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| A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving by Charles Schulz |
"What kind of Thanksgiving dinner is this? Where’s the turkey, Chuck? Don’t you know anything about Thanksgiving dinners? Where’s the mashed potatoes? Where’s the cranberry sauce? Where’s the pumpkin pie?”[1] With those harsh words, Peppermint Patty berated poor Charlie Brown for failing to deliver the kind of Thanksgiving dinner she thought she deserved. It sounds like Peppermint Patty lacks an attitude of gratitude – just like nine out of the ten lepers in this evening’s Gospel passage.
In tonight’s reading, Jesus cures ten lepers who begged for his mercy. It seems surprising, then, that only one would return to praise God and thank Jesus when he realized that he’d been cured. In Jesus’ time, leprosy was one of the worst diseases you could get. Lepers were outcasts, forbidden by law to approach anyone; and there was no known cure for leprosy. Lepers had no hope of rejoining their family and friends, other than a distant hope in the coming of the Messiah. So when the Messiah actually shows up and heals them, you’d think all ten of them would've at least shown a little gratitude. But maybe even more surprising to our sense of justice, is the fact that the one grateful leper got no more than the others did. Or did he? To answer that question, we have to understand what gratitude is all about.
According to Dictionary.com, gratitude is a feeling of thankfulness or appreciation, as for gifts or favors. But gratitude is deeper than that. Gratitude is an awareness and an appreciation that we are loved. “The grateful person reveals a humility of spirit and sensitivity to love expressed by others.”[2] Through gratitude, we acknowledge that we need God’s love and the love of others; and through gratitude, we accept the love that accompanies the acts of kindness we receive.
Ingratitude, on the other hand, “reveals self-centeredness or the attitude that I deserve more than I ever get.”[3] Let’s face it, sometimes we get so caught up in our good fortune that we fail to see where that good fortune comes from – like the nine lepers. At other times, we get so caught up in what we don’t have that we fail to appreciate the wonderful things we do have – like Peppermint Patty. And when we’re ungrateful, we’re unable to accept the love that has been given to us. And without love, good grief, we’re in a pretty sad place.
So when we sink to this level of unhappiness, we need an attitude adjustment – we need an attitude of gratitude. Gratitude opens the door to a new way of living. “Academics have long theorized that expressions of thanks promote health and happiness and give optimism and energy to the downtrodden.”[4] I love when academia finally catches up with what the Bible has taught us for millennia. Why do they think we designated a holiday for the sole purpose of giving thanks? It’s good for us. But the trick is, we have to show gratitude more than just one day a year.
Through the eyes of gratitude, we see life, health, friends and family as gifts, as “an overwhelming grace to be treasured and guarded.”[5] Through the spirit of gratitude, we acknowledge that all good things come from God, and that we need God to survive. Through the heart of gratitude we accept that God sustains us not because he needs us, but because he loves us.
You know, that one grateful leper did receive something more than the others received – through his gratitude, he received a life-giving relationship with God through Jesus Christ. An attitude of gratitude secures us in a loving relationship with God and with each other. I’d have to be a blockhead to miss out on that.
In tonight’s reading, Jesus cures ten lepers who begged for his mercy. It seems surprising, then, that only one would return to praise God and thank Jesus when he realized that he’d been cured. In Jesus’ time, leprosy was one of the worst diseases you could get. Lepers were outcasts, forbidden by law to approach anyone; and there was no known cure for leprosy. Lepers had no hope of rejoining their family and friends, other than a distant hope in the coming of the Messiah. So when the Messiah actually shows up and heals them, you’d think all ten of them would've at least shown a little gratitude. But maybe even more surprising to our sense of justice, is the fact that the one grateful leper got no more than the others did. Or did he? To answer that question, we have to understand what gratitude is all about.
According to Dictionary.com, gratitude is a feeling of thankfulness or appreciation, as for gifts or favors. But gratitude is deeper than that. Gratitude is an awareness and an appreciation that we are loved. “The grateful person reveals a humility of spirit and sensitivity to love expressed by others.”[2] Through gratitude, we acknowledge that we need God’s love and the love of others; and through gratitude, we accept the love that accompanies the acts of kindness we receive.
Ingratitude, on the other hand, “reveals self-centeredness or the attitude that I deserve more than I ever get.”[3] Let’s face it, sometimes we get so caught up in our good fortune that we fail to see where that good fortune comes from – like the nine lepers. At other times, we get so caught up in what we don’t have that we fail to appreciate the wonderful things we do have – like Peppermint Patty. And when we’re ungrateful, we’re unable to accept the love that has been given to us. And without love, good grief, we’re in a pretty sad place.
So when we sink to this level of unhappiness, we need an attitude adjustment – we need an attitude of gratitude. Gratitude opens the door to a new way of living. “Academics have long theorized that expressions of thanks promote health and happiness and give optimism and energy to the downtrodden.”[4] I love when academia finally catches up with what the Bible has taught us for millennia. Why do they think we designated a holiday for the sole purpose of giving thanks? It’s good for us. But the trick is, we have to show gratitude more than just one day a year.
Through the eyes of gratitude, we see life, health, friends and family as gifts, as “an overwhelming grace to be treasured and guarded.”[5] Through the spirit of gratitude, we acknowledge that all good things come from God, and that we need God to survive. Through the heart of gratitude we accept that God sustains us not because he needs us, but because he loves us.
You know, that one grateful leper did receive something more than the others received – through his gratitude, he received a life-giving relationship with God through Jesus Christ. An attitude of gratitude secures us in a loving relationship with God and with each other. I’d have to be a blockhead to miss out on that.
Reading: Luke 17: 11-19
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[1] Charles M. Schulz, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, 1973.
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[1] Charles M. Schulz, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, 1973.
[2] R.
Alan Culpepper, “The Gospel of Luke,” New
Interpreter’s Bible, vol. IX (Nashville, Abingdon Press, 1995) at 327.
[3] Id.
[4] Matt
Sedensky, “Giving Thanks,” The Associated Press (November 24, 2009).
[5] Culpepper
at 327.
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