Thank You!

I will admit I am terrible at writing thank you notes.  Maybe it was because my mom never ‘forced’ my sister and I to do that as children…  Stephanie and I, however, made our kids do that growing up, but I don’t know if it made them “thank you” writers, though.  This Sunday’s Gospel reading from Luke 17:11-19 hinges on gratitude and giving thanks and praise to Jesus.  He heals ten lepers, but only one comes back to thank and praise him.  “Were not ten healed?  Where are the other nine?” Jesus asks, with I imagine a hint of frustration.  Then he says the important thing:  “Rise, go on your way, your faith has made you well.”  Some translations have, “saved you.”  The interesting thing was that all of them were healed… but the one who returned was made whole. 

            The word most often translated “saved” in the New Testament can also mean “healed” or “made whole.”  What is it about gratitude and thankfulness that “makes us whole,” that “saves us”?  I think it comes with humility and acknowledgement of a gift.  “Faith” in the leper’s case wasn’t a big mental exercise or risk of daring or a leap.  It was simply saying, “Yes!  This is what Christ did for me!”  He received something that he couldn’t get on his own.  The gratitude simply shows that he doesn’t see himself as “entitled”—and that’s humility.  Humility turns most everything into a gift, and gone is the struggle to earn or “be good enough” or worthy or deserving.  And that is freeing.  Christ relates to him as the giver of all good gifts.  Being “whole” or “saved” begins and ends in relationship to God, and the leper by coming back and thanking Jesus relates to him as the One who can do what’ll he never be able to do himself.  That’s faith and salvation—and that’s being whole. 

            I am in a unique position in that the “success” of my “job”—St. Matthew’s ministry—begins and ends with y’all’s faith and the ways in which God works through you.  I am incredibly grateful for you!  I have to remind myself to “get out of the way” and let God be God in you.  That doesn’t mean I “do nothing,” but faith, I believe, begins with gratitude.  Thank you!

Peace,

Pr. Christian