Thanksgiving, thanks-doing

10-13-19

Grace to you and peace from God our creator, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, amen.

I could easily see the scene described the beginning of our old testament reading this type of plot play out well in the show “Downton Abbey”, with all the “upstairs, downstairs” drama between the “staff” and the powerful people they serve: a slave girl, captured and owned by powerful people in a foreign land, confides important information to her mistress, the wife of a very powerful general, who was suffering from an embarrassing illness, and taking advice from his wife to seek out help from a foreign power and a foreign god.

In the missing verses in today’s Old Testament reading, Naaman shows up on the doorstep of the King of Israel with a letter from his own king asking for healing, and accompanied by a giant parade with all the pomp and circumstance: truckloads of gold, silver and fine clothes. After the initial mix up, Naaman parks his impressive motorcade, along with his warhorses and battle chariots, in the correct place - in front of the small hut belonging to the Prophet Elisha, who would be the one to do the actually healing.

How Naaman EXPECTED to be healed by Elisha included a dramatic appearance, loud shouting, and an impressive hand waving. Well, Naaman was very disappointed that what he got was a messenger and the command to bathe in a creek. He almost left without being cured, thanks to his pride, because he forgot that being healed was more important than HOW the healing happens.

But the point of this story, of course, that in the midst of all the drama, this man is washed and made whole again, thankful for all that God has done for him. No magic water or fancy jazz hands or flashy incantations necessary. God also breaks into the lives of us “ordinary folk,” in ways less dramatic perhaps but no less miraculous.

Years ago, while I was serving in New Jersey, I once received a huge Harry and David’s gourmet gift basket from a mystery address. Never before had I known that things like chocolate covered popcorn could taste like manna from heaven. Well, never before had I ever heard of Harry and David’s. I googled the company, found their website, and felt my eyes pop out when I saw the price of the gift basket I had been sent.

Weeks before I got the gift basket, the local funeral home had called at the request of a local family, unconnected to a congregation, who desired to have their beloved “Meredith” given a Christian memorial service and burial. And they wanted a minister. And they wanted to do it at that church. Ok, well, since the minister of the church they wanted to have it had a scheduling conflict, I did the service, and then did not give it another thought, until this amazing gift basket showed up.  

The family of this woman felt the need to show me gratitude after the fact, for doing a service for a woman that I had never met. From people that I had only met once, probably for the sum total of an hour and a half. From a family that for all I knew had rarely darkened the door of a church, at least not until the day of this person’s funeral. From people that I have not seen since or heard of since, except for that “Thank you” gift basket. This family, a “foreigner” to the church, gave thanks to God in the only way they knew how – in sending a nice gift to the church which sheltered them in their time of grief. It was like a mini thanksgiving.

Fun fact: Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in Canada. We Americans forget that we did not invent the concept of giving thanks. We may indeed be blamed for pairing it to turkey, stuffing, parades, November, and football. As long as humankind has wondered at the mystery that is a seed growing and bearing fruit that we harvest at this time of year, we have been giving thanks.

And even though fewer and fewer of us these days actually work the land from which our food comes from, like clockwork, every fall as the leaves change and the air grows cold, we still have the urge to take stock of the blessings we have been given, and then give back to God and to others out of our gratitude.  Like next week when we bring up an extra helping of canned goods to be donate to the Doylestown Food Pantry. We give to others, because God has given everything to us, even though we have not earned it or deserved it.

This story, from Luke’s gospel, interestingly enough, is one of the texts most often chosen for thanksgiving worship services. When these lepers, outcasts in their community, hoped that their petition would be answered in being cured of the disease that separated them from the rest of society. Their prayer request was answered, but most of them forgot that there are other kinds of prayer besides intercessory prayer, or asking for help. One former leper, a Samaritan, remembered and returned to give God a prayer of thanksgiving.

“Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner” – said to Jesus by the 10 lepers, is one of the oldest prayers we have. Even though we continually ask for God’s mercy, we already have it. But do we really see it? Are we paying attention in the normalcy of everyday lives, attending school, going to the grocery store, or the dentist office, or in our daily commutes?

A typical commute here in the environs of Philadelphia might look something like this: I get in my car in the morning , more than likely running late for something… and there is usually some sort of road construction that makes me even later. I turn on NPR while I wait, and hear the shocking news of a crisis in the world and I almost miss my turn. I’m at a stoplight when my phone rings, and the car behind beeps because the light turned green exactly one nanosecond ago and I haven’t moved.

Driving while distracted may be life-threatening. But praising and thanking God on a Sunday morning while distracted might just be “heart-threatening.” How many times during worship, while singing “Alleluia” – which means “Praise God” or the “holy, holy, holy,” which is also praising God for who God is -  are we actually thinking things like: am I prepared for my meeting tomorrow? Did I remember to get milk?

Praising God with our whole hearts is hard to do. But that’s why we do it together, as a WHOLE COMMUNITY of faith. When we sing or pray together, and watch the plate full of our offering lifted in our midst, witness the gifts of bread and wine given and shed for us, we can SEE right in front of us so much to be grateful for. We see and are thankful that God has been so gracious to us, even though we certainly do not deserve it.

Remember the story of “The Ugly Duckling”? This duckling grew up thinking he was ugly by duck-standards, when he was actually “normal” by swan standards. He couldn’t help the fact of who he was at his very core – a beautiful swan in a world of average ducks.

According to Paul, Jesus can’t deny who he is either, even when it causes him to get into serious trouble.  He loves people, because God is love. Jesus loves people, even when it’s considered unpopular, amoral, or even dangerous. He loves people, even when it gets ugly. And it certainly got ugly. But Jesus has seen ALL our ugly and loves us anyway, because that is who he is, and who he has shown God to be: faithful even when we are faithless. I hope the Timothy remembered that, and I hope we all can, too, not just on surrounded by turkey on Thanksgiving, or on Sunday morning, but every single day of our lives. 

Thanks be to God. Amen.