What is the Thanksgiving Holiday for? Is it just for thanking God that we live in a free country and can worship how we want? Is it a day simply to count all of the material blessings we have: food, and drink, house and home, spouse, children, and all that we have? Sometimes I think Thanksgiving is a Day when we're supposed to practice our good manners before God. You know, the Father has given us all things, so we need to stop at least once a year and give a nice and polite “thank you” to the Lord. Is that what Jesus is saying when He asks where the other nine lepers were? I think we hear this Gospel story about the Ten Lepers and our conclusion is that one was grateful and had good manners and the other nine weren't grateful and had bad manners. As if our Savior is just concerned about table etiquette and being told what a great guy He is and “thanks a lot, Jesus!” There IS repentance in that. We SHOULD give glory to God for EVERYTHING that we have. For all that the Lord gives as daily bread, we should give thanks! Remember, the Catechism teaches us in the First Article of the Creed: “For all this it is my duty to thank and praise and serve and obey Him. This is most certainly true.” Do not let a day or an hour or a minute go by, dear Christians, in which you do not recognize that each breath you take, every piece of clothing you wear, every person in your life, every serving of food, and anything else that you possess, is a GIFT from your heavenly Father. ALL things are given by the Lord's gracious hand. When you pray the Lord's Prayer, learn from the Fourth Petition to give thanks to God for all that He has given you. Don't be like the children of Israel who got to the Promised Land and thought they had managed it all themselves and forgot it was all from the Lord! Remember that it is the Lord who has graciously given you all things. Repent of ingratitude and of praising yourself for all that YOU'VE worked for and gotten. Nothing has come to you that is not from the Lord.
There's our repentance. We DO want to have, as it were, good manners before God, thanking Him and giving Him glory for all that we have. But that's not because the Lord needs to have His ego stroked. As if He's not God when we don't send Him a “Thank You” prayer! The point of the story of the Ten Lepers is NOT just to encourage them to give thanks. It is to teach us that true thanksgiving, a life of thanksgiving to God is not one where we are constantly tell God how great He is, but receive from the Lord what He has for us. Think of the words of the Offertory: “What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits to me?” There the Psalmist is asking, “What do you get for the Guy who has everything?” Seriously, what shall we do to show our thanks to the Lord? The Psalmist knows: “I will offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call on the name of the Lord. I will take the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.” The best way you can glorify the Lord is to receive what He has for you: the cup of salvation! That means, having more Jesus!
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The difference between the Samaritan leper who came back and the other nine who didn't is not that he was happy to have got rid of his leprosy and the others weren't. The difference is that the Samaritan guy knew that if Jesus has such gifts and words which can take away even His leprosy, then He's got even more goodness and gifts to be dished out. In other words, Jesus doesn't just stop at healing rotting flesh disease. He forgives sins and gives eternal life! And the Samaritan leper has learned that you don't ever want to be away from THAT Jesus. After all, this Jesus doesn't just go around healing and walking on water and feeding thousands of people. He also is baptized in the place of sinners. Tempted in the place of sinners. Nailed to the cross in the place of sinners. Died under God's judgment against sinners. Rose again FOR sinners. Ascended to the right hand of God to carry sinners with Him. You see? Jesus always has more! But He doesn't stop there! Jesus sends the Spirit to sinners. To preach His word to sinners. To wash sinners at the font. To absolve sinners by their pastors. To feed sinners with His own body and blood. Get it? The CUP of salvation! And He doesn't do it once but continually. There's always more to learn about the gifts given in your baptism. There is always absolution to be had for our daily and constant sins. The feast of salvation never runs out! With Jesus, there's always more. And the best way to thank Him is not to find the perfect Thanksgiving Day card. It's to come to Him with our hands and ears and mouths wide open so He will fill us with good things. To take His cup of salvation. To be fed with His body and blood. To have our sins forgiven. Receive what the Lord has for you. His gifts. Over and over and over unto eternal life!
In Greek, the word for “Thanksgiving” is “Eucharist.” That's another name for the Lord's Supper. Not because it's a place to practice table manners—though reverence and no burping are probably good! No, the Eucharist is where we properly thank God for all that He gives us. Not by buttering Him up with compliments but by receiving what He gives us. Tomorrow, homes will be filled with cooks complaining about the food they've made, in hopes everyone around the table will contradict them and tell them how wonderful it's all turned out! The Lord is not like that! He gives so that He might give more. He bestows His treasures upon us so that we will look to Him for more treasures, more gifts, more forgiveness, more Jesus. There's always more. The Samaritan leper knew that. No place to be but where Jesus is. So now you, forgiven once more, come and take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord! Happy Thanksgiving, that is, Happy Eucharist! Amen.