10.09.2022 - Biblical Faith - Grateful Faith

Scripture: Luke 17:11-19

Luke 17:11–19 NRSV

11 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, 13 they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16 He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? 18 Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

Grateful Faith

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The Power of Gratitude

You cannot save a person in one conversation.

I spent a semester working at a major hospital as a chaplain intern. I spent weekends on call with the Children’s Hospital and weekdays visiting patients dealing with all kinds of problems. I learned a lot, and those who work as chaplains have a special calling.

One of the unique aspects of that ministry is that you start and end relationships quickly. A hospital chaplain’s ministry goal is to meet someone for the first time, often at their most vulnerable point in life, and work with them to meet their deepest spiritual needs as quickly as possible. Then they pray for them and hope never to see them again. Frequent hospital stays are not a good thing, as some of you have experienced. That hospital chaplain work was not disciple-making by itself. It met a need for a moment - giving a hungry man a fish.

I spent several years teaching at colleges and universities and had many students I was able to invest in through my classes. Some learned to read the Bible for the first time. Others learned to make connections between different scripture passages, seeing all of God’s Word instead of relying on their top ten verses to get them through life. I even had a few students take multiple classes with me. However, the goal was to get them graduated and sent out into the world, rather than attending class every week for the rest of their lives. It was closer to disciple-making. It taught a hungry man to fish instead of just giving him one.

You don’t have to be a pastor to visit and pray with people in the hospital or to teach students. You don’t have to be a pastor to make disciples in the church, either. You need a growing relationship with God and relationships with those you are discipling. In church, we can disciple others together, hoping we gather together each week, not just for a moment and not just for a short season. We build relationships here that can last a lifetime. We don’t just give hungry people fish, nor teach them to fish for themselves. We teach them to be fishers of other hungry people - sharing the gospel in a way that grows far beyond ourselves. God saves us from the guilt of our sin and the power of it that pulls us back into a life of rebellion when we grow into the flow that moves us from hungry people to disciple-making fishers of men.

All of this is built upon a growing relationship with God - which we call faith. As we follow God obediently through the Word and the Spirit - as Reinaldo taught us last week - there is one very simple thing that nurtures growth every day: Gratitude.

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Gratitude: What We Value

Jesus did most of His teaching about gratitude by modeling. Most of His prayers express gratitude to God, and in those times when others were caring for Him instead of Him caring for others, He often shared his gratitude for that kindness. Today’s passage is a unique example where Jesus deals with gratitude directly.

The fastest way to die in this world has always been to be alone and apart from everyone else. One of the great tragedies of life is that we often avoid those who have bad things going on in their lives. Sometimes they are contagious, and we are just looking out for our health. Other times they bring us down and take away our happiness. There are even times when the suffering of others causes us to question our beliefs. It’s just easier to avoid all of that.

In the ancient world, lepers faced all of those challenges, plus the laws that made it illegal for them to set foot in town. They were banished to the wilderness, often camped outside of towns, relying on the kindness of friends and family who would leave food or other belongings at drop zones for them to come to pick up later. The only physical contact they would have was with other lepers; few people ever got close enough to talk to them. It was there, at one of those camps in-between places, that they saw Jesus walking with His disciples.

Jesus had a reputation for healing, and they cried out for mercy. At that moment, not with a word nor a touch, but with a command, Jesus healed them. “Go and show yourselves to the priest,” Jesus commanded. One by one, as they got up to go in faith to a place it was not legal for them to enter, they realized they were cured. They moved to rejoin a society that had rejected them, and rightfully so. It took courage. It took faith in Jesus. It took them the gumption to put one foot in front of the other and defy the odds that stood against them.

And it worked! From a distance, Jesus was 10 for 10 in healing this band of lepers. They experienced healing as they obeyed Jesus in faith. We don’t know if they were fully physically healed in one step or ten, or twenty, but we know they were not restored to their families and the community until they made it all the way to the priest. This healing started the moment they obeyed Jesus, but it was not finished in an instant. One of the ten lepers stopped in the middle of his healing process and, instead of heading to the priest, turned completely around and headed back to Jesus, against his instructions. Why did he come back? He wanted to thank Him.

