Nine Ways to Say “No Thanks”
By Pastor Esther F. Ramharacksingh Knott
Theme:
Suggested Call to Worship:
Primary Bible text: Luke 17:11-19, RSV
Opening Song: Praise to the Lord, #1
Praise Him, Praise Him, #249
Closing Song: Blessed Assurance, Jesus is
Mine, #462
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On the way to
Luke is a wonderful book—full of parables
and miracles. Everyone likes a good miracle. As children we waited eagerly for
the ending of the Bible stories, knowing that with Jesus there everything would
turn out all right. Here, in chapter 17, Luke records not just a single
miracle, but a whole bunch, all at one time.
Ten men stood at a distance and cried,
"Jesus, Master, have mercy/pity on us!" This caught His attention, He
took one look, diagnosed their condition and prescribed the cure. What a
physician! Just think of all the money we'd save if doctors today could
diagnose an illness so easily. How did Jesus recognize their illness? Oh, I
know, you'll say, "He's God and He knows everything." And of course
that is true, but aside from His divine powers, He probably recognized their
disease the same way our doctors would today. All that was needed was one look.
We don't hear much about leprosy today even
though it continues to exist in many parts of the world, including the southern
part of the
He said the colony was a ghostly place. It
was hard not to get nauseated. Leprosy is a very disfiguring disease and in the
advanced stages it is a terrible sight. It is a bacterial infection that
invades the nerves and kills them. As a result, the victims feel nothing, even
when a rat comes to nibble on an ear, or nose, in the middle of the night. John
saw many people whose noses had been entirely eaten away.
Their feet have lost all sensitivity so
they feel nothing when the flesh on their bare feet gets torn off on a long
walk. They don't know when to stop. They feel nothing when they gash themselves
with a machete while working in a nearby cane field. They feel nothing when
their eyes dry up leaving them blind. They lose their voice, they lose their
hearing. They dislocate their joints. All while feeling nothing.
In Christ's day it was known as a living
death. We can only imagine the pitiful picture the ten lepers presented.
Jesus saw not only the physical torture but
the mental anguish. Leprosy was viewed as a curse, brought about because of sin
in the person's life. (It's a wonder they didn't all have leprosy.) Leviticus 13 describes the whole process one
had to go through if suspected of having leprosy--the process of the symptoms,
the quarantine, and then the shame of the dreadful pronouncement by the
priests. And as if the suffering weren't enough, they were forced to endure
segregation. They were sent from their homes and society. And if that weren't
enough, when someone approached they were to cover their lips and cry
"unclean, unclean."
Such sad words. Leprosy is a fitting symbol
for our sin. We caught the sin-disease by accident of birth. We need to see its
awfulness and ugliness, the distortion it has brought to God's creation and His
plan for our lives. Sin defies human remedies, just as leprosy did in Jesus'
time. Sin has gained possession of us. We too sometimes feel nothing, we have
become insensitive to the needs and social concerns around us, the injustices. We
don't want to get involved.
Recently, someone set up an appointment to
visit me in the office. When I discovered that it concerned a case of child
sexual abuse, my initial reaction was that I didn't want to get involved. Things
could get complicated. It could involve court and take a lot of time. Then I
realized that somewhere there was a helpless six year old girl who needed
others to speak for her. This was a social concern and I needed to be sensitive
and horrified by the situation. Horrified enough to act and not let sin dull my
sensibilities. It might be easy to hear the story and feel nothing, or even
worse, do nothing.
As with leprosy, our noses, our fingers,
our eyes, our tongues exhibit the ways in which sin has possessed our lives.
People use their noses to snort cocaine. And
to use a common metaphor, we nose into other people's business. You may say,
"Oh, my nose doesn't get me into trouble." Well if your Thanksgiving
and Christmas were like mine, you'll probably have to admit that you were
tempted into overindulgence by the delicious smells that came wafting from the
kitchen. How many pieces of pumpkin pie, and pecan pie, and blueberry pie, and
apple pie did you have? At one meal.
Our fingers and hands have touched what
they shouldn't. We've stolen and cheated and inflicted pain. Child abuse and
spouse abuse.
Our eyes have willingly beheld all manner
of evil from what we choose to watch for entertainment, to what we read.
Our tongues have been involved in gossip
and criticism. Remember the little chant you may have learned in grade school?
It was the retort we were supposed to use when someone called us unkind
names: "Sticks and stones may break
my bones, but words will never hurt me."
It's fine to think that you'll try not to let the bad things other
people say about you hurt you. But if you think your words won't hurt somebody
else, then that's a lie. Your words do hurt. Children, will you remember that
when you're out on the play ground; when you're having a quarrel with your
brother or sister? Parents and adults,
will you remember than when you are angry with one another or with your
child? Words can hurt and continue to
hurt when physical wounds are long forgotten.
Sometimes we talk too much and sometimes we
remain silent when we should speak.
Leprosy--the living death. We are dead in
sin.
Our clothes are torn rags. We are outcasts--sent
away from our heavenly home. Separated from our heavenly family.
Sin—a bleak picture. And so it was a bleak
picture for the lepers that day as they trespassed into the village. It was a
bleak picture UNTIL—-until they met Jesus. This is the turn in the story, the
part we have been waiting for. The Central Character of the gospels comes face
to face with not just a sinner, but a group of sinners, even a whole
congregation.
They cried, "Jesus, Master, have mercy
on us." What else could they cry? They had nothing to offer but their torn rags
and broken bodies.
He said to them, (vs. 14) "Go and show
yourselves unto the priests." The
law of Moses required it (Mark
This could be the happy ending of the story
that we always wait for, but it isn't. The story continues with an insight into
how God likes stories of His blessings to end.
