Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost

Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost (C—Proper 23)

October 9, 2016

Text: Luke 17:11-19

            “Make sure to say thank you.”  Your mother taught you this very important lesson early on in life.  She trained you well.  “And what do you say?” she would cajole when you forgot.  Giving thanks is very important because it both acknowledges that a good has been done to us by someone else, and it humbles us, because it reminds us that we are not the source of our own good.  We are not entitled and we are not self-sufficient.  We are created to live in relationship.  God gives us to one another, that He may do good to our neighbor through us, and good to us through our neighbor.  We should thank our neighbor.  We should thank God.  “Make sure to say thank you.”  Good advice from Mom.  The Church has appointed our Holy Gospel for the National Day of Thanksgiving, so we’ll hear it again in a few short weeks.  “Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” our Lord asks (Luke 17:18; ESV).  We should give thanks and praise to God.  I suppose that’s the moral of the story.  The moral, yes, but is it the point?  As with everything our Lord says in the Scriptures, the point is never simply moral, and there is more going on here than first meets the eye.

            The point isn’t that you mind your manners.  God gave you your mother to teach that.  The point is faith!  The point is faith that trusts in God for salvation and every good, and recognizes in the person of Jesus Christ God in the flesh, the Savior.  It’s not that the other nine were unthankful.  I’m sure they were very thankful to be free from the affliction of leprosy.  They were probably jumping for joy, laughing and singing and praising God all the way as they went to the Temple to show themselves to the priests, as the Law of Moses commanded them.  It’s not that only one out of ten was thankful, or only one out of ten remembered to mind his manners.  It is that only one out of ten recognizes Jesus as the source of His healing.  It is only one who recognizes Jesus as the true Priest to whom he ought to show himself, the true Priest who can make an offering for his cleansing, the true Priest who can make him clean, not just on the outside, but in his heart and in his soul.  It is only one out of ten who recognizes Jesus as the one true God, to whom he should give all thanks and praise.  In other words, only one out of ten has faith in Jesus as the One who cleanses, heals, and gives life.  The other nine seek those gifts in the Law.  Those nine are cleansed on the outside.  The Samaritan is cleansed through and through.  He has faith in Jesus.

            Faith alone!  Thus we preach in the Lutheran Church.  Or as we express it more fully, we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, sola gratia, sola fide, solus Christus.  The great solas of the Reformation.  They come to us right out of the Bible.  Sola Scripture, Scripture alone.  “For by grace you have been saved through faith,” writes St. Paul in Holy Scripture.  “And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8-9).  In other words, faith in Christ, which is God’s free gift to you, saves you.  And, in fact, that is precisely what our text says.  The last verse of our Holy Gospel this morning says, “your faith has made you well” (v. 19).  I guess that’s okay, but the Greek says it so much better: “your faith has saved you.”  And now we really get the point of this text.  It’s not actually about what we do for Jesus, giving Him thanks, as if He needs that sort of affirmation for His self-esteem, so He feels all warm and fuzzy inside.  It’s about faith in Jesus, faith that saves, faith that is evident in thanksgiving to God in the flesh of Jesus Christ.  We learn something profound about thanksgiving from this.  True thanksgiving is not the fulfilling of a moral obligation, as your mother taught you, as important and wise as that may be.  True thanksgiving flows from faith in Jesus Christ as the One who saves, heals, cleanses, and gives you life.

            So, then, how do you give thanks?  You know, as important as it is to make a habit of saying the words, “thank you,” especially to God, there is an even more important way.  This Thanksgiving (and ready or not, here it comes!  It’s tomorrow for the Canadians)… This Thanksgiving, it just may be that you will gather around your grandmother’s table.  Grandma will cook her usual breathtaking feast.  There will be the turkey with all the trimmings, the potatoes, the gravy, the stuffing, the green bean casserole, and, of course, the pie.  You will eat until you’re as stuffed as that turkey.  You just can’t help yourself.  It’s so good.  And it’s not just the flavor, as wonderful as that is.  It’s that quality which cannot be replicated by the most talented of gourmet chefs.  It’s Grandma’s love.  It’s the love she cooks into every dish.  It’s the love that gathers the whole family around Grandma’s table.  It’s the love borne of Grandma that radiates from everyone around the table, for everyone around the table, expressed in laughter and joy.  Maybe you’ve never experienced a Thanksgiving like this.  But you sure do want to, right?  And how do you best thank Grandma for this amazing food, for her love, for this communion around her table?  You lift up your empty plate and ask her for more.    

            The Greek word for “thanksgiving” is, interestingly enough, eucharist.  The Samaritan in our text fell on his face at Jesus’ feet and eucharisted Him.  Eucharist is another name for the Lord’s Supper.  Think on that a minute.  How can you best thank Jesus for cleansing you from the leprosy of sin?  For the salvation, healing, cleansing, and life He won for you in His death on the cross, and the faith He gives you to receive it?  You come to the Divine Service, here at Church, and you gather around the Table of the Lord with the rest of the Christian family.  You come and you lift up your empty plate, and Jesus fills you with Himself, His Word in your ears, His true Body and Blood in your mouth.  And by this He heals you.  He forgives your sins.  He feeds you and nourishes you.  Now, you can eat bread and drink wine anywhere, and it may be very good bread and very good wine.  But it will not be this bread and this wine.  This bread and this wine are Jesus Himself.  By the power of His Word, this bread and this wine are His very Body and Blood.  This Meal is the very love of God.  It is God in the flesh, crucified and risen for you.  This love gathers you here and radiates through you and through everyone around the Table, for everyone around the Table.  Here there is laughter.  Here there is singing.  And there are tears to be sure.  But here there is also joy, living and abiding.  How do you say thanks for this great gift?  You keep coming back for more.  That is what faith does.  You come to Jesus, you walk right up to God in the flesh, and give Him thanks by receiving more and more and more. 

            And then what?  After healing the Samaritan, Jesus tells him to “rise.”  Jesus raises him up with a word.  Do you see what he did there?  This is resurrection language!  For the Samaritan was dead in the leprosy of his trespasses and sins, but now Jesus has raised him from the dead to new life, eternal and abundant.  He says to the Samaritan, “Rise and go your way” (v. 19).  Raised up by Jesus, he’s to go his way and live in the world.  He is to return to his vocations.  Imagine the joy when he returns to his family, healthy and whole.  Maybe he is married.  His wife has not been allowed to get within a stone’s throw of him for years.  Now her husband is restored to her.  Maybe he has children.  Now they can embrace Dad again.  Now he can go back to his trade and provide for his family again.  Now he can help his friends again.  You see, when Jesus raises you to new life, He doesn’t take you out of the world.  He wants you to go your way, go into the world, be faithful in your vocations, love and serve your family, your friends, your neighbors, even your enemies.  Be a good citizen.  Do good work in your job.  That’s the love Christ, put into you in this Meal, radiating out to others.  That’s real life in Christ.  That is living faith that bears the fruit of love and thanksgiving.

            Can you imagine Thanksgiving without a meal?  I hope you never have to experience that.  But the most important Meal of Thanksgiving is the one that takes place around this altar this morning.  In a few moments, I will chant “Lift up your hearts,” and you will respond, “We lift them up unto the Lord” (LSB 194).  After the Supper we will sing Psalm 107: “O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, and His mercy endureth forever” (LSB 200).  We are eucharisting.  We are giving thanks by receiving what our Lord has to give us.  That’s faith.  Faith always returns to the Lord for more.  And that is how your faith saves you.  It receives Jesus.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.