THANKFUL HEARTS

A Sermon for Thanksgiving Eve
November 22, 2006
Pastor Laura Gentry

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

Now why in the world did that Samaritan return to thank Jesus? I mean, that wasn’t a requirement. Jesus had just told them to go show themselves to the priests. When they did—to their great surprise—they were healed of their leprosy. Nine of the ten were so excited about the healing that they took off.

Luke doesn’t tell us why or where they went, but we can assume they were eager to get back to their homes and families. After all, being lepers meant that they were precluded from being a part of society and were forced to live as despised beggars outside the city gates. By healing them, Jesus had given them completely new realities—he had given them back their lives. And yet, back to thank Jesus just didn’t make it onto their to-do list. So why did it seem necessary to the Samaritan?

I remember when I was a child at my birthday and at Christmas time, I couldn’t open my gifts without a pad and paper at my side so that I could jot down every last gift and who it came from so that I would be sure to write them a thank you note. My mom really drummed it into my head that whenever anyone gives you anything, you must must must send them a thank you note to show your appreciation (even if you didn’t much care for the gift). Thank you notes are just good etiquette.

Perhaps the Samaritan had a mother like mine and he could picture her saying something like: “Whenever you get cured of leprosy, be sure to send a thank you note!” But I think his return to Jesus was much more than politeness conditioned by etiquette-conscious parents.

So why did he return? Well, he was not only different in his gratitude, he was also different in his race. In fact, Luke doesn’t ever tell us his name. We just know him by his cultural identity, as a Samaritan. He was the only one among the ten who was a Samaritan. As I said, being a leper was a terrible lot for an ancient person, but so was being a Samaritan. This man has been hated and discriminated against on two counts. He was an outsider of outsiders. Perhaps this is the reason—because he’d suffered more— the healing of the Samaritan leper provoked a more profound gratitude.

But we’ll never know for sure because Luke doesn’t ever tell us. Luke is more concerned about depicting Jesus and this is a very interesting story about Jesus. It is shocking, really. Jesus shows that the boundaries of God’s grace are much wider than was previously assumed. Religious folks of Luke’s day would have believed that God’s grace would not include non-Jews, let alone lepers! And yet, here we see Jesus sabotage everyone’s small thinking about God by daring to cross the cultural and religious barriers to reach out to the lepers, including the Samaritan. Grace knows no limits!

And this returning Samaritan appears to realize this. He does not send a halfhearted thank you note like I did when I was a kid at Christmas time. No, he turns back and praises God with a loud voice. But the drama does not end there. He prostrates himself, it says. That means he lays on the ground in front of Jesus with his face right down in the dirt. Now that’s humility! That’s gratitude.

With every part of his being, the Samaritan knows that his healing was a gift, not an entitlement. He has been liberated by Jesus. His former, painful isolation has been terminated. He is now free to connect with people and the first one he wants to connect with is Jesus. Alone for who knows how long, his heart must have craved intimacy and now he is seeking it with God through Jesus.

One of the problems in our society today is a sense of entitlement. We go around with the sense that we’re entitled to everything we have and we don’t owe anybody anything, that we’re not responsible. There is an individualism in our culture that makes us self-centered. And this distances us from other people, especially people whose lives are very different from our own. We can’t relate or empathize with them. The other day, I saw a man wearing a T-shirt that said, “That’s YOUR problem, baby,” and I think that characterizes the general attitude of our society.

The nine lepers who took off to re-join their families must have had the kind of entitlement mindset. But one of them turned back. He turned back from this attitude and came to Jesus in gratitude and humility. He understood that God didn’t have to heal him. He understood that he was not entitled to this goodness at all, but that God’s boundary-crossing grace came to him as a gift.

Here we are again on the eve of Thanksgiving; the time of year designated to be grateful—kind of like obligatory thank you notes. We can gloss right over the giving thanks part and head straight for the turkey, or we can see it as an opportunity to cultivate a renewed sense of gratitude in our hearts. We can let the Samaritan leper teach us to proclaim our complete dependence upon God and lay ourselves at God’s feet, recognizing that what we have is not our entitlement. It is a gift.

We can learn from this leper that to be grateful means to reconnect, to see ourselves as part of God’s larger family, to understand that your problem is MY problem, too. We need one another and together, we need God.

