21 November 2018
Text: Luke 17:11-19
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
Thanksgiving
Day has been through a few changes since the days of Jamestown, Plymouth, and
the declarations by both American presidents of the national holiday during the
War Between the States. For what was
once a day of prayer of gratitude for God’s providence – largely through the
blessings of the harvest – has now been replaced by a day of gluttony, sitting
on the sofa and watching football, and getting into political arguments with
rarely-seen family members.
But
there is indeed a “more excellent way.”
Thanksgiving
is just that: the giving of thanks. And
we give thanks in return for something done for us: which is what “grace” is. The word “gratitude” is based on the Latin
word “gratia,” and in Latin, that’s even how you say “thank you.” For the harvest is not of our own doing. It is the ultimate in human hubris to take
credit for the Lord’s bounty. For in
spite of all of our work in planting, tending, weeding, and harvesting – all it
takes is one storm, one freeze, one bout of fungus or insect infestation, and
we are looking at famine. It is only by
God’s grace that we have food and drink, house and home, land animals, and
everything that “has to do with the support and needs of the body.” Only by God’s grace, dear friends. And as St. Paul says to the Church at
Ephesus: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this
is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of
works, so that no one may boast.”
The
tenth leper in our Gospel understood that. He was a beggar, suffering a painful sentence
of death known today as Hansen’s Disease: a disfiguring and highly contagious
rotting away of the flesh. Like all
sickness, leprosy exists because of sin: all sin, our own sins that we commit
continuously, and the sin that we bear in our flesh that was inherited from our
ancestors, even Adam and Eve, in their own flesh. And so the ten lepers plead with Jesus to
save them from the death that awaits the destruction of their own flesh.
And
the Lord heard their prayer. It was by
grace that they were saved, through faith. But only the tenth leper came back to give
thanks.
He
understood that his salvation was by grace, not through his own works, lest he
have grounds to boast. And so, he is
humble, falling at the feet of Jesus to worship Him, praise Him, thank Him, and
serve Him, and obey Him. And that, dear
friends, is the Christian life. It is to
be a grateful recipient of God’s grace. It is to be in the presence of Jesus, where He
promises to be, to receive His gifts and to give thanks. The Christian life is an eternal Thanksgiving
Day. It is an eternal Thanksgiving feast,
a feast that has no end!
The
ultimate thanksgiving meal is not one of turkey and dressing, but rather of the
bread and wine that is the very body and blood of the Lord who graces us with
His presence. The Greek word for
thanksgiving is εὐχαριστία. This is why
the Lord’s Supper is called “the Eucharist.” It is both our reception of His gifts and our
thanksgiving for that gift of grace by means of the Eucharistic miracle. We kneel as we receive Him. We eat and drink as we thank Him. For that is what He bids us do in His own
testament, dear brothers and sisters.
And
our entire liturgy is a response to the Lord’s grace, His mercy, a celebration
of the eternal feast, a giving of thanks for the Lord’s incarnation, passion,
death, resurrection, and coming again. It
is the expression of our joyful gratitude for salvation, a salvation won for us
by our blessed Lord at the cross. In the
Eucharist, we partake of that same body and blood that was given and shed for
us. And there is nothing, dear friends,
nothing that should bring us to gratitude more than this.
Yes,
indeed, we should give thanks for all things that we receive from the hand of
our merciful God: the harvest, our freedoms, good health, technology, family
and friends, material possessions, a bountiful land, and anything else that
comes to mind. But the one thing that
lasts forever, the one thing needful, is our redemption, our forgiveness, our
atonement, won for us by the blood of the Lamb, the blood that causes death to pass
over us.
For
that first Eucharistic meal established by our blessed Lord with the apostles
was not just the Last Supper, it was the Last Passover. It connects our life of thanksgiving for being
freed from sin, death, and the devil with the thanksgiving of the Old Testament
people of God for their liberation from suffering, bondage, and Pharaoh in
their meal of bread and wine, in the sacrificial lamb whose blood set them
free.
This
thanksgiving Eucharist, dear friends, is the fulfillment of the Passover, for
the angel of death passes over us by the forgiveness of our sins.
Indeed,
it is a more excellent way than the way of the world: of gluttony, of
selfishness, of political argument. It
is the Thanksgiving of the Lord, the Eucharistic feast, the celebration of our
salvation, of coming back to Jesus to fall at His feet. For this thanksgiving is to receive in full
measure, selflessly, and in honor of our King, whose kingdom is not of this
world.
All praise and thanks to
God,
The Father now be given,
The Son, and Him who
reigns
With them in highest
heaven,
The one eternal God,
Whom earth and heav’n
adore;
For thus it was, is now,
And shall be evermore.
Amen.
In the name of the Father
and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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