“EUCHARISTA”
Saint Luke 17. 11-19
The Eve of a National Thanksgiving: 22 November Anno Domini 2006
Fr Watson
Thanksgiving as celebrated in modern America, or even 17th, 18th, or 19th century America, really has nothing to do with us this evening. Reflecting for a mere moment that some impersonal, benign, non-judgmental, “Divine Providence” has somehow “blessed” this nation is not Christian. All pagan and heathen lands, societies and cultures feel the same way. And to a certain extant they are correct. The true Lord does bless the world at large with Creation and Sustaining-being. The only God there truly is does allow the rain to fall and the crops to grow for the unrighteous as well as for the believer. To think anything else turns one into a false-teaching “name it claim it” theologian of Glory. Saint Paul didn’t talk about glory, save “glorying” in the Cross of Christ Jesus.
So, is pastor saying I shouldn’t be thankful for living in the “land of the free and the home of the brave?” Freedom is relative, sometimes short-lived, and usually only a codeword for licentiousness, irresponsibility and pride-filled covetousness. Eve wanted to be free. People who reject the Ten Commandments want to be free. Most other countries are every bit as brave as yours. Or rather, is the message tonight that turkey and a day off from work doesn’t matter? The answer is no to both worrisome queries.
You should thank Christ for your ability to travel, live, marry, have children, work, and most importantly come to Divine Service. You should give thanks to Him for giving you daily bread, (turkey and the trimmings), house home, fields, cattle, wife, children, eyes, ears, and all your senses.
And yes, the fact that you don’t say thank you to God when you should (every day, multiple times) is a sin. Repent. Turn from omission and wear the evangelical piety which the Shepherd has clothed you in. This is why Christ has given His Church Confession and Absolution; this is why Luther urges you to daily drown the “old Adam.” Adam didn’t thank the Lord for Eden as he should have; you are like him.
The text appointed in the Church’s lectionary for a day of “thanksgiving” is Saint Luke 17. 11-19. But even in this much loved story of the 10 Lepers it is possible to misunderstand the Lord’s words and actions.
Aren’t we supposed to be grateful that the Savior came to those pathetic dying men? Yes you are; as they were as well. For not only should you thank Jesus for making you out of dirt, for giving you a soul, but you also thank Him and the Holy Ghost for calling you by the Gospel, enlightening you with His gifts, and keeping you in the one, true, faith unto life everlasting.
So, now that we established that Christians do thank the Lord for First Article and Third Article gifts, we turn to the centerpiece of the Gospel; the heart of the Creed: the Second Article. It’s always about Jesus.
The wrong lesson to take from this text is that it is a “lesson.” No! Scripture is not moralisms, aphorisms, and “to-do” lists. Saint Luke is not writing to “fire you up” so that you’ll be just like the one returning Samaritan Leper and not like the other nine, ungrateful Jewish hypocrites.
The Good News of Christ is always about Who is doing the Doing. You are not named “Savior.” If you think that your “thanks” help make you better, or get you extra merits over those who take gifts for granted; you’re wrong. God doesn’t need your thanks. God doesn’t require your appreciation. The Lord Jesus would not have been any more disappointed had the Samaritan not come back, nor would He have been happier had all ten returned. Jesus knows we are sinners; that we can’t keep the law or always thank Him that He kept it for us. Jesus understands and loves you anyway; that’s Good News.
Even for you, and the people you deal with, saying “thank you” can be an empty gesture; a mere pro-forma ritual that is expected and easily performed. The Lord time and time again in the Hebrew Scriptures makes it clear that He doesn’t want or need sacrifices, ashes, rent clothes, and mouthed platitudes. The Lord wants you; He wants your heart. Why? He wants your heart so that He may fill it with Himself; re-make it in His image; give you His blood to keep it beating through eternity (which it will as a matter of fact); and warm it again with His abiding presence. He desires to pour into you by Grace through Faith all that He did for you when He paid for your un-thankfulness on the Cross; when He bled and died on Calvary
The reason that the name Divine Service is a better name for what goes on here at this font, pulpit and altar every week, rather than the term worship, is that the first is what God does for you and the second is what you then reflect back to Him. And when you fail (which you will) to worship Him the way you ought to (i.e. perfectly, all the time) He will still Serve you His Word, His pronouncement of + forgiveness to hearts broken by the Law, and His Body and Blood.
The word which Saint Luke uses to describe what the Samaritan Leper does when He returns to Jesus is the Greek word: “to worship.” To be at Jesus’ feet in order to hear Him and to have Him touch you with His Body is what the Divine Service is all about. It is not a coincidence that the word Eucharist, which we use as a synonym for the Sacrament of the Altar, literally means “thanksgiving.” But again, that doesn’t mean that when you come to kneel at the rail you are thanking Him, but rather that the whole essence of what it is that causes the regenerated, re-made, Baptized heart to do anything, (including giving thanks) is that it has been fed with Jesus; by Faith in His Word, and by reception of His Body and Blood.
We pray: “O Lord, most Holy and Triune God; we thank Thee for our creation and sustenance. We thank thee for our earthly members, our friends and family, our homes and communities, and our clothing and food. We give Thee special thanks that Thou hast made us Thine own by calling us through Thy Word, working faith in our hearts, and placing us into Thy eternal sheepfold known as the Church. But most of all we thank Thee for Jesus Christ: ‘TRUE GOD, BEGOTTEN OF THE FATHER FROM ETERNITY, AND ALSO TRUE MAN, BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY, WHO IS OUR LORD. WHO HAS REDEEMED US, LOST AND CONDEMNED CREATURES, PURCHASED AND WON US FROM ALL SINS, FROM DEATH, AND THE POWER OF THE DEVIL; NOT WITH GOLD OR SILVER, BUT WITH HIS HOLY, PRECIOUS BLOOD AND WITH HIS INNOCENT SUFFERING AND DEATH, THAT WE MAY BE HIS OWN, AND LIVE UNDER HIM IN HIS KINGDOM…IN EVERLASTING RIGHTEOUSNESS, INNOCENCE AND BLESSEDNESS. EVEN AS HE IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD, LIVES AND REIGNS TO ALL ETERNITY.’”
In the Name of The Father and of The Son + and of The Holy Ghost