And recognizing all this frees us to have grateful hearts, happy hearts—hearts that rejoice in the half-fullness of the cup rather than hearts that whine about the half-emptiness of it. God has crossed all boundaries to reach us and having grateful hearts frees us to do more boundary crossing of our own, to reach out and love as God loves.

What happened to the Samaritan after his encounter with Jesus? You guessed it: Luke doesn’t tell us. All we know is that Jesus said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” My guess is that the Samaritan WAS made well, that he was changed by the encounter. My guess is that he went home and saw his family and friends with altogether new eyes—with eyes of profound gratitude. I am willing to bet that he never took anything or anyone for granted after that. And he probably laughed a lot and was enormously fun to be around.

You and I know people like that. And this Thanksgiving, may we be reminded that we are called to BE people like that ourselves. To be happy and healthy and whole and well, we must admit our need for God and one another and be immensely grateful for all we have.

Let us pray: God of boundary-crossing grace, enkindle in us a fire of profound gratitude for all that you have given us. Forgive us for the self-centeredness that so often creeps into our lives. Help us to return to you, as the Samaritan did, to show our thanks for your many gifts. May we live as your grateful and joyful people this Thanksgiving and always. Amen.

© Laura E. Gentry 2006

THAT'S ENCOURAGING!

A Sermon for the 24th Sunday after Pentecost
November 19, 2006
Pastor Laura Gentry

Hebrews 10:11-25
And every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, "he sat down at the right hand of God," and since then has been waiting "until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet." For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds," he also adds, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more." Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (New Revised Standard Version)

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I remember a few years ago, I received a nine-page letter here at the church. It was from a Christian writer, not affiliated with any particular group, who was very concerned about warning us of the dangerous reality of hell. Apparently, he felt that Lutherans are not frightened enough of hell, and so he took it upon himself to caution us in the form of this lengthy oration. At one point in the letter, he said, “Pastor, do you realize that the lava that comes out of volcanos comes straight out of the fires of hell?!!” I’m not sure where he got that bit of scientific insight, but he was certainly adamant.

And this fellow isn’t the only one worried about the fires of hell. The fictional Left Behind books, which deal with the presumed horrors of apocalypse, continue to be popular. Many have made the New York Times Bestseller list. In all, there will be 16 books, with the final installment due out next year. Clearly, they grip a real fear in people.

But in the section of Paul’s letter to the Hebrews we heard this morning, he speaks passionately about how we should behave in these last days. Now, Paul believed that the end of the world would be at any moment—and obviously, he was wrong about the timing since it still hasn’t come almost 2,000 years later—but even so, he didn’t think we should live in fear of the final judgement. Instead, we should hold fast to the promise of forgiveness and salvation through Jesus. Meanwhile, we should be about the work of Christ. Furthermore, we should encourage others to do the same.

As we make our way through the Book of Hebrews with its sparkling and sometimes confusing images of sacrifices and great high priests and its extended metaphor of Jesus as that priest who makes all other priests unnecessary, the following verses come to us with a remarkable clarity and freshness: “Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Paul is confident that we needn’t be concerned about how lava is connected to the fires of hell or harbor any other apocalyptic phobias like being left behind, as if Christ’s resurrection had no power. Rather than living in fear, we ought to hold onto hope. Without wavering.

Yet this is difficult to do, especially in our complicated world. How do we live in hope? Vaclav Havel, a Czech writer, put it eloquently when he wrote: "Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good."

To hope is to take action. To hope is to believe so firmly in Christ that you are willing to throw yourself into his work—because it is good. And not only that, Paul says that we also should provoke one another to love and good deeds. Have you ever heard of provoking someone to do good? Probably not. The context we almost always hear that word is bad—you provoke someone to anger. But Paul has a different idea. Instead of provoking anger and strife, we should be using that same concentrated energy to provoke love and good deeds.

We simply can’t afford to be grumpy and negative, though as humans, we are naturally gifted in those areas. As believers in Christ in these last days, we must do the radical: be hopeful and encourage hopefulness in others. But how should we go about it? I mean, they didn’t offer encouragement classes in school. Encouragement isn’t a natural skill. It is something that needs to be learned and practiced. So this morning, I offer you three practical ways to encourage people.

