“A TOUCHING AND UNTOUCHABLE GRATITUDE”

LUKE 17:11-19

[11] On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee.

[12] And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance

[13] and lifted up their voices, 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 cleansed.

[15] Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice;

[16] and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan.

[17] Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?

[18] Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”

[19] And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

I’m probably going to be accused again of rushing the season.  That’s because I began by reciting some lyrics to the song “Where Are You Christmas?” This week I find myself remembering a Christmas ritual that we went through every year when I was a growing up.  Every Christmas vacation before we went back to school my sister, brother and I had to sit down and write thank you notes to everyone who sent us a present.  We had to use our best penmanship which for me was always a challenge.  We also had to use a pen and my mother was a real stickler.  Cross outs and poor grammar were simply unacceptable.  

Now I knew that writing those thank you notes was something that I needed to do but it wasn’t something that I did with a great deal of enthusiasm.   In a way it was similar to the situation that a mother found herself in one morning.  It was the Sunday before Thanksgiving and the mother was doing her best to get her reluctant children ready for church.   “Why do we have to go to church?” they grumbled.  “Because,” the mother said. “It’s Thanksgiving Sunday.”   She then pointed to a Thanksgiving card on the refrigerator.  The card showed a Pilgrim family on its way to church. “Just look at the Pilgrim children,” the mother said.  “They liked going to church with their parents.”  “Oh yeah?” the oldest son said. “Then why is the dad carrying a rifle?”

People don’t always do a good job when it comes to saying thank you.  Jesus came face to face with that problem when he healed those ten lepers.   Jesus told them that they would be healed.  He then sent them to Jerusalem to see the priests. While they were on their way they were healed. When only one of them came back to say thank you Jesus said very bluntly, “Were not ten cleansed?  Where are the nine?  Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”

Sometimes people don’t do a very good job when it comes to saying thank you. Charles Schultz made that the subject of one of his cartoons.  In the cartoon Lucy asks Charlie Brown to help him with her homework. She entices him to help her by saying “I’ll be eternally grateful.”  “Fair enough,” Charlie Brown says.  “I’ve never had anyone be eternally grateful before.  Just subtract four from ten to find out how many apples the farmer had left.”  After a moment of puzzled silence Lucy erupts into one of her typical tirades.  “That’s it?  That’s it?” she shouts.  “I have to be eternally grateful for that?  I was robbed.  I can’t be eternally grateful for that.  It’s too easy.”  “Well,” Charlie Brown replies, “Whatever you think is fair.”  “Okay,” Lucy counters.  “How about if I just say ‘thanks Bro?’”  A couple of minutes later Charlie Brown meets Linus outside.  “Where have you been?” Linus asks.  “Helping Lucy with her homework,” Charlie Brown says.  “Did she appreciate it?” Linus asks.  “Yeah,” Charlie Brown sighs. “At greatly reduced prices.”

Some people don’t go a very good job when it comes to saying thank you and we’ll never know why the nine lepers didn’t go back but it’s sad.  It’s sad because they cheated themselves out of a wonderful grace filled moment.   Just look at what happened to the tenth leper who did go back that day.  Now the question is what happened when he came face to face with Jesus.  Do you think that he shuffled up to Jesus he said, “Okay Lord.  Let’s get this over with” and then got down on his hands and knees and uttered a perfunctory monotone thank you?  No.  Luke tells us that he returned to Jesus “praising God with a loud voice” then he threw himself down on the ground and put his arms around the Savior’s feet while “giving him thanks.” 

The tenth leper was genuinely joyful and it isn’t hard to imagine him crying at the feet of God’s only begotten Son.  It also isn’t hard to imagine God’s only begotten Son reaching down and helping him to his feet which by the way would have horrified anyone else who was there?  Why?  Because the leper still needed to go to the priest to prove that he had been healed.   So touching him or allowing him to touch you meant that you were also now ritually unclean. Jesus didn’t care about that though.  I checked it out.  I did a search and I found two other stories where Jesus healed a leper and in each one he actually touched them. 

What you see in this story is that there’s a big difference between a perfunctory thank you and a genuine grace filled thank you.   A perfunctory thank you is something that you do because you know you’re supposed to do it.  Like the thank you notes that I used to write every Christmas. For adults a perfunctory thank you is nothing more than a social transaction.  It’s a way of keep track of who did what for who.   It’s a score card of good deeds if you will.

A genuine grace filled thank you is more than that.  It’s all about love and joy.  It’s all about community and making connections.  It’s all about making a connection with the person who has made it clear that he or she loves you.  It’s all about making a connection with the God who in Jesus Christ has made it clear that He loves you. And if you really want to experience a genuine grace filled thank you, you do what Jesus did that day.  You show your gratitude by reaching out to someone today who is an untouchable.

Maybe it means you reach out to the Muslim family that moved in down the street.  You find out when they’re celebrating one of their holy days and you bring them something to help them celebrate.  Or you walk into the sanctuary and see that a guy who went to jail for armed robbery sitting all alone in one of the pews.  So, you go and welcome him and ask if it’s okay to sit with him.  Or there’s a welfare mother who everyone says is lazy and just taking advantage of the system.  You see her in the supermarket and offer to watch her kids a couple of days a week so she go to school to get her high school diploma.   Many years a go I knew a very wealthy family that had a very special Thanksgiving tradition.   To give you an idea of how wealthy they were the father gave $1 million dollars to their church.  Now every year before this family sat down for their bountiful feast they went to a soup kitchen and served turkey dinners to needy families.

It’s like the mother who went back to college to get a degree.  Her final class was in sociology and the professor gave then an unusual final exam.  He called it “The Smile” exam.  The challenge was to smile at three people and then document their reactions.  Well, a few days later the mother went to a McDonald’s restaurant with her husband and three year old son.  While she was standing in line she noticed that the people around her were backing away from her.  She sensed something was wrong behind her.  Then she smelled a terrible odor. When she looked around she saw two homeless men.  They were standing in line to buy some coffee so they could sit in the restaurant and escape the bitter cold outside.  Two cups of coffee was all they could afford.  It was obvious that the second man was mentally challenged and totally depended on the first man. After they got their coffee they went to a table and sat down.  That’s when the woman felt God’s grace come over her.  She asked the woman behind the counter to give her two more breakfast meals.  She then  walked over to the table where the two men were sitting and gave them the food.  When the first man said “Thank you” she took his hand in hers and told him that God was working through her to give him a little hope.  Then she went back to her husband who said, “That’s why God gave you to me, honey.  To give me hope.”

A thank you can be meaningless and perfunctory.  Or it can be what it was that day for Jesus and that untouchable leper.  It can be a touching and untouchable moment of grace and gratitude.  Amen.

Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes

November 20, 2011 – Thanksgiving Sunday