GIVING THANKS
Homily for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity
The Rev. Marq Toombs+ Curate
The Collect. Almighty and everlasting God, give unto us the increase of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain that which thou dost promise, make us to love that which thou dost command; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Epistle. Galatians 5:16-24; The Gospel. Luke 17:11-19
In the Name of God: the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Érase una vez en Oaxaca Mexico — Once upon a time in Oaxaca Mexico, I attended a meeting of church leaders. Since I was the newest member of that community I took it upon myself to serve the refreshments to the men while they discussed matters pertaining to the needs of our network of congregations.
The refreshments were off brand Oreo cookies, Esprite, and Coca Cola. Served a tiempo. No ice.
After I served a small plate of cookies and a cup of refresco to each man I returned to my seat, grabbed a cookie, and popped it in my mouth. That’s when I noticed that the eyes of Oaxaca were on me. Brother Jose Hernandez, an old and revered man, said meekly, “No vamos a dar gracias o que?” “Aren’t we going to give thanks?” At that moment I realized something ugly about myself and beautiful about them. They were thankful for everything, even the small things; but I was thankful for some things, perhaps only the big things.
Looking back on my life so far, I realize that it has been the poor who have taught me the most about gratitude, not the rich. It has been the poor who have taught me the most about generosity, not the well-to-do.
Today, I want to poke and prod all of you, whether rich or poor or somewhere in between, to contemplate the good work of giving thanks for all things – especially Jesus Christ.
And to help remove or reduce your resistance, I want to give you a fair warning upfront:
If you want to tempt the Lord, or tick him off, or test the limits of his grace, stop thanking him. Don’t cultivate an attitude of gratitude. Act like you deserve what you have – even more than you have. Become ungrateful. Grumble and complain about your lot in life. Live, move, and act like an entitled spoiled brat.
But take heed: the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against ungodly and ungrateful people. Against those who do not glorify God or give him thanks (Romans 1:18-21).
According to the Spirit, ingratitude is a grave sin that ranks high at the top of reasons God’s judgment is unveiled from heaven. It ranks above idolatry and all forms of sexual immorality, including unnatural relations like homosexuality. It ranks above dishonoring parents, murder, and lying. Why? Because ingratitude lies at the root of all works of the flesh.
Consider: The adulterer is ungrateful for their marriage. The idolater is not grateful for the Savior of the world. The heretical is not thankful for the truth. The envious is un-thankful for the gifts they’ve received. The hateful and murderous are not grateful for the gifts of life and love.
The world is full of ungrateful souls. It seems to me that these days fewer and fewer people acknowledge the Giver of gifts much less their utter dependence on Providence. Sadly, many of our neighbors cop the same attitude as the fictional character Bart Simpson. He infamously prayed, “Dear God, we paid for all this stuff ourselves, so thanks for nothing.”
Alas, sometimes life imitates art.
But the Church has some ungrateful souls in her midst as well. People who want all the gifts, but none of the Giver. They want stuff, but don’t want the Spirit. They beg for mercies, but don’t want the Messiah. They love the liturgy and the sacraments, but the Lord and Savior not so much. They cry for change, but don’t want the Church.
Ingratitude is an offense against Heaven.
Isn’t this what we see in the Gospel?
Ten lepers. All unclean image-bearers. Outcasts. Misfits. All dirty men in dire straits and desperate need, much like some of us.
Like a rag-tag band of wannabe worshipers they lift their voices and cry out to Jesus for mercy. In response to their heartfelt prayer, Jesus sends them to the priests at the temple. According to God’s Holy Law, this was the right thing to do.
But notice: They were not cleansed and healed at that moment. Nor at the moment they arrived at the temple.
The Spirit says, “And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.”
All ten were cleansed and healed while they were on the way, in the liminal space between the village and the priests.
More often than not, this is how the Lord deals with us.