1. ENCOURAGE WITH PRAYER
When I was a child, I always thought the prayers of the people went on way too long in worship. In fact, one time when I was in junior high, I passed out during them! And because the prayers were so lengthy, my family had time to drag me out without anyone noticing because their eyes were still closed. But when I went to seminary, I learned to appreciate the prayers of the people and how they can touch upon so many aspects of our faith. One of the things we do during these prayers is to offer encouragement to those who are ill, or recovering from surgery or grieving the loss of a loved one. And in our own personal prayers, we ought to be praying for our church, and for the individual members of it—that’s why we publish all the prayer requests in our newsletter.

Our prayers on behalf of one another pack a powerful punch because God hears and listens. The other thing about prayer is that it changes us. The more we pray for someone, the more we see them as God does—with compassion—and that changes the way we act toward them. When you pray for someone regularly, you can’t dislike them. If you don’t believe me, take the “prayer challenge” and pray for someone you consider to be an enemy. Pray every day for that person for a month and you’ll find you no longer consider them an enemy.

That’s why Paul encourages us to encourage one another through prayer. This is, indeed, Christ’s work.

2. ENCOURAGE WITH WORDS
Another way that we can encourage others is through our words. As you know, words are powerful and sometimes we wield them like weapons instead of lifter-uppers. We need to be much more careful about our use of words.

After speaking with someone, ask yourself, “Has this person been encouraged by our conversation? Do they have more hope now? Are things brighter for them as a result of our contact?” If the answer is no, then it’s time to get more encouraging!

3. ENCOURAGE WITH ACTIONS
Finally, we need to encourage with actions. Beyond just saying uplifting things to others, we can be doing things to encourage people.

I found a company on-line that sells sample encouragement letters. The written word, it explains, is more powerful yet than the spoken one. “Encourage people with letters,” they say, “we’ll show you how!” And while, I don’t think buying encouragement letters is necessary, I do think they have a point about the impact of them.

Consequently, we have an encouragement team here at church. They do simple things like send notes that say: “You’ve been caught doing something great!” We can all be doing more of that. How many times have you thought about sending an encouragement note to someone and then neglected to actually do it? Taking action—even in a small way—can make a big difference.

In addition, Paul says we mustn’t neglect coming together for worship. This is an important a way of taking encouraging action. It is so difficult to live in hope, to hold on to Jesus without wavering. We absolutely need one another. We can and should be a blessing to one another. That is the active encouragement that a congregation is meant to provide all its members.

Although we live in the “end times,” and have no idea when that final judgment will come, we must not give in to fear. We must trust fully in the grace of God and spend our energy on hope and encouragement in Christ. We can encourage others through prayer, through words and through actions. We can do it! It’s just a matter of getting into new, hope-centered habits. We can make a difference and that’s encouraging!

Now, may the peace of God, which passes all understand, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

© Laura E. Gentry 2006

TRUST FALL

A Sermon for the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost
November 12, 2006
Pastor Laura Gentry

Mark 12:38-44
As he taught, he said, "Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows' houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation." He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on." (New Revised Standard Version)

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Many camps offer a high ropes or low ropes course, both offer physical exercises that aid in team building efforts. One of those exercises is called the trust fall. Participants stand on a stump, sometimes as high as six feet in the air, and crossing their arms over their chest and wearing a blindfold, fall backwards into the arms of their teammates. As you can tell, “trust fall” is a very good name for it because that’s exactly what happens—you must trust that you will be caught when you fall. You place your entire well-being in their hands.

I think of the trust fall when I think of this morning’s Gospel story of the widow’s mite. Here was a woman who was widowed and poor. In those days, women could not own property or work for a living so she had to depend upon charity to get by. And she was down to her last two copper coins. To this day, this is all that we know about her. She was a woman of great faith. In fact, she became an object lesson, a living sermon for Jesus. She remains an icon of faith as she was able to “trust fall” into God’s arms.

