Deering Community Church

RETURNING THANKS: PRAISE, GRATITUDE AND GENEROSITY

Scripture: 2 Kings 5: 1-3; 9-15; Luke 17:11-19

In today’s scriptures we are told two stories about men with leprosy: in the OT we hear about the great warrior Naaman, and in the Gospel reading there are ten men with leprosy. Interestingly both Biblical scholars and medical scientists say that there was no true leprosy in the first century Palestine—no trace has been found in any of the ancient bones that were excavated in Israel. The words that both the Hebrew and Greek Bibles use for our English translation of leprosy are words describing a repulsive, flaky or scaly condition affecting the skin, clothes and walls of the home. This condition was not feared so much because of contagion but because it was polluting, unclean and impure.* We find rules and regulations about lepers in Leviticus and Numbers that specify that lepers should be put out of the camp (Num. 5: 2-3), wear torn clothing, let their hair hang loose, and cry “Unclean, unclean”, whenever anyone approached (Lev 13: 45-46). There was the requirement that a healed leper was required to show himself to a priest, to go through a series of washings, and to observe a seven-day watch period before he could return to the camp (Lev. 13:49; 14:2ff).

In our OT reading we encounter Naaman, a highly favored commander of the Army, whose leprosy evidently did not isolate him. We are told in biblical footnotes that this word leprosy is used for several different kinds of skin diseases. As opposed to the lepers in the Gospel, this man is very much a part of society: an arrogant leader, rather full of himself and of his privilege. When the prophet Elisha to whom he had been sent for healing, did not come down to see him, he was insulted. Rather than follow Elisha’s simple instructions of bathing in the Jordan seven times, he was going to pout, rage, and go back home. His companions convinced him to give this simple instruction a chance — and he is cured. We are told, “his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean” (5:14). He immediately went back to Elisha, the man of God, praising him and confessing that his God was the one God as opposed to the many gods he had previously worshipped. He was thankful and wanted to give Elisha gifts. His skin was restored yet the most important change came from within: his arrogance had turned to gratitude.

In the Gospel, Jesus is met by 10 lepers, who are following the Law by keeping their distance and calling out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” In response Jesus honors their request and tells them to “Go, and show yourselves to the Priests.” As they journeyed on they could see that they were being cured, that their skin was clearing up — they would no longer be outcasts. What a wonderful thing! It doesn’t say, but I can imagine that they took off in a hurry. They had been separated from their family and friends due to the leprosy quarantine and now they must have been excited to go back to the farm or the fishing boat, or the shop — to see the places and the people that they had been kept away from. One of these men, when he noticed his cure, was so thankful that he had to disobey Jesus. Instead of going on to the priest, he turned around and praised God in a loud voice, threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. We are told that this man was a Samaritan—which could lead me to a whole different sermon. (Just an aside, we assume that the others were not Samaritans but we don’t really know. Many of us readers also assume that the nine who did not return were not grateful — and again we don’t really know that.) What we do know is that Jesus asks, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they?” Jesus did not reprimand the man who came back for disobeying the instructions to go see the priest. We know from other stories that Jesus is not a letter of the Law type of person. He encourages folks to act out of God’s love, and to be guided by the Spirit. To me Jesus’ question indicates the importance he puts on thankfulness and praise. Jesus addressed the one who returned and says, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” The word for being made well is the same as the word for being saved. The others had been cured but this man who returned had been made whole; he received not only the miracle but also the miracle worker, Jesus, the Christ.

On this stewardship Sunday, you may be wondering why I’m not talking about money. Or you may be wondering where is the Guest Steward, a minister from another congregation who comes in to give the Stewardship Sermon. Many churches follow such a procedure and I know this church has done so in the past. Although I am a neophyte in terms of being a local church minister, I have strong feelings about stewardship. I don’t see it as appropriate to divide stewardship off into a box by itself. I believe that stewardship is a year round topic and is part of everything we do as a church. You who are here week after week know how many times I talk about giving back to God those things that we have been blessed with whether it is gifts of money, talents or time. I believe strongly that it needs to be your pastor who talks to you about such things. It’s the pastor that knows the church and its members best. So I was eager to share this Stewardship Sunday with you as your preacher and your pastor. When I found out what the lectionary readings were with the topic suggested from our national UCC conference being “Returning Thanks”, I was particularly pleased.

