THE WAY OF AWARENESS AND
THANKSGIVING
Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser
Oct 13 Pentecost 18C Luke
17:11-19
At the
retreat/conference that I attended last week, a presenter asked us if we
remembered what the early believers in Jesus as the Christ of God were called,
before they were called “Christians.” I
hadn’t thought about it for a while, but it popped back into my mind - the first believers were called “Followers
of The Way.” “The Way,” of course, was
the way of Jesus,
the path of life that
Jesus taught, the way of walking in the realm of God, the practices of Jesus’
disciples who lived as he taught. A Way,
a path, a walk, a pattern of life choices that were distinct. Jesus actually called himself “The Way” - the
way one lives for God, the patterns of thought that guide our choices, the path
we walk by the light of Scripture, the world view of faith out of which we live
and act. Being a Christian is NOT just a
set of beliefs we have to get right!
So I often
use the phrase “Christ-followers” in place of the word “Christian,” for that
reason. The other reason is that the word ‘Christian’ has come to mean so many
weird things in the media….linked to behaviors and attitudes that to me are
actually NOT Christ-like, in fact the opposite of the very love and welcome of
God to all people. I am saddened to be characterized or stereotyped in the
minds of folks who meet me by my association of what the word “Christian” has
come to mean. I wish the term
“Christian” carried associations with humility, justice, love, welcome,
respect, honor, and forgiveness. I
wouldn’t mind being identified as one of those.
See, living
in trust of what Jesus taught is what faith is; pondering the insights
of Christ is what faith is; seeking to live according to what Jesus
modeled is what faith is. Faith
is a lifestyle based on knowing God and God’s word. Faith is NOT a set of things one says one
“believes” while acting, well, however.
Faith is NOT being able to quote a few verses and just be a nice
person. Faith is a living relationship,
and a path to follow - a “Way” of being and living.
Gratitude,
thankfulness, giving thanks, gratefulness to God - these are important aspects
of the path of following Christ. As I
pondered on this story of the 10 healed guys and the 1 who returned in
gratitude, I realized that this has to be about more than just good manners -
Jesus didn’t need to be Dear Abby and tell us to write thank you notes for
presents. I searched for and thought about deeper levels he was communicating
in this story, because Jesus’ stories were always more than just what’s on the
surface.
The first thing I notice is that the guy who
stops, turns around and returns to express gratitude is, of all things, a
Samaritan. We’ve seen the unexpected Samaritan
be the good guy in the story before, in the parable of the Man Who fell Among
Thieves - remember that one? The
religious guys pass by this beaten-up man on the road, ignoring him perhaps, or
not wanting to get involved because they’re so busy in their religious work. Who is the true neighbor to the man left for
dead? Its that blasted, no-good,
half-caste Samaritan. Perhaps because
he’s discriminated against in his region, he has learned compassion, he has
learned to take time and care of those who are hurting. Perhaps, even though he’s not in the “In”
group, religiously, he has developed a deeper spirituality of care for other
mistreated folks. In any case, the
Samaritan is the surprise good guy in that parable, and in this one, too. Its a Samaritan who is the only one of the
healed folks who returns to give thanks.
Again, the challenge is for those of us who think we religious folks
have dibs on right behaviors towards other people.
The second thing I notice is that
all 10 guys are so overjoyed at being healed that they run, RUN, to see their
families and friends again. They are
overjoyed to be healed, bursting with joy.
Maybe there’s one grumbler who thinks he was entitled and just getting
what he deserved, finally!!! But in my
way of looking at it, they’re all so glad and excited to be returning to life
that they take off! I bet most of them
are grateful, and when things settle down again, they’ll realize it. What makes one of them, the Samaritan, stop
and come back sooner for giving thanks, before running back home?
