Deo Gloria
November 25+26, 2020
Sermon for Thanksgiving
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: Luke 17:11-19
Theme: Don’t Forget to Say “Thank You”!
- For the physical blessings
- And for the spiritual blessings
Many of you, I’m sure, are familiar with Rudyard Kipling. Rudyard Kipling lived from 1865 to 1936. He was an English author who was born in Bombay, India. He wrote poetry and is the author of books like Captain Courageous, How the Leopard Got His Spots, and The Jungle Book. Kipling’s writings not only made him famous, they made him quite wealthy too. In fact, a newspaper reporter came up to him once and said, “Mr. Kipling, I just read that someone calculated that the money you make from your writings amounts to over $100 a word.” He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a $100 bill and gave it to him and said, “Here’s a $100 bill, Mr. Kipling. Now give me one of your $100 words.”
Mr. Kipling looked at the money, put it in his pocket and said, “Thanks!”
Thanks—ironically, thanks is one of those $100 words, isn’t it? It’s such a valuable word because so often people forget to say it, so often we forget to say it. We forget to thank others for the things they give us or for the things they do for us. And sometimes, sad to say, we even forget to thank God. Tomorrow being Thanksgiving, we want to make a special point of remembering to thank God for all that he has given us. This story recorded in the Gospel of Luke serves as a good reminder for us, a reminder not to forget to say “Thank you.”
First of all, we want to remember to say thanks for the physical blessings that God has given us, like the man in our story. Imagine contracting an illness that requires you to self-quarantine, to isolate yourself from your family and friends until you are better; a disease that requires you to cover the lower half of your face and stay at least 4 paces or about 12 feet away from other people at all times; a disease that often results in significant suffering and pain; a disease for which there is no cure and often results in death. Perhaps it isn’t so hard for us to imagine something like that this year, but actually I’m not talking about COVID-19. I’m talking about a disease called leprosy. And this man had it.
It would often start with whitish patches appearing on your skin—often on your face or your hands—patches that would gradually spread to other parts of your body. Next, spongy, tumor-like boils would appear. And shortly after that, your body would start falling apart. First, your ear might slowly disintegrate and fall off. Next your nose might gradually wear away. Then you might start losing your fingers. The tissue between your bones would slowly disintegrate and then parts of your fingers would just fall off. They would get shorter and shorter and shorter until they were gone, or just little stubs were left. And that would just keep happening to one limb or extremity after another until you died or infection set in and killed you. At times, leprosy was a very painful disease. And worst of all, there was no cure. If you got leprosy, there was a slim chance you might recover, but probably not. Most likely you would die, die a slow and painful death.
Besides all that, leprosy was also very contagious. If you came down with leprosy, you couldn’t stay around other people. You couldn’t stay at home and have your family take care of you. You had to leave. You had to go out and live somewhere in the country, somewhere away from normal people. You’d probably end up living in a leper colony with other lepers. You couldn’t go shopping at Walmart or Target on Black Friday. You couldn’t go to McDonald’s or Subway for lunch. You had to stay away from other people as much as possible. And if you did happen to come close to someone, you had to cover your face and yell out, “Unclean! Unclean!” so the other person would know to stay away from you. How humiliating! No one wanted anything to do with you if you had leprosy. Your only friends were other lepers.
The man in this story had this dreaded disease. How long he had had it we don’t know. It could have been a month or two. On the other hand, it could have been several years already. Because of it, he had been forced to leave home and live in a leper colony, away from his family and friends. Then, one day, while he and nine other lepers were out walking, lo and behold, here comes Jesus down the road on his way to a nearby village. Jesus, the man whom some claimed to be the promised Messiah—Jesus, the prophet who had healed so many other people, including other lepers—“Jesus, Master,” they cried out, “have pity on us.”
“Go,” he said to them. “Go, show yourselves to the priests.”
“Go, show ourselves to the priests? But we’re not better yet. Hey, wait! Jesus, you’ve got to heal us first. Jesus…. Well, he did say we should go to the priests. And from what I’ve heard, you can believe everything this guy says. So let’s go.” And as they went, their leprosy suddenly disappeared. No more white spots, no more boils, no more pain. No more losing ears or fingers or toes. No more fear of dying a slow and painful death. Now they could actually go home again and live with their family and sleep in their own bed and go to the mall and eat at Subway. Wow, what a wonderful feeling! What a feeling of joy! “Come on, let’s show ourselves to the priests, quick!” And off they ran—except for one.
One man, a Samaritan, remembered something. He remembered how he had been cured. He remembered that someone had healed him. And he turned around and immediately went back to thank him. As he went, he praised God in a loud voice. He didn’t care if he sounded off key. He didn’t care if anyone heard him. When he found Jesus, he fell down at his feet and thanked him for restoring his health, thanked him for saving his life. Unlike the other nine, this man did not forget to say “Thank you.”
