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Guilt or Gladness?

Luke 17:11-21

October 10, 2004

¹¹On the way to Jerusalem Jesus^£ was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. ¹²As he entered a village, ten lepers^£ approached him. Keeping their distance, ¹³they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” ¹⁴When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. ¹⁵Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. ¹⁶He prostrated himself at Jesus’^£ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. ¹⁷Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? ¹⁸Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” ¹⁹Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

The Coming of the Kingdom

²⁰Once Jesus^£ was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; ²¹nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among^£ you.”

Guilt or Gladness…  They can each make you do some unexpected things.

This past Friday evening, Alex was at his grandma’s house.  He had been there the entire afternoon, so by the time it was around bedtime, everybody was tired.  What's more, the Red Sox game was on at the house and everybody was all worked up, anxiously waiting to see how the game would end.  Every pitch, every moment was just dripping with restless anticipation.  As you may guess, fatigue and restless anxiety, do not make for a healthy mix, especially for the little ones.  Right about the time it was time to leave, just before the end of the game, something happened that should really have been expected.  Alex threw something across the room and it just about hit grandma.  Grandma picked it up and tucked it away so Alex couldn’t get his hands on it again.  But Alex wanted it.  He begged for it until he was a sad, crying, tantruming heap on the floor. 

Well that was our cue.  I picked up the boys, one of them still crying loudly and we made our way out the door.  In the car, as we waited for mommy to come with the rest of our things, no trip to grandma’s house is without bags and backpacks and diaper bags and ridiculous amounts of stuff, Alex calmed down and almost fell asleep.  I asked Alex if he wanted to go back into the house and say night-night to Grandma and Grandpa and apologize to Grandma.

“No, thank you,” said little Alex, now even more tired from his crying fits than from his full day of activity, “I’ll call her tomorrow.”  “OK,” I said, more than a little embarrassed by our unorthodox departure from the house, and his unwillingness to apologize to Grandma for throwing things in her house “then let’s go…”  As I put the car in gear, I turned the radio on to the baseball game, long forgotten in the drama of the preceding moments, just in time to hear, “David Ortiz swings and hits a fly ball, it’s going way back, way back, and its gone!  The Boston Red Sox have won and advanced to the American League Championship Series!”  We could hear the crowd cheering through the radio, and Alex woke up from his tired stupor, as I called out, “Alex, did you hear that, the Red Sox won!” he was whispering “David Ortiz hit a home run!

He immediately said, “I want to tell Grandma and Grandpa.”  I stopped the car and turned around.  As we walked up to the house and grandpa opened the door, everyone was all smiles.  We went into the house and Grandma called out to Alex and Alex to her, the Red Sox won!  She said come see them celebrating!  As Alex climbed up into her lap to watch for a few minutes, he looked up at her and said, “Grandma, I’m sorry I threw that thing.”  She said, “Its OK honey and gave him a big hug.”

He was too tired, and I think a little bit embarrassed by the way the scene played out to return to apologize, or even to say goodnight.  But the gladness made him do it.  The joy he knew they would share around their adored Red Sox became a true motivator and helped little Alex do what he knew was right.

One of the first things we are taught and that we teach our children is to express their gratitude.  Some one gives them some candy and we parents say: “Now what do you say?” And the child learns early in life that the answer is “Thank you.”  And certainly we all know as adults that we appreciate being thanked by people.  But often its that early-learned sense of duty or worse even guilt, that makes us want to say thanks.  But sometimes, like four and a half year old Alex,  gladness prompts us to do the right thing.

A group of old classmates were reminiscing at their high school class reunion.  They were having fun remembering and laughing and joking when one man mentioned that he was particularly thankful for their sixth grade English teacher, Mrs. Wendt, for she more than anyone had introduced him to Tennyson and the beauty of poetry.  Acting on a suggestion, the man wrote a letter of appreciation to his teacher and addressed it to the high school.  The note was forwarded and eventually found the old teacher.  About a month later the man received a response.  It was written in a feeble longhand and read as follows: “My dear Willie, I can ’t tell you how much your letter meant to me.  I am now in my nineties, living alone in a small room, cooking my own meals, lonely, and like the last leaf of fall lingering behind.  You will be interested to know that I taught school for forty years and your is the first letter of appreciation I ever received.  It came on a blue, cold morning and it cheered me as nothing has for years.  Willie, you have made my day.”[1]

Guilt or Gladness?  What motivated this man to write that letter of thanks?

