SERMON

Paul Johnson

October 13 & 14, 2007

 

Hasn’t this been an absolutely beautiful day?  It’s about been perfect.  It’s one of those days where it’s really kind of easy to be grateful.  It’s difficult to not want to say “Thank you, Jesus,” on a day this good.  So I got to tell you that I’ve said that prayer today, and I’ve felt pretty grateful for this day.  The beauty of this day; the beauty of this time of year; is one of those things I’m grateful for.

              I’m also grateful that the reason my car was acting up a couple weeks ago wasn’t because it needed a new motor, but because it just needed new spark plugs.  And the other day I started reading a really good book.  So a small gratitude in my life is that I like the book, and that someone wrote it.  A bigger one is that I can read, because not everyone can.

              And here’s something else…I’m grateful that I work with such good people who love God, love this church, and who bring their best.  And I’m talking here about staff, and Vestry, and the entire people of this community.  I get to serve with a people who love the adventure of the Gospel; who trust and take chances.  And I’m grateful for that.

              I’m grateful to have a family, and that I’m in the family that I’m in…my one at home, with Bernadette and the boys; and my bigger family, with my mom, and my sisters, and brother, and nieces and nephews.

              And I know it’s happened every day of my life so far, but I’m grateful that I woke up this morning, and that God has given me one more chance.  A priest named John Claypool writes “just to get up each day is windfall.” He’s right…

              Now there are some things in life I don’t care for very much.  Don’t like it when I get afraid, or when I get angry, or when I make mistakes…especially the ones that hurt people.  But you know, even in those places there can be gratitude, because if we’re willing to stand back a bit when things like that happen we may have the opportunity to learn something new about how to live the life God has given.

              We got our good days and we got our bad days; we got our days of light, and we got our days of darkness.  But if we pay attention, there are truths revealed about God in the darkness that are never revealed when all is light.  And I don’t know about you, but when I can remember to say “Thank you, Jesus” when it’s not such a good day, it just seems that at that moment the day becomes a little bit better.

              And you know…God is really good, and no words can express how good God is; God has given us lives to live; that this life that’s been given is one that goes beyond the grave; that death is not really the end; that there is more to this existence than what meets the eye; Jesus, in such a loving way, keeps coming, and calling us deeper, and asking the best of us; that God’s love is greater than infinity, and that it doesn’t stop, ever…and all that is something to be really grateful for.

              Now what this is, everybody, is a bit of a witness.  Hillary asked us last week to ponder the blessings in our lives, and this is the beginning of one person’s “thank you” list.  Each of us would have a different kind of list.  The person who really helped me to see the value in gratitude was a priest named Dabney Carr.  Dabney’s in the Lord’s nearer presence now, and before he got sick he worshiped here.  For a time he was my spiritual director, and said something real simple that I’ve never forgotten:  that if we can put our head on the pillow at night able to find one blessing in the day; one bit of joy, no matter how small, no matter the circumstances; and then if we can remember to say “Thank you, God” for whatever that blessing is…then we may not far from the kingdom of God.

              It was the great theologian Meister Eckhart who said that “thank you” may be the most important prayer we can ever offer.

              We all know that saying “thank you” is important.  That’s why we teach it to our kids.  They are part of the magic words.  To say “thank you” is good manners. 

But we teach “thank you” for greater reasons than that.  Giving thanks saves us from our isolation, for it acknowledges that we are dependent on others…on other human beings, and ultimately dependent on God.  It makes our hearts grow, because to acknowledge that we have been receivers eventually inspires us to mercy, and understanding, and forgiveness, and kindness, and generosity.  Give thanks enough and it forms in us a grateful soul and cultivates a life of gratitude.

Sometimes, of course—like when a day is so beautiful--gratitude is simply a feeling.    But it can also be a way of living; a way to approach the lives we’ve been given.  Somewhere, I saw someone describe gratitude as a kind of grammar that helps our lives be put in right order.  Syntactical grammar puts the sentence in right order; the grammar of gratitude helps put life in right order.

A guy named Robert Emmons has done studies showing that living with gratitude in our hearts leads to a happier life.  Among other things, it makes us more joyful and more focused.  It seems to make us more altruistic, and more likely to help those in need.  Living gratefully even seems to help us sleep easier and be sick less often. 

That’s all good stuff.  But there’s more…what Luke tells us in this story today is that living gratefully may be one way we live a little bit closer to Jesus, and how he would have us be.

Ten lepers.  Ten men who are diseased in such a way that they are cut off from the community.  Their disease has made them unclean, and being cut off is the consequence of uncleanness.  Now let me tell how significant being cut off is here in this story.  This group of ten lepers appears to consist of both Jews and Samaritans.  And Jews and Samaritans can’t stand one another.  These ten have been so cut off from the rest of the world that they are even willing to be in community with people they can’t stand if that’s what they have to do to belong, just a little bit.

  They approach Jesus, but not too close since the unclean have to keep their distance.  They cry for mercy.  Then something odd happens.  He tells them to go show themselves to the priests.  He probably tells them to do that because the law taught that when one was made clean from a disease like that it was the priest who verified it.  But if you notice…they start on their way to the priests before they are healed.  It’s while they are on their way that they are made clean.