In the newsletter a couple of months ago, I wrote about transformation. The context for that article was evangelism. The point I tried to make was that we do not do evangelism for the purpose of getting new members — although of course we would like that to happen—but we share the Good News of Jesus as he told us to do for the purpose of transformation. That transformation is addressed to those already in the congregation as well as to those outside the congregation. The transformation I’m talking about is being set on fire with the love of God and desiring to turn our worship into a celebration of praise and thanksgiving and our daily lives into following Jesus’ call to love and service.

Both Naaman and the Samaritan upon realizing that they were healed went about praising God. Praising and giving thanks goes together even more than bread and butter. In our examples of Naaman and the Samaritan, their praising God comes from their gratitude of being healed of their leprosy. Gratitude is a mood, an appreciation of something or somebody that makes us feel good, who makes us want to give something back. Praise, however, is not a mood but a mission. Naaman’s mission was to give up his gods and worship only the God of Israel. The Samaritan praised God with a loud voice and his mission was to go back to Jesus to show his gratitude and thanksgiving. In both of these examples, the men first had to see, to see that they were healed and to see who healed them. These men saw even more; they saw who had healed them, that the healing was the work of God. This seeing transformed them. Transformation leads to doing/to action. I’m reminded again of my bumper sticker: To know God is to Care (or I would say love); to care or love is to do. And this, my sisters and brothers, is where generosity comes in. “Generosity is a climate in the congregation, not just altruism of certain individuals. It is a way of life in the spirit of Jesus”** that leads us to inspire and encourage each other. It’s this Spirit that turns on the power in our hearts and in our community. Unless this power is on, it will be useless to try to increase the giving in our churches. Stewardship does not apply just to material well-being but also to our spiritual well-being. Stewardship is about recognizing all that we already have; it’s about seeing the abundance in our lives. Remember that Jesus sums up the purpose of his ministry in John 10:10 as, “so that we may have life, and have it abundantly.” Stewardship is all about blessings and abundance. It is about our recognizing all that we have right now and our desire to share that abundance. Living thanks is more important than giving thanks. That’s where the doing comes in. We show our praise and thanks when we visit the sick; give money and other material things to the food pantry; let other public groups use our building, spend hours of planning and rehearsal time to provide beautiful music for our souls; put on a BBQ at West Deering with no strings attached; take care of our church building; figure out budgets and pay bills; plan stewardship campaigns; teach our children in Sunday School; enjoy each other at potlucks. All of this my friends is the generosity of Deering Community Church. Let me say again: stewardship is about recognizing all that we already have; it’s about seeing the abundance in our lives and sharing our gifts with others.

Of course we need money! In Protestant churches like ours there’s no hierarchy up above that gives us money or pays our bills. Our pledge goal is $75,000 for the coming year. I plan to increase my pledge by 10%. If you can do that or more, I hope you will. The thermometer presented to us by the Stewardship Committee shows both our dreams and our necessities for these dollars. I am absolutely confident that this congregation can raise this much money and more. We are small; and we are mighty! Today I ask you to celebrate with me the one leper that came back to praise God and return thanks for his new life. At the same time we also praise God and give thanks for the faithfulness of this congregation. Whether the gifts are time, money, or talents, God is most pleased. In a month I will have been your pastor for one year. Where does the time go? I have experienced you as a very generous congregation in terms of your support for me. I want to thank all of you most sincerely. I look forward to another year of our growing together in praise, gratitude, and generosity; in seeing and doing so that we will truly be God’s kingdom here in Deering, NH. Praise and thanks be to God. Amen

Copyright © 2003 Deering Community Church
Last modified: 03/06/2006