Grateful Faith

May 8, 2016 Background Scripture: Luke 17:11 – 19 Lesson Passage: Luke 17:11 – 19 Today it seems that gratitude is a dying virtue in American society. We often summarize the general attitude of today’s society as being the attitude of entitlement. Many in society believe that the world owes them something because they were born. With such an attitude, no matter what a person receives, it is seen as only a down payment on what one is really due. One of the first phrases many of us were taught as babies was “Thank you”. Sometimes it was stated in the form of the baby talk phrase “ta ta”. We were taught to use this phrase in conjunction with receiving something from someone. Even today, you can witness parents rehearsing the phrase with babies and toddlers. Between the toddler stage and the young adult stage, there appears to be a great gulf fixed or better yet, a “Bermuda Triangle” for virtues. What we were taught as babies somehow doesn’t always translate into character virtue in us as adults. As rare as it appears to be at times, we find ourselves being appreciative when someone expresses genuine gratitude. In today’s lesson, we revisit the healing of the ten lepers. Those men came close enough to Jesus to cry out to him for mercy from a distance. Jesus gave them the instructions found in the Law. Those instructions provided steps a person should follow who had been cleansed of leprosy. Although they still had leprosy, they followed Jesus’ instructions and were on their way to present themselves before the priests. As they went, they were cleansed. Their obedient faith brought healing. One of the ten men saw that he had been healed and turned back, glorified God, and went to Jesus. He fell on his face at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. Jesus noted that all ten men had been cleansed but only one of them returned to express gratitude. Jesus further noted that the man who returned was not a Jew. (This is characteristic of Luke’s account of the gospel where he brings many Gentiles front and center and presents them as part of Jesus’ ministry beyond the Jews.) Jesus raised the question about the nine men who did not come back to express gratitude. The fact that Jesus asked the question about the nine who did not return is enough reason for me to see that there is an expectation that gratitude would be expressed by those who call upon God and receive their requests. Our faith in God should be coupled with gratitude towards God—especially when He answers our prayers in the affirmative. Gratitude completes the loop of believing, trusting, asking, and receiving. Our faith should cause us to believe, trust, and ask of God. Our gratitude shows our appreciation and understanding of the fact that every good and every perfect gift is from God. God is not obliged to give simply because we ask. When God chooses to respond to our petitions in the affirmative, we should be grateful enough to express our appreciation to Him. Faith should always be accompanied by gratitude. Robert C. Hudson April 6, 2016