"The trouble
with you is you never know when you're well off!"
How many times has that been said to us at some time in the past? Or how often
have we said it - or thought it - about other people? It's hard for us to
have any sympathy with the character in the film clip who has been healed
of his crippling condition but now has to find a new way of earning money
to survive. In fact, the satire of the scene is intended to make that character
look shallow and feckless; we are supposed to see him as almost comfortable
with his previous condition and resistant to the radical change which his
healing brings with it.
The gospel reading reverses the numbers but still puts the human tendency
towards ingratitude into focus. This time 10 lepers are healed of their condition,
but 9 of them accept the gift of healing without a second thought, while one
of them seeks out the healer and expresses his thanks for the gift of a new
life. In this story we hear the voice of gratitude for new life; in the clip
we hear the voice of resistance to new life.
And the gospel
story carries extra meaning when we recall that the man who returned to give
thanks to Jesus was an outsider. He was a Samaritan, someone excluded from
Jewish society even when he was not declared unclean - doubly excluded when
he was. This was the only one of the ten who felt driven to go back and express
his gratitude to the Jewish rabbi who did not exclude him from the gift of
healing.
The deep-rooted instinct to offer thanks, to express gratitude, to acknowledge
a giving or sharing relationship with another person, seems to be very much
an in-built part of our human nature. As social animals, we inevitably connect
with the lives of other people; and part of that connection seems to involve
the recognition of mutual help and support. If we don't give expression to
those times of help and support, by showing gratitude in some meaningful way,
the relationship soon crumbles; when we do express gratitude in our responses
to other people, the relationship seems to deepen and to grow in trust and
mutual affection. Expressing our gratitude to someone is one of the most powerful
building blocks that we have in our range of social skills. It is up there
with forgiveness as one of the factors in our relationships which heals, and
builds, and promotes health in how we interact with other people.
One of the interpretations often given to the encounter between Jesus and
the man who came back to offer thanks is that the man received a second, much
deeper healing from that conversation. We ask why would Jesus say 'Go, your
faith has healed you' when the man was already healed - unless something much
more significant and personal had passed between them. Perhaps, while all
10 were cured of their leprosy, the man who made the effort to turn around
and give thanks to Jesus was made whole in a much more profund way.
I wonder if we sometimes miss the point of showing our gratitude for who we
are and how we are. I wonder if we sometimes misunderstand exactly who benefits
from our gratitude.
When we talk to people about worship, it sometimes surprises them when we
say that worship is not something which God needs to receive from us for God's
sake: it's something we need to offer to God for our sake. We quote the saying
of Augustine that our souls are restless for God, and we suggest that our
worshipping response to God is programmed into our spiritual DNA as part of
our relationship with the One who made us, redeemed us, and sustains us. The
purpose of worship is not to nourish God; its purpose is to nourish us.
There is a widely-held
view that one of the most significant effects of prayer is less to do with
the changes we make to God's mind and much more to do with the changes we
bring about within ourselves.
I think much the same can be said about expressing our thanks to someone -
or demonstrating what an American writer has called 'an attitude of gratitude'.
The power of expressing gratitude works much more in the life of the one who
shows it than it does in the life of the one who receives it.
It is always
rewarding to receive thanks from someone, and it helps in the development
of our relationship with that person: but the real growth and healing happens
in the life of the person who offers their thanks as a natural response to
their relationships with others. Giving thanks, accepting and acknowledging
help, recognising that we depend on others, forming communities based on love
and respect, are all Christian models of responding to God in other people.
Experiencing and expressing our thanks for all those aspects of our life is
part of the very bloodstream of the church as the Body of Christ. And the
more we can reflect those models in our relationships, the more we will grow
towards health and wholeness.
In my mind, I am aware of how grateful I am that many other people connect
with my life. In my memories I can recall their acts of kindness, their expressions
of support, their natural affection. In practice, I suspect I have failed
in many cases - not necessarily to say thank you to them, but to show a simple
and sincere gratitude to them - for being part of who I am and where I am.
I realise now that I never knew when I was well off.
Perhaps the challenge to those who follow Jesus is to aim for the more profund
wholeness which comes from those deep expressions of gratitude which nourish
and strengthen our relationships. It seems to be a core part of our nature,
if only we will nurture it and give it a priority in our dealings with others.
Sometimes perhaps, like the Samaritan who experienced the healing of Jesus, we do need to come to a halt, turn around, retrace our steps, approach the one who held out a hand of friendship and healing for us, and be the one to express our gratitude for the love shown to us.
And whether that happens in our relationship with a friend in our closest circle, or with an acquaintance on our outer margins, or with our brother Jesus in prayer and worship, we know we follow the example of the excluded stranger who found not just health, but wholeness.
Amen.
(Philip Jones)
This sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester. Click here for further information.