to the decision that life has to mean more than what you are presently doing or way you are living. Just as the lepers cried out "unclean", you feel uncleanness in your soul and you have come seeking renewal and new life. I don't know why you have come this morning. Maybe you don't know exactly why. But I know that you are in the right place. And I know that the beginning of any relationship with God is an acknowledgment of our need for God's love. We can't make it on our own. Like the ten lepers we cry out, "Lord have mercy on us." God hears our prayer and makes us whole.
And this leads to my second point: Not only did the ten lepers come seeking help, they found the very thing they wanted. All of them, all ten received an abundant supply of God's healing mercy. All ten were made whole. When you come and you truly believe - you receive an abundant supply of God's healing, forgiveness, and love. When you truly believe. Some were Jews. Some were Samaritans. Some might have been Greeks or Romans for all we know. But God's mercy does not respect national boundaries. Everyone who asks also receives. God loves the whole human race.
I love my country. I want God to bless America. But the truth is that God has already blessed America. We are the wealthiest and most powerful nation on the earth. God has been good to us and we have not been grateful. God has given us what we need and we have been slow to show God our appreciation. There is nothing wrong with saying "God bless America." But just once in a while I would like to see signs that say things like: "God bless our world." "God do for others what you have already done for us." "Tear down the walls that divide us." "Let there be peace on earth." Our God is not an American. God loves everyone. And we see God's universal love in this healing miracle.
All ten were healed. Which brings me to the third point I want you to remember. It is the point about gratitude. Ten people were cured. Only one returned to say thank you, and that one was a foreigner. It was a Samaritan who turned back praising God with a loud voice. He fell on his face in an ancient Oriental show of respect. He humbled himself before the master. And Jesus had to ask the obvious question: Where not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?" Why is there only one here to give thanks?
And this is where the text comes uncomfortably close to home. We turn to GOD when we hurt or are filled with chaos in our life. How many have been back to thank God for getting us through each day of our life? How many have been so busy putting their lives back in order that they have forgotten the One who brought order out of chaos? You are organizing your priorities while sacrificing a core value. Priorities change - but a core value never does.
We share a common problem with the nine lepers in today's story. They were anxious to get on with their lives. They wanted to get back to their families. They had places to go and people to see. They appreciated what Jesus did, but they did not need Jesus any longer. They already had what they wanted. And they forgot a lesson we all learned as children. We need to stop and say "Thank you."
We are selfish, self-focused, and self-centered. In good times we even imagine ourselves to be self-sufficient. We pride ourselves on not accepting charity. We brag about standing on our own two feet. We put ourselves above gratitude, and place ourselves outside God's grace.
Yet not one of us could live very long without God's sustaining power. Think about your own breathing. It is so simple, so natural, and so regular. Day and night, waking and sleeping, an unseen power watches over us filling our lungs with life sustaining air. And the only appropriate response I know of is to return again and again to "give praise to God."
This is one of the differences I am told between modern Christianity and Judaism. When Christians pray, they usually begin by asking God for the things they want. When Jews pray, they usually begin by thanking God for all God has done for them. God has been good to us. And giving thanks is a part of our heritage that we have lost and which we desperately need to reclaim.
I once heard a preacher put it this way. Imagine your life as a walk across a sandy beach. You leave footprints in the sand. They will not last long, the tide will soon carry them away. But for the moment your footprints remain for other to see. What will they find? Will people look where you have walked and see the print of a great soul? Or the mark of a heel?
The difference is subtle but profound. An ungrateful person is a heel. A God-dependent person has within them a great soul. Learning to depend on God begins with that question your mother asked you whenever someone presented you with a gift. "Now, what do you say?" And the answer is, "Thank You." It is a five-dollar word. It is a word God wants to hear more often from every one of us. It is a word that truly cleanses and makes us whole.
So the invitation this morning is very simple. Let your life become a doxology. Dare to stop and say thank you. And all the days that you have breath, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow."