October 14, 2007 The Rev. James Lee Winter William Law, the 18th century spiritual writer of A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life - not exactly light reading, wrote, “The greatest saint is not the person who prays most; it is the person who is most thankful.” The saints, in the New Testament understanding, are all those baptized into new life in Christ. Mr. Law is saying that the greatest saints among us are those with “the attitude of gratitude” - as it’s called. Most of us sail along day by day oblivious to the great blessings we enjoy - most of which, the self-made man or person stories notwithstanding, are the result of gifts given us by parents, a free and prosperous society, not to mention the the grace of God in Christ. This is not too surprising since there is an industry out there that spends billions every year convincing us that what we lack - from sneakers to cars - is the very thing that will make us happy, fulfill as people. We see tens of thousands of advertising messages and logos every day. Think about - their job is to create a sense of scarcity in our lives that only their product can fix. They have succeeded. Even Donald Trump complains about not having enough. It costs us dearly. Deep resentments over what we don’t have, a focus on those not only makes us sour people, it can literally kill us over time. A lack of awareness of our blessings, failing to give thanks for what has been given us, for the opportunities before us is dulling and deadening, like a spiritual novocaine. Jesus is traveling from Samaria to Galilee. In that day it was like traveling from the very worst wrong side of the tracks - land of the despised Samaritans - to the sticks - of “can anything good come from Galilee?” fame. Ten lepers approach him, keeping their distance. Those details are important. Lepers were considered unclean and accursed because of their own sinfulness. On pain of death, they were not to approach anyone. They had to announce their presence calling out “Unclean! Unclean!” Leprosy was not only a physical death sentence then, it was first the death of all relationship, kinship, and community. They were utterly cut off from all others. Maybe, though, they had heard something about this Jesus. Maybe , it was true. Maybe it was worth suffering one more disappointment. They are so completely desperate that they’ll literally try anything. “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” They are begging, hoping against hope. “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” Since the belief was that this was a curse of spiritual “bad-ness” they had to be declared clean by a priest according to the law. So, despite any misgivings they had, they turn and head to the nearest Temple. On their way, they are made clean. On noticing this, one of them - a tithe, if you will - turns back and praising God loudly throws himself at Jesus’ feet - a show of complete surrender - and thanks him. “And he was a Samaritan” meaning the others were presumably orthodox, God fearing hebrews. Only the despised, heretical, foreigner stops to thank God for his healing. He was made whole - salvus - which some distinguish from a cure. Cures are wonderful and necessary but healing makes whole, gives wellness, includes the spiritual, saves. Sometimes when cures are not possible, healing is. Thankfulness, thanks-giving, the attitude of gratitude - these are a part of healing, of making us whole as human beings. Did you know that even the martyrs of the faith were willing to give thanks to God for the gift of grace in Christ even as they were facing their worst trials? I’d like to think I was capable of that with God’s help but I hope I don’t have to find out - save us from the time of trial. Did you know that our principal service of worship, how we begin each week is Eucharist which means thanksgiving? We begin our week thanking God. If you think this is all sort of theoretical and theological, I would ask you to think of the opposite ends of this attitude of thankfulness. Think of the people you know who only seem aware of what they don’t have, of everything that is wrong with their lives. They seem neither happy nor healthy, far from whole. We are not, of course, talking here about people who are going through the human process of grief over loss. On the other hand, the folks who seem focused on the giftedness of their lives, even some with very difficult circumstances, the ones who seem able to give freely of themselves and their resources not so much out of duty or obligation but out of thanksgiving, are truly the saints through whom God’s light shines most clearly. They almost define “wholeness” or “saved” don’t they? God give us grace to be those who remember to give thanks and praise God, to be great saints. Give thanks, always and everywhere.