Sermon Notes on Luke 17:11-19

 

Living with an attitude of gratitude.

 

The morning that I wrote this sermon (this past Thursday) it was in the mid 40s outside. The rain was just spitting a little bit (the effect looked very chilly). But as I put my feet on the carpeted floor of our bedroom, I was nice and warm. I had spent the night in a comfortable bed, snuggled under a soft, fluffy comforter. It was wonderful.

 

I got up and went downstairs to greet my loving and wonderful wife. After a few minutes of talking about the days we both had ahead I opened the door to our very full refrigerator and poured myself a nice, full glass of orange juice. It was delicious.

 

After Lori had gone off in her nice little car to accompany the Hartland High School Choirs (a job she really enjoys) I headed upstairs to check my email. Did you know that I had received quite a few emails from people that I care deeply about? Most of them were writing me emails because they have, of their own free will, chosen to join me in serving Christ through the ministry of All Saints Lutheran Church. It inspires me to think about it.

 

After getting cleaned up and ready, I headed out the door and drove my reliable, efficient, warm, and pleasant car to pick up Pastor Pamela and Gunnar and we headed out to a pastor’s breakfast meeting where we were all surrounded by the most caring, kind, generous, wise, friendly, supportive group of folks you can imagine. For an hour or so we shared fellowship that was life-affirming and so helpful it’s hard to describe. And all of that over Mr. D’s awesome breakfast.

 

When I got back to church I had the joy of spending time leading a chapel service for our preschool kids. I never get tired of hearing them calling out to me, “Hi Pastor Dave!” Did you know some of them have promoted me? Some of them refer to me as “God”, but we are working on that. What a joy it is to see their smiling faces, filled with enthusiasm as they are learning about life, academic skills, and most importantly, how God loves them and has given them Jesus.

 

When I look at our devoted staff, how they work so hard without complaining, and our committed volunteers who give so much of their time and energy for the cause of Christ, I am blessed beyond words.

 

And what can I say about my kids? Every day I am filled with joy when I think of what great people they have turned out to be and how each of them is helping to make the world a better place in their own unique way.

 

How about hope in the world? I recently received an email from Bishop Mark Hanson, leader of the ELCA and the Lutheran world federation, in which he told us of a letter he and many other Christian leaders had received from a large gathering of Muslim leaders and scholars. They were proclaiming the need for all of the monotheistic faiths to work together for peace. Now isn’t that something for which to thank God?

 

More important to me than any of these things is the fact that God, long before time began, decided that this little planet wouldn’t be the way the Holy Spirit wanted it to be unless I was born. God gave me the gift of life over 52 years ago and, almost 52 years ago, gave me the promise (in my baptism) that I was God’s own child and would be forever.

 

Jesus Christ destroyed the wall of sin that separated me from God by his life, death and resurrection. In my baptism God promised me that all of what Jesus accomplished would be mine forever. Wow!

 

In our text for today, I think I know what set apart the Samaritan leper from all of the others. I’m pretty sure that the others were not horrible people. In fact, I’ll bet that later on some of them at least tried to seek Jesus out to thank him, although he probably would have moved on by then. I believe what set the Samaritan leper apart was that he was paying attention. He was watching, listening, actually taking in what was going on around him. He noticed that his disease was gone and, even in the midst of his excitement; he immediately knew what to do.

 

How long has it been since you have counted the blessings in your life and really taken the time to thank God for them? Look around. There are too many to count.

 

I think a favorite strategy of the Evil One is to focus our attention on the things that are not exactly the way we want them to be. When something goes wrong in our lives, the devil would just as soon have that be the whole subject of our day so that, even though we are surrounded by blessing, generosity, and grace, all we see is the problem.

 

I want to suggest something bold. I want to suggest that we do what the Samaritan leper did in our text for today. Even before we obey Jesus, let’s take the time to thank and praise him for all that he has done for us.

 

It’s all too easy to get busy doing the stuff that we believe Jesus has called us to do and to fill our lives with the tasks that the church is asking us to get done. We may indeed be obeying Christ, but if we focus on our tasks and how well or poorly they are going we will miss the point of this life. We are here mostly for God’s joy and delight. Thank God first, praise Christ first, sing a Spirit-filled song first, then go ahead and get the tasks done.

 

Before we do anything else, let’s be sure we take the time to thank God who has given us all things. Once our hearts are filled with thanksgiving and praise, we will still have the time (and we will probably have even more energy) to get the other things done. Amen