gratitude attitudes?

Gratitude attitudes 101613

Psalm 66 (Merrill); Luke 17:11-19

(simply commenting verse by verse through the text, inviting listeners to either consider themselves as with the Jesus band or with the lepers and hear the word for them. Not a passive-sit-back and do nothing, but a 'do it yourself"  sermon)

v.11  on the way to Jerusalem -  destination in mind                                                      going through – moving forward                                                                                 region between – borderland, in-between place   Jesus frequents our in between places, wandering where he doesn’t belong, interacting with people he’s no business dealing with, crossing boundaries (physical, social, spiritual).  This is a radical character.  Not safe.

v. 12 as he entered a village – outskirts, outcasts      ten lepers approached him—actually Luke says ten leprous men, human beings primary identity, skin condition a descriptor.   Very Lucan, who sees Jesus interacting mostly with those on the margins.  As we see later, it is likely they are a mixed ethnic band of Galileans and Samaritans, whom we know usually have nothing to do with one another.  But common suffering may be the very thing that creates com-passion and community.

Keeping their distance – following the rules, staying in the place society assigned to them, yet maybe cynical about these people’s generosity,

They called out saying Jesus Master have mercy on us only the disciples call Jesus master in Luke, do they know perhaps who or what Jesus is?  Or maybe they’re just sucking up to a healthy member of the acceptable class.   Either way, they know they need something that another can provide….this Jesus band has something that can help them

When he saw them   Jesus notices them.  He sees them as they are.  He knows what they need.  He cares.   I wonder if everyone in the Jesus group sees them the way he does, or do they want to hurry on by?

 he said to them Go and show yourselves to the priests  in Jewish law, a priest had to declare you clean so you could be brought back into the society that had cast you out.  The implication would be they’d be healed but first they’d have to trust Jesus’ word.  Then make the first move out of their place into the unknown.

And as they went they were made clean  In the actual act of responding, healing began.  The trust of that first step starts the healing.

Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed  One of them.  The other nine did nothing wrong.  They accepted Jesus word and went on with life. But one didn’t just go on his way, he paid attention to what was happening AS he was going and

Turned back praising God with a loud voice  his second step was a change of direction and an attitude of praise to God, not Jesus, recognizing this blessing as from the divine Force, that cosmic something that is bigger even than a miracle worker

He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet  This is a posture of deep humility in the face of some greater power than us, yet how rarely we use our bodies to express it!   Children’s hands clasped or open for prayer, we adults might close eyes, heads bowed…maybe… but kneeling even seems too demeaning for us square- shouldered-look-you-in-the-eye-self-confident people. But kneeling isn’t humiliating, it’s humbling, recognizing our place in the universe…our smallness in face of vastness, yet our huge importance in the eyes of the God of the universes.

and thanked him not only did this man recognize that GOD was the source of his healing, but that Jesus was the instrument of that blessing.  How often do we thank those who have blessed us in some way? 

and he was a Samaritan  Here’s where we get the implication that it was an ethnically mixed band.  In case the reader doesn’t yet get it, Luke lets us know that there is good to be found in those we look down on.  Those we put down, Jesus lifts up.  And returning as a Samaritan, to a Jew, he also acknowledges another boundary crossed, a bridge built, a barrier removed.

Then Jesus asked, were not ten made clean?  But the other nine, where are they? As if turning and addressing us, the audience in this drama, Jesus ponders the rhetorical question

Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?

Why is it that the chosen people focused on themselves and didn’t see God at work, yet this outcast does?   How come the good religious folk in the pews accept grace and blessing as their due, while those without (in various senses of the word) actually recognize grace and receive it gratefully?  

Then he said to him Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.   An odd little addition.  His faith had nothing to do with his actual healing.  But turning back and giving thanks meant he was twice blessed…once in the healing physically, and then in the “sozo” a greek word with multilayered meaning: cleansed, made whole, but also saved from sins effects (like illness, poverty and social ostracism in this case).

What gives this man’s life wholeness isn’t just his physical well-being, it’s his gratitude attitude.  He didn’t just receive a blessing, he named it, acknowledged it, and turned towards God.   That’s wholeness.  Until we can learn to do that, I doubt we’ll ever feel complete.   So often we focus on our illness, our lack, our deficits, our bad news…..and our media frenzy perpetuates it all.  But to be more complete we need to pay more attention to blessings and thanksgiving….like the old gospel song, “Count your blessings, name them one by one….”

Walter Brueggemann’s prayer poem On Generosity in Inscribing the text reads in part:

On our own,                                                                                                                     we conclude that there is not enough to go around 

we are going to run short                               

of money          of love         of grades          of sex           of beer         of members              of years of life

We should seize the day                                                                                                         seize the goods  

       seize our neighbors goods  

 because there is not enough to go around

And in the midst of our perceived deficit 

                    you come                         

  and the blind receive their sight 

     the lame walk

 the lepers are cleansed                                                            

the deaf hear                                                                             

the dead are raised

the poor dance and sing

We watch 

and we take food that we did not grow                

life we did not invent                                                                

and future that is gift and gift and gift                                             

and families and neighbors who sustain us when we do not deserve it….

By your giving, 

break our cycles of imagined scarcity 

override our presumes deficits                                                   

quiet our anxieties of lack                                              

transform our perceptual field to see                                   

the abundance                                                                          

mercy upon mercy                                                                

blessing upon blessing

Sink your generosity deep into our lives                                     

that your muchness may expose our false lack                             

that endlessly receiving we may endlessly give….like Jesus.  Amen.

Benediction:  Go now, go with God.  Walking on the journey with Jesus, be great bearers of blessing, for we all have much to give, and be models of gratitude, for we all have much to receive.