Grace, Mercy, and
Peace to you in the name of Christ our Saviour. Amen.
Today
is Thanksgiving Sunday. Maybe some of us will be celebrating with family,
eating way too much food, perhaps football will be on the television. But,
following up on last week’s discussion on truth and reconciliation, there is a
dark history to Thanksgiving in Canada.
Celebrating
the harvest was always an important event for Indigenous people. It was a time
to give thanks to nature’s bounty and for the health of the community. First
Nations across Turtle Island have traditions of thanksgiving for surviving
winter and for receiving crops and game as a reward for their hard work. These
traditions may include feasting, prayer, dance, potlatch, and other ceremonies,
depending on the peoples giving thanks.
When
European settlers began coming to Turtle Island, Indigenous people saved them
from starvation by sharing their food and their knowledge of survival on the vast
lands of trees, water, and wild weather. Without having learned skills in
planting, hunting, and fishing, the colonialists would have surely died. In
return, the following year those same colonialists burned and murdered the Indigenous
people. Not a great way to say thank you.
It's
easy to see why many people feel a little ambivalent to this holiday. Don’t get
me wrong. I like a good turkey dinner with all the fixings just as much as the
next guy. But it sure is hard to be thankful around a table full of food when
you know the history of the holiday and you consider what’s happening all
around the world, and especially in our own backyards.
Wouldn’t
lament be more appropriate? Or a cry for justice? Or a call to action? Certainly,
these are also possibilities and have their time and place. But for just this
moment, and given today’s reading, I am reminded that of all of our responses
to events, blessed or challenging, great or small, one of the most powerful is
that of thanksgiving.
In
the passage of Luke before us we have yet another story of Jesus healing people
with whom he has no business interacting. Ten men approach him, unclean and outcast,
pleading with Jesus to heal them. Which, of course, he did.
All
these men would have been quite surprised to find themselves healed. Perhaps
some were overjoyed. Perhaps some celebrated. Perhaps others ran to tell their
family and friends. Perhaps a few even took it for granted. We don’t know what
happened to nine of the men, but we know that only one returned to thank Jesus
for curing him. Only one decided to actually express his gratitude to Jesus and
to God.
Were all ten lepers healed? Yes. Were they all saved? Yes, in the sense that they were rescued from their disease. But not in the sense of drawing close to God in thankfulness and appreciation. The nine were saved physically but not spiritually.
Our
natural response here would be to rebuke those nine men who ran off without
even a slight word of thanks. But consider this. The other nine did nothing
wrong. In fact, they did exactly as they were told and presumably also enjoyed being
healed. Again, they didn’t do anything wrong and received the blessing promised
them.
So,
what does the man who returned receive? Certainly, the blessing of healing, as
did the other nine. But also the blessing that comes from recognizing blessing
and giving thanks — the blessings, that is, of wholeness and even salvation.
Returning
to God and giving thanks and praise is central to our faith. When we read this
account of the ten lepers, we can’t help but be drawn to our central liturgical
eucharistic prayer. “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right to
give our thanks and praise. It is indeed right, our duty and our joy, that we
should at all times and in all places give thanks and praise to you, almighty
and merciful God.”
This
Eucharistic prayer is like our weekly dose of gratitude. The words of the
prayer are meant to characterize every part of our Christian living – our mundane,
trivial, ordinary, everyday life. It our duty to show ourselves grateful to God
with our whole life. The words of the Great Thanksgiving calls us to live
Eucharistic lives. But what does it mean to live a Eucharistic life?
It
means loving others. After hearing stories of how Jesus showed love to others,
we try to show God’s love to everyone we meet. It is easy to show love to the
people who are nice to us, but it is very hard to be nice to the people who we
find hard to love. This is exactly what Jesus asks us to do!
It
means looking after creation. God has made so many beautiful things for us that
we need to make sure we look after them. God wants us to look after the people,
the animals, the plants, and everything else in creation.
It
means caring for those in need. Jesus taught us to care for others who have
less than we do. We can do this through prayer and through giving to places
like your local food bank, or to Camp Mercedes near the Provencher Bridge.
It
means announcing the Gospel. God wants us to be evangelists! At the end of each
service, we are sent out into the world to take what we have learned through
the readings and prayers and live like Jesus and show God’s love to people in
our daily lives.
It
means to do your best. Even when it was really hard, Jesus always did his best
to do what he knew God wanted. He often prayed to God to give him the strength
he needed to do what was right.
It
means to help, share, and show kindness. Through his life, Jesus was always
aware of people who needed his help. We too, need to always be ready to help
others. Another way of showing God’s love to others is by sharing. There were
many times when Jesus shared with others. And we can show kindness to other
people, especially people who others are not kind to.
This
world is full of blessing and challenges. Which will we focus on? Truth be
told, there is a time for lament and cries for justice and activism. But given
that we live in a culture filled with blame and accusation and almost devoid of
thanksgiving, maybe on this day, and remembering the tenth leper, we can go
forth to be heralds of blessing and bearers of powerful words of gratitude and to
live the Eucharistic life to which we are called.
Amen.
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