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Thanksgiving Holiday, 11/24/2011

Sermon on Luke :, by Andrew Smith

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Thanksgiving is a most American holiday. Like all our national holidays, a day of national thanksgiving is an act of civil law, by executive order from at least two of our most famous presidents, Lincoln and perhaps most importantly, Washington, the father of our great nation. And it seems about right to our religious sensibilities that the nation should stop for a moment and give thanks for all the abundance we have enjoyed. Except, well... Except that both of the presidential proclamations were not proclamations of national thanksgiving so much as they were proclamations of national supplication and prayer, even national repentance for the transgressions of the nation as a whole and the people in it, individually. "In 1789, President Washington wrote, "that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions - to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually..."¹ In 1863, during the terrible war between the states, President Lincoln wrote:

I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore if, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.²

These are the words of the first in an unbroken series of national thanksgiving proclamations. It's really from President Lincoln that we have a regular day of thanksgiving. Other proclamations, by these and other presidents at other times were of a more celebratory nature, but these first proclamations, by Washington and by Lincoln were not meant as celebration but as days of sober reflection and even repentance for sin.

Sober reflection, introspection, even repentance, these are not the words of the hour in our nation today. It is as if, collectively, we have forgotten these words. After the global economic collapse in 2008 and the resulting economic recession, or depression, a collapse so catastrophic some $15 trillion in wealth was destroyed, there has not been one word of repentance. What's happening nationally is happening in our homes. It's happening in our churches too. Repentance is word long gone. Repentance has been replaced with "acceptance" the false idea that God just accepts us the way we are. With the hair shirt it comes with, repentance is best tucked away in the memory chest.

That's why the readings for Thanksgiving are so important and so beneficial for us. They actually restore to our usage God's Word. They restore words like thanksgiving and supplication and contentment and repentance. God speaks to us, again, and says, "And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you." Remember the goodness of the Lord. Give thanks for it. Remember how He humbled you and fed you and led you. Remember the goodness of the Lord and bless the Lord.

At the end of the service, after we have feasted at the Lord's Table once again, the pastor says to remnant of the congregation that didn't sneak out after they communed, "Let us bless the Lord." Which is nearly always met with an often confused and somewhat muffled, "Thanks be to God." As a group, we're not even sure what we're doing. I've forgotten what page we're on. Are we back in the hymnal again? I thought the liturgy was over. Regardless, the pastor says, "Let us bless the Lord." And the people respond. "Thanks be to God." "And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land he has given you." Remember the goodness of the Lord and bless the Lord.

And so Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem passing along the border lands up between Samaria and Galilee. And while he was going into a village up in that region he was met by ten lepers. This is where the lepers would be. They would be outside the village, cut off from the safety and the society of the village. They were good lepers and they were following all the leper rules. They stood a good long way off from Jesus and cried out to Jesus for mercy. "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." Is this not the same prayer we pray as we enter the Lord's house, even after we have received the forgiveness of sins, "Lord have mercy upon us, Christ have mercy upon us, Lord have mercy upon us." Even as forgiven children of God we know we are but beggars and as lepers. "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." And when Jesus saw them he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went the miracle happened, they were cleansed of their leprosy. Lepers don't get better on their own. Jesus had healed them. Let us bless the Lord. Thanks be to God.

They asked of Jesus some mercy, probably some alms and instead Jesus gave them great mercy; He healed them of their leprosy. Just as Jesus crossed over the border from Galilee to Samaria, He crossed over to the ones who were unclean in order to make them clean. Jesus told them to go and show themselves to the priests. He sent them not just to be obedient to the Law but sent them to the place of the priests to be declared whole again. They were sent to the place of sacrifice, to the place of the shedding of blood. Jesus wants the priests in the temple to testify that these men who were once lepers have been cleansed and confirm that God has made them whole again. And the ten lepers were happy to travel down to the temple in the expectation that they would be made clean, but only one leper, after he was healed, was willing to return and give glory to God, falling on his face at Jesus' feet and worshipping God in the person of Jesus Christ. And this person was a foreigner, a half-breed, a less than Jewish man, a Samaritan.

This reading is not just an encouragement to all of us to be more thankful. We have presidential proclamations for that! No, this reading is the Word of God to us to show us again the great healer Jesus Christ and the healing work He has done in our world . I have the great privilege to commune the sick and the shut-in of my flock. In the case of the shut-ins, I'll typically use the readings from the previous Sunday to try to connect them to the life of the church. But in the case of the sick I'll use the readings for communing the sick. These are a great comfort to those I visit but they are also a great comfort to me. From Isaiah 43, "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by [your] name, you are mine." From the end of Matthew 4, "they brought [to Jesus ] all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them." But then there's the post communion collect, "we pray that this heavenly food which we have received will strengthen our faith that we may bear all crosses, sickness and trials with patience and trust until you grant us deliverance, peace, and health." (LW, Little Agenda, 50) Jesus continues to heal in our world.

Jesus healed the sick. He healed those oppressed by demons, paralytics, epileptics, and lepers. But Jesus brings healing now, too, to you and me. And the healing that Jesus brings is more than just a metaphor for the forgiveness of sins, it is the forgiveness of sins and it is true healing. We have this passage today not to encourage us to dig deep and ponder why we might be a bit more thankful. We have this passage today to remind us of the great love and mercy of Jesus Christ who heals us in soul and body. And if you think there's not really a connection here and I'm just playing preacher and turning a healing story into something about the Lord's Supper, think again because the leper gives thanks to Jesus. The Greek word there is eucharisto! From which we get the word Eucharist. Eucharisto is one of those words that pops up throughout the New Testament and it means to give thanks to God, but its only here that it refers to giving thanks to Jesus! The Samaritan returns to Jesus glorifying God and falling down on his face gives thanks, performs eucharist, to Jesus, the one who healed him, the one who restored him and made him whole again.

The place to give thanks is at the feet of Jesus. It's quite possible this Samaritan never made it to the temple in Jerusalem. They probably wouldn't have let him in. Seeing himself now healed, He realized the location of God's great grace for him and it was where Jesus is. True faith is faith in the one who brings salvation and healing. True faith worships Jesus.

What the rest of the nation does or does not do over Thanksgiving does not concern me. Thanksgiving is a time for Christians to give thanks to God for the many blessings of the passing year. It is a time to offer prayers on behalf of this nation and our neighbors and find contentment in what we have been given, whether that contentment is in abundance or in scarcity. It is even a time to turn to Jesus and fall down on our faces and worship Him, giving Him thanks as the Giver of every good and perfect gift. Hear His Word and be restored as His disciple, even healed.

"Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." Amen.