When I think of this leper, I cannot help but think of another group of thankful people, the Pilgrims. As with so many things that took place in the early history of our country, there is so much misinformation out there concerning that first Thanksgiving. So often you hear that the reason the Pilgrims celebrated Thanksgiving was to thank the Indians, when nothing could be farther from the truth. True, the Pilgrims were thankful for the Indians. They were very thankful for the good relationship they enjoyed with the Indians, that they were on friendly terms with them, not at war like the settlers down at Jamestown. But the Pilgrims did not celebrate Thanksgiving in order to thank the Indians. They celebrated Thanksgiving in order to thank God.
Their reason for doing so goes back to the winter of 1621-1622. The previous fall they had been blessed with a good harvest–nothing to write home about, but at least they had enough food stored up to make it through the winter. But then in November, a ship arrived from England with 35 more colonists on board, and no food. Their food supplies had all but been exhausted on the voyage over. The hearts of the Pilgrims sank. Was it going to be another winter like last year, a winter when 47 people died, nearly half of the colony? They called an emergency meeting and immediately decided to go on half rations. But as the winter wore on, their food supplies dwindled. And by the end of the winter they were reduced to a ration of 5 kernels of corn per person per day. You heard me right, 5 kernels of corn per person per day. And by God’s grace and mercy, not a single person died. Not one! A year and a half later, after God had delivered them from a drought and blessed them with a bountiful harvest, Governor Bradford declared a general Day of Thanksgiving, a day to thank God for his bountiful blessings and his providential care. Yes, the Pilgrims did invite the Indians to join them in this celebration, but that didn’t change its purpose. They gathered together on that special day to thank God for all his blessings.
That’s what Thanksgiving is still about today, a day to remember, a day to take time out from everything else that is going on in our lives and thank God for the many blessings he has given us, including the ones we sometimes take for granted. We have our families: our moms and dads, our sons and daughters, our brothers and sisters, our grandparents, our cousins; our friends. No, we may not be able to get together with them this year; but maybe for that very reason we appreciate them all the more and appreciate what a blessing they are!
We also have our bodies and our health. Perhaps this year more than ever before we’ve come to appreciate what a blessing good health is. Some of us have had COVID-19 or maybe a family member or friend. Others have had to deal with some other serious illness, an illness that required extensive medical treatment or surgery. And through the doctors and their skill or through various kinds of medication and treatment, God restored your health. Did you remember to say thanks? Or what about that cold you had or that nasty flu bug? Again, God enabled your body to fight off that nasty bug and get better. Did you remember to thank him? Or maybe you’ve never had a serious illness like leprosy or cancer or COVID-19. Maybe God has blessed you with good health throughout your life. Did you remember to thank him?
Then we have our food, an abundance of food. How many of us have ever had to go hungry, have had to go without food for even a day? How many of us have ever had to survive on five kernels of corn per day? Few of us, if any. For most of us, our freezers are full. Our friges are full. Our pantries are full. We have so much food that there have been times we’ve actually had to throw food away because we couldn’t eat it all. How richly God has provided for us—day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year! Have we remembered to thank him for it?
And I haven’t mentioned all the other things we have: the clothes, the cars, the homes, the toys, the computers, the iPhones, the Barbie Dolls. God has been so good to us–so very, very good. Let’s be sure to say thanks, to remember to thank God for the physical blessings he has given us, and the spiritual ones as well.
This Samaritan man was also fortunate enough to experience these. You see, he trusted in Jesus Christ as his Savior. We don’t know where he had heard about Jesus or who had told him; but someone had. And he believed. Notice what Jesus said to him in the very last verse of out text: “Rise and go,” Jesus said, “your faith has made you well”(v. 19). Besides now having a healthy body, this man also had a healthy soul, a soul that had been cleansed from the fatal disease of sin. For this too he could give thanks.
And so can we. We too were sick inwardly. We had a disease much worse than leprosy or COVID-19. Our souls were infected with a disease called sin, a terrible disease that disfigures our lives, that manifests itself in so many awful and disgusting ways, and ultimately would lead to the death of our souls. And there is no cure—no human cure. There is no medicine we can take that will get rid of sin. There is no surgery we can undergo that will get rid of sin. There is nothing we can do to get rid of this awful disease and make ourselves better again.
But God can. And God has. Through his Son Jesus Christ, God healed our sin-sick souls. He cleansed our souls through Jesus’ holy, precious blood and with his innocent suffering and death. On top of that, he has given us faith, faith to believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior. We didn’t come to faith on our own. We didn’t create faith in our own hearts. God brought us to faith through his Word and the working of his Spirit. In addition, God has given us his Word and Sacraments to strengthen us in our faith and to bind up our broken hearts with the healing ointment of his love and forgiveness. Likewise, he has given us his precious promises: his promise to be with us always; his promise to watch over us and protect us; his promise to provide for all our needs; his promise to hear and answer our prayers. And on top of all of that, God has given us eternal life, the privilege of living with him forever in unending peace and glory. What more could we want? What more could we possibly ask for?
Yes, God has been so good to us–so very, very good. Let’s not take his bountiful blessings for granted or receive his gifts with ungrateful hearts. Instead, let’s remember to say that $100 word, as this Samaritan man did. Let’s remember to thank our gracious God for the many blessings he has given us, both the physical ones and the spiritual ones. Amen.