Rev’d Peter Balabanski
Pentecost + 18C– Jrm 29 1 4-7, Ps 66 1-11, 2nd Tim 2 8-15, Lk 17 11-
I wonder how often you’ve had the joy of spending time with someone who’s very grateful; someone who receives everything as a welcome gift. I find people like that transform everyone around them. They’re filled with an infectious reverence for everything they receive; a reverent care for every blessing. They also have an open-hearted habit of sharing; a contagious aura of comfort and joy. Everyone loves being with them. Complete strangers impulsively invite them to meals and events. They invite old friends to meet this amazing new friend because they’re just such lovely company. To be with anyone who overflows with gratitude is a gift. The very grateful people I’ve known are a constant blessing! I believe that we’re called to learn to see the world like they do; to choose to see God’s gift in everything.
I’m thinking about this today because of the theme we’ve been given by today’s liturgy and readings. The theme is gratitude for God’s bounty; something very appropriate as we emerge from the Season of Creation. From the sentence we started with to the collect prayer and on through the readings and the communion’s great thanksgiving prayer, we’re called to rejoice in God’s grace and generosity. In fact, we’re invited to shape our entire way of seeing life and the world as it is by choosing for thankfulness; not the world as it might be, but the world as it is. It changes everything when we can see God’s good gift in the uncertain life we have.
This is the perspective we’re given in another extraordinary reading from Jeremiah today; just as surprising as a fortnight ago when as a sign of future hope to his people, we read how he bought a field when he was in Jerusalem under siege.Ch 32 Today we find him still in Jerusalem as many have been taken into exile in Babylon. Some of the people in exile have set themselves up as prophets there, assuring their fellow exiles they’ll be there for only a couple of years. Putting a happy spin on things ensures people will come back to you for more. But Jeremiah writes the letter to them that we just heard. He says they’re in for a long stay – generations. So they are to treat Babylon like home. Build homes; plant and grow food. Marry and have children. And perhaps most astonishingly, pray to the Lord for the welfare of Babylon. Pray for the people who have captured and enslaved you.
Some commentators write Jeremiah off; they say he’s just advising enlightened self-interest. Keep your noses clean and you’ll get better treatment. But no; that part about praying for their enemies says what he’s actually telling them. He’s saying God is at work among you no matter where on earth you are; no matter your circumstances. And more than that; God is active among your Babylonian captors. When you’re facing generations of exile and slavery, Jeremiah’s message – as hard as it is – is the one that can give you the necessary strength to endure. Jeremiah’s message is to thank God for the life you have; and in that thanksgiving, find your hope and your faith; your reason for being. And you can believe too that by your thanksgiving, you’ll also transform the people around you – even your enemies.
The story of Jesus and the ten lepers has a similar message about a link between gratitude and the end of enmity. The healed leper who came back to Jesus was a Samaritan; a pariah to Jesus’ people. Samaritans have much in common with Jews. But sometimes the worst disagreements between people are between those who have the closest ties to each other: family feuds; denominational differences. Add this man’s leprosy to his Samaritan identity and you’ve got an absolute outcast. Yet his gratitude sees Jesus upgrade the significance of his physical healing to a much higher level. A literal translation of Jesus’ words to him at the end of our reading can be your faith has saved you. Some commentators draw from this story the idea that faith and gratitude are almost the same thing. I’m still thinking that one over.
So now what? What can a choice for gratitude mean to us? By that, I mean choosing gratitude as our response to whatever life throws at us, whatever our circumstances. For a start, as I said earlier, we’re likely to become people who are much better company. But we’re not in this for the dinner invitations. What if we as a congregation choose for gratitude as our life perspective from now on? What changes might we see? Can we see ourselves in either story?
Jrm 29.7 Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
Lk 17.15 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.
Kimberly Bracken Long writes, to practice gratitude intentionally changes an individual life, to be sure. It also changes the character of a congregation. When Christians practice gratitude, they come to worship not just to “get something out of it,” but to give thanks and praise to God. … The mission of the church changes from ethical duty to the work of grateful hands and hearts. Long, K. B. (2010). FotW Yr C (Vol. 4, p. 168). Amen