FAITH AND GRATITUDE

SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON OCTOBER 14th, 2007

Luke 17: 15 "Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice."

Well you would, wouldn't you?

If you were cleansed of leprosy you would be so thrilled that you would dance for joy. No longer banished to the caves outside the city where you were forced to ring a bell so people would know where you were. Now you could return to your home and your family, and take you place in the community once again. It was a joy that very few lepers in Jesus' time experienced - and so we understand the joy.

But this was no ordinary healing. It follows on directly from last week's Gospel, which began with the Apostles saying to Jesus, "Lord, increase our faith". Then Jesus told a parable which indicated that their faith could be strong enough to uproot trees and plant them into the ocean. Today he continues directly on from that incident by showing how important faith is in healing.

Jesus is taking the Apostles on a gradual growth of understanding. When you look at this story as it is written - it is special. You see, Jesus didn't actually heal the lepers there and then. He didn't do that - they were only healed after they left him, going on their way to find the priest.

When we look at the story it's not obvious that the lepers actually expected to be healed. Leprosy was an awful disease with no known cure - all they said was, "Jesus, have mercy on us". The only way you could be restored from this hideous, incurable disease was to get a certificate of authenticity from the priest certifying you had been cleansed - and then you were restored to your family and community. Jesus is telling these ten lepers to go and ask for the certificate of healing - even though they weren't healed. It surely required enormous faith for these men to turn around in their leprosy and find the priest - assuming they would get the certificate. And lo and behold, as they went on in faith as Jesus asked, they were cleansed. They were healed because somehow they believed they would be healed. Or perhaps they were just desperate people? We can understand that, clinging to some hope that that day the priest may slip them the certificate of healing.

So imagine the joy as they went on their way and found those leprous spots disappearing before their very eyes! No doubt they couldn't wait to get the certificate. But one stopped. He turned back, praising God, and fell at Jesus' feet giving thanks. Jesus asked with incredulity, "Where are the other nine"? Only the foreigner showed his gratitude. For giving thanks the Samaritan received more than just cleansing from leprosy. "Your faith has made you whole", said Jesus. Made whole. We can perhaps assume that the other nine were cleansed - but there was still something lacking. Indeed, without gratitude in our lives there is something lacking.

Today's Gospel is about both faith and gratitude. Our faith has to be girded with gratitude and thanksgiving - otherwise it is not whole or full. I ask myself how often in my daily prayers do I give thanks to God? Not just for the things he has done, but because of who I am, because I live, because I have faith.

Ingratitude makes a person hard and cold. Yet, sadly, it is the most common of human weaknesses. William Shakespeare said: "Blow blow, thou winter wind; thou art not so unkind as man's ingratitude”.

Today's Gospel is timely - for gratitude and thanksgiving should be to the fore of our thinking over the next three weeks. Like all other Episcopal parishes, we are focusing on stewardship. Next Sunday a parishioner will speak on this subject in place of the sermon - talking about how much we have to be grateful for here at All Saints'. The following Saturday afternoon we have the parish dinner, in which we will join together in fellowship. I will outline visions and plans for our future, and some parishioners will share with you the joy of our recent pilgrimage to England. The following Sunday we celebrate All Saints' Day - our patronal festival, when we give thanks for the many blessings we receive here under the patronage of All Saints.

We cannot think of the word stewardship without the words thanksgiving and gratitude. Of course an integral part of it is pledging - and all will be invited to pledge to our financial budget. But pledging is not about money. Again, this is about gratitude. Our commitment in giving is really the way we follow in the steps of that healed leper who returned to Jesus and gave thanks.

Some people might comment that stewardship is really about the parish budget - and of course no one is more delighted than your Rector when the pledging meets the budget! But I also know that when you put your envelope in the offering and when you sign your pledge card, it is an offering. An offering to God from you. It is a gift to God. And when I get my monthly pay check I try to remember that. Without the gift and the offering of the people, there wouldn't be a pay check. I could tally up all I do in a week and see it as a payment for services rendered - but it's not a payment for services rendered, and you don't give your offering with that in mind.

I certainly don't receive it as some sort of compensation for what I do. For that pay check is also a gift to me. It's not a gift given to me - but a gift given to God, whose unworthy servant I am privileged to be as a priest. Your pledge is not really even a gift given to All Saints - your pledge is always a gift given to God. Given perhaps in thanks for the ministry of this parish - but it is about the ministry, never the minister. It is a gift of gratitude by the people of this parish to the Good Shepherd, who allows Himself to be represented by human, weak, and foolish shepherds. And we - shepherds and sheep together - are joined in this loving action of gratitude.

You may never have to put yourself in the place of a leper. But over the next few weeks you are asked to certainly put yourself in the place of the grateful leper who was made whole.