A Never-Ending Circle of Thanksgiving
A sermon by The Reverend Shearon Sykes Williams on the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, October 9th, 2022.
“…Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well….” Luke 17: 11-19
Leprosy was a big thing in Jesus’ day. It was a big thing in fact, until the 1940s when antibiotics were developed to treat it. Hansen’s disease, as it is now known, affects people worldwide to this day, but much more is understood about it than in earlier times and it is very treatable if caught in the early stages. It is a skin condition that can also affect muscle, nerves, and the respiratory system. Scientists now know that it is not highly contagious, but people used to be sent to quarantined leper colonies, isolated from their families and communities. It is hard to overstate the impact that having this disease had on people, physically, emotionally and spiritually. They were completely cut off.
As Jesus walks along in today’s Gospel, he happens upon ten lepers who call upon him from a distance, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” And Jesus gives a response that sounds very strange to us. He tells them to go and show themselves to the priests. Priests were the ones who could certify that someone had been healed, and therefore able to resume their place in the community. It’s interesting from our vantage point today, when we would expect a physician to determine when someone has been cured. But healing was primarily a spiritual matter in Jesus’ day. It was requirement of Jewish law to offer sacrifice when you were cleansed from leprosy. And Jesus took that to the next level. Jesus was offering healing that was comprehensive, mind, body and spirit. And the key to this healing is gratitude. All ten lepers were healed of their physical malady, but only one was healed completely. Only one was made whole, the one who returned to say thank-you. Jesus tells him, “..your faith has made you well.” OR “Your gratitude has made you well.” Gratitude and faith are synonymous in today’s Gospel.
Gratitude is at the heart of everything we do as followers of Jesus. And gratitude is at the center of our liturgy every week. The Eucharistic prayer that we pray each Sunday is called “The Great Thanksgiving”. We recount salvation history and give God thanks for all the ways that God has offered us healing through the ages, in creation, through the prophets, and most profoundly, by sending Jesus to be with us in the flesh, to live and die and be resurrected for us and for the life of the world. One of the names that we have for Jesus is “Savior”, which also can be translated “Healer”. And the holistic healing that Jesus offers us, calls for a response. And that response is “thank-you”. It sounds so simple, and in concept, it is very simple. But in practice, it can be very hard to do, as evidenced by the fact that only one leper out of 10 returned to tell Jesus how much they appreciated what he had done for them, how grateful they were that he had given them back their life and had saved them from disfigurement, ostracism, stigma and shame. The other nine went away rejoicing, but only one took the time to say thanks.
Expressing gratitude is the primary reason we come to church. We come to church for a lot of reasons. We come to see each other, to grow in our faith, to get some spiritual wisdom for the week to take with us, parents want to give their children a solid foundation. These are all great reasons. But the most important reason is to give thanks. To give thanks, and by giving thanks, to be healed. We give thanks for all that God has done and is doing for us. There is always, always something for which to be thankful, even if things are really going badly in our lives.
It is such a blessing for me to be with people at the end of their lives, right before they die, to pray the Litany at the Time of Death. That is the Episcopal name for last rites. It is such a sacred time, in those hours when someone is transitioning to life in all its fullness with God. And what is so amazing to me is when deeply faithful people, people who have come to church every Sunday for their entire lives, sometimes in the midst of great suffering, express how grateful they are for their life and grateful for their connection to God. It makes me appreciate just how effective the liturgy is, transforming us little by little, week by week, into people who know how to give thanks and to whom to offer it. Being with someone who operates out of a place of profound gratitude is a great source of healing. And being with a group of people in a faith community, where everyone is practicing gratitude, is especially healing.
We know that gratitude is good for what ails us, and studies have shown that this is true. Science tells us that being thankful lowers our stress, it reorients us towards what is going right instead of what is going wrong, it builds personal resilience and it strengthens our relationships. When we regularly tell the people in our lives how much we appreciate them, it strengthens our connection. All of those daily “thank-yous” expressed to family and co-workers builds up a “gratitude reservoir” to draw on when things get tough. When people truly believe we appreciate them, it makes difficult conversations easier.
So, if giving thanks is so good for us, why don’t we do it more often? Again, it’s easy in concept, and difficult in practice. All sorts of things get in the way, busyness, distraction, lack of awareness, to name a few. Gratitude requires intentionality. We have to decide it’s a priority for us, and then develop ways to help us to put it into action. So, we all need spiritual practices that will help us.
Coming to church is the most important spiritual practice of all. And we are all rediscovering our “coming to church muscle” these days. We were exclusively on-line for a long time and getting back in the habit is a process. There is no substitute for being in person for worship with the gathered community. But a lot of people are having a hard time being with people again after so long in isolation. So, be gentle with yourself if you are having a hard time, but also nudge yourself to come back. Many people have told me about how anxious it made them to think about being around a lot of people again, but that once they pushed themselves to come back, they were so glad they did. Sometimes we don’t realize how much we need something until we experience it again. And some folks need to remain on-line for health reasons, and that is totally fine. Our livestream is such a wonderful way of staying connected and we want to support you any way we can. So, the first and most important spiritual practice is coming to church in-person if we are able and worshipping through the livestream if our situation calls for it.
Making a pledge is also a spiritual practice. And the pledges that we are invited to make a month from today, on All Saints Sunday, are a profound expression of gratitude, thankfulness for all that God has given us and thankfulness for the life of Saint George’s. Our life here is so very precious. We are exceptionally blessed by the resilience and strength of our community. I am so grateful each and every one of you. I am thankful for who you are as individuals and all the gifts that you bring to Saint George’s. We bring our authentic selves, to be known and to be in relationship with one another as we grow together in our capacity for thanksgiving. Offering our time, talent and treasure helps us to grow in gratitude. And gratitude and generosity are very closely linked. When we operate from a grateful heart, it gets expressed in generosity, and being generous helps us to operate from a grateful heart. Gratitude reinforces generosity, and generosity reinforces gratitude. It’s a never-ending circle of thanksgiving that begins and ends with God. Jesus said,
“…Get up and go on your way; your gratitude has made you well….” Luke 17: 11-19