Self-Care: Practicing Gratefulness--Gen. 35: 1-7; Luke 17: 11-19
122 sandwiches in 27 minutes. That was the official tally from our sandwich making night at Centenary Church on Wednesday. Some of those went to a community fridge in one part of town and some went into the community fridge at the back of Centenary. For whoever may need a sandwich or two in these difficult times, I’m sure there was gratefulness for the blessing. Today, we continue our series on self-care this week by considering the importance of practicing gratefulness in our lives and sharing the blessings we are grateful for with others.
Practicing gratefulness can be difficult in our modern world. In a time where we feel roughed up, over-politicized, over stimulated with news and information, and constantly fed a diet of bleak suffering, it is easy to be far more grouchy than grateful. But we also may be experiencing personal suffering, pain, or struggle which makes seeing the goodness in life very difficult.
If we look to our Gospel lesson, we see the familiar story of Jesus healing the ten men with leprosy. For most of Sunday School we’ve learned in this lesson the importance of saying thank you to God. But there’s a deeper nuance to this lesson. First, many of us in a dark and angry place should be able to identify well with the men who have leprosy. In Jesus’s day, this was a horrific, painful, and grotesquely disfiguring disease. It eventually gave people a monstrous appearance before they ultimately died. But there was more than just the physical suffering.
Because of the contagious nature of the disease, people with leprosy were cast out of society as unclean, lived in abject poverty, and were cut off from all society including family. When we jump all the way to the one who came back, we miss just how much these ten men suffered and endured: physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Under such circumstances it is hard to see anything to be grateful for.
Jesus, however, heals all ten when they cry out for mercy. Yet only one actually says, “Thank you.” There is much speculation about why this is. Some say that when they called out for mercy, they were asking for money, and were upset that Jesus sent them away without money despite healing them. It wasn’t the blessing they wanted regardless of what a great blessing it was. Some have said because of their status in Jewish society, it was their expectation to be healed. Others simply say they got so caught up in the blessing they forgot to thank the One who gave the blessing.
Only one had the faith to come back to Jesus both to praise God and thank Jesus. He was a Samaritan. The others, we presume, were Jewish. Being healed gave them physical well-being back as well as allowing them back into good society. But this man, he would never be accepted back to society, for Samaritans were hated. The healing only gave him physical wellness back. The one who ultimately received the least, came back to give the greatest thanks. That is how we practice gratefulness in our lives.
Gratefulness is not a quid pro quo game. We don’t say, “I’ll be thankful and grateful if…” We often have to be grateful in spite of the circumstances. In the Genesis scripture, Jacob is told to build an altar. Usually this is done by the person as a symbol of being grateful to God. Here, instead, God instructs it be done. But Jacob is already mindful of the reason: “We are going to Bethel where I will build an altar to the God who answered my prayers when I was in distress. [God] has been there with me wherever I have gone.”
By no means was life all that easy for Jacob. But in all of the turmoil he had this strong sense of understanding that God never left him nor abandoned him. We hear that idea echoed in the lyrics of our hymns and songs including, “I will praise you in the storm; whatever my lot, thou has taught me to say, it is well with my soul; and great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.”
Now, my own personal belief on this Gospel lesson is that the Samaritan came back to give thanks because he sensed the presence of God before him. It wasn’t Jesus’s miracle, good works, or a whole lot of hope that made him well. Jesus said to him, “Your faith has healed you.” I submit that it was not some blind hope for a cure to leprosy, but simply his faith in God. We can be grateful because we know the God who loves us, redeemed us, and calls us God’s very own is the same God who gives hope now and hope eternal. We can be grateful because our God is the God of all time, for as the hymn says, “In life in death, O Lord, abide with me.”
But gratefulness isn’t something we do sitting at home with a smile. It is the practice of gratefulness which fills our hearts with joy and helps or heals just like Jesus did. I’ve read recently of churches which took up special offerings for community aid. They used the thousands upon thousands of dollars they collected to pay off the medical debts of low-income people in the community. And let’s be honest, what is more Christlike than this? Imagine the hundreds of people in that community testifying how God’s church paid the sickness debt and made me free. Then the church says, there’s more good news, we can help fix your sin debt in addition to your medical debt. Come and find out this Sunday—as they practice gratefulness in a mighty way.
Gratefulness is something we share because sharing blessings and sharing in our thankfulness brings joy. I’m grateful when someone shares a mint or caramel candy with me. I’m grateful when I can split a cookie with a certain greeter on a Sunday morning even if I’ve already eaten two and pretend like I didn’t. Even in the struggles and dark edges of life there is so much to be grateful for because God loves us so much and promises us that even if this life becomes rough, there’s hope everlasting to follow.
122 sandwiches in 27 minutes. 122 opportunities to cultivate gratefulness in someone else who may be struggling. What are we grateful for in life? But more importantly, how do we practice our gratefulness so that we can bless others and bring joy to our souls? When the Samaritan’s faith grew in strength, Jesus healed him and shared in the joy of his gratefulness. When Jacob came to Bethel, he praised God for always being with him and providing that holy presence in the good times and in his distress. Practicing gratefulness is actually quite easy. It simply involves us believing the words, “Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me,” and letting this be known to all who meet us.
Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/843608250162845