Bishop Gerland Kennedy of California tells the true story of a shipwreck off the coast of Evanston, Ill.  Many years ago.  The students of Northwestern University came to the rescue.  One student, Edward Spenser, personally saved the lives of 17 persons that day.  Years later a reporter was writing a follow up story on the event, and went to interview the now elderly Spenser.  When asked what was the one thing that stood out about the incident in his mind; Spenser replied: “I remember that of the seventeen people I saved that day, not one of them ever thanked me.”[2]

Guilt or Gladness?  Sometimes neither are enough to act.

Greg Anderson, in Living Life on Purpose tells a story about a man whose wife had left him. He was completely depressed. He had lost faith in himself, in other people, in God--he found no joy in living. One rainy morning this man went to a small neighborhood restaurant for breakfast. Although several people were at the diner, no one was speaking to anyone else. Our miserable friend hunched over the counter, stirring his coffee with a spoon.

In one of the small booths along the window was a young mother with a little girl. They had just been served their food when the little girl broke the sad silence by almost shouting, "Momma, why don't we say our prayers here?" The waitress who had just served their breakfast turned around and said, "Sure, honey, we pray here. Will you say the prayer for us?" And she turned and looked at the rest of the people in the restaurant and said, "Bow your heads." Surprisingly, one by one, the heads went down. The little girl then bowed her head, folded her hands, and said, "God is great, God is good, and we thank him for our food. Amen."

That prayer changed the entire atmosphere. People began to talk with one another. The waitress said, "We should do that every morning."

"All of a sudden," said our friend, "my whole frame of mind started to improve. From that little girl's example, I started to thank God for all that I did have and stop majoring in all that I didn't have. I started to be grateful."

The gladness that spreads through an innocent child’s prayer, through an honest expression of gratitude brings even more gratitude and more gladness.

Gladness inspires gratitude and gratitude more gladness and round and round til a fullness in heart and mind and soul motivates one to action.

¹¹On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. ¹²As he entered a village, ten lepers^£ approached him. Keeping their distance, ¹³they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” ¹⁴When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. ¹⁵Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. ¹⁶He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. ¹⁷Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? ¹⁸Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” ¹⁹Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

“Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”  Guilt or gladness?  Guilt may sometimes make you do what you ought to, like maybe if one of the other nine who didn’t come back, somehow heard those questions of Jesus- “Where not ten made clean? Where are the other nine?”  If they heard these words don’t you think they’d feel awful and come running back?  But that would be only half the story wouldn’t it? 

“Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well,” Jesus says to the one who came back out of gladness and genuine gratitude.

That “faith that makes well” that Jesus speaks of has nothing to do with guilt.  It has everything to do with that gladness and gratitude cycle that motivates us to action.

Do you remember the great classic novel by Daniel Defoe ,“Treasure Island?”  The first thing that Robinson Crusoe did when he found himself on a deserted island was to make out a list.  On one side of the list he wrote down all his problems.  On the other side of the list he wrote down all of his blessings. On one side he wrote: I do not have any clothes. On the other side he wrote:  But it’s warm and I don’t really need any.  On one side he wrote: All of the provisions were lost.  On the other side he wrote: But there’s plenty of  fresh fruit and water on the island.  And on down the list he went.  In this fashion he discovered that for every negative aspect about his situation, there was a positive aspect, something for which to be glad and grateful.[3]

Yet sometimes we don’t see what have and what we might miss if we didn’t have it.  Sometimes we forget the grace of God, the mercy and generosity and loving power of God’s creative force.

And even if we do see, it’s sometimes difficult to make that list and clearly understand our blessings.  You’ve heard the old saying, “Some count their blessings on their fingers and their miseries on a calculator.”[4]

Some folks wonder as to did only one cleansed leper returned to thank Jesus? Speculation is that: 
One waited to see if the cure was real.
One waited to see if it would last.
One said he would see Jesus later.
One decided that he had never had leprosy.
One said he would have gotten well anyway.
One gave the glory to the priests.
One said, "O, well, Jesus didn't really do anything."
One said, "Any rabbi could have done it."
One said, "I was already getting better."[5]

What prevents us from giving thanks to God?  Is it that there’s nobody or nothing around to make us feel guilty about our duty that we should say thanks?  I don’t know, I’m willing to guess that there’s plenty around to cause guilt in each of us, and that sometimes that’s not going to motivate us to any meaningful action either.  Perhaps what prevents us from giving thanks to God is it that we’ve lost touch with the gladness and blessing of daily life?  Before we are actually motivated to say thanks, we’ve got to be happy for something, we’ve got to experience the gladness and gratitude that will ultimately motivate us to action and actively giving thanks.

May God bless us with gladness, with the joy of everyday experiences, and even more with the wisdom and sensitivity to recognize and appreciate and experience that joy fully and completely.