Just
a Simple “Thank You”
Keith McFarren
April 21, 2024
Luke 17: 11-19
One of the most famous speeches ever given
came from a man who never really said much.Lou Gehrig, the relatively quiet New York Yankee first baseman, stood in
front of a microphone in Yankee stadium on July 4, 1939…suffering from a fatal disease called
Amyotrophi Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a disease that not only ruined his baseball
career but in a matter of months would take his life.
He took the time that day to thank his
family, his friends and his fellow players, but he also took the time to thank
the “little people” – the vendors and the ticket takers and the stadium workers
– people who never received recognition, people who were however very important
in Gehrig’s eyes.
Maybe the reason we
remember those famous words, “Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on
the face of the earth,” is because they came from a
man who had every reason in the world to be bitter.A man who had it all at age 36…and it was
soon to all be taken away from him.Yet
there he stood in that stadium full of people on that 4th of July
day in 1939, a man …full of gratitude.
We work hard at living…thinking that our
jobs and our money and our possessions will make us happy.Yet, here is a man with just a few months to
live who shows us the greatest joy of life.
Life, and all that goes with it, is a gift
from God.But God also gives us one
other gift – and that is the gift of gratitude.Gratitude is what gives us the ability to experience life as a gift from
God.Gratitude liberates our hearts from
self-preoccupation.It opens us up to the
wonders, and delights of the world.It
opens us up to humility.Gratitude is
what makes our hearts generous.
Gratitude is how those who are rich toward
God…those who are rich in “being”…play the game of life.
Remember the story of the rich fool in the
12th chapter of Luke…the story of the rich farmer who had an
overabundance of crops and instead of sharing with others decided to build bigger
barns and storage facilities so that he could keep it all for himself.Here was a guy who was “into himself.”Life was all about him.
·“I’ll tear down my barns…and I’ll build bigger ones”
·“I’ll have more room to store everything I own.”
·Then “I’ll sit around and celebrate this life I’ve created
for myself.”
But the man had his priorities mixed
up.You see one of the telling details
of the entire story comes at the very beginning – it’s where Jesus says, “The
ground of a certain man produced a good crop.”
It doesn’t say that “the man”
produced a good crop.It says that the
ground produced a good crop.What Jesus
wants us to see is that this crop and the ground it grew in was nothing more
and nothing less than a gift from God.
When you listened to the scripture reading
that was read this morning, what surprised you more – the fact that only one
person came back and shouted for joy at the top of his lungs, all while falling
down at Jesus’ feet?Or the fact that
nine people didn’t?
On his way to Jerusalem, somewhere along
the border between Galilee and Samaria, Jesus approached a village where he was
greeted by ten lepers, ten men afflicted with the worst possible disease
imaginable in Jesus’ day.
Leprosy, people thought, was a punishment
from God.It was incurable; it was
disgusting; it was revolting.Leprosy
was considered proof that you were the vilest sinner imaginable.If you had leprosy God was punishing you for
doing something really, really, bad.You
watched your body rot away.Your fingers
and your ears and your nose literally rotted away.
You died a slow and painful death, cut off
from society and family and the only other friendships you had were with others
who looked exactly like you.Ten dying,
decaying, stinking lepers met Jesus and cried, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on
us.”
“Jesus, Master,
have mercy on us.”Can you imagine the
tension that must have filled the air as these ten men awaited the healing
words or healing actions that they were hoping would come from Jesus
“Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”He didn’t touch them.
“Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”He didn’t wash them.
“Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”He didn’t even pray for them.
“Go show yourselves to the priests” he said.
“Go show yourselves to the priests.” Surely, they expected something else from
Jesus…something more dramatic, something more along the line of miraculous.
But there was
something about Jesus that led them to obey him, something that led them to
trust him and to do exactly what he told them to do.Something called…faith.
“Do you have enough faith in me that
you’ll show yourselves to the priests before you’re healed?”“Do you have enough faith in me that you’ll
do what I tell you to do.”
And as their faith led them toward the
priest…it suddenly happened.Their
bodies were changed…and they were healed.Every diseased cell in their bodies became healthy and whole again.Their fingers, their nose, their ears, the skin
that had literally been scraped raw, suddenly became whole again.
They looked at each other.They looked at themselves… and they began to
laugh…and they began to cry and tears of joy streamed from their eyes.Elation and joy and happiness overtook them
and all they could think about was getting home to their families…families they
hadn’t been able to live with since they were afflicted by this terrible
disease.And off they went, all caught
up in the joy and excitement of the moment.
