On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee.  And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”                  Luke 17:11-19

Most merciful Lord Jesus, here you are at it again.   Breaking conventions as you draw near these lepers.   Showing your magnanimous mercy as you cleanse them from this dreaded disease.   There is no fitness in the recipients to qualify them.  In fact nine of them never come back to give you thanks!   As I think about my own thanksgiving, it is your question to the leper has me thinking this morning,  “Where are the other nine?”

I guess I think about this question because chances are if I were in that blessed group of ten it is more likely that I would be one of the nine rather than the one.   What was it that held them back from thanksgiving, what is it that holds me back?   For some I am sure they just forgot, they were thankful, but they were busy, after all they had to see the priest and then friends and family that they hadn’t interacted with  in a long time.   Others probably weren’t quite sure what was happening, maybe they were skeptical, not believing that it would last.   I wonder if any of them didn’t come back because they felt unworthy, maybe they had something terrible about you, or didn’t really believe you could (or would) heal them, and then when you did heal them they simply were too ashamed to come back.  Or maybe some thought that the religious ritual of seeing the priests would suffice for the personal expression of thanks given at your very feet?

I certainly don’t know others hearts like you do, but I have seen some of my own heart and I bet some of them had the same selfish heart that I often have.   As a result maybe some of them felt that this is what they deserved and that there was no need for thanks, maybe others were still bitter that they had suffered with leprosy for so long and just wouldn’t give thanks.

Father, as I said, I see all these characteristics in me, but what I want is to be the one, the Samaritan, the foreigner, who was so overcome with gratitude for what you did for him, that he did come back.   When he saw that he was clean, he didn’t care about anything else except being in your presence.   This man’s heart was singing, he just simply had to be near you.

Father, my thanksgiving prayer is that all of the reasons I am thankless would dissipate and that you would give me an unadulterated heart of thanksgiving, today and always.  In the sweet name of Jesus.  Amen.

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

Colossians 2:6,7

Is it easy to give thanks? I suppose the answer to this question might vary with the individual. Even within the individual one might answer differently from different perspectives. On the one hand it is easy to give thanks. When we compare ourselves to the vast majority of the people throughout the world, we realize that we live in luxury unparalleled in either time or space. When we are given eyes to see who we are in Christ, where we have been and what is to come, we are overcome with thanksgiving.

But that doesn’t mean giving thanks is always easy. For even in the midst of material blessing, even with the smile of Christ, life is still difficult. Some struggle to make ends meet. Others struggle with illness, either physical or mental. Still others find themselves struggling with relationships. And then there is our old enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil. These three conspire to tell us that we do not have enough, we are not loved enough, and rather than being thankful we should be bitter.

Is it easy to give thanks? No, it isn’t necessarily easy, but it is good. In many ways thankfulness is a discipline, something that we must train ourselves to do even when we don’t want to. Having said that, we do not have to go far to reasons to give thanks this year: friends and family, home and health, the Love of Christ.

I am looking forward to hearing of what God has been doing in people’s lives tomorrow morning as we open up the mic and let our thanksgiving abound. Hopefully we will hear from you.

My family will tell you that I have been on a Lord of the Rings kick lately. I know that the stories are somewhat polarizing. My wife for instance doesn’t get the whole “elves and dwarves” thing.

For me however the stories have been rich in illustrating and illumining truths of life, I would even go as far to say, the life of the Gospel. Over the years as I come back to the stories different things have stood out to me. For instance, on one occasion I may see the theme of responsibility. Another time through it may be the theme of friendship. Still another time may illuminate the theme of beauty in the ordinary. This time through, however, I was struck by the things that we do for the love of another.

This is seen most clearly in others’ reaction to Aragorn, the exiled king who has risen at the appointed time to reclaim his throne. It is love for him that encourages men (and women) to fight a battle they know they can’t win. It is love for him that keeps men, dwarves, elves and even horses on the Paths of the Dead, overcoming the worst fear imaginable. It is the kings voice that can call back from the brink of death those afflicted with the “black breath”. It is love for this king that causes the Lardy Arwen to exchange immortality for mortality, embracing even the heartbreak that she knows it will bring.

In our Christian walk it is no different. It is love for a King that keeps us moving forward when we feel like giving up. It is love for a King that leads us to do outrageous deeds of love and mercy (the weaponry of God’s kingdom) even when humanly speaking it seems to make little sense. It is love for a King that moves us to lay down our own lives in order to embrace the life that he has to offer us.

This weekend I am heading to Indianapolis to preach on the subject of adoption. It is my hope that my preaching will reflect this theme. As we think about answering God’s call to embrace the cause of the orphan in this world, we do it not ought of guilt, not to fill our own needs, not even for the jewels in our crown by and by. No, we do it out of love for our King, because after all that is what he has done for us.

What a King!

Have a good weekend,

Andrew

Here is a blog post from one Jenilyn Swet, a regular attender at Crossroads. I love how she has captured the immensity and joy of celebrating the Lord’s Supper week by week.

http://carefullychosen.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/sharing-the-bread-and-wine/