Thanksgiving Sermon

Of the many things that I am bad at, writing thank you cards might just be number one. I don’t know why. Well, I guess that’s not entirely true. The reason why is because I am both disorganized and thoughtless. But, throughout the years, in my selfish effort to justify myself for not being better at writing thank you cards, I have realized that most people probably don’t really need to be thanked or even want to receive thanks for what they’ve given. They probably don’t really even care once they’ve opened up the thank you card I sent them. They just want to know I sent it. I bet that many people don’t really care about being thanked—they just want the recognition.

What do I mean by recognition? Well, since I usually get chewed out by my grandparents for not writing thank you cards, I’ll have to base my observations primarily on their responses. Why do they want a thank you card? So that they know that the package arrived safely. It makes me wonder how many packages they have lost in the mail that they are so worried about all of mine! Or, they want a thank you card so that they know that I know that a certain gift was from them. I guess that they just don’t trust my ability to read the card or the To/From label. And so year after year, birthday after birthday, Christmas after Christmas, I am forced to remember, as if I could ever forget, and be reminded that I am a horrible and ungrateful child/friend/grandson and nephew. Why? Because I am bad at writing thank you letters.

But, contrary to popular belief, I am actually very, very thankful for all of my gifts. It’s true. I may seem like an ungrateful and selfish man when it comes to writing thank you notes, but when I open up my money cards, my sweaters and the various knick-knacks that come my way, I often have warm fuzzy feelings creep into my chest! I smile. If truth be told, I am thankful . . . but still no one gets their cards on time. Why? How is this possible?

I find it rather funny to be preaching on Thanksgiving on this text from Luke about the healing of ten lepers because nobody really seems to focus on the leper who said thanks. His thanks you’s are drowned out by the deafening silence of the other nine who just leave their leprosy behind them and go on with life. And yet, on Thanksgiving, we celebrate the fact that 10% of these healed lepers take the time to give Jesus a thank you note. I’m sorry, but that just isn’t very inspiring to me. I can relate better to the 90%.

But, let me tell you a little secret about the 9 horrible and ungrateful lepers since they and I are kindred spirits. The text says that they were made clean. That’s right, they were all healed. And so, believe it or not, I think we can all be assured that they were, in fact, very thankful. They were outcasts from their society and now they would be reconciled. They were sick and now they were healthy. They were itchy and now they weren’t. They were bad at saying thank you. Just like me! But, they were indeed all thankful, they were just really bad at recognizing the giver of their gift.

I believe that this is why we hear Jesus make such a strange comment at the end of the passage. The one leper returns praising God and prostrating himself at Jesus’ feet (by the way, I think my Grandma would REALLY like that!) but Jesus doesn’t even tell the leper you’re welcome! Jesus says, “Get up. Go, on your way! Your faith has made you well.” And here I thought today was just about giving thanks! Jesus makes it about faith!

Martin Luther once made the argument that because God created everything and is everywhere at all times, everyone is worshipping God, the Father of Jesus Christ, whether they are Christian or not! If they are worshipping trees, God is there. If they are worshipping a rock, God is there. But, Luther said, they still have no excuse because they are blaspheming God’s name and calling him by a name he has not given them. Perhaps this fear is why I get those phone calls asking if I’ve received a gift. They are worried I’ve just sent the thank you note to the wrong person.

When God sent Jesus Christ to Earth, God gave us his name so that we might know and recognize the Savior of our lives, the forgiver of our sins, the creator of our Universe, the giver of our gifts, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. God knows that you may be thankful, but he wants to be recognized as the giver of your gifts. The other nine lepers were obviously thankful. They were healed! But while they may have thanked their good luck, or even the priest they were sent to, they did not recognize who the true giver of their healing was. They had no faith in Jesus and this is a problem.

According to Hebrews, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Why is faith in Jesus Christ important? Because when you put faith in someone or something, you look to them and trust them to provide you with gifts. A child has faith in his or her mother to provide him or her with food and shelter. An employer has faith in her workers to provide a certain number of productive hours and her employees have faith that she will provide them will a paycheck at the end of each pay period. A Christian has faith in Jesus Christ to provide them with every good gift this earth and eternal life have to give. Without faith in Jesus, we all might be thankful, but we don’t know where to look for hope, for health and for salvation.

God doesn’t just want you to be thankful tomorrow on the Thanksgiving holiday. He doesn’t just want you to live with an attitude of thankfulness throughout the upcoming year. He doesn’t just want me to get better at sending thank you notes to my grandma. God wants you to thank him. To recognize his authority over you. To recognize him as the author of your life and faith. To recognize Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the way, the truth and the life. Thanksgiving is a great holiday, but God wants your faith. For, as Paul says, we are justified by faith apart from works—apart from any great thanksgiving on our part.

As you can imagine, this revelation puts me in a very scary predicament. If I can’t even remember to write my thank you notes to my Grandma several times a year, what are the chances I will succeed in remembering to thank God, the Father of Jesus Christ, for all the good gifts I am provided with on a daily basis? What are the chances you will recognize the giver of your gifts like you are supposed to? The Bible gives us our clear answer—not even ten percent of us will remember. None of us will recognize God as the giver of everything we have. “For no one will be justified in the sight of the law.”

But here is my favorite part of the story. Before Jesus tells the thankful leper to go away Jesus asks him a very wonderful question, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine? Where are they?” You can almost hear him salivating! Like Jesus is just finishing the appetizer before his thanksgiving feast! Where are they? Go away. You’ve been made clean. I’ve got bigger fish to fry. I’ve got to go find the others now! For you can be sure that when there is even one lost sheep, one lost leper or one lost human being on this Earth, Jesus is after them so that they might recognize who the author of their life and their faith truly is. If you are lost, he is after you. So that you might know the name with which to address your thank you notes. And so, we give thanks tonight not just for all that we have, but to Jesus Christ who has given us all that we have. Let us pray . . . Amen.