Giving and Thanks: in honor of Greta.

Today, my family will celebrate the 3rd birthday of my youngest niece, Greta. Between my two siblings, I have two nephews and two nieces: Jordan (21), Summer (16), Shane (10) and Greta (3). They are all unique and wonderful people and watching them grow is the greatest joy of my life.

I had the amazing honor of preaching at the service in which Greta was baptized. That would have been intimidating in and of itself, but it also happened to be my first time preaching at my home church and my first time preaching in front of my family. I was working on this sermon for weeks and still tweaking it minutes before the service, but in the end, I think its my favorite of all of my sermons. So, in honor of Greta, here it is. (FYI- the relationship referenced in this sermon ended over two years ago, but the story shared is a happy memory.)

Luke 17:11-19

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

Giving and Thanks: Luke 17:11-19

Preached at St. Andrew's UMC, October 14, 2007

I like giving. Last weekend, I went to CT to celebrate my boyfriend’s 30th birthday. I handled his presents in my usual fashion. Kevin knew what most of them were before I even got to CT, because I can’t keep a secret when it comes to presents. He opened his presents almost the second I arrived on Thursday, even though his birthday wasn’t until Sunday, because the waiting would have killed me. And, by the end of the weekend, I had treated Kevin to not one, but two spur-of-the-moment special dinners, because I don’t know where to stop when it comes to presents. Like I said, I like giving.

And it doesn’t stop at presents. I’ve spent most of my adult life in jobs that are all about giving back to the community, or in school learning how to be a better professional giver. Its been rewarding in a lot of ways, none of them financial. If nothing else, I always know that I’m giving the people who hold my student loans a lot of interest and I’m probably giving my parents ulcers.

I also like thank-you’s- both giving them and receiving them. Two summers ago, I led a camp for about 25 homeless kids in New Haven. We went on a lot of field trips. For me, one of the best parts of these trips came at the end, when I would line everyone up and say something like “What do we want to say to our tour guide?” All the kids would scream “Thank you!”, and I could tell by their smiles that they really meant it.

Just a few weeks ago, I spent some time sorting through my old letters, papers, and cards deciding what to keep and what to throw away. I noticed as I went along that I tended to hold on to thank-you cards more than anything else. For me, there’s not much better than knowing that something I said or did made a difference to someone else.

So, now that you know how I feel about giving and saying thank-you, you can probably guess that I love today’s lesson from Luke. Really, what’s not to love? For the past few weeks, Luke has been giving us one strange and disturbing story after another, but today- finally- we get a break: a nice, easy story with a simple message. Ten lepers approach Jesus and ask him for healing. All ten are healed, but only one chooses to go back and say thank-you. Jesus has some kind words for the grateful one, and some not-so-kind words for the other nine. And that’s that. Open and shut. Luke is telling us that we ought to say thank you. I think we can all get behind that. Oh- and one other thing- the leper who said thank you happens to be a Samaritan, a foreigner. So I guess Luke is also reminding us that we shouldn’t make assumptions about people who are different from us. Okay, Luke- point taken. Say thank-you and don’t make assumptions. Easy enough. It looks like we can all go home early this week.

Or can we? I’m not so sure. The more I think about this story, the less simple and easy it gets. Let’s go back for a minute and pay attention to what Jesus doesn’t do in this story: Aside from some nice words, Jesus doesn’t give anything extra to the one man who says thank-you. And more importantly, Jesus doesn’t take back what he already gave to the nine men who don’t say thank you. At the end of the story, all ten men are still healed. So what’s the point? Where’s the justice? Why should anyone go to the trouble of saying thank-you when nothing bad happens to people who don’t? And, if saying thank-you is so important to Jesus, why doesn’t he make a point by rewarding the one guy who does? Or punishing the nine guys who don’t? What does this story really teach us about giving and thanks?

As I thought about this story over the past few weeks, I kept coming back to the same question: Why do we say thank you? I did a little research by posing that question to some of my friends. They all said pretty much the same thing: We say thank you because its the right thing to do. When I asked why saying thank you is the right thing to do, my friends explained that saying thank-you lets someone know that you received their gift and that you appreciate their generosity. In other words, thank-you’s are for the giver. Most of us are taught this from childhood. When I was a kid, my mom sat me down at the kitchen table after every Christmas or birthday and made me write a thank-you card to everyone who had given me a present. Sometimes I didn’t want to do it, but mom made it clear that I owed at least a card to the people who had been so generous to me. And now, as an adult, I see her point. Like my friends and my mom, I think that saying thank you is the right thing to do.