Did that man’s gratitude go against his obedience to Jesus at that moment? Did it question the command of Jesus to go and show himself to the priest? No, certainly not. Gratitude showed what was truly valuable to this man. He loved his healing, I’m sure. But He loved Jesus more. At the risk of putting aside full healing, family reunion, and fellowship with friends, this man paused and returned to give Jesus his gratitude. He put his relationship with Jesus before every other need. Then Luke drops the mic for us with this last statement:

“And He was a Samaritan.”

A foreigner. One who didn’t even worship the right God, who could hardly be expected to recognize the Messiah. “Where are the other nine?” Jesus asks. Was the only one found to return and give praise to God this foreigner?” Jesus does not seek glory for Himself. All He does is bring glory to God the Father. It is part of how He can be fully human and fully God and still be humble, all at once. This passage is not about nationality, but it is about identity, and this act of gratitude showed the true values of these healed men. Nine men loved their lives. One man loved Jesus. Nine men were cleansed of their leprosy. One man’s faith was demonstrated by his gratitude to God, and he was made well.

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Gratitude: How We Grow

If faith were a body, with the means of expressing itself in many ways, gratitude might be the muscles of that body. When you don’t exercise regularly, you lose strength, your body decreases, and you become more susceptible to sickness and injury. When we do exercise regularly, we grow, we can do more, and we stay healthier. Sometimes we are hurt or undergo surgeries that temporarily take our strength away, and we have to work hard in rehab to get it back. Gratitude works in a similar way. The more we express gratitude, the more our faith grows and stays healthy. When we stop, our faith begins to diminish. When our faith takes a hit, it can be hard to be grateful. Yet it is gratitude to God that grows our faith back to wellness, wholeness, and holiness again. Notice I said gratitude to God. Gratitude to God is more than just good manners, saying please and thank you. I remember going through several seasons in my faith when I would stop praying for things, even stop praying for others. My only prayers would be prayers of thanksgiving.

I kept journals where I wrote some of those prayers every day. Some of those days were tough. Sometimes I was sick. Sometimes I was struggling. Yet I would try to find something to thank God for in the midst of it all. I had pages and pages of thanksgiving in the middle of dealing with all aspects of life. Those pages, those memories, stand as a witness to me during tough times. There is still something to be grateful for, a reason to praise God in the good and in the bad times.

That gratitude was contagious too. Like many of those hymns and praise songs we sing, our praise rings truest and brightest in the darkest days. Our world, and more importantly, those who we live with see God clearest through our gratitude when they cannot see any reason for it. Gratitude grows our faith and seeing it modeled and taught grows the faith of our disciples as well.

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Practice Gratitude Daily

Gratitude is not like a light switch though. We can’t just decide to be grateful and expect everything to work from then on. It is a daily choice, and sometimes it is a hard choice to make. Like most things in life, it takes practice. It takes saying thank you to God, one day at a time, digging in, and really meaning it.

Gratitude makes us look at the things we truly care about and see how God works in them. It makes us stop our busyness, pay attention to God, see what He is doing, hear what He is telling us, experience His hands shaping us, and His Spirit filling us. And then, as grateful people, we can invite others to join us in our gratitude. I have seen entire families experience healing because someone became grateful to God and began sharing that with others. I have seen churches transformed by that power. I know that real, lasting revival that is more than just a weekend hinges upon true repentance that is held fast by gratitude for God’s work in our lives, and it is one of the first marks of a healthy, growing church. In fact, it is one of the first building blocks to making disciples. Will you practice gratitude to God and grow your relationship with Him? Will you share it with those nearest and dearest to you? Will you model and teach it to those God has put on your heart to disciple?

Sunday school starts in just a few minutes, and come back and join us for our Sunday evening service at 6 pm, where Gary Motta will be sharing with us.