All except one.All except the Samaritan who was overwhelmed
with humility and overwhelmed by gratitude as he realized what had happened to
him.
Maybe the other nine kept on going because
they thought they deserved to be healed…after all they were Jews…and if anyone
deserved to be healed by Jesus it certainly ought to be them.With that attitude its no wonder it was, “Thanks
a lot!I’ll see you later!
But the Samaritan…well the Samaritan
realized what had happened.He was an
outcast, a Gentile, a non-Jew, and he had just received a gift…a gift he didn’t
deserve.He had been touched by the love
of God.A God who cares not who we are
or what we have done.A God who loves us
despite all the baggage we carry with us.
Only one came back to thank the Giver for
the gift…because he was the only one who realized that he had been healed by
the grace of God.
Ten men had been healed.Ten men were given a new lease on life.And just because the other nine didn’t come
back doesn’t mean they were any less healed.The implication here is that they were not very grateful for the gift
they had received.
In the Civil War movie Shenandoah,
Jimmy Stewart plays the husband and father of a large family that lives on a
farm.He’s a very strict, stern, proud, self
- sufficient man.A man whose world
revolves around him and all his accomplishments.
At the beginning of the movie, we find
him praying a prayer before each meal that goes like this: “Lord, we cleared
this land, we plowed it, we planted it, we harvested the crops, and we fixed
the food.We worked till we were
dog-boned-tired.None of this would be
here if it weren’t for us, but thank you anyway. Amen.”
But then the war starts and his life suddenly
changes. His wife dies.His crops fail. His family is torn apart.Brothers fight against brothers. His daughter
dies during child birth and he’s left with a newborn baby granddaughter.One of his sons is killed in the war and the
other son, his favorite son, is captured and held prisoner in a prisoner of war
camp and Stewart doesn’t know where he’s at or if he’s dead or alive.
As the war drags on we once again find
what’s left of Stewart’s family gathered around the table for a meal and he starts
to pray the prayer that he’s prayed so many times before: “Lord we cleared
this land, we plowed it, we planted it, we harvested the crops…” but this
time when he got to the part that says, “None of this would be here if it
weren’t for us” he couldn’t finish it because all the suffering and loss
and death have shattered the illusion of his own self-sufficiency and of his
own success.
After all that had happened to him, he finally
came to realize that all he had and all he accomplished was not due to his own
self-sufficiency, but was due to a higher power…the power of God.
And as God always does…God shows up,
somehow, someway, to affirm his presence in our lives. Toward the end of the
story Jimmy Stewart and what’s left of his torn family are shown sitting in
church on a Sunday morning.And as they
stand and begin to sing the doxology, “Praise God from Whom All Blessings
Flow” we see his youngest son, just released from a POW camp, come limping
down the isle toward his father.
Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow.We sing that here as well every Sunday
morning. But did you know there is another version of that song?It’s on page 94 of the UMH.It goes like this: “Praise God, from whom
all blessings flow; praise God, all creatures here below.Praise God, the source of all our gifts!Praise Jesus Christ, whose power uplifts.”
The ten lepers went from rags to riches
that day.They got it all.A new life…a clean bill of health…and the
opportunity to return to family and friends.
But only one of them could see the
greatness of the gift.Only one could
see the magnitude of the gift.Only one
could see the blessing of the gift.Only
one could see God’s grace.
But it’s not just the nine lepers…it’s all
of us who fail to thank God “always and for everything,” as Paul writes
in Ephesians 5:20.If we have any faith
at all we know that God is the giver of all things: every mouthful of food we
take, every breath of air we inhale, every note of music we hear, every smile
on the face of a friend, a spouse or a child…all that and a million other
things are gifts from God…gifts of generosity…gifts of grace.
The proper response to God’s grace, is not
to presume that it’s something that we deserve but to instead, show our gratitude
and praise for that which we have been given.
We are called this morning to see beyond
our own wants and needs.To see beyond
our own self – sufficiency, to see beyond our own arrogance.
We are called to recognize all the gifts
that we have been given…and that includes life itself, …and we are called to
praise the giver for what we have.
Jesus calls for us to faithfully look to
the giver, to faithfully look to the giver and see all that we have been
blessed with…and then be grateful…be grateful for all that he has given us…and
be grateful for all that we have.