October 9, 2016 – Luke 17:11-19
Luke 17:11-19
I’m Grateful
Lectionary 28C – October 9, 2016
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
Many of you know I like hosting little cocktail parties.
And this week I read an article called “Tips for Hosting a Tiki Cocktail Party.”
The most important advice the woman who wrote the article gave was this:
coming in as the number one tip was: “Throw More Parties.”
She writes:
Throwing a party is just like exercise: when you first get started, it hurts. The preparation, the cleanup, it takes a lot of energy. But if you persevere and throw another, hey, it doesn’t hurt so bad. You start building host muscles. Throw parties frequently enough and won’t feel it at all, it’ll be as hard as breathing air.
I suppose that is pretty good advice about just about anything.
The more you do it, the easier it gets,
the more you build up muscles for that particular thing.
Whether it is hosting parties, or playing the piano, or dancing, or playing hockey:
the more you do it the easier it gets and the more natural it becomes.
I’ve been saying for years now that if you have one Christian discipline in your life
(besides regular worship attendance), it should be giving thanks.
No matter what kind of a day you’ve had, the best thing you can do for your spiritual life is to
take a moment at the end of the day and think of the things – or just one thing –
you have to be thankful for.
And give thanks.
Thanksgiving is the fundamental posture of the Christian life.
This year I’m going to go further and make another suggestion to take this to the next level.
Because I read something else this week.
I read about a woman who, whenever anyone asked her how she was doing, would respond,
“I’m grateful.”
That’s it.
How are you? I’m grateful.
David Lose, a Lutheran seminary president, tells this story and comments that this person
“wanted to make a point. That gratitude is not only a response to good fortune but
also a choice we make.” (www.davidlose.net/2016/10c/pentecost-21-c-gratitude-and-grace)
Like throwing a party, gratitude is a choice we make.
Look at the 10 lepers who were healed by Jesus in the Gospel reading.
One, a Samaritan, an outsider, made a choice to respond with gratitude.
He chose to turn, and give thanks to Jesus for the healing.
It was a choice, not a foregone conclusion.
But, and here is the thing, it is not always easy.
It is not always easy to respond, “I’m grateful” when someone asks you how you are doing.
But it is a choice you can make.
Think about it.
Some days it may be pretty easy to respond,
“Yeah. Hey, come to think of it, I am actually grateful.”
You know, the good days.
The days when everything is going well.
When work is good.
When school is fun and meaningful.
When you’ve enjoyed your friends and they are all healthy.
And when family relationships are nurturing for everyone.
But, let’s face it, not all days are like that.
Maybe even most days.
Some days it is hard to think of things to be grateful for.
But that is just the point:
on those days it is especially important to think of things to be grateful for,
because those things will point precisely in the direction of
where God is sustaining you in the midst of your difficulties.
The muscle you are really exercising when you give thanks is the muscle that
points you to where God is at work in the midst of difficulty and stress and hardship.
And that is why it is important to exercise it – because it is a choice to see the blessings of life,
and how you are being sustained each and every moment of each and every day.
For sure, it is difficult in the midst of emotions we cannot always understand to give thanks.
And for sure, we cannot control our emotions – what we feel is what we feel,
and it is useless to feel guilty about the things we are feeling.
But we can choose how to respond in any situation – and we can choose to be grateful.
And the importance of it is just this:
When the one leper returns and gives thanks, Jesus says that that has made him well,
but literally in Greek what Jesus says is that that giving thanks has saved him.
Yes: 10 were healed, but one was saved.
There is something about giving thanks that enlarges your vision,
that gives you a bigger perspective.
There is something saving about giving thanks that blesses you and restores you.
There is something saving about recognizing that life is a precious, holy gift – and giving thanks.
When Jesus says that giving thanks saves you, we wonder what he can mean.
I thought about that this week, and thought about my own difficulties and about how
giving thanks has saved me and how it can save you.
Gratefulness saves you from worry in knowing that God is at work in your life despite
the things that make you anxious.
Gratefulness saves you from feeling alone when you recognize that even one friend is a
tremendous, priceless, irreplaceable gift.
Gratefulness saves you from self-centredness when you recognize just how much in your life is
gift, just how much is given.
Gratefulness saves you from anxiety, for giving thanks for past blessings assures you that
if God has been at work in your life in the past, God will be at work again in
the present and in the future.
Gratefulness saves you from cynicism and despair, for seeing only the bad stuff quickly
leads to those crippling things.
And gratefulness saves you from hoarding what you have – when you recognize life and
all you have as gift, it makes it easier to be generous and give freely,
confident that God will give more, because God too is a generous giver.
At First Lutheran Church we have carefully cultivated a culture of gratitude that fosters
hopefulness and generosity and joyful confident self-giving.
We know it is a choice and we take care to exercise the gratitude muscle.
I am so grateful this morning.
Grateful for you.
Grateful for this community.
Grateful for our many meaningful ministries.
Grateful for our guests and visitors.
Grateful for our staff.
Grateful for our children and youth.
Grateful for long-time members and newer members and everyone in between.
Grateful for the dedication of parents and the enthusiasm of children.
Grateful for the healthy life-giving spirit that is at work here.
I am grateful.
And grateful that every week, at the centre of our worship, is a Great Thanksgiving,
a long of gratefulness before we share the great gifts of God:
bread and wine, communion with God, communion with one another,
peace, forgiveness, and love.
A prayer in which we thank God for creation, the history of salvation, the compassion of Jesus,
the food on the table, and the presence of the life-giving Spirit.
Turns out we exercise the gratitude muscle every Sunday right here in worship.
Right here where we throw a party celebrating the gifts of God.
It’s a choice we make in response to God’s free gifts.
So let’s try a new thing in response to all this – it’s a choice we can make!
I’m going to invite you to make this your practice this week:
whenever someone asks you how you are this week, I invite you to respond,
“I’m grateful.”
I get that for some of you right now that will be difficult to do, and that is okay –
for everything there is a season, right?
But for the rest of you, try it out –
see how meaningful it can be to make the choice to be grateful.
In fact, let’s try it out right now!
How are you? I’m grateful! How are you? I’m grateful! How are you? I’m grateful.
Gratefulness is a way of celebrating the gifts of God that surround us
despite the not so great things that also surround us.
So throw a party. And then, throw more parties.
Be grateful for the people you celebrate with.
Choose to see the blessings in your life and be grateful.
Know that God is at work, always and always and always.
And together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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