Scripture records that, one man, seeing
that he was healed returned to Jesus, threw himself at His feet, and thanked
Him. We know this was important to Jesus because He asked, "Were not ten
cleansed? Where are the other nine? Here is evidence that it matters to God
whether we appreciate the good things we receive from Him. It made a difference
in the life of the leper who came back. Jesus said, "Thy faith hath made
thee whole." Jesus was referring to
the whole person. The others had received physical healing but only one
returned, knew Who to thank, and received the spiritual healing.
Where were the nine? They were good men. They had also believed. They
had been healed. They were probably in synagogue the next Sabbath. And they
probably all had "legitimate" reasons for not saying thank you.
While in college at
1) Always
followed the letter of the law. Jesus said he should go to the priest. So he
would do just that and nothing more.
2) Going
through an identity crisis. He'd been a leper so long. What would he do
now? His life would drastically change. He
was so preoccupied with the change he forgot.
3) This one
believed that you are supposed to work for what you get, yet he hadn't worked
for this and so couldn't handle the situation.
4) He was so
happy he became delirious.
5) May have
become bitter in the past because he was driven to become a beggar. He vowed he
would never say thank you to anyone.
6) He was a
family man. Anxious and eager to get back to his family, to hold his wife and
hug his children.
7) Skeptic—doubted
whether Jesus really has anything to do with it. After all, he hadn't been
healed in Jesus' presence. Maybe it was something in the air that day.
8) So excited
about the totality of the Christian message and that Jesus was the Messiah, he
had no time to return to Jesus. He was out telling the good news.
9)
Listen carefully to this next one. Procrastination. Tomorrow he would return
and thank Jesus.
Which leper are you?
What "legitimate" things in our
lives are keeping us from returning to the feet of Jesus to acknowledge Him as
the Healer of our souls?
God's blessings fall on the good and the
bad. The difference is that the Christian knows who to thank. God's gifts are
taken for granted if we don't know who's responsible for the blessings. A
poster held the following caption: "Peace is seeing a beautiful sunset and
knowing who to thank." We know Who's
responsible.
We must offer our thanks to God. Learn to
count our blessings. If you're having a hard time figuring out what your
blessings are, play this little game we played as children. On a sheet of paper
write out the letters of the alphabet in a column down the left margin. Then
beside each letter write at least one thing you're thankful for that begins
with that letter.
Just this morning, only moments ago, we did
this little exercise with own Primary Sabbath School class. Here's what some of
the children are thankful for:
[Presenter – it would be good to do this
before the sermon with the children in your church, using your own language and
alphabet if you are in a non-English area.]
A--angels,
animals
B--baseball,
Bible and boys
C--cats,
cereal
D--Daddy,
dinner, dog,and Dodgers
E--elections,
earth, Epcot
F--food,
father, forgiveness
G--giant
lollipops, God, and goats
H--hot
water, heaven, Heath Bars, and home
I--ice
cream, Indians, igloos
J--Jesus,
jokes, Jaguars, Juicy Fruit gum
K--Kelloggs,
kittens, kites, kindness
L--Lakers,
life, love, lions
M--mother,
money, and me
N--nurses,
nuts, Nintendo
O--outdoors,
operating rooms, occupations
P--parents,
peanut butter, and pickles
Q--quarters,
quietness, and Q-tips
R--rabbits,
raisins, Ryan
S--sisters,
stickers, and sailboats
T--togetherness,
teeth, teachers
U--umbrellas,
universe, Uno, and us
V--vacation,
verbs, and vegetables
W--water,
world, women, Washington
X--x-ray,
xylophone, xerox
Y--Yankees,
yellow, and you
Z--zebra
and zippers
I believe God wants us to return thanks to
Him not just because He deserves it, but because it makes us feel good. Praise
is a cure for depression.
How much brighter our daily lives would be
if there were more praise and gratitude expressed. It is good that we never
expect gratitude, but let us not leave those around us wanting for it.
One leper came back. He received the true
blessing. We are all sinners. The blessings of God fall on all, but eternal
life only on those who express gratitude. We don't have gratitude in our hearts
on our own. Christ came to give it to us. Even in this story we are told Jesus
was passing through the midst of
The lepers cried out for mercy and they
were healed. We cry out for mercy and God saves.
God saw us from a distance, from the courts
of heaven. And God became flesh and lived among us.
It is a desperate condition that we find
ourselves in...UNTIL. There's that magic word again--until. Until we meet Jesus.
When we do we become new. We are fit to show ourselves to God, to return to our
heavenly home. And be with our heavenly family.
I invite you to meet Jesus. BUT not just
one meeting like the nine. The back of a business card says, "If we met
and you forget me you have lost nothing, but if you meet Jesus Christ and
forget Him, you have lost everything."
I asked my friend John, the one who had
visited the leper colony, if there was a cure for leprosy. He said yes and no. One
of the reasons for the colony is so that the lepers can be treated with
antibiotics. Regularly they have to go to the clinic to get their medicine. This
is a process that will continue for the rest of their lives. Meeting Jesus is a
process that will continue for the rest of our lives. We can't just meet Jesus
once. We can't just be baptized and think that is the end of it. We must
continually meet Him and get daily doses of that which gives us life.
How will your story end? Will it be the happy ending that all of
heaven longs for? Can you sing
"Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine?" This is my story, this is my
song, praising my Savior all the day long.
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Biographical Information on the Sermon Writer: Pastor
Esther (Ramharacksingh) Knott is associate pastor at