• Home
• Services
• About Augsburg
• About Pastor
• Sermons
• Links

• 2007
• 2006
• 2005
• 2004

This text was preached to you 10 weeks ago. It is the appointed reading for a Day of National Thanksgiving. One cannot be reminded too often to give thanks. But that is the Law isn't it? You are to love God perfectly and you are to love your neighbor (that's everybody else) perfectly. Part of love is being grateful. Gratitude can certainly be held in the heart and mind of a paraplegic mute. But you all have hands, wallets, legs and mouths. You are expected to show gratitude by more than mental assent.

All ten men had leprosy. Ten is the number of the "Law." The Law can't heal, give comfort or engender moral perfection. These men simply wanted to "belong" again. They craved their families and the joy of sitting down with loved ones over a home-cooked meal. But the Law doesn't re-unite or feed, it starves and it kills.

"Lost and alone on a friendless voyage" is how one might describe both the life of leprosy and the life of unbelief. When one is drift less without rudder or propulsion, one is simply carried along by the current. The lepers did nothing. The Lord did all. The Lord does all.

"He went to Jerusalam...He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee...He entered a certain village..." "I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel..."

Were all ten lepers believers? It is possibly so. It is arguably true that all ten had heard the stories and words of this Nazarene Rabbi. It appears that they lifted up their voices to request mercy because they believed He could, and would, give them mercy.

There are literally millions of things you should be thankful for. There are countless gifts showered upon you daily from your loving heavenly Father for which you should give thanks. There are myriads of gifts given to you by your fellowman (which in reality is still God giving to you through the "means" of human intervention) for which you should also be thankful.

So yes, one should be thankful (in the heart) and one should give thanks with the voice and the hands for all earthly, temporal, and physical gifts and kindnesses. The pagan as well as the Christian should give thanks for and to a charitable Creator. But is this text solely, or even uniquely, about giving thanks for "things?" Yes and no. Law and Gospel. The Law shows us our sins, our leprosy, and the good news of the Lord shows us, well, the Lord, and all that He has for us in addition to "stuff."

In the Creed, which is the Gospel, we are informed of all that God the Creator has bestowed upon us: "body, soul, eyes, ears, all members, reason, senses, clothing, meat and drink, house, spouse, children, and all goods." We are then told that it is our duty to "thank and praise, to serve and obey." Those are "Law" words. You don't thank and praise any better than the 9 Jewish Lepers who were cured. Again, in the Fourth Petition of the Lord's Prayer, you are instructed on how to thank God for your daily bread, i.e. "daily." You are also told that "bread" means more than just baked wheat flour: It includes another long list: "faithful rulers, good government, good weather, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors and the like." Being told to be "thankful" for those things are more "Law" words. You don't thank and praise any better than the 9 healed Jews.

The factual events recorded by Saint Luke, by the Power and Accuracy of God the Holy Spirit, are meant to take us from the "ten" of the Law to the "One" of the Giver. We follow not the 9 healed Jews on their way to the Temple and the Priests of works-righteousness, but we follow the one Samaritan who is drawn by the Holy Spirit back to the real Good Samaritan, the Christ of God.

This special Feast Day of Thanksgiving isn't about you, or what you do, or how you give thanks, it is about Jesus and Who He is and what He does.

The Samaritan "fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks." The man fell at Jesus' feet; a posture of worship. One does not worship a man. Luke records that he gave Jesus "eucharistwn," thanksgiving. But Who really gave what? The Christ gave this man back clean skin, a few more years and months in this world of sin, but also something infinitely greater. Jesus gave the Samaritan man a home for eternity; a banquet table which surpasses your dining room table tomorrow; Salvation from hell and eternal damnation; a loving Brother and Father Who would be with the man forever. All of these things came to that Samaritan when Jesus forgave him his sins! Tomorrow is actually less about thanksgiving and more about "His" giving.

The cleansed "former" lepers all grew old and died anyway. Whether the Lord has blessed you with abundant (from the world's point of view) gifts of things, or with sparse and meager (again from the world's view) provisions, one still grows old and dies. Bill Gates and the Sultan of Brunei have more worldly possessions than do you or the pan-handler down on the corner in the ghetto. But none of you give satisfactory thanks and praise to the One Who has given you everything. All men sin, all men fall short of praising the King. Even David himself, the author of the Psalter, a veritable book of praise, honor, and laudatory songs to God, recognizes that no one does good, no not one; except for the One Who cleanses, makes well, feeds, and saves, Jesus the Christ. The real "Eucharist" isn't what we reflect back to God (though the Holy Spirit does create this "good work" of natural response in us), the real "Eucharist" is the God/Man Jesus and what He gives us. He gives Himself, God, and all that goes with it.

Yes, give thanks tonight and tomorrow (and Friday and all days) that the Lord has given you health (to a greater or lesser extent); that He has given you a home, a family, a country. Yes give thanks that He daily gives you food to eat and drinks to drink.

But know that Gospel always follows Law. He gives at the beginning. He gives even when you don't. He gives even when you don't thank Him or show praise. He gives and it is His giving which even allows you to "give" thanks. He goes on giving until He brings you into heaven to the true Thanksgiving Table where He is the meat and drink indeed.

We go on hearing the Gospel as so purely proclaimed in the Apostles' Creed, His Giving: "Jesus True God, begotten of the Father from eternity, true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is your Lord, Who has redeemed you, a lost and condemned (leprous) creature, purchased and won you from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious, blood (which He then gives you to "take and drink") and with His innocent suffering and death; that you are His own and that you will live under Him in His kingdom in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness."

"His" Giving, for you.

In the Name of The Father and of The Son + and of The Holy Ghost