Sermon: Gratitude and Ingratitude?

Date Preached: Sunday October 14th 2007

Bible Reference: Luke Chapter 17, Verses 11-19

Two men were walking through a field one day when they spotted a very angry looking bull. Instantly human nature took over and they darted toward the nearest fence, only to find the bull following in hot pursuit, and it was soon apparent they weren’t going to make it. Terrified, the one shouted to the other, "Can’t you pray or something, John, we’re in for it!" John answered, "I can’t. I’ve never said a public prayer in my life." "But you’ve got to!" implored his companion. "The bull’s catching up to us." "All right," panted John, "I’ll say the only prayer I know, the one my father used to repeat at the table: ’For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful.’" 

Well this event from Luke’s gospel is about gratitude… and ingratitude. I wonder what would make you shout for joy at the top of your voice? Think about it. We’re in the middle of rugby fever – Wales winning the world cup? – holding high the Webb Ellis trophy cup after thrashing the All Blacks – no, better than that, shutting them out completely and getting over 50 points!? (pigs might fly!) 

Or maybe it would happen when a doctor told you someone you loved dearly and thought wasn’t expected to make it, had come through an operation and was going to be alright after all. It could be lots of things.  

So which, then is the more surprising: the fact that one person came back, shouted for joy and fell down at Jesu’ feet? Or the fact that nine didn’t? 

Luke, once again, focuses on the outsider, the foreigner. Like the Samaritan in one of his own stories, this man put to shame the Jews who had been healed - but who didn’t say ‘thank you’. Perhaps, once they’d seen the priest (the priest who lived locally and had the responsibility to declare when people were healed from such diseases), they were afraid to go back and identify themselves with Jesus, who by now was a marked man and regarded as dangerous. Perhaps, having realized they’d been healed, they were so eager to get back to their families whom they hadn’t been able to live with all the time the disease had affected them, that they simply didn’t think to go back and look for Jesus. As one of my Oxford tutors used to say (like school kids we’d count how many times in one lecture) “we simply don’t know!” (he was from Northern Ireland). 

Luke doesn’t say the 9 were any less cured, but he does imply they were less grateful. After lessons in humility, earlier in Luke 17, (which we missed because of our Harvest Festival celebration last week –incidentally a cracking service with everyone together) comes the lesson in gratitude. Mind you, humility is still built in because it is only the outsider, the foreigner, who gives God the glory, showing up the Jews whose very name reminded them to praise God (the word ‘Judah’ in Hebrew actually means ‘praise’,) 

But it’s not only the nine ex-lepers who are shown up is it? It’s all of us who fail to thank God ‘always and for everything’ as Paul puts it in Ephesians and (I can be the biggest culprit) instead always manage to find something to complain about – and it infects those around me when I do it. We know with our heads, if our Christian faith is valid at all, that our 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 child, a spouse

 – all that and a million other things, are “all good gifts around us, sent from heaven above” (as we were singing at last week’s Harvest festival). The world didn’t need to be like this. It could have been way more drab. “Think of a world without any flowers…”(the well known hymn we’ll be singing in a moment). Of course we have often made it dull and lifeless, but even there God can spring surprises. In our Wednesday church – 20 odd regulars these days – we’ve been going through Paul’s letters to young Timothy from The Message version. Here’s his advice:

Timothy (or Ian ~ although it could be any of us really!), refuse to get involved in inane discussions; they always end up in fights. God’s servant must not be argumentative, but a gentle listener and a teacher who keeps cool, working firmly but patiently with those who refuse to obey. You never know how or when God might sober them up with a change of heart and a turning to truth, enabling them to escape the devil’s trap, where they are caught and held captive, forced to run his errands.

There’s an old spiritual discipline of listing one’s blessings, naming them before God, and giving thanks. Like that old chapel hymn “Count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done” 

It’s not only a healthy thing to do, I’m beginning to think it’s one of the main ways that allows the space for God to move amongst his people – just like any gossip or backbiting can kill the Spirit’s activity stone dead.  

Bishop Tom Wright says giving thanks is especially important (if you think about it), because unlike the reality for many of the people in the world, “we too often assume we have an absolute right to health, happiness and every possible creature comfort.” 

Jesus’ closing words to the Samaritan invite a closer look. The word for ‘get up’ is a word early Christians would have recognized as having to do with resurrection – and we’ve been seeing in our bible study how that same resurrection power that brought Jesus back for the dead is at work indwelling us as we allow the Holy Spirit to make his home in our lives. That’s an amazing thought! 

Like the prodigal son, this healed leper was dead and is alive again.. New life – isn’t that what we really desire to see and experience here? - Despite some of the adjustments we’ll have to make? The life that Israel was longing for as part of the Age, had arrived in this leper’s village that day, and it had called out of him a faith he didn’t know he had. And once again, faith and healing go hand in hand (so don’t miss out by not coming to our monthly evening worship). Once again ‘faith’ here doesn’t mean just any old vaguely religious belief, or any generally religious attitude to life, but the belief that the God of life and death is at work in and through Jesus, right now – in this situation – in this Church – in this people,

As Tom Wright concludes his reflection on this story:

This rhythm of faith and gratitude simply is what being a Christian in the first half of the twenty-first century, is all about.  

I was up in Brecon yesterday leading the opening worship for our Diocesan Conference. It was the Bishop’s last (I’m sure he’ll miss them - like a hole in  the head!). But his closing address was interesting. He left us with these challenges:

To create collaborative lay teams

To ensure worship is attractive and lively

To be places of friendship and welcome; love and compassion, not division

And to be places of mission that bring out of our treasures the best of what is old and new. 

(He also said) “Self-pity isn’t going to advance the Kingdom one little bit – but having a prayerful, confident faith worth sharing – and a church worth joining – well that certainly will!”