Giving Thanks – An Invitation to Live
Luke 17:11-19
(from the lections for Canadian Thanksgiving)
“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 …..” (Luke 17:17-18 NRSV)
Where are the nine? Lost in ingratitude. Where was one? Found grateful.
In this story nine out of ten people were ungrateful. How do you think it compares with what happens in our society today. I think there is a lot of ingratitude today. Winston Churchill used to tell the story of a man who risked his life to save a drowning child and delivered him, all but apparel intact, to his mother. She merely snapped a question: “Where’s Johnny’s cap?” That’s ingratitude. There are a number of stories that appear in the media about those who refuse to help vehicle accident victims, not because they don’t want to help, but because they are afraid that in their desire to help that they might do something that they could be sued for. In their greed, people will almost do anything to “get more” and law-suits seem to be a popular way to “get more”these days. An article in newspapers during the Christmas season a couple of years ago mentioned the high incidences of children kicking Santa Clause in the shins for not complying with requests registered in prior years. Some schoolteachers have said that after many years of teaching they can count on one hand the number of thank-you notes that they have received. These are all evidence of ingratitude. I’m sure this list can be added to time and time again.
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Why is it important to give thanks? I think it is a call to live. All the ten lepers were made clean of their disease. One leper, in his giving thanks, was made whole.
When we don’t give thanks for what we have, we get lost in ourselves. When all we do is think about ourselves we cannot be whole. We have to move beyond ourselves to live life in it’s fullest.
A.J. Cronin tells about doctor that he knew in South Wales prescribing what he called the “thank-you cure” for certain cases of neurosis. When a person came to him discouraged, pessimistic and full of their own woes, but without any symptoms of a serious ailment, he would give them this advise: “For six weeks I want you to say ‘thank you’ whenever anyone does you favour and to show you mean it emphasize the words with a smile”. Quite often the patient would say, “No one ever does me a favor,” whereupon the Doctor would reply, “Seek and you will find”. Six weeks later, more often than not, the patient would return with quite a new outlook, freed from their sense of grievance against life, convinced that people had suddenly become more kind and friendly.
Paul had the same prescription when he said, “Always give thanks for all things to the Lord your God”.
Rupert Brooke made an inventory of the things for which he was grateful. Each item revitalized a memory, started a happy thought, brought back a picture, and revived a joy. His list included: White plates and cups; wet roofs beneath a lamplight; the strong crust of friendly bread; rainbows; radiant raindrops in flower cups; cool kindliness of the sheets; the benison of hot water; sleep; footprints in the dew; oak trees; shining horse chestnuts; the blue smoke of wood..
Think of how drab life would be for a person lost in ingratitude. Every sunset is bleached of color; every meal rendered bland and tasteless; every dream is cankered; every relationship soured. Ingratitude stops prayer, represses joy, misdirects energy, robs the middle years of their productivity, and crowns old age with a thorny wreath of bitterness. In other words, ingratitude sucks the life out of us.
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Just think of all the things that you enjoy in life that you have never really earned. Sometimes I marvel at how I have appreciated so many things that I cannot truly say belong to me alone.
Speaking of enjoying things that don’t belong us I like the story that Richard Fairchild from Golden BC told in one of his sermons on thanksgiving found a few years ago on the web site Sermons and Sermon-Lectionary Resources.
One afternoon a shopper at the local mall felt the need for a coffee break. She bought herself a little bag of cookies and put them in her shopping bag. She then got in line for coffee, found a place to sit at one of the crowded tables, and then taking the lid off her coffee and taking out a magazine she began to sip her coffee and read. Across the table from her a man sat reading a newspaper.
After a minute or two she reached out and took a cookie. As she did, the man seated across the table reached out and took one too. This put her off, but she did not say anything. A few moments later she took another cookie. Once again, the man did so too. Now she was getting a bit upset, but still she did not say anything. After having a couple of sips of coffee she once again took another cookie. So did the man. She was really upset by this – especially since now only one cookie was left. Apparently the man also realized that only one cookie was left. Before she could say anything he took it, broke it in half, offered half to her, and proceeded to eat the other half himself. Then he smiled at her and, putting the paper under his arm, rose and walked off.
She was steamed! Her coffee break ruined, already thinking ahead of how she would tell this offense to her family, she folded her magazine, opened her shopping bag, and there discovered her own unopened bag of cookies.
There is so much in life that we share with others, and there is so much to be thankful for. Life cannot be rich without such gratitude.
So the invitation this morning to give thanks is an invitation to be made whole – to discover life in it’s fullness. For you own health’s sake, I hope that you will not be among those lost in ingratitude, but with the one found grateful.
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