Saint James UCC of Hamburg, NY

Psalms 136; Luke 17:11-19

Preached by Rev. Robert Matlack
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When a loved one dies, when a serious illness occurs, when a job is lost or other tough times occur in life, we're reminded in a very powerful way that as Christians God's promise to us is not that our lives will always be easy, not that we will be spared pain and suffering and even death, but rather that God will be present with us. God will walk with us through all that we face.

Often when we're in the midst of a painful experience it's very difficult to appreciate all of our blessings. It's much easier to give thanks when life is easy and pleasant and things are working out the way that we want. When our hearts are filled with joy, it's easy to give thanks. Yet, God has also blessed us in the midst of pain and suffering, for God's presence with us in the midst of difficult moments is a priceless blessing which God has freely given to us. It's not something that we have earned, and God knows that there is no way that you or I will ever deserve something so precious. God's presence with us through all of life comes to us as a gift that has no strings attached, a gift which is given in love because God loves us, as only our Creator can. It is a gift that is given in hope, hope that we will be so moved by this gift that we will offer our lives in return, that we will give our lives in gratitude to God, in thanksgiving for all that we have received.

We give thanks to God because God loves us. God has been good to us. As the 136th Psalm reminds us, God made the heavens and the earth. All that surrounds us was created by God. This is God's world, and as the psalmist reminds us, God does not just create us and then forget about us. Rather, God nourishes us with both physical and spiritual food. God frees us to be the kind of people that we were created to be. God frees us to live knowing that we belong to God, that we are God's people. God loves us, and it is that love that nourishes and sustains us in the living of our lives.

The point of the psalmist is not to deny that each of us has problems, disappointments, and discouraging times in our lives, for we do. One part of the reality of life is that there will be times when we face great stress and difficulty. But the intent of the psalmist is to talk to us in the midst of wherever we are, to point us beyond our own little worlds, to point us beyond the things that have us so concerned and worried, so that we focus on God instead of on ourselves. This particular psalm was used as part of the temple liturgy, and in effect it was a way to try and move people to look beyond themselves, at least for a little while, so that they could see that with all of the problems and difficulties that they face, they still have a great deal to thank God for.

That's a message that we need to hear as well. It's so easy to get so wrapped up in our own concerns, that we fail to appreciate the many ways that our lives have been blessed. We fail to count our blessings, because we're so busy counting our disappointments and our sources of grief.

One of the things that I have realized over the years of my ministry, is that in every funeral service that I've been asked to conduct there has been a reason to give thanks. Not thanks that the person has died, but rather thanks for the life that that person lived, for the love that they shared, for the special ways that they touched and profoundly effected the lives of others.

You know it's so easy for us to feel like God owes us something. For example, many people live to be eighty or ninety years old, or even older. It's easy to feel that when someone dies at a younger age that they have been cheated - for usually we wish that they had lived longer. Yet the reality is that each and every day is a gift from God. We're given no promises or assurances that we will have anything more than today. It's a special gift. What shall we do with it?

That is how I believe God calls each of us to live - as a people who have been given the gift of today. Today is filled with opportunities and challenges. We may well experience grief or disappointment. We may well experience great joy and excitement. But whatever we experience, today is a gift from God, a gift that we need to be thankful for.

The gospel of Luke reminds us how when Jesus was going into a village between Samaria and Galilee He was met by a group of men who were suffering from leprosy. Now leprosy was a terrible disease, not only because of the pain and suffering it caused as the disease advanced, but also because at that time there was no cure for it. People got leprosy, the disease progressed, until finally they died. Because there was no cure, or even any true understanding as to how the disease was spread, the solution adopted by the society was to ostracize lepers, to forbid them to have any contact with someone who did not have the disease. Lepers were required to do what they did in this case with Jesus, namely, if they wanted to talk to someone, they had to stand at a distance and shout at the person.

Jesus spoke no special words of healing. He just sent the lepers to the priests to be examined, the priests being the only ones who could officially certify that they were free from the disease, and therefore able to enter back into the company of others who did not have the disease. We're told that the ten were healed on their way to the priests. For them, this was the gift that they had hoped for. It was a life-changing experience. Their dream, their hope, which it had seemed would never happen, has now been made real by Jesus. Through Jesus Christ their hope was fulfilled. Yet of the ten, only one returns to give thanks to God and to Jesus. Ten were healed, one returns.

It is that difference between the grateful and the ungrateful which Jesus focuses on in this story. For while the original healing was accomplished with no fanfare or fuss, but only a "Go and let the priests examine you", the return of the Samaritan who came to give thanks is described in great detail. The culmination of which is when Jesus offers him the greatest blessing of all, the gift of salvation. Jesus had already cleansed the man's body, and now because of his faith, because he has acted on that faith to return and give thanks to both God and Jesus, Jesus cleanses his spirit as well. This is the greatest gift of all.

The two healings are not described in the same way at all. The physical healing is described in the sketchiest of ways. It is skipped over as something which is not all that important, and is only a necessary prelude to the real point of the story. It is the return of the Samaritan to give thanks and the spiritual healing that Jesus offers him that are lifted up as events of great importance.

I think that this passage has an important message for each of us. God has touched our lives in many ways - just as through Jesus God touched the lives of those ten lepers. We have been blessed, just as they were, and unfortunately just as they did, it is all too seldom that we offer thanks to God for the blessings that have been given to us. Yet it is in the giving of thanks to God that the most important healing of all takes place. It is in the giving of thanks to God that Jesus says to us: "your faith has made you well".

It is in that context that I ask you today to look at your life and stop to really appreciate the many ways that God has blessed you. Go forth today and every day counting your blessings, for they are many indeed. And we are a people who very desperately need to lift our sights above the problems and the disappointments that we have experienced in life, that we might see anew the many things that we have to be thankful for. So let us go forth today and everyday praising God and offering God our thanks, not just with our lips, but also in our hearts.

Amen.