I wonder if, perhaps, he had already
developed, in his own faith life, the ability to see God’s gifts around
him. I wonder if, perhaps, his disease
has already sensitized him into an awareness of God’s love and grace supporting
him. I wonder if he has already
cultivated the awareness of God’s sustaining presence as a practice of
faith. So that giving thanks is already
a habit of the way he lives his faith, even in his illness, his
affliction. So when he is healed of the
dreaded disease of leprosy, even in his wildest joy he quickly remembers his
gratitude, his indebtedness to God. Its
already a practice, a habit, a path, a way he lives.
See, when we aren’t thankful, either we’re not
paying attention or something’s going on in our soul that needs to be looked
at. Awareness, paying attention, giving
thanks in all things - this is part of the path of following Christ. When we follow Jesus, we live our lives in
the midst of the gifts of God, surrounded by the gifts of God - are we not
aware of that? Its easy to overlook all
the gifts of God that surround us, to take them for granted, to not be
aware. Are we, for example, aware of the
air that surrounds us, that we breathe a zillion times a day? Not usually - unless something is going wrong
with our air, like pollution or smoke, or lung troubles. Then we’re very aware
of air, because of its lack. Air and
breathing is connected to the word ‘inspire’ and ‘inspiration’ – we are
created, in our faith teaching, of earthy dust and the breath, the air, the inspiration,
of the Divine. The air we rarely notice is
actually pretty theological!
There’s a pretty tree at the
entrance to the Baptist church just down the street, and I’ve been watching it
turn a beautiful color this fall. I
notice its color - but am I aware of how that tree functions as a part of my
environment, filtering the air and producing the oxygen I need? Am I aware of the way my body takes in
that air automatically, without my direction?
How my lungs fill with it and how it goes out carried in my blood, making
it bright red, flooding my brain so it can think? Our bodies are miracles of cooperation and
balanced functioning, our various systems acting below our consciousness. Our
very life depends on such minute processes functioning correctly, and a
positive interaction with our outer environment. Our sciences and medicines are learning more
and more of the smallest functions and parts, and actually how to help fix many
things that can happen to us. These gifts, and more, surround us at every
moment, and when we become aware of them, we give thanks to God who makes and
sustains it all.
Awareness leads us to
gratitude. The way our Christian
tradition has developed doesn’t emphasize the development of awareness the way
other traditions around the world have. I think of Buddhist mindfulness, for example,
and the awareness of the body and the mind’s intentions that it teaches more
explicitly than we have. In our own
tradition there is a comparative path, I think, of remembrance. Throughout Judaism, people of God are urged
to remember what God has done, remember that God has been faithful, remember
the great deeds of the past - tell them to our children, speak of them in our
houses - - and know that this God is also here and continues to work on our
behalf, continues to desire our growth, our freedom, our shalom - wellness,
peace. That this is the God we worship -
remember.
That’s rather like awareness, to
me. When we teach that God created the
world, what is that but an awareness that God is responsible for all this, and
sustains it, gives it life? When we
teach that God created humans from the dust of the earth and then breathed into
us God’s very breath, what is that teaching but an awareness of our connection
both to the elements of earth and to the Divine? God who is Life itself, gives this life to
us? Is that not the ultimate awareness of who we are and whose we are?
If this awareness of God around us,
in us, above us, beneath us - is this not a thankfulness to God, from whom all
things arise? In whom all that is has
its being? Who is our beginning and our
end?
And if that is our practice, our
faith, our Way - we will be like that Samaritan who remembers quickly to give
thanks for the special joys. Its
interesting that in the last line of the story, Jesus says that this man’s
faith has made him well. He’s already
healed - and even those who didn't immediately give thanks were healed,
too. But now this one is also made WELL.
That’s the last step - awareness, gratitude - and that makes us well. WELL - despite whatever else is going on, we
are WELL. What a promise that is!
Wellness is more than healing, and we can even be made well if we’re not
healed - if we walk in the path of gratitude. If we walk in the assurance and
remembrance of God who makes all things well.
AMEN.
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