Seriously, Count Your Blessings ~ Luke 17:11-19 ~ Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost

Does God exist for you?  Or, do you exist for God?

Think about it…  What would you say?

In our Gospel, we hear from ten people whose actions speak louder than words ever could: ten people who had been afflicted with leprosy. 

Two thousand years ago, leprosy was, the most feared and dreadful disease that could ever afflict a human being.  It wasn’t necessarily a fatal disease, but to be infected with leprosy was to become, basically, dead.   Your body would be covered with disgusting reddish or greenish boils that would sting, itch, and peal with excruciating pain. 

And leprosy was extremely contagious.  You could contract the disease simply by touching a piece of clothing or furniture that had been exposed to a leper.  Old Testament Laws mandated that lepers be expelled from their communities and live in isolation.  They were legally required to yell out, “unclean, unclean,” to warn passersby to stay away, lest they become infected. 

Let’s not forget that people thought they could speak for God in those days—so leprosy was interpreted as a sure sign that you are a terrible person, and God is against you.  You may as well have been dead, rather than live like this…

But then it happens that the ten see Jesus approaching, and they cry out to him for mercy.  Jesus immediately tells them to go and show themselves to the priests, who would pronounce them cured of leprosy and permit them to come home.  So all ten go on their way, and all ten are made clean.  But only one gives praise to God.  Only one returns to Jesus to thank him. 

And what we see in the other nine is more than just bad manners…

We all know what it’s like to give a gift and not be thanked.  We know what it’s like to work really hard, go that extra mile, and hear not even a word of appreciation.  And then, the moment you stop giving, you get chewed out.  Then you feel worthless.  Abused. Taken advantage of.  That lack of appreciation basically says to you, “you are nothing to me beyond what you do for me.” 

Thanklessness is an outward expression of the sin that exists in us all.  It is in sin that we reduce other people, and even God, to appliances.   They’re worth nothing more to us than what we get from them.  We see this kind of behavior every day—and we know how toxic it is to our workplaces and our communities. 

Thanklessness is an attitude by which we put ourselves into the center of the universe, and act as though God and neighbor exist only for our own benefit.  It is in sin that we make an idol out of God—worshipping God as little more than a divine ATM machine who should give us whatever we want because we believe we deserve it. 

The nine lepers may be cured—but in their thanklessness, they miss what is the greatest gift they could have received: and wasn’t a cure.  It’s Jesus; God in the flesh who loved and cared for them and saved them when everyone else had left them for dead.  God in the flesh who had mercy on them and accepted them; and not on the basis of their merit or worthiness, but totally out of grace. 

Dear friends, God does not exist for us—but we exist for God.  Yet this is not bad news.  This is the best news—because it is our Creator’s delight to love and care for us; and even to forgive our sins.

When we put on an attitude of thankfulness; and count our blessings, the eyes of our hearts our opened to the reality of God’s presence in our lives.  By giving thanks, we see the God who is with us.

Years ago, a seminary classmate surprised Elizabeth and me when she pulled into an empty parking space, crossed herself, and spoke a prayer of thanksgiving to God…  For a parking space in a nearly empty lot…

She explained that she began thanking God for her parking spaces shortly after her daughter and her Father had died—all within the space of a few months.  At no time in her life had she felt more abandoned by God.  But deep in her heart, she refused to believe that was true.

So she considered what was the biggest annoyance in her day: the lack of adequate parking in the crowded urban neighborhood where she lived and worked.  Anytime she found a space, she thanked God—even if she had to walk a mile to get to where she was going.  And when she had to walk a mile, she thanked God for providing parking spaces for her neighbors. 

Gradually, her broken heart began to heal as she came to realize all the other ways that God was taking care of her.  She discovered that she could love God again because God had never stopped loving her.  Through her thanksgiving, God gave her the hope that she was going to be okay.

You and me exist for God.

And at some point in our lives, we will be where these ten lepers were—lost, abandoned, forsaken, and alone—with nothing in sight to be thankful for.  But God will be there with us—and God will not be silent.  The blessings will flow—if only as a mist of grace.  So never think it silly to count your blessings; to consider your life and reflect upon the good you are permitted to do and receive.  I recall a silly old Sunday school song that’s not at all silly:

When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings, name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

 

There is always something to be thankful for—for even when all is lost, one truth remains: your God reigns—and you belong to God.