Same Old, Same Old

Text: Luke 17:11-19

During the sermon a couple of weeks ago, I talked about the deep fried turkey Dave's brother made. And as I started working on this sermon, I started thinking about Thanksgiving coming up next week. Maybe I shouldn't write sermons when I'm hungry. But as I thought about Thanksgiving, I remembered a Thanksgiving several years ago when Dave and I lived in Florida. Most of our relatives live in Orlando, so instead of choosing one of our families to spend the holiday with, we used to start at Dave's parents house, then go over to mine. One Thanksgiving, Dave's brother decided to cook a Thanksgiving meal as well, to try out some gourmet approaches to the traditional Thanksgiving dishes. We started at Dave's parents' house. And as all of the plates of steaming food came out to the table, our mouths started to water, and we were so thankful for the amazing meal Dave's mom had made. We scarfed up sweet potatoes, green beans, and Dave's mom's special recipe for stuffing. We praised the meal, and thanked Dave's mom for the blessing of the food she had made for the family.
Then we drove to my parent's house for our second Thanksgiving meal of the day. More heaping plates of wonderful food. Only this time, we were a little less thankful for the food before us. We started quietly comparing the two meals, debating which house had the better pie crust or which mashed potatoes were creamier. We thanked my mom for the meal, unbuttoned the top button on our pants as our bellies got bigger, and drove on to our third meal of the day. Dave's brother brought out several platters of gourmet Thanksgiving fare - sweet potatoes whipped with bourbon and served in oranges, you get the idea. But by this time, it had become the same old, same old. Another house, another meal. We ate our share, quickly thanked his brother, then dragged ourselves over to the couch to watch football.
As I thought about that Thanksgiving, I thought about how we get accustomed to blessing. We get used to God doing things in our lives, we get used to the idea that God has forgiven us, we get used to the miracle stories in the Gospels, they've become old hat for us through the years as we hear them over and over again. But do you remember the first time you really realized the grace of God in your life? Do you remember a time when it really hit you that God would love you and forgive you, no matter what? It reminds me of the line from the hymn Amazing Grace that says "How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed." And yet, with each passing year, it becomes easier to loss our thankfulness for God's work in the world in the person of Jesus Christ, it becomes like another round of Turkey and Sweet Potato casserole- it still tastes good, but we don't appreciate it nearly as much as we did the first time.
In our text this morning, we can see some folks who are accustomed to God's goodness. We find Jesus walking on this way to Jerusalem, when a group of lepers call out to him "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" Jesus tells them to go show themselves to the priests, and as they go, they are made clean. The group does exactly what Jesus tells them, so they are not doing anything wrong. But it seems strange that they don't stop and at least thank Jesus.
Keep reading - one of the healed stops and turns around. He breaks away from the group, runs back to Jesus, and throws himself at his feet. He praises God in a loud voice, thanking Jesus for what he has done. The man couldn't help but be thankful for what Jesus had done. It seems like he couldn't stop himself from running back to Jesus and throwing himself at his feet.
God does amazing things in our lives everyday. The grace of God is as real today as it was the first hour we believed, as real as it was when Jesus healed the lepers. But how often do we throw ourselves at God's feet, overwhelmed with thanksgiving? In our text, Jesus does not rebuke the others - but he does ask where they are. God continues to pour grace and blessing into our lives, and then asks "where are you?" when we are too busy to notice.
This morning is Thankoffering Sunday, a tradition of the Presbyterian women. It is a time when we offer our money in thanks to God, and this money is used all over the world to reach out to those in need. Thankoffering Sunday started with one woman, over one hundred years ago, who saw what God was doing, stopped, and was thankful. As God continues to put a feast before us, as the grace of God continues to pour into our lives, will we respond with a quick thank you and run off to watch a football game, or will be throw ourselves at the feet of Jesus.