He sees us in our need. He hears our cries for mercy. He sends us to his appointed ministers. And when we take him at his word, and trust and obey his commands, and return to the Church, and show ourselves to the priests, that is when he heals us and cleanses us. As we go.
All ten were cleansed and healed. “But one of the lepers, when he saw he was healed, turned back, and glorified God with a loud voice, and fell down on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks.”
And he was a Samaritan. A mestizo.
A stranger. A mutt.
To be clear: All ten were cleansed and healed. Jesus showed mercy without showing partiality or favoritism. He showed mercy on the Jewish lepers and the non-Jewish leper; on the citizens and the stranger; the pure bloods and the mudblood; the ungrateful and the grateful.
All ten were cleansed and healed.
But not in the way prescribed by the Law of Moses in Leviticus 14. The Law required ritual sacrifices involving two clean birds and cedar wood and a scarlet string and hyssop and fresh water and lambs and blood and oil and a priest's hands (Leviticus 14).
But the ten lepers were cleansed and healed in the true and better way provided by the Gospel of Jesus, at the crucifixion and resurrection, in which the fulfillment of Leviticus 14 took place. How?
Jesus is the true Law, the Torah made flesh.
Jesus is the clean bird that shed his blood and laid down his life for the unclean.
Jesus is the clean bird that was bound to a tree and wet his lips with hyssop and carried the leprosy of our sins far away never to return.
Jesus is the Lamb whose shed blood takes away our guilt and the sins of the world.
Again, all ten lepers were cleansed and healed by Jesus.
Nine kept the letter of the law, but one kept the spirit of Jesus’s word.
When he turned back and showed himself to Jesus, he was walking by the Spirit not the letter. How? Because he turned back, he went to the true and better priest, and he showed him the newborn skin, and showered him with new songs of praise.
Now, that cleansed man did know it at the time, but Jesus was the true and better priest who was ordained by God to make atonement on behalf of lepers just like him.
Jesus was the high priest who offered the guilt offering and the sin offering for the unclean and unhealthy.
The high priest who satisfied the love of God for leprous sinners to be cleansed from their uncleannesses.
The high priest who cleansed and consecrated us with his blood.
The high priest who poured out his Spirit and sealed us with his presence and anointed us with sacred oil.
The high priest who heals us and cleanses us and forgives our sins.
Now, I have a confession to make that I imagine all of you can echo:
When I look down at myself and see the leprosy of sin on my soul and in my life, I feel compelled to cry out in desperation, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this leprous body of death?”
But when I look up to heaven and see my High Priest seated at the right hand of God, praying for me, I am compelled to fall on my face and give glory to God with a loud voice, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25)
Now, you can be forgiven if you forget to give thanks for something as small as off-brand cookies and refresco. But how can you ever be forgiven if you fail to give thanks to God for the atoning sacrifice of his Son — for the priestly ministry of our Savior Jesus Christ?! You can’t! You must glorify God and give thanks for Jesus Christ.
There are many ways to do this. We do it with our life, and with our lips, and with our liturgy.
And we do it with the Lord’s Supper. Eucharist means Thanksgiving. This is one of the most important ways we glorify God and give thanks to Jesus for healing us and cleansing us. We offer the Eucharist, thanksgiving, to God.
This is why you go to Church, show yourself to the priests, give glory to God and celebrate Holy Communion.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
And by his love and grace we have an altar from which souls that do not follow him have no right to eat. But we do. By his love and grace we have the right to eat his Body and drink his Blood from his altar.
Therefore, through Jesus, let us keep offering up a sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of lips that confess his name…for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. (Hebrews 13 selected)
And seeing that we have a great High Priest who has passed into the Heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us glorify God and give him thanks.
For we do not have a High Priest who cannot be touched with the feelings of our leprosies, but we do have a sympathetic High Priest, who totally gets us, because he was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
So, let us come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4 selected)
This is how you obtain what was promised and love that which was commanded.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
