October 10, 2004

Luke 17:11-19

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

“Full Circle”

     Would you believe my college roommate was just one term away from graduating, but never finished?  He said he couldn’t stand living with me one more day!  OK, that last part isn’t true, but he really did drop out with just one term left and never got his degree.  I sometimes wonder if he’s ever regretted it.

I imagine his parents were pretty disappointed.  It’s always disappointing when someone doesn’t follow through (especially if you’re paying the bills!).  An appointment gets broken, a person forgets, somebody loses interest or is a little too self-absorbed to care and somewhere someone comes up short.

     Do you think Jesus was disappointed the day he met nine men suffering from leprosy and they just walked away after he healed them?  You bet he was.  And don’t you think his spirits were lifted when one of them suddenly turned around, fell at his feet and thanked him?  That simple gesture made all the difference. 

     Luke makes a point of stating that the thankful man wasn’t Jewish, but a Samaritan, the implication being that many Jews at that time accepted life’s blessings as simply their due, but that someone outside the faith might see things differently. 

     It was a commonly held belief in those days (and I’m afraid, today as well) that people in a right relationship with God get all the goodies and people who suffer life’s misfortunes do so because they have fallen out of God’s good graces.  This story turns these assumptions upside down.  It takes the position that those on the inside of a particular religious group do not have exclusive rights to God’s love.  It’s a message the world could certainly benefit from hearing today. 

     The Jewish lepers strutted off to see the priest, assuming they were good Jews on God’s good side.  But then there was that Samaritan, a man outside the Jewish community, healed, restored to full health, just like the rest of them.  He was so overwhelmed that God’s grace included him, he did what the others failed to do – he fell at Jesus’ feet and gave thanks.  It was a gesture that revealed true faith….true faith from an outsider.  “Get up and go your way,” said Jesus, “your faith has made you well.”

     The Samaritan man brought things full-circle.  The power of God’s healing love was given to him freely through Jesus.  He returned with thanks and praise.  Disappointment turned to joy.  The relationship was complete.

     A fourteenth century German mystic named Meister Eckhart, once wrote, “If the only prayer you pray in your whole life is, ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.” Gratitude is the right attitude.

     The Apostle Paul was the most prolific writer in the New Testament and you can see his thankfulness running throughout the text, even in those times when his life was extremely difficult.  In his earliest known writing, the First Letter to the Thessalonians, he closed with these remarks, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 

     Give thanks in all circumstances?  It’s amazing he could say such a thing as he wrote to the people of the Thessalonian church because they weren’t getting along with each other very well.  They were deeply divided between those who had converted to Christianity from the Jewish faith and Gentile Christians who had converted from paganism.  You can bet their congregational meetings were pretty interesting!  But even in conflict, Paul was thankful for them and called upon them to count their blessings and be thankful for each other.  They were, after all, believers in Jesus Christ, recipients of his healing love.  They had Jesus in common and thus shared his promises of forgiveness and salvation. 

     In a divided and troubled church, don’t you think there were some people Paul really didn’t feel like giving thanks for?  No doubt.  So it would seem thanks is something we are supposed to give even if we don’t happen to feel like it.  We’re supposed to give it because it completes the circle.  It acknowledges the fact that life is a gift from God, life in all its fullness, with all its ups and downs.

     But there may be times when life doesn’t seem to be such a great gift, especially when we are down.  There may be divisions or troubled times in our own families or with our friends.  We may worry about the state of the world where there is so much unrest.  We may suffer physical or mental illness.  We may have our hearts broken or be deeply disappointed.  Even so, like a Samaritan man suffering from leprosy or people in conflict in a Thessalonian church, we can still believe in Jesus and be recipients of his healing love.  Even in the worst of circumstances, love can overcome all things.  It was Paul who said (and this is at the heart of his thankfulness), “nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.”  Nothing.  We can always be thankful for the love of God we know in Jesus.  God’s love is with us now and will be with us forever.

     Jesus said that all things are possible for those who love God.  This means that there are opportunities for good things to happen even in the worst of circumstances.  Indeed, it is often when we are at our lowest that our hearts at long-last truly open to God.  It is in those moments we can no longer assume the good things in life are just our due, but can see more clearly than ever that every expression of grace is a true and blessed gift from God.  Indeed, personal struggle may be what makes true thanksgiving possible.

     In 2 Timothy this morning, we heard Paul speak words of victory even as he cried out from prison, “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead!  If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him!” 

     Are you thankful for what the Lord has done for you?  Have you bowed down at the Savior’s feet and thanked him for healing you?  His love is always there for you.  He will forgive you when you cry out, “Have mercy on me!”  He will lift you up and make you new again.  How can you help but give him thanks and praise?

     I encourage you to live with an attitude of gratitude every day.  Look for the ways God is blessing you now and give thanks.  It will bring things full-circle in your relationship with him and it will make you a blessing to the people in your life because thankfulness is wonderfully contagious.  It will also make all the difference in this church’s ministry as we reach out together to the community around us. 

     They say that the fastest growing churches today are “purpose-driven”.  What if our purpose is to be thankful in all things, to rejoice in the saving, healing love of God in Jesus Christ in all circumstances?  Imagine every single person coming through the doors discovering that the people here are truly thankful for them!  Imagine such thankfulness becoming the reason we choose to merge with Second Congregational Church.  If word of this got out, I don’t think we could remain small congregations for long!  Everyone would want to be part of such an affirming faith community.

     There’s much too much strife in this old world.  How much better it will be if we can offer true sanctuary, a place of thanksgiving because “nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.”  Let our purpose be to bring it full-circle, to complete the relationship.  And may this circle reach out, include and embrace everyone we meet.