Sermon 9th October 2022 – 18th Sunday after Pentecost
Text: Luke 17:11-19 – Gratitude
or expectations?
A lot of the TV shows and
movies we watch have heroes and villains. It’s a natural categorization of
people – the goodies and the baddies. Even in police dramas we not only have
the cops and robbers but we’ll find in the interrogations that police will
divide themselves between good cop and bad cop. So as we read bible stories
it’s easy to categorise the characters as either good or bad – hero or villain.
But sometimes we unfairly categorise people in our bible readings as bad or
evil without understanding what Jesus is teaching us. Take for example the
Pharisees. So often we hold them up as the evil Pharisees when in fact they
were the ones who upheld God’s laws of holiness. But, unfortunately, in their
zealousness they often hurt people all in the name of defending God’s holiness
– perhaps that’s how people often see the church in her attempts to uphold
God’s righteousness. The pharisees upheld the laws of holiness but often
disregarded the need for justice and welfare and human need.
Sometimes, we as the church,
can become insensitive to personal situations as we uphold the Ten
Commandments. Or take the rich man a couple weeks ago. There is no indication
that he was an evil person but rather distracted by his wealth – in much the
same way that Martha was distracted by her many chores but we often make her
out to be not as good as Mary who chose to sit at Jesus’ feet. But Jesus never
made that value distinction. And in today’s Gospel reading it is easy to hold
up the 9 lepers as unappreciative and cold hearted because the Samaritan was
the only person healed to come back and thank Jesus.
But as we look at the reading
the other 9 were simply following the rules set out by Moses and in fact
obeying Jesus’ direction for healing - "Go and show yourselves to the
priests’. In much the same way that the priest and Levite in the parable of the
Good Samaritan were not evil – Jesus never said that – but rather people
misguided as they did not want to break the rules for serving and entering
God’s holy temple by becoming unclean through coming into contact with a dead
body. They placed the holy requirements above the needs of their neighbour. What
we see in this story of the 10 lepers is not the difference between good and
bad but rather expectations and gratitude. Sadly gratitude is lacking and has
been replaced by expectations. It’s my right to have this.
We also saw that in Namaan who
was sent to Elisha to be healed of his leprosy. He was, as we read, commander
of the army of the king of Aram - a great man and in high favor with his
master. Because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. Namaan, though a
mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy. He was sent to Elisha for healing and
Elisha obliged. Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go, wash in the
Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean. But
instead of gratitude Namaan became angry because of his expectations. I thought
that for me he would surely come out and stand and call on the name of the Lord
his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! Note that
expectation – “FOR ME” Fortunately for Namaan his servants spoke common sense
to him: If the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you
not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, `Wash, and be
clean'?
Gratitude helps us to acknowledge
the many gifts, large and small, that have been given to us by others
especially God rather than focusing on our expectations. Our world today sadly
has many expectations. It’s my right to own my own house – it’s my right to
have the latest model phone or car – it’s my right to be served immediately and
not have to wait – and the list goes on. In our gospel lesson for today, we
have a story of gratitude found in an unlikely person because he had no
expectations as a Samaritan Leper. We
have the healing of the ten lepers, and in Jesus’ day lepers were quite
literally cut off from the community because of their physical illness. The leper was to be removed from sight and
isolated from all communal and religious contact.
In Leviticus, the law says,
“The leper who has the disease shall wear torn cloths and let the hair of his
head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry, ‘unclean, unclean.’ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the
disease; he is unclean; he shall dwell alone in a habitation outside the camp.”
As a Samaritan leper he had no
expectations to receive healing from Jesus. Do our expectations make us unable
to see the blessings of God. It’s my right to have this so when I receive it I
am not in a state of thankfulness for what I have received. Why should I thank
or tip the waiter. He was just doing his job and getting paid for it. It’s even
more challenging when there’s a need for humility, like Namaan. Are not Abana
and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?
Maybe you’ve been challenged
with humility to accept a lower blessing. Like a person who loses a high paying
executive job and is offered a lower menial job and feels embarrassed or
insulted rather than appreciative. So, as Christians, we need to listen to what
Paul says to the Philippians so we can see the blessings that God has placed in
our life where he says: Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in
very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his
own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a
servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a
human, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! By
humbling himself and not using his divine nature for his own advantage he was
instead given the name above all names. No expectations but true glory given to
him.
So even if we don’t achieve
what we expect we should receive we can still count our blessings as St Paul
says in today’s reading – Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the
elect, so that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with
eternal glory. The saying is sure: if we have died with him, we will also live
with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will
also deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful-- for he cannot deny
himself. There are so many expectations in people’s lives today that when they
receive less than what they expect they believe it’s an injustice rather than
seeing the blessings that are there. Like Namaan. Whether he was healed in the
rivers of Damascus or the river Jordan – what difference would it have made? The end result was the same. Whether he was
healed by Elisha magically waving his hands over his leprosy or belittling
himself by washing himself 7 times, what’s the difference – the end result is
the same.
And so for us as Christians –
some live a life that on the surface seems free from hardship while some live
lives from one illness to another. Some live lives in luxury while others
scrape to just get through – like the Rich Man and Lazarus. But at the end of
the journey our destination is the same – eternal life in heaven. And when we
remember all that God has done for us – sacrificing his own son – him who had
no sin became our sin so we could become his righteousness. When we consider,
what are humans that you are mindful of us. When we consider it was while we
were yet sinners that Christ died for us. As we consider that our present
suffering is not worth comparing with the glory that awaits. Even a glass of
cold water would be received with gratitude let alone eternal life.
Gratitude enables us to see
the good in everything. Expectations will always let us down because there will
always be someone with more and better. There will always be something better
that advertising convinces us that we need. God is a gracious God who gives us
more than we ever deserve or expect as Luther says in his small catechism – All
this God does out of his fatherly and divine goodness and mercy though I do not
deserve it. Therefore I surely ought to thank and praise, serve and obey him. This
is most certainly true.
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