"Praise and Thanks then Get Up and Go!" Deuteronomy 8; Luke 17:11 - 19
A Sermon by Alex W. Evans, Pastor
Second Presbyterian Church, Richmond, VA
Sunday, October 9, 2022
Deuteronomy 8; Luke 17:11-19
“Praise and Thanks then Get Up and Go!”
The Heidelberg Catechism – written in 1562 - is one of the 12 Confessions in our PCUSA Constitution and Book of Confessions. Our various confessions have been written across the centuries to help us understand and articulate the faith that is ours. This catechism has 129 Questions and Answers – and they are grouped for devotional study across the 52 Sundays of the year. One question asks this: “What is meant by the 4th petition of the Lord’s Prayer – ‘give us this day our daily bread’?”
The answer in this Catechism offers the following: When we say - ‘give us this day our daily bread’- we are affirming that “God alone provides for our bodily and basic needs,” AND we are acknowledging that God is “the only source of all that is good,” AND without God’s “blessings neither our care and labor,” nor God’s gifts “can do us any good.” Therefore, we are to “withdraw our trust from all creatures and place it in God alone.” (4.125)
That is a powerful and faithful thought – all emerging from that simple and often-repeated phrase – “give us this day our daily bread.” All good things come from God – therefore we place our trust in God alone.
We have another story today – from the gospel of Luke - that wants to help us with trusting God and serving God. But first, a little background.
This story includes a Samaritan. Samaritans were the descendants of generations of intermarriage between (a) Jews left behind during the Babylonian exile – when many of God’s people were carried away from the land around 600BC - and (b) Gentiles who settled in Israel by the conquering Assyrians. So, Samaritans have a history and connections with Jews but it was often awkward and antagonistic. Imagine Roman Catholics and Protestants in early modern Europe, with their mutual bigotries, suspicions, and tendencies toward violence against one another. (See Saltproject.org – Commentary on Luke 17)
We all know about another story with a Samaritan in Luke’s gospel- the Good Samaritan: Jesus’ wonderful example of what loving your neighbor looks like. The Samaritan – unlike the religious leaders of the day - stopped on a dangerous road to help a beaten man, picked him up, and carried him to help and healing. “Go and do likewise” – like the Samaritan – Jesus says in Luke 10.
Now let us tune in to Luke 17:
11 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, 13 they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16 He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? 18 Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”
This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
There are some important insights that encourage us in this passage. First, Jesus is doing his thing – he has come on the scene to heal and make whole – to inaugurate the reign of God in our midst. And as he moves along this region between Samaria and Galilee, ten lepers approach him. They want to be healed. But, following custom, they keep their distance . . . and they cry out with reverence and hope – “Jesus, Master,” asking for mercy, for help and healing.
Jesus hears them and engages with them: “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” The ten lepers find themselves healed along the way.
But then the story shifts significantly. “One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.” He fell on his face at Jesus’ feet and thanked him! And he was a Samaritan!
There are so many things to celebrate about the passage –
Jesus comes to heal.
Lepers see Jesus and ask for mercy – revering him.
All ten are healed by the amazing and generous Jesus.
All ten obey Jesus – and head off to see the priests who can verify their cleanliness, so they will no longer be ostracized by the community.
Yet what does Jesus celebrate in this story? It is not reverence for Jesus – they all had that; not obedience to Jesus, because they all obeyed his instruction; not theological correctness, or what they thought about some hot-button issue of the day, some of the things we assume matter so much.
No, Jesus celebrates the one who returned and praised God. Jesus celebrates the one – the Samaritan - who gives specific expression to his or her gratitude for what Jesus had done.
Here is something important to realize: Jesus, in Luke, has two Samaritans to teach us two important things – one Samaritan shows us what it looks like to love your neighbor. The other Samaritan shows us what it looks like to love and thank God.
We often learn the most when we least expect it. Samaritans – the outsiders – teach best about how to love God and love neighbor.
Then Jesus says, “Were not ten made clean? Where are the other nine?”
If we are not careful, you know what we do – when we hear this story? If we are not careful, we simply find ways to condemn those nine: “What an ungrateful lot?” we might say. “How could they be so thoughtless?” . . . “Healed and made clean, and unable to praise and thank Jesus?” Who would do that?
And . . . that is the point Jesus wants to make. As soon as we look down on the nine, and judge those nine as ungrateful, as soon as we dismiss them in their failings, we miss how this story might be speaking to us.
