TRANSFORMED BY GRATITUDE

Text: Luke 17:11-19

Have you heard about the politics of entitlement? That’s a pretty common attitude these days: it means that people expect to get what they want, and if they don’t, they feel justified in making a fuss to make sure that they get what they want, or at least to make somebody else suffer for not giving them what they want. We used to call it selfishness or temper tantrum or immature behaviour. But not any more. Now we call it political pressure, or lobbying or making our needs known. It’s what many of us do and we don’t see anything wrong with it.

Well, there are these ten lepers who approach Jesus while he is travelling through the countryside. Lepers are some of the most unfortunate people in that society: they are not only afflicted with a disfiguring disease but they are also condemned to isolation from their families and alienation from the community. In short, they are ill and they are outcasts. But when they know Jesus is coming, these lepers dare to hope that he can help them. He has a reputation throughout the region…not only does he have the power to heal disease, but he has compassion on those whom no one else will even tolerate.

What do they ask for? They ask for mercy. Why mercy? Because they have no claim on anyone - they are supposed to distance themselves from everyone except other lepers. So when they ask for anything, they have to ask in terms of special compassion or mercy. The connotation of mercy is “compassion that forbears punishing even when justice demands it”. These lepers are asking for something they have no right to expect, and they know it. Everyone knows it - everyone in their society, that is. Everyone except Jesus.

It appears that Jesus sends them away as the law demands. He says, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” In that time, sickness was considered mostly a spiritual problem involving evil spirits, usually as a punishment for wrongdoing, and the priest was the one to pronounce upon the situation. Also, the Jewish Law designated the priest as the one to diagnose the condition of leprosy. So we can imagine that the lepers turn away sadly, as they do from everyone else, disappointed and rejected yet again. But as they walk away, they realize their leprosy is healed. Imagine their surprise and delight…they can hardly dare to hope that this is actually true!

What would you expect them to do? Turn right around and fall at Jesus’ feet, right? But no…only one of them does this. We can think of reasons why this might be so. Perhaps he is the leader of the group. Perhaps the others are too afraid of the crowd. Perhaps their leprosy has disfigured their faces to the point where they can no longer speak…Who knows? But the Gospel says that the one who returns to thank Jesus is a Samaritan - a foreigner, a member of a neighbouring country whose people are enemies of Jesus’ people. So why is he the only one to thank Jesus? Perhaps because he is the one who least expects any help from this Galilean Jew. He is the one with no sense of entitlement, no right to expect anything. So he’s the most grateful. Maybe it’s that simple.

The first sermon I preached to the inner city congregation in Edmonton - a collection of street people and local residents living in poverty - was on Thanksgiving Sunday, 1993. I laboured long over that sermon. I asked myself, “How can I stand in front of a group of poor, unfortunate, suffering people and tell them they should be thankful? Thankful for what? That they have nothing or almost nothing…that the current government is cutting back on welfare payments and social workers and health care?” I worked on the sermon for three weeks. I’d been working in the inner-city community for a couple of months by that time and I knew some of the people. And I already knew that these are some of the most grateful people I’d ever met. Not to romanticize poverty…hunger and homelessness and financial need are bad things…and not all poor people are sweet and grateful. But enough of them are that it became fairly easy to talk to them about gratitude. Because even after two months, I had already begun to see how a lot of them appreciated even small things: a loonie, a cigarette, a pair of socks, a ride to the Food Bank, a can of pop, a cup of coffee. But I talked about it in terms of how I had learned to appreciate small acts of kindness. To this day, I have never experienced a community like that one, where on a regular basis, people offered appreciation and blessings. It was humbling to learn that a fortunate person like me had something to offer such unfortunate people, and even more humbling to learn that they could offer gifts and blessings to me, and frequently did. I have boxes of gifts I received from them…most of them were bought second-hand, many of them are inexpensive, but all of them were given out of love and appreciation. The cards and letters are even more precious because they contain earnest good wishes and blessings, given by people who are considered to have nothing to give. The truth is that they have a great deal to give, and they give it freely.

Well, on this Thanksgiving Sunday in October 2008, the month of the big financial nosedive - maybe even the market crash, certainly very bad news - it’s not just Wall Street investment bankers who are in financial trouble (and as we are aware, being bailed out by the government), it’s people like us, who know we are not likely to be bailed out by the government. The Lutheran bishops in the US said in a pastoral letter this week: “This crisis is causing fear and loss in our country as thousands of families face unemployment, foreclosure, and uncertainty about savings and pensions.” And Jim Wallis, a leading Christian social activist in the US, says that this major threat is uniting the American people to the point where “even the dirty politics of the final stages of the [election] campaign seem not to be working. Every other issue than the economy is perceived as a distraction.”

But not to focus on scare-tactics. We don’t need encouragement to worry more about what is happening. We should focus instead on constructive discussion, on helpful answers to the most appropriate and important questions. What should people of faith be thinking, saying and doing? Where is God in all this? What does our Christian teaching tell us about money and possessions, wealth and power, credit and responsible financial choices, economic values vs. family values, lifestyle and stewardship, generosity and justice, and both personal and social responsibility? How do we listen to people, be present to them, comfort them, and perhaps help them to re-examine their assumptions, values and practices? How could this time of great anxiety also be a time of prayerful self-evaluation, redirection and even new relationships with others in our congregations and communities?

For ourselves personally, how are we responding to the possibility of leaner financial times? Can we avoid panic? Instead of madly shopping to distract ourselves, can we thoughtfully plan to cut back on luxuries? Can we revise our expectations for the foreseeable future and live more frugally until we see how this situation plays out? Can we consider family members and neighbours who might need encouragement and help? Can we depend on God to bring us through this situation as God has brought us through other difficult situations? Can we avoid blame and resentment and anger?

And here in Canada, it’s Thanksgiving weekend. We have the chance to work on this a little sooner than the Americans, both because the effects of the crisis have affected Canada less severely so far, and because our Thanksgiving comes earlier than theirs. Is it possible that having less will help us appreciate more what we do have? Is it possible that having less will help us sympathize more with our less fortunate neighbours? Is it possible that having less will help us focus more on the things of God and less on the things of earth? Don’t worry. Hear the words of Jesus, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” The Greek word for “made you well” is one that means “saved”. We believe that Jesus Christ saves us - that is, he offers us salvation in every sense of that word: not only spiritual but also physical (as he offered the lepers), social, mental, financial and every other way. Here’s our chance to find out how God’s promises work out in real life. So we can risk being thankful. Start with small things and dare to work up to the bigger things. Take a lesson from the Samaritan leper and the street people. Gratitude transforms those who have the grace to say thank you.