Pentecost 19 2004
Gratitude: the state of being grateful: thankfulness.
Grateful: Appreciative of benefits received, expressing gratitude, affording pleasure or contentment.
We have become too blasé about the great gift that we are given in Jesus Christ.
Salvation is something that we in the west, after the 2000 odd year history of the Christian church, have come to expect. It is just a given thing. Its just there. It is a birthright.
We have become so used to the fact of salvation that we are immune to what it really means. We are so used to being the insiders that we don’t realise we are only made insiders through the self-limiting gift from God that is Jesus Christ. And I think its time we claimed back the pure excitement, the sheer joy, the extravagant love that we can experience if we get back in touch with the reality, the sublime graciousness of God. Perhaps then we can be truly grateful.
Ten lepers are healed through Jesus. These men are used to be being outsiders – note that Luke is careful to point out that they kept their distance. They know that their mere presence with another will make that person unclean. They are used to exclusion. All are healed, yet only one turns back to praise God. A Samaritan.
Samaritans, most of you will know, were absolute outsiders to the Judeans. Whilst they were descended from the same people, there was a bitter sibling rivalry between them. Samaritans were excluded from worship and participation in society in Jerusalem. Yet here, as with the parable of the Good Samaritan, is a Samaritan supposedly acting totally out of character. The Samaritan is shown to be the one of true faith. The outsider is the one who knows, who has the faith. This outsider is the one who knows the true value of the gift he has been given.
This is what I was getting at earlier, in a roundabout sort of way. We, as insiders in the west, have forgotten the true significance of the gift that is given to us just as it was the Samaritan leper, the gift of inclusion. We are so used to assuming we are included that we have forgotten what it is like to not be included. The Gospel we proclaim reflects this very often – it is an internally expressed joyless set of doctrines. The churches that are successful, that are growing, are growing because the people are excited and grateful and want to share that joy and excitement and gratefulness. This spills out of them in sharing with others, inviting them. And often results in those around them seeing the joy that is within them, the hope and gratitude, and wanting that as well.
