Saying Thank You

Saying Thank You

(Lk. 17.11-19)

I don't know whether I'm just seeing the past through rose-coloured spectacles, but it seems to me that when I was a child, people, and particularly children used to say please and thank you much more than they do today. A year or so ago, we had a good manners campaign in the school where I teach. All the teachers were issued with special stickers which said 'I have good manners' to give to children who we noticed being particularly polite. It was quite effective, and the children did seem to get better at saying 'please' and 'thank you'. But it's a message that needs a lot of reinforcing.

Today, we celebrate our harvest, and it's a good time for us to say 'thank you', not just for the food he provides for us, but for our homes, our health, our families and many other blessings that it's all too easy to take for granted sometimes.

But if we're not careful, it's all too easy to take the good things that God gives us for granted.

Perhaps it's our busy lives, but these days it seems that it's not just children who find it hard to remember to say thank you, to other people or to God.

How do you feel about ingratitude?

I was talking to Graeme about this, and he recalled a time when as a child, he found about £5 of Post Office saving stamps outside the local newsagents. In those days he only got about 20p a week pocket money, and so £5 seemed like an awful lot of money.

His parents said that he should hand it in to the police station. So he did, ...and secretly hoped that no-one would claim it.

But a week or so later he got a lovely letter from an elderly lady. She wrote to thank him for handing in the money. She said that she was living on a pension, and had been really upset when she discovered that she'd lost the money. But then she was thrilled to find that it had been handed in. She also enclosed a 50p reward.

He felt really pleased to receive this letter, ...and was genuinely glad that this lady had claimed the money that he had found.

But, let me contrast that experience with another story.

More recently, a friend of ours found £35 lying on the ground in a supermarket car park. Many people might have slipped it their pockets, but my friend did the right thing and handed it into the information desk at the shop.

A few months later she realised that she'd never heard anything more about the money, and her husband decided to ask about it next time he was in the shop. He was told that the money had been claimed.

My friend was pleased that the money had been returned to it's rightful owner. But she also felt a little disappointed that the owner hadn't taken the time to thank her.

It's not difficult to say 'thankyou', is it? It only takes a minute to pick up the phone, ...it only costs a few pence to drop someone a note.

Thomas Fuller, an English clergyman in the 17th century said that "Gratitude is the least of virtues," ...but then he added that "ingratitude is the worst of vices."

So how do you feel about ingratitude?

All of us face ingratitude from time to time. Sometimes people forget to say 'thankyou', ...sometimes people take us for granted, ...sometimes people are down-right rude.

I guess the way we feel about ingratitude depends very much upon our own perspection of the situation. In the case of the £35 at the supermarker, my friend was happy that the money had been claimed, ...but also a little disappointed that she had received no thanks.

In other situations our feelings can be much stronger. Ingratitude can make us feel extremely angry, or even bitter. And I guess that it always has done.

William Wilberforce said that "Ingratitude sickens the heart, chills and thickens goodwill's life blood".

And in the first century BC, a Roman poet wrote that:

"The earth produces nothing viler than an ungrateful heart".

(Horace)

So how did you feel about our gospel reading today?

Let me remind you of some of the details.

Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem when he entered one of the villages which lies between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered the village ten lepers came to meet him.

In Jesus' day the term leprosy was used for a variety of skin diseases. Some were terribly disfiguring, and ultimately fatal. But leprosy wasn't just physically damaging. The only way people could contain such diseases was by quarantine. Lepers therefore had to live outside the village. They were forbidden to approach other people, and to avoid accidental contact were required to call out 'Unclean'.

There was no way that they could earn there own living, so they were dependent upon charity. It was looked upon as a defiling disease, and people were ashamed of it even though it was no fault of their own.

Now the village in our gospel reading lay on the border between Samaria and Galilee. There was a great deal of racial hatred between these two countries. I guess they had similar feelings towards each other as do Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland. Normally Samaritans and Jews kept themselves to themselves, ...but these ten lepers were so isolated from normal society that such racial barriers meant nothing to them. In the leper community Samaritans and Jews lived together.

Luke then tells us that these ten lepers kept their distance from Jesus, and called out to him, "Jesus! Take pity on us."

Jesus then said a very surprising thing. He said "Go and show yourselves to the priest". In those days the priest acted as the public health inspector. If anyone thought that they were cured, the priest was the only one who could confirm it.

You can imagine these lepers standing there and thinking, "Show ourselves to the priest, ...when we look like this!"

Perhaps they then remembered the Old Testament story of Naaman who also had leprosy and was told to do an equally ridiculous thing. Elisha told Naaman to wash himself seven times in the river Jordan, and Naaman was furious. But his servant persuaded Naaman to do it, by effectively saying to him "what can you lose!". And when Naaman did so he was fully healed.

Anyway, for whatever reason, these ten lepers decided to do what Jesus said. And as they turned to go away they were all miraculously healed.

Imagine their great excitement! They were clean!

Well nine of them just couldn't wait, ...they ran off to see the priest as fast as they could.

But the tenth man turned back and thanked Jesus. He praised God at the top of his voice, and threw himself at Jesus' feet.

"What's happened to the other nine", asked Jesus, "Were they not cleansed too?"

The gratitude of the one stood in stark contrast to the ingratitude of the other nine. And what made the contrast even more poignant, was that the leper who gave thanks wasn't even a Jew, ...he was a Samaritan, ...a foreigner.

So what do you think about the actions of the other nine?

From the depths of despair they asked Jesus to have pity on them. And yet as soon as he healed them they were off without a word of thanks.

"How ungrateful!" we think to ourselves.

...But! ...are we any better? ...am I any better?

Ingratitude is one of those things which is easy to spot in others, but which often goes un-noticed in ourselves.

The ingratitude of others stands out like a sore thumb, (especially when they should be grateful to us), ...but we rarely give thought to our own ingratitude.

As I was preparing this sermon I was struck by how easy it is to forget to give thanks to God. The letter of James reminds us that "All good giving, ...every perfect gift, comes from above, from the Father of the lights of heaven." ...But how often do we remember to thank God for all that he has given us?

Our service of Holy Communion is full of words of thanks and praise (read some of the eucharistic prayer), ...but speaking personally, it's easy to let these words just pass over me, and forget to really thank God from my heart.

But lets return again to the tenth leper. He praised God at the top of his voice, ...threw himself at the feet of Jesus, and thanked him. This was no half-hearted nod of thanks!

...And listen carefully to what Jesus said to him. "Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you."

All ten lepers received God's healing, ...but the one who praised God and thanked Jesus received more than that. He received God's salvation. "Your faith has saved you", Jesus said.

All ten lepers were cleansed, and began a new relationship within their community, ...but the one who praised God and thanked Jesus received more than that. He began a new relationship with God. "Your faith has saved you", Jesus said.

All good things come from God and today we particularly remember his provision of food for us, but I want to finish by reminding ourselves of God's greatest gift of all. It is all summed up in those well known verses in John's gospel.

"God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." (Jn. 3.16-17)

God's greatest gift of all was Jesus, ...who came to die for us that we might be forgiven.

But have we really thanked God for that, ...or do we take it for granted.

It was as the leper praised God and thanked Jesus for what he had done that a new relationship with God began.

And it is as we praise God and thank Jesus for dying for us, that we too can enter into a new relationship with God, ...and we too can hear the words of Jesus, "Your faith has saved you".

Amen.