              Now if this story were just about a miracle, this is where it should stop.  This is where the story should end.  But it doesn’t end here, which means that it’s about something more than just a miraculous healing.  It’s about the response that happens afterwards.  One of the ten opens his eyes, and sees that he is healed.  Now that doesn’t mean that the other nine didn’t notice that they were now clean.  But there’s a difference between seeing, and really seeing.  And one of them really gets it what has happened, not just in his body but in his soul.  There’s a new life, and a new world before him.  He’s not cut off any longer.  He belongs.  What happened to him happened to the other nine.  But he is the one who stops, who sees there is a decision now to make about how to live, and who turns around.  One leper returns; one-tenth comes back to the Lord, praises God, and gives thanks to Jesus.  All ten of them get healed.  The healing isn’t taken back from the other nine.  But what the one who sees it; who chooses gratitude; who says “thank you” gets beyond the healing is the presence of the Lord.

              So I’ll ask you…is it possible that when we live gratefully and give thanks that what we’re really doing is moving closer to God; moving a bit more fully into God’s presence?

              You know “the announcement” that we always do before communion?  It’s coming in a few minutes…”The central act of worship at Christ Church and in the Episcopal Church…” We invite everybody to the table because everybody belongs.  There are no unclean here.  And the reason the eucharist is the central act of worship is because it is our way of giving thanks.  It’s the way we live out, together, that we are the leper who has been healed and made clean, and runs back to Jesus and gives thanks.  When we see these little kids run down the aisle to receive from the table, give a shout of “Hallelujah” everybody, because that’s the way that leper was.  The word “eucharist” means “thanksgiving.” It is the Great Thanksgiving.  And it is at the center of what we do because everybody needs to have a thanksgiving dinner once a week; because when that happens, and we say “thank you, Jesus,” we’re brought a little bit closer to a good God, and our hearts get formed into the shape of gratitude. 

              Now I’m talking about gratitude today because living gratefully is a good way to live.  Makes life better.  And I’m talking about it because it’s what the scripture reading is about.  And I’m talking about it because gratitude is the way we start talking about giving here at Christ Church.

              Next weekend, everybody, we’re going ask one another to do something.  In worship, we’re going to ask one another to make our financial commitment to the work we’re going to do together next year.  We ask one another to fill out a pledge card, and hand it in.  And then, of course, we ask one another to keep our pledge.

              We do pledges here because it helps us plan; and we do pledges here because it’s good to make a promise to God and one another, and to sign our name to it, and to keep it.

              Now probably everybody has received something in the mail about making a pledge.  We’ve seen some video witnesses, and we wrote about it in the newsletter. 

A couple things about how it works…our pledges are all confidential.  We don’t share what people pledge.  The only staff member who knows what we pledge is our bookkeeper because she has to record them.  We don’t make a whole bunch of phone calls, and we don’t sit on your couch. 

We think it’s a really good idea that we each make a pledge to our church, and that we keep it.  God is doing good work here, and these are exciting times.  So it’s important to fill out a pledge card and give to the work of our community and participate this way in our common life.

              We don’t talk much about budget stuff here when we make our pledges because that’s not what’s most important.  There are some important things for us next year beyond what I talked about a few weeks ago, and we ought to know about them:

• 2008 is the year we want finally to make it to 10% outreach giving.  No more beating around the bush.  That’s the tithe.  We do that because giving is always a blessed action, but we do it to model in our common life what we are called to in our private lives…that we can meet our own needs on 90%; and that 10% off the top means greater blessing over what’s left over. 
• In 2008 we want to again increase our giving to the Diocese of Virginia.  That ain’t very sexy, I know.  But it’s part of being the Church; and it’s doing our duty; and it helps congregations less fortunate than us; and it’s honoring our mother.  We’re here because the Diocese of Virginia gave us life, so we make our thank offering, and increase it.
• There’s a good chance that we’re going to want to add a staff position, most likely a staff position that in some way will strengthen our administrative team.
• Last year at this time we talked about strengthening our youth ministry by bringing on an assistant youth minister.  We gave generously, so Jeremy is now here.  In 2008, we want to invest more heavily in our adult education and formation offerings…to bring in more teachers, and have more learning opportunities, to help both our minds and hearts be formed in the likeness of Christ.

That’s some important stuff for next year, and it matters, and it can happen because of our giving. 

              But instead of focusing on a budget, here’s what we hope we’ll do in making our offering…remember and celebrate how good God is, and experience the blessing of a life lived according to the grammar of gratitude.  In some way, this story about the leper is a story about each one of us, for we have each been claimed; each been made whole; each of us made full and right.  And so for each of us we come back, and make our offering to the Lord.

              Earlier in these words I gave you the beginning of my list.  But what I’ll leave us with is the same question Hillary started us with last week…for each of us, what might our list look like? 

We got seven days until our next Sabbath.  So what are the seven things that begin our list of gratitude, and that begin a heart made glad?  They may be easy to find; they may not.  But my hunch is they’re there.  That’s my hunch.  But my conviction is that by naming them, and giving thanks for them, where we’ll find ourselves is where this former leper finds himself--whole, and healed, and joyous, and grateful, and forever at the feet of Jesus.  And that’s a really good place to spend forever.