Actually, I do not think those nine were ungrateful – they were merely doing what Jesus told them to do – “go and see the priest.” They revered Jesus enough to ask him for healing, and they obeyed Jesus when they were healed.
And yet when we revere Jesus, and even obey Jesus, we may still miss out on something that matters so much, and something very important to Jesus – gratitude. Gratitude – which wants to shape everything about our lives.
Indeed, I think the nine lepers are more like all of us. Think about this -
Maybe one of them was super successful, achieved so much in life, but then got exposed to some terrible disease - leprosy. When Jesus healed him, all he could think about was getting back to his impressive, successful life. So, that was his focus. Why would he turn around?
Maybe one of the nine was a person filled with grief. When we lose a loved one, when we are anticipating loss and pain, we can become paralyzed, that even when our life is filled with something new, something grand, we just drift along, and praise and thanksgiving, sincere gratitude are not what we think about.
Maybe one of the lepers was an overwhelmed young parent – so much to juggle: kids, life, jobs, household, and maintaining a peaceful demeanor amidst all that happens every day. There are too many things that need personal attention, too many irons in the fire. Praise and thanks? Gratitude? Maybe not.
Maybe several of the lepers just had too much on their hearts – worries about personal life and struggles, or just carrying on in the ho-hum. Maybe it was the heavy concerns of the world – like the political turmoil, or crazy climate crises – things that weigh on us. It is not that we are intentionally ungrateful. No one intends to be ungrateful – it happens to us. We get lost in other places, directed by other things.
Do you see my point? If we just condemn the nine for going on their way, we miss the message: Jesus comes to help and heal. But Jesus cares a great deal about praise and thanks, and gratitude – because praise and thanks – and gratitude – shape us in a wholesome way of life and faith.
Meister Eckhart long ago put it so well: “if the only prayer you ever say is THANK YOU, that will suffice.” To say THANK YOU in our prayers is to strive for that insight from the Heidelberg Confession – all good things come from God and we seek to place our trust in God. And the really important prayer – our best posture - is THANK YOU. Gratitude.
Another great theologian put it this way – the biggest sin of our lives is not what we might do to each other, nor is it what we fail to do for each other. The biggest sin of our lives is forgetting – we forget who loves us; we forget who provides for us; we forget where we find hope and light; we forget who holds us forever. (Soren Kierkegaard) We forget that we are absolutely covered by blessings and we are called only to be a blessing – not successful, not wealthy, not even important – we are called to be a blessing in the world, following Jesus.
That is why our first lesson feels so important today: with every new day, “take care that you do not forget the Lord your God.” The Lord has always brought us along. The Lord always sustains us – no matter what happens. “Remember the Lord, your God.” Remember with thanks and praise!
There is something else really cool about this passage. All through Luke’s gospel, there is this recurring theme of faithful life – “returning and praising God” – and we have it in this passage. Do you remember what it says in the familiar Christmas story – Luke 2 - and what the shepherds did once they visited the manger and saw the Messiah – “the returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen!” The one leper returned and fell on his face in praise and thanks. At the end of Luke, when Jesus ascends into heaven, it says the disciples “worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.”
It keeps coming up – turn and return in praise and thanks. Turn and find life with God. Turn and remember who holds you forever. Turn and keep turning – to say thanks, to express deep gratitude – for this changes everything. Gratitude shapes us. This is Jesus’ point! This is what Jesus celebrates.
And then another thing – it is not just about gratitude. Jesus says to the one who turned and came back: “Get up and go!”
So we get a true picture of faithful life”: Praise and thanks, . . . then “Get up and serve the Lord.” Return in praise and thanks, then “Go and spread love and peace.” Praise and thanks, then “Go” and work for justice, feed my sheep, bring healing to the world. Come to worship – sing and give thanks, then keep serving God, keep sharing God’s love and justice everywhere.
Remember. Praise and thanks! And get up and go. This is what we are about – all of us, always. Thanks be to God. Alleluia. Amen
Prayer of Commitment: Holy God, we open our hearts to your presence. We seek your help and healing. We seek to express sincerely our deep gratitude and love for you. And we seek to get up and go in faithful discipleship following Jesus. Show us that way. Amen
Alex W. Evans, Pastor, Second Presbyterian Church, Richmond, VA preached this sermon during Sunday worship on October 9, 2022. This is a rough manuscript.