Sermon: To Be Thankful

First Presbyterian Church

November 24, 2024, Thanksgiving

Deuteronomy 8:7-18; Luke 17:11-19

 

To Be Thankful

 

 

I confess that I’m not used to Thanksgiving worship services. I’ve seen them before, mostly during my childhood and only a few as a member of the clergy. I should also acknowledge Thanksgiving as a national holiday does not necessarily have specifically religious origins (it was declared and fixed on the calendar by presidents ranging from Washington to Lincoln to FDR), and there were Thanksgiving observances in the Virginia colony as early as 1607 and even in Florida before that – well before those New England Pilgrims even showed up. But regardless of origins, Thanksgiving – or gratitude, to use the more theological word – is certainly a Christian ideal, one worthy for all of us to pursue.

Admittedly, at this time of year it’s possible to feel, perhaps, a little hectored or pestered about overtly displaying gratitude – maybe you grew up in a family where you had to say something you were thankful for before you finally got to dive into the turkey? I can’t rule out the possibility that the ancient Hebrews miiiiiight just have felt that way when Moses was delivering the speech recorded in our reading from Deuteronomy. (I’m sure we probably tend to view it like a scene from The Ten Commandments, with everybody looking reverently at Charlton Heston, but I’m not so sure that's how it happened.) Yes, Moses, we promise, we’ll remember. Really. We promise. But of course, continuing to read the history of that people in Hebrew scripture reveals that, in fact, they didn’t do such a good job of remembering; forgetting their God and pursuing idols almost as quickly as they settled down in their newfound home, then rejecting God's kingship in favor of a human king during the time of the prophet Samuel. So much for gratitude, hmm? So being reminded to be grateful is probably a good thing every now and then. 

But it’s also worth being reminded of what that gratitude was supposed to look like. That's a pretty fierce warning in verse 14, about how "your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God." The Hebrew people would hardly be the only nation in history to get all caught up in its own strength and forget about the God who gave in the first place. So evidently that's challenging enough; and there's a reason that verse 17 warns us about congratulating ourselves for accumulating wealth (a warning that quite a few people ignore completely today). 

But let's go back to verse 11. "Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws, and his decrees..." That puts a different spin on things. Gratitude, it turns out, isn’t just a frame of mind. It involves action. It means doing things, particular things. It involves living a particular way. 

In the story from the gospel of Luke, we do see action – we see a direct expression of gratitude. Of the ten lepers who are healed by Jesus, one of them turns back to offer his thanks to Jesus for that healing. 

When we tell this story we often make a point of singling out this one for extra praise. Often we do so as much by shaming or scorning the nine who did not return as by praising the one who did. It’s possible that’s not the best lesson on gratitude to learn from this account, though. 

For one thing, the nine were doing what Jesus told them to do. As far as we know, since they don’t show up again in the gospels, they went to the priests and showed themselves to be clean. Presuming the priest did his job properly, the nine were then “cleared” and allowed possibly to return to their families and freed from the isolation and expulsion that victims of leprosy suffered in that time period. You might say they got their lives back, and to them, that must have been the best thing ever.

The one, on the other hand, would have gained no benefit from a visit to the priest. You see, even if he was no longer a leper, he was still a Samaritan. The priest would have likely refused such a proclamation of health to a Samaritan. Even a return to Samaria might not have been of any benefit if Samaritan authorities found out that he had been healed by a Jew. In turning back to Jesus, the one in fact turned back to the only One who would receive him, and would in his final words acknowledge him as not only being made healthy, but also being made whole – so much more than simple physical healing. 

You can be healed of your physical infirmity and still be quite broken. What Jesus gives to those who turn to him is so far beyond physical healing. And that is most certainly worth our thanksgiving and gratitude. And what that gratitude looks like in practice? There are so many possible answers to that question.

One of them (yes, you probably saw this coming) involves this church. For many of you here it has been a locus of your faith and witness for years, decades even. Whichever is the case, being a part of this church is, on a very basic level, part (maybe even the main part) of your witness. It is part of your testimony to the goodness of God in your life, to the ways in which you have been blessed by God and supported and sustained by God, even how you’ve been picked up and been given new life by God when it all seemed to be over, maybe. So, yes, (here comes the stewardship part) how you support this church, this particular church in this particular place with its history and its present and its future, is a part of your witness to the goodness of God. Simple as that. 

[Distribute cards/envelopes with instructions, etc.]

The nine got their lives back, which is itself an amazing thing. The one received new life. In the difference between the two is all the motivation for gratitude we should ever need. 

For new life, Thanks be to God. Amen.

 

Hymns (from Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal): #336, We Gather Together; #367, Come, Ye Thankful People, Come; #643, Now Thank We All Our God