“Were Not Ten Healed?”
(A Sermon for Thanksgiving Day, St
Mary’s Catholic Church)
Bruce J. Johnson (
Scripture:
Luke 17: 11-19
Many years ago now, almost 20 years,
Erma Bombeck, the oft read and sometimes entertaining
writer, wrote a piece for her syndicated column on the meaning of Thanksgiving.
Generally speaking, she is really quite humorous. At least she has great titles
for her many books, titles such as Grass
Is A Greener over the Septic Tank, or When You look you’re your Passport Photo,
It is Time to God Home, or Just Wait till You You’re your Own Children, If Life
is a Bowl of Cherries-What Am I Doing in the Pits.” I didn’t, however,
find anything humorous about this article. By the Way, I have shared it with
you twice before, first back in 1987 at the Second Congregational Church and
then in 1993 from this very pulpit. On both of those occasions I used it as an
entry point for railing against the secularization of what was originally
intended to be not a ‘holiday’ but a ‘holy’day.
Please
forgive me for reading it again. But I have kept it all these years and what
both saddens and amazes me is that it gets older, it has become increasing more
apt for the times. Listen:
THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT THANKSGIVING. ITS ONE OF THE FEW TIMES A FAMILY ASSEMBLES FOR NO
REASON WHATSOEVER.
THE WILL ISN'T BEING READ. NO ONE IS GETTING MARRIED. NO ONE
IS BEING BAR MITZVAHED OR CONFIRMED. NO ONE IS CELEBRATING A BIRTHDAY OR
ANNIVERSARY. NO ONE DIED.....
THERE ARE NO SPEECHES. NO
TOASTS.
NO ENTERTAINMENT. NO
ONE DRESSES UP IN A COSTUME TO VIE FOR A PRIZE. THERE ARE NO PROMISES OF GIFTS
WRAPPED IN THE MYSTERY OF FANCY PAPER.
Then she concludes the article with this line:
IT’S A NO-REASON
How
dreadful a column!
And yet,
I will say it again, our society is becoming more and more secularized each year and although it is a
tradition at this service to read the Governor’s Thanksgiving Proclamation,
this year’s was particularly disappointing. Although it mentions eloquently the
gifts and blessings for which we are thankful and the need to share those
blessing with those less fortunate, there is no mention yet again of God, as
any and all of the faith traditions of this richly diverse nation understands
the Creator. We are being encouraged to give thanks for the blessings of
life and love, of food and fortune, family and friends, freedom, community and
country but not to the One who gives them.
So, to my
way of thinking we have good reason to gobble a bit this morning.
And the
story of the Ten Lepers is a perfect one for that purpose.
Like
other wonderful stories from scripture, it makes more than one point. It has
more than one insight to offer and issues more than one challenge for the
person who would be faithful. We all know that the story highlights and contrasts
the responses of ten lepers who were healed by Jesus. He was on way to
And that’s
when Jesus wonders:
“Were
not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?”
Now our
first inclination to praise the one and condemn the nine, assuming that
because the nine not return they were ungrateful. But mind you, no where does
it say that. It simply says that they do not return to praise God. Indeed, I
like to give them the benefit of the doubt. I just don’t know many people who
are not grateful for the gifts and blessings in their lives or are not grateful
when something is done for them. And in the case of these lepers, I can’t even
begin to imagine how they must have felt, after their time of separation and
societal judgment. They must have been coming out of their skin with
gratitude…. And maybe they didn’t even stay on the path to the priests! Maybe
they made a bee-line to their family and kids and friends to show them and to
share with the joy. And who among doesn’t understand that?…
God maybe this year, they will be at Thanksgiving Dinner and can be thankful
for their new-found health---- indeed, life!
Ah! Which brings us
to the real point of the passage.
As
important as being thankful for the gifts and blessings in our lives is, it
falls somewhat flat when our feelings and expressions of thanksgiving do not
acknowledge the ONE who gives and grants, the One who makes it all happen.
Where are the nine? Jesus asks, "Was not one found to return and give
praise to God, except this one and he ----a
foreigner?” (v. 17-19)
And that
too is the essence of the meaning of Thanksgiving. It is not a holiday—it is a
‘holy’ day--- one that draws us together to give praise and thanks to God for
all our blessings. And it is a shame they were are apparently drifting away
from that understanding and focus.
You know,
every President since George Washington has issued a proclamation concerning a
National Day of Public Thanksgiving. And
it was Abraham Lincoln who 1863 established the day as being the fourth or last
Thursday in November..... NOT FOR NO
REASON but because, as he put it, after
counting the blessings of a nation even though it be RAVAGED by a bloody Civil War, wrote :
NO HUMAN COUNSEL HATH DEVISED, NOR HATH ANY MORTAL HAND WORKED
OUT THESE GREAT THINGS. THEY ARE THE GRACIOUS GIFTS OF THE MOST
HIGH GOD, WHO, WHILE DEALING WITH
Indeed, the
reason for the day is to solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledge
as with one heart and one voice the gifts we have received from GOD!
I’ve got a
bunch of Presidential Proclamations and its fun to read them:
How about
these words from one
“I urge that all observe this day with reverence and with
humility.
Let us renew the spirit of the Pilgrims at that first
Thanksgiving, lonely in their inscrutable wilderness, facing their dark unknown
with a faith born of their dedication to God
and a fortitude drawn from their sense that all men were brothers.”
Issued in
Or this
one:
“In 1863 Abraham Lincoln,
the 16th President of the
Issued
Or this
one:
“Although the first years of
Issued
Or this
one:
“Another year has passed our
American journey. The seasons have completed another cycle and it is harvest
time in
And, like
the Pilgrims who dedicated Thanksgiving more that 300 years ago, we gather to
thank God for bringing us safely to the threshold of a new world full of
exhilarating challenge and promise.”
Issued
Finally:
“Each year on Thanksgiving we gather with family and friends
to thank God for the many blessings he has given us, and we ask God to continue
to guide and watch over us.”
Issued
There is
something about Thanksgiving that is special—something that makes it not a
holiday but a holy- day--- a day set aside for the blessed to say ‘thank- you’
to the God who blesses so abundantly and to do so solemnly, reverently and gratefully,
as with one heart and one voice.
Let
us now sing as if with one heart and one voice and one faith:
NOW THANK WE ALL
OUR GOD.
AMEN