This unnamed woman is known only by her marital status and her coins rather than her name, since the story is simply called the “widow’s mite.” She is the widow who had nothing but two small coins. I remember reenacting this story in Sunday school and the teacher gave the “widow” actress two pennies to put into the Sunday school bank. But in actuality, the widows coins weren’t even worth that much. Their value was one four-hundredth of a shekel—about an eighth of a penny each. Too small to bear a legible imprint, they were the ugliest little coins in the empire of Rome.

Mark doesn’t tell us much about what’s going on in this scene. We know that Jesus has been teaching in the temple courts. Now, on his way out, he pauses by the treasury to watch as offerings are made. Each person would walk up to one of the thirteen trumpet-shaped receptacles, which were lined along the wall of the Court of the Women. Both men and women were allowed in this courtyard of the temple, but the women could not go any further. The treasury was in this courtyard and it is opposite this treasury that Jesus watched as people came up and offered their money. Each person was expected to say aloud the amount and purpose of the gift in order to be heard by the priest overseeing the collections.

It would have been an impressive sight to see people in fine clothes with their fancy rings tossing in large sums, calling out to all how much they gave. And in such a group, who would notice the widow tossing the two smallest coins in the realm into the offering? Yet, in a move that is so like him, Jesus notices and calls attention to her act of faith.

Jesus has found his sermon illustration, so calls his disciples together for a little sermon. He says, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

Jesus knows that these are not just any two coins, they are the woman’s last two coins. The text says, “All she had to live on,” but the Greek is more shocking. What is really said is that she put in her “bios.” It’s the word from which we get biology—the study of life. Jesus tells us that the widow put her “life” into the temple treasury that day. It wasn’t just coins, it was her very life she offered God.

This is not a sermon about tithing, for the woman did not give ten percent of her income. These were her last two coins to rub together, and rather than keep one back, she tossed both into the temple treasury’s coffers. The widow gave 100 percent of her money. The widow is down to two worthless coins, and she trusts it all to God. If this were a gamble, then the widow would be laying all her money on God. But it is not a gamble, it is trust. She “trust falls” into the arms of a God she trusts entirely.

It would be nice if Mark filled in more details for us. Was Jesus’ arm around the woman as he said, “This poor widow has put in more …” or was the woman blending back into the crowd, never to be seen again? Or perhaps Jesus asked his own keeper of the purse, Judas Iscariot, to give something to this woman so that she would not go hungry that evening. Perhaps the widow became a follower of Jesus. Did she join with the other women who journeyed with Jesus and the disciples from Galilee to the cross and then went on to share the good news?

The Gospel never answers these questions. The nameless widow who gave two small coins fades into the background. It would be wonderful if we knew her name. We could name churches, schools, and charities in her honor. But perhaps namelessness is appropriate for this living parable. And maybe it is best, too, that we don’t find out how her story ends. The nameless woman whose ultimate fate we never know is perhaps an even better icon of trust, for her story was a precarious one. She went to the temple that day not knowing if she would ever have another meal.

And yet, in facing an uncertain future, the widow reached out to God. She trusted that if she gave everything she had to God, even the little she gave would be honored. And whether she was repaid handsomely by Jesus himself, or God cared for her in some other way, we, too, have to trust. We trust that the widow’s story turned out all right, that she was right to allow herself to fall into grace. We trust that no matter what happened, she was God’s.

And by her example, Jesus shows that what we withhold matters more than what we offer. The widow was a woman of great faith, who held nothing back. She knew what Jesus’ disciples were just beginning to learn: we are to give, knowing that everything we have is God’s already. We can’t give God anything. But we can offer our very selves to the Kingdom of God, holding nothing back.

Do we even know what it means to trust fall into God’s arms? Do we give ourselves completely to anything, let along God? The theologian Soren Kierkegaard (whose grave I recently saw in Denmark), explained that God’s grace in Jesus Christ is entirely free, but it costs us everything because we must take the leap of faith. We must trust God with our whole lives. Being a disciple of Jesus is a serious endeavor. It is costly discipleship.

Today, we are receiving new members and it is exciting to have them join with us in our effort to lead faithful lives. It is not easy to trust fall. Not easy at all. And so we need one another in this important mission. We pray for our new members: that they can inspire us and we can inspire them. And together, we can come closer to the faith of this humble widow who placed her whole life back in her loving creator’s hands. Amen.

Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.

© Laura E. Gentry 2006