Grateful for Creation

November 26, 2023 

Luke 17:11-19 (NLT)            

11 As Jesus continued on toward Jerusalem, he reached the border between Galilee and Samaria. 12 As he entered a village there, ten men with leprosy stood at a distance, 13 crying out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

14 He looked at them and said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed of their leprosy.

15 One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, “Praise God!” 16 He fell to the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a Samaritan.

17 Jesus asked, “Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 And Jesus said to the man, “Stand up and go. Your faith has healed you.”

[Silence] This is what the Spirit says for God’s people. Thanks be to God      

Message                    

I try to make a habit of not shopping on Black Friday, how about you? I don’t want to be in the midst of all the crazy. I don’t want to get up at the crack of dawn to get to the store to grab whatever the latest gadget or gizmo is on sale at a “rock bottom” price (which means 100% markup instead of 400%, because, face it, the store is still making a profit on whatever it is). I would just as soon be at home sleeping off the turkey tryptophan and other Thanksgiving carbs I inhaled the day before.

I was reading a blog from the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation by Charlie Parker, who has been a United Methodist pastor and Executive Director of several non-profit organizations. He was talking about how Black Friday has turned into a month-long buying orgy. He described the daily ads that started even before Halloween was over this year. I was trying to find the blog again when I was working on this sermon and had to scroll through 100s of emails all having to with Black Friday sales. I’ll say more about what Charlie had to say about all of this in a bit.

Even though I would rather have been sleeping in, on Friday I stumbled out of bed and took a shower to wake up and so I wouldn’t scare anyone and ventured into the fray. I needed a phone. More specifically, I needed a Jitterbug phone for my dad, who, bless him, struggles with his Samsung phone, which was supposed to be easy to operate – to have features specifically designed to help folks with failing eyesight and trembling fingers. HA! It’s a foreign operating system from what he was used to, and it’s not been a good phone for him from day one. Heck. I can’t even fix it for him when apps disappear and features don’t work as they are supposed to.  

So, I ventured out for a phone that is supposed to be specifically designed for seniors. I keep hearing from others that it will be just the ticket, and it was on sale for Black Friday - $100 off the original price. Plus, if I got it activated in the store, it would be an additional $40 off. It would practically be free! They certainly know how to lure us in…

So I braved the crowds and the crazy, and went to the store, waited my turn, and bought the phone. I hope it will be everything that has been promised.

And my dad will be so grateful. Did I do it for his gratitude? Would I take it back if he doesn’t say thank you? Heck no. I did it because he’s my dad, and I want his life to be a little bit easier. His phone is the one thing he has that helps him stay connected on his own terms with the world outside his room in the skilled nursing unit of Heisinger Bluffs in Jeff City. When it doesn’t work, he’s just that much more isolated. So, I didn’t do it for the thank you. Getting him the new phone isn’t contingent on my dad’s expression of gratefulness.

Diana Butler Bass says that’s what the reading from the Gospel of Luke is all about. Jesus healed 10 lepers but only one came back to say thank you. That didn’t mean, however, that Jesus rescinded his gift of healing.

She says:

Ultimately, this story is about the generosity of God. The gift of healing is free. Christian theology calls that grace — a gift with no strings attached, a gift that comes from the nature of God, a gift of love. God is the Ever-Gifting One. Extravagantly, endlessly, without condition or expectation of response. All of creation is a gift; every day we are surrounded by gifts. The gifts never stop, are never taken back, not in any way contingent on the recipient. The gifts just are.

Only sometimes (Bass says) do we notice. Only occasionally do we turn back, fall on our knees with gratitude, and say thank you.

Just like that tenth leper, it is our attentiveness to all the ways that God gives to us – even our very lives – that makes us whole. Jesus told the already healed leper, “Your faith has made you whole.” Not only did he no longer have leprosy, he had even more than a healed body. He understood the gift he’d been given, was compelled to return to express his gratefulness. It was in that recognition that his life took on new meaning. The same is true for us.

