Doubly
Blessed
October 13/13 Thanksgiving
Sunday Luke 17: 11-19 and Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7
When
I was growing up, we moved a lot – my father liked new challenges so he
frequently shifted positions that required a move for my family. I went to 10 different schools between
Kindergarten and Grade 13. I got used to
being the new kid in class, I got used to not knowing the culture and having to
learn new ways. Most of my experiences
of being the new kid in class were okay – after a few weeks I would find my
way, meet some people I could connect to and blend my way into the society of
that particular school. There was one
time however, when I did not blend – when I remained on the outside, when the
feeling of being an outsider, an outcast did not subside. Fenelon Falls High school carries the dubious
honour of being my place of separation.
I was in my second year of Grade 13 – although I had graduated – my
marks were such that I need to upgrade to go to University. I moved in with my aunt who had small general
store – I worked for my aunt for my room and board and went to school. Fenelon Falls school used on an every other
day rotation of classes – so I only went to school every other day. I also was only updating two classes so the
situation set itself up for separateness – especially because I am in introvert
and the more anxious I become the more introverted I become. I moved into a
school were the kids had known each
other for years and the social groups had long since been arranged – and quite
frankly I did not make a good effort to try and fit in – I hung around the
periphery of things. No one was mean, but no one was friendly either. It was a
social situation doomed to failure – and by the end of November I was miserable
going to school was painful for me - I
remember one day when I was overwhelmed with loneliness and I left the school
and went to the park alongside the river and I cried for an hour – I felt so
out of the circle, so alienated from my peers, so alone and outcast from the
group – I was miserable. Looking back I
realize that most of my teenage angst was self inflicted, but the emotions I
felt at this time seemed so real – being alone, being an outsider, no one
caring who I was or what I felt, outside of the group, outside of the culture –
an outcast – like the lepers in today’s story.
I
can’t even imagine what it is like to have leprosy and in spite of my teenage
angst which may have felt like being alienated from the culture, I have never
had to live my life like the ones Jesus encountered today – they are truly
outcast, sent out from their communities, sent out from their families and
former friends and forced to live lives of alienation and separateness. In a time of lack of medical understanding –
you fear what you don’t know, and leprosy is a contagious skin disease, and the
only way 2000 years ago they knew to protect themselves and their children from
the disease was to force those inflicted with the dreaded disease out of the
community and into isolation. To make them outcasts.
The
ones to whom Jeremiah is speaking to today are also outcasts, they are in
exile. In 596 BC the nation of Babylon,
what is now present day Iraq, invaded Jerusalem and enslaved the upper echelon
of Judean society just as the Assyrians had done to the Northern Kingdom of Israel
200 years before. The people were removed from their homes, from their culture,
from their lifestyle and marched to Babylonia and entered into a life of
servitude to the Babylonians. This
abrupt change of lifestyle – the loss of freedom and the mass deportation as
you can well imagine challenged the people and they struggled to find a sense
of identity, a sense of who they were and whose they were in their new living
situation. It is to these displaced and
confused people that Jeremiah is writing today.
... to gather them together, to hold them in their separateness, to
remind them that they are God’s people, and that means something, that matters
– and then to urge to them that they make the best the situation that they are
living in – to find love, to create families, to embrace life in Babylonia, and
live well until the time comes when they can return to the promise land. They are entreated to remember that they are
God’s people, that God is not done with them yet – that there are many things
to be grateful for in spite of the hardships, in spite of the challenges, in
spite of the exile.
Grateful
in spite of being outcast – grateful in spite of the challenges of life,
grateful. Today is Thanksgiving, and a
time when we are called to gratitude – a time when we look at our lives and how
we live and where we place our priorities and look to say thanks for the
blessings that we live in and amongst.
David
Lose at Working Preacher: Thanksgiving
is like that. It springs from perception
-- our ability to recognize blessing -- and articulation
-- giving expression, no matter how inadequate it may seem at the time, of our
gratitude for that blessing. And every time these two are combined -- sight and
word -- giving thanks actually grants a second blessing.
I’ve
said it before and I’ll say it again: I think gratitude is the noblest emotion.
Gratitude draws us out of ourselves into something larger, bigger, and grander
than we could imagine and joins us to the font of blessing itself. But
maybe, just maybe, gratitude is also the most powerful emotion, as it frees us
from fear, releases us from anxiety, and emboldens us to do more and dare more
than we'd ever imagined. Even to return to a Jewish rabbi to pay homage when
you are a Samaritan because you've realized that you are more than a Samaritan,
or a leper, or even a healed leper; you are a child of God, whole and accepted
and beautiful just as you are.[1]
We
are children of God and our lives are beautiful – in spite of or maybe even because
of the challenges and the hardships that we face and endure. And we are to be grateful for our challenged
and hard lives, because within them are a multitude of blessings, within our
lives everyday are gifts of God grace and beauty. We only need to be open to them –
·
It
begins with dawn, the glory of the sun returning – that lights the sky – and
even on a day like today when the clouds hang heavy- there is beauty in the
grey
·
And
we are blessed with family, and friends and those we love and who love us in
return even when we are unloveable – all of us have someone in our lives who
loves us and whom we love.
·
And
we are blessed with beauty, this is part of the world is an amazing beautiful
spot – with the lakes and the trees and rocks and the escarpment. I will always remember a story I heard from
Ruth Hellyers daughters as we were sharing moments of her life before her
funeral – Ruth would drive her daughters to school and herself to work via
ithmis bay so that she would have a moment each time at the stop sign where the
view looks out over the water and to the cliffs and she would each time say how
beautiful it was –never taking it for granted – gratitude
·
And
we are blessed, and we are blessed and we are blessed – every day, in so many
ways.
And
when we name our blessings it makes them more real – when we thank God for our
blessings it reminds us that they are indeed from God and that they are gift
and grace and do not come to us because of something that we do, or that we
earn them or that are entitled to them – God’s grace, God’s blessings are
gift. And the lepers teach us that even
if we do not say thank you the grace and healing is still freely given and ours
to enjoy – but the 10th leper shows us that when we take the time to
acknowledge and thank God the blessings become more – they become doubly
blessed. When we are grateful, we see
things differently, the world shifts our perspective changes – the gifts remain
the same – the grace is sufficient but we change because our perception is different
and we see the world in a new light. We
see the world through the lens of gratitude.
Fredrick
Buechner writes: “Listen to your
life. See it for the fathomless mystery
that it is. In the boredom and pain of
it not less than in the excitement and gladness of it. Touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and
hidden heart of it because in the last analysis of all moments are key moments
and life itself is grace.”
All
moments are key moments – moments when the Christ can come and offer healing
and life itself grace. It is the place
where the kingdom of God gets in and we feel the blessings.
What
things in your life are you grateful for right now – where has God blessed
you? What in this morning has you saying
thank you? Take a moment and turn to the
person beside you – and share it.
Thank
you God for our blessing – thank you God for our life, thank you God from whom
all blessings flow – we are grateful for our life, for our world and for
you. Amen.
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