But is that the only reason we do it? Are thank-you’s really just for the giver? In 1995, Sarah Ban Breathnach had a huge bestseller with Simple Abundance, a book about the power of gratitude. Ban Breathnach suggests that we can all transform our lives just by taking a few minutes a day to reflect on two or three things we are grateful for. Over time, this practice of gratitude helps us notice blessings and opportunities we might have overlooked. Eventually, we gain a more peaceful and positive outlook on life. In the years since this book first appeared, I’ve seen many other books, articles, and even scientific studies proclaiming the power of gratitude. In fact, psychologists who study happiness have shown that one of the biggest differences between happy people and unhappy people has to do with gratitude. Happy people- regardless of their circumstances- look at the world through a lens of gratitude. Don’t we all know people like this? People who might have next to nothing but are thankful for even their tiniest blessings? And don’t we also know people who have almost everything but can only see what they don’t have? Who’s happier? Who would you rather spend time with? Clearly, gratitude is good for the person expressing it, and not just the person receiving it.

So, if saying thank-you is both the right thing to do and really good for us, why doesn’t everyone do it? We might assume that people who don’t say thank you are just rude, or unappreciative, or self-centered. I’m sure this is true some of the time, but I think that today’s text also points to other, deeper reasons why some people don’t say thank you.

In my first job as a “professional giver,” I counseled troubled children and their families. One of the hardest things for me to get used to when I started this job was the fact that nobody ever thanked me for anything. I would go out of way to be helpful and generous to kids and parents who really needed it, and I would never hear a “thank-you.” In fact, some of the kids seemed to misbehave more when I treated them to something special. At first, I thought that the families were just ungrateful or that the parents had failed to teach their children proper manners. But with time and guidance from my colleagues, I came to see things differently. The people I served had been abused, neglected and ostracized for years- often for their entire lives. They weren’t used to kindness or generosity. When I reached out to them, some just didn’t know how to react. Some pushed me away out of fear. And some were embarrassed because they felt like they couldn’t give me anything in return.

I imagine that the lepers in today’s story have similar reactions to Jesus’s kindness. These men are the absolute dregs of their society- physically disabled, grossly disfigured, unable to earn a living, and forbidden to even approach other people. They can’t even walk up to Jesus to ask him for healing- they have to shout at him from a distance. After they are healed, I’ll bet that most of them think about going back to thank Jesus. But after years of being outcasts, the idea of approaching anyone must be terrifying, much less approaching a great teacher and miracle worker. And even if they can muster the courage to approach Jesus, a simple “thank you” must seem like a wildly inadequate response to the gift they’ve been given. Why would a great man like Jesus care about their measly thanks?

Imagine the courage that it takes for that one man to go back to Jesus and offer his gratitude. When he throws himself at Jesus’s feet, he must be terrified that Jesus is going to scoff at him or even kick him away. Now, imagine how that man must feel when Jesus speaks to him. “Get up and go on your way. Your faith has made you well.” With that simple statement, Jesus tells this Samaritan man that his gratitude means something. Even if he can’t give anything else, he can give thanks and that’s enough. In a sense, the grateful man in this story does receive something extra. Jesus heals his broken body, and then the act of thanking Jesus heals his broken spirit. All ten men are healed, but only this one is made well.

Today, my family is celebrating the baptism of my new baby niece, Greta. I’m really glad that Greta is being baptized today, because I think that this text is a great illustration of how United Methodist’s think about baptism. For our church, baptism is all about giving and thanks. According to our Book of Worship, “Baptism is an act that looks back with gratitude on what God’s grace has already accomplished, it is a here and now act of God’s grace, and it looks forward to what God’s grace will accomplish in the future.” Baptism celebrates the fact that each and every person who enters this world is a beloved child of God. This is one of the reasons our church baptizes children- we believe that membership in God’s family is a gift given to everyone, not something we have to earn. We also believe that baptism can never be taken away. The Book of Worship tells us that “while our baptismal vows are less than reliable, God’s promise to us in the sacrament is steadfast.”

Like Jesus’s healing in today’s story, our baptism is a gift given without cost or obligation. Yet, today’s story reminds us that how we respond to such a gift is as important- if not more important- than the gift itself. Take Greta for example. Even if she leaves here today and never sets foot in a church again, she will always be a beloved child of God. But imagine how different her life will be if she learns to appreciate this gift, and has the courage to respond to it. It won’t be easy, but if we all honor the vows that we make today, she won’t have to do it alone.

Luke doesn’t tell us what happens to the grateful Samaritan man after today’s story is over, but I like to think that he runs back to his nine friends and shares what he’s learned. I hope that, sooner or later, all ten men are able to experience the healing power of gratitude. Likewise, I hope that each of us can take the opportunity we have today to reflect on the gift of our baptism, and then respond to that gift by reaching out to one another and the rest of the world. Let’s start right now by giving each other signs of peace. Amen.