November 23, 2017 Luke 17:11-19 Lacking   Thanksgiving Day

We enjoy not because we are not thankful!  We lack because we lack gratitude!

11Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. 12Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. 13And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. 15And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. 17So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? 18Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.” Luke 17:11-19 (NKJV)

I seldom have a message for Thanksgiving Day because we have made it a family time and we do not have a Community time to worship.  But I regret this because this is a day that even though it is not in the Christian Year calendar I still believe is a Holy Day rather than a holiday.

In this Gospel verses we are told an interesting story that I must admit too many times I missed the real point.  We see this as being about how ungrateful the nine lepers were.  But if we look closer we see something deeper.

All the lepers were healed but only one leper was made well by his faith!  Some will ask what is the difference. Thankfulness and gratefulness is lacking.  And that is the difference in being healed and being made well.

All of us receive the wondrous abundance of so much of God’s bounty and grace.  The sun shines, the rains come, we have so many good things but we are not well.  We hunger for more!  We want more and we even demand more and come to see it as our due and right.  We do this all the while others do without basic needs!  WE ARE NOT WELL!

But like the one leper who came back we can be freed from the sin of lacking if we look the other way and praise and thank God for what we have rather than only see what we “lack”.

The problem of not being thankful and only wanting more is that there is never enough and our lacking is not only continuous but grows with each acquisition.  And as our lacking grows we grow less and less well.

Within the transient happiness we lose our eternal joy and we become more and more unwell.  We see being healed as the most amazing miracle ever seen, but Jesus warns us in His parable that for every ten people healed only one may be made well!  Which are you?

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!  May you say to God thanks for giving us so much but even more thanks for forgiving us!