Bass also tied this text to our theme for today – Grateful for Creation. She said

This story reminds us that is easy to overlook gifts, including the gifts of ground, water, and sky — the fruitfulness of the earth, the generosity of this gorgeous planet. Without these gifts, we would never even [have] existed. Neither God nor creation takes those gifts away — and never would they. The gifts that sustain us are always with us, even if ignored or abused to the point of crisis. 

It is easy to get depressed when we consider the crisis our planet seems to be in. I know sometimes I feel like my attempts to recycle and to be conscious of my personal consumption habits are just a drop in the bucket.

Bass points out, though, that

[T]oday’s episode from Luke leans away from judgement toward hope. The Earth, all of creation, still gives her gifts. Healing continues even in our deeply wounded world. What would it be like, instead of going on our way, we turned around and said thank you? To God, to creation itself? … Perhaps a new-found trust in mutuality, reciprocity, and sharing, humbly recognizing that everything is a gift, will make us whole.

[Quotes from DBB are from The Cottage email, October 1, 2023]

Which brings me back to the blog by Charlie Parker I mentioned earlier.

Parker says

It is, of course, a perverse irony that this frenzy of consumption is attached to a holiday that is about gratitude. The actual history of the first Thanksgiving is shrouded in uncertainty and is doubtlessly more complicated than the stories we recount. But the stories are important. They remember a tale of cross-cultural support in a time of great hardship. They remind us of the healing power of generosity: sharing scarce resources and knowledge. They rejoice at unexpected friendships and moments of celebration.

Black Friday plays on our notion of scarcity – we had better buy now because these sales won’t last forever. And we need whatever it is that’s being advertised. But “everything we have is a gift from a God of abundance who invites us to reflect our divine nature through our own acts of generosity.” 

Parker ends his blog this way:

[W]hy not use every [Black Friday] advertisement as an opportunity for spiritual reflection. What emptiness am I trying to fill? What inner darkness am I seeking to avoid? What am I truly longing for? My guess is that what you seek cannot be purchased at a store sale. And ironically, that longing may be best satisfied by sharing something of yourself.

[posts from Shalem Friday Blog, Reflecting on Black Friday by Charlie Parker]

I know my dad will appreciate the new phone, but what he really craves is the connection with my mom, his sister, my brother, with me… and isn’t that longing to share something of ourselves with one another what makes us human? And best reflects the divine image in which we’ve been created?

Will you pray with me?

O God our maker, you created us for relationship – to you, to one another, to the rest of your creation. In this season of giving and receiving that is ahead, help us reflect on the longing for connection and make us generous in the sharing of that gift. Amen.

Call to Gratitude                   

Find a position on your chair in which you feel comfortable, relaxed, and alert.
 


Close your eyes.
 


Notice that as you breathe in, you are taking in oxygen, which is released by trees and all green-growing things. As you breathe out, you exhale carbon dioxide, which in turn is being taken up by trees…. Let yourself feel your connection to the air, to the trees, and grass, and everything green.
 


Now let yourself feel the weight of your body in the chair…. You are as solid as the earth and made from the same atoms of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen that make up the earth….
 


Now let yourself sense the inner motions within your body…. Maybe you are aware of the gurgling in your belly or the throb of your beating heart. Maybe you sense the circulation of blood as it moves through your body…. It is as if within your body you are carrying rivers, lakes, and the ocean.

Now scan your body. Get a sense of your body as a whole…. Now consider this: all the elements that make up your body came from stars that exploded millions of years ago…. 

Our bodies connect us to the air and to plants, to the earth, to waters and the sea, to the animals, and to the stars.
 


Let yourself appreciate the goodness of the amazing body that God has given you and feel your kinship with the whole Creation. 

[from The Center for Action and Contemplation’s, Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation, 112523, “Kinship with Creation,” Rooted and Rising, editors Leah Schade and Margaret Bullitt-Jonas]