Thomas J Parlette
“A Eucharistic Life”
Luke 17: 11-19
10/13/19
One the day the boss called one of his young employees named Rob into his office.
“Rob,” he said, “you’ve been with the company for a year now. You started off in the mailroom, one week later you were promoted to a sales position, one month after that you were promoted to district manager of the sales department, and just four short months later, you were promoted to vice-chairman. Now it’s time for me to retire, and I want you to take over the company. What do you have to say to that?”
“Thanks,” said Rob.
“Thanks?” the boss replied. Just “Thanks?!” Is that all you can say? You don’t seem very grateful.”
“Okay, okay – Thanks, Dad” (1)
Sometimes we are not as grateful as we could be. Maybe we don’t show our thanks because we think we’ve earned what we receive, or we somehow we deserve what comes our way. Some people go through life with a bit of an entitlement complex. Or maybe you feel like Jerry Seinfeld, when he took a stand against what we felt was all the “over –thanking” required in our society.
And yet gratitude, a sense of thankfulness, a fondness for giving out praise is at the heart of a healthy spiritual life – and certainly at the heart of a healthy Christian life.
Karl Barth was fond of saying that the basic human response to God is gratitude – not fear and trembling, not guilt and dread, but thanksgiving. “What else can we say to what God gives us but stammer praise?”
C.S. Lewis, as he explored his newfound faith, observed the Bible’s, particularly the Psalter’s, insistence that we praise and thank God. He also observed the connection between gratitude and personal well-being. “I noticed how the humblest and at the same time most balanced minds praised most; while the cranks, misfits, and malcontents praised least. Praise almost seems to be inner health made audible.” (2)
Praise and thanksgiving are the really the primary thing we do when we gather to worship every Sunday. In our prayers, in our preaching, in our singing, we seek to do two things
- We express our thanks to God
- And we give God praise.
In fact, Martin Luther once defined worship as “the tenth leper turning back”, in reference to the story we heard from Luke this morning.(3)
This is an interesting story, one that only Luke tells. It is once again part of Jesus’ travel narrative. He is getting closer to Jerusalem, in fact he’s almost there. Today, Jesus and his followers are in the region between Samaria and Galilee, kind of a no man’s land. There wasn’t much there.
There was however some sort of a village, because as Jesus and his entourage enter, a group of lepers, condemned to live isolated from others because of their skin diseases, approach him and say “Jesus, Master; have mercy on us!”
Jesus see them from a distance and tells them to go show themselves to the priests – the first step on the way to joining the community again. Jesus never touches them, he doesn’t make any mud to spread on them, he doesn’t say any incantation like “talitha cum”. He just sends them off to see the priest, and as they went, they were made clean.
So up to now, we think – “Ok, this is a healing story. We’ve seen stories like this many times with people healed of blindness, lameness, crippling spinal ailments or unstoppable bleeding. The healing must be the point of the story.
But this isn’t really a healing story. Notice that the actual healing takes place offstage, out of sight, on the road as the lepers made their way to the priests. So the healing – although part of the story- is not the point of the story.
The point of the story revolves around the one leper, a Samaritan leper to boot, who comes running back onstage to praise God and offer thanks. The greek words here are “doxazo” – praise, from which we get doxology; and “eucharisto”, from which we get eucharist, meaning to give thanks. What happens for us to see onstage, in full view, is the thanks and praise offered to God.
It’s interesting that the lepers use the term “Master” when they first call out to Jesus. This title is used only 6 times in the New Testament, all of them for Jesus, all in Luke and all prior to this story. And each time the title Master comes from the lips of a disciple.(4) So, a title previously reserved for use by the disciples, the insiders, is now used by these lepers, the ultimate outsiders. And the leper who is the star of the story, the one who returns to offer the thanks and praise due to God – is a Samaritan! You can almost hear the gasps echoing over 2000 years.
So Jesus not only crosses the borders of Galilee and Samaria, but also the borders between who is in and who is out.
Who may have faith? – Anyone, not just Jews.
Who can act in faith? – Anyone, even a Samaritan.
Who can receive healing and salvation? – Anyone. Anywhere, from any background.
This passage calls us to live a Eucharistic life – a life of thanksgiving and gratitude to God. Loud, humble, enthusiastic, uninhibited gratitude is one of the defining marks of a Christian.
John Burkhart once wondered whether “humans can survive as humans without worshiping. To withhold acknowledgment, to avoid celebration, to stifle gratitude, may prove as unnatural as holding one’s breath.”(5)
Dr. Tom Long tells about a time when he was having one of those frustrating days when he had more things to do than he could possibly accomplish. So he was in a foul mood as he rushed through the store. It didn’t improve his mood to get behind a mother and her young son who were playing games as they strolled nonchalantly down the grocery store aisles.
After passing the mother and son several times, Long noticed that the boy was mentally challenged. As he watched them, he couldn’t help but notice that the mother had turned their shopping trip into a game, a game that allowed her son to participate in hunting down grocery items. They seemed to be having a wonderful time. Much impressed and in a far better mood, Long decided to engage the mother in conversation.
“I was just admiring your relationship with your son,” he said.
And the mother smiled and said, “Oh yes, he is a gift from God.”(6)
She was living a eucharistic life – a life of thanksgiving and gratitude.
As this story ends, Jesus wonders aloud about what happened to the other 9, why they didn’t return to practice a Eucharistic life – but he sends the Samaritan leper, now healed, on his way saying, “Get up and go – your faith has made you well.”
You have healing. You have restoration. You have offered thanks and praise. Now you have salvation. Get and go – continue living a Eucharistic life.
There is a wonderful story about the famed actress of a few decades ago, Betty Hutton. Hutton was an award-winning movie star who also found fame on Broadway and in television and radio. But she suffered from depression and an addiction to alcohol and drugs. In 1970, she had a nervous breakdown and attempted suicide. Through the spiritual guidance of a priest, she gave up her addictions, gave her life to Jesus and straightened out her life.
Ten years later, in 1980, Hutton returned to show business in the Broadway musical Annie. All the other cast members of Annie had detailed biographies of their lives and careers printed in the program. It was common to include all your film and stage credits, maybe naming your favorite roles, giving thanks to your teachers and dedicating your performance to a loved one. But Betty Hutton didn’t include any of her major motion pictures, none of her awards, none of her starring roles on Broadway. Betty Hutton’s cast biography consisted of just 5 words: “I’m back. Thanks to God.”(7)
“I’m back. Thanks to God.” That’s the leper story, isn’t it? That’s our story as well – “I’m back. Thanks be to God.”
That is a eucharistic life. A life marked by praise, thanksgiving and gratitude. May that be the kind of life we all live. May God thanked – and praised. Amen.
1. Homileticsonline, retrieved 10/2/19.
2. John M. Buchanan, Feasting on the Word, Westminster John Knox, 2010, p165.
3. Beverly Zink-Sawyer, Feasting on the Gospels, Westminster John Knox Press, 2014, p120.
4. Richard W. Voelz, Connections, Westminster John Knox Press, 2019, p388.
5. Kimberly Bracken Long, Feasting on the Word, Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p168.
6. Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXV, No.4, p8.
7. Ibid… p8.
