Readings:
2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c;
Psalm 111;
2 Timothy 2:8-15;
Luke 17:11-19

Collect:
Gracious God,
you call us to fullness of life:
deliver us from unbelief and banish our anxieties
with the liberating love of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Reflection

I’m sure just about all of us were brought up to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, especially to adults in our family circle. The familiar exchange of ‘what do you say?’ ‘thank you’ has passed down the generations. There does seem to be an age of forgetfulness starting around 12 and extending to about, ooh, 25, but still, the notion appears pretty firmly engrained in most of us.  

We’re not too bad at in church either. The great hymns of praise stir us, and we are especially mindful of God’s gifts and our thankfulness at this season of Harvest. Many a prayer starts with ‘Lord, we thank you for….’

We’re a little more hesitant when asked the question directly ‘what are you thankful to God for?’ Perhaps it’s because we’re not used to seeing our life in those terms, or maybe we’re just shy. I find after a bit of squirming most folk will reply with something about their family, or the beauty of nature.

I wonder how our lives might be different if we framed much more of our experience by reference to the God who loves us and all creation? I don’t mean being overly literal, such as praying for a parking space and being grateful when it appears (although yes, I confess, I’ve done that too!). No, I mean seeing our lives as woven through with God’s presence and God’s action and being aware of the great gift it all is. 

That’s what the one returning leper did in this weekend’s gospel story. His healing wasn’t just a fabulous thing to go off and enjoy. He understood that his life was about to change profoundly, now he was healed of his excluding illness. He noticed the work of the mysterious divine in his life. 

But I think we should also note that he had no idea how his life would unfold now. We don’t know what happened to him. It might have been great. Or it might have been much harder than he hoped. Still, in that moment of uncertainty and change, his first instinct was to return to the source of life and healing and be grateful for the ‘now’.   

Maybe we don’t feel we’ve seen much of God’s benevolence recently. Maybe we are at a moment of great change, or uncertainty. Our country seems to be. We don’t know how the future might unfold for any of us – it might be great, it might not. I’ve certainly had to struggle with finding things to be thankful for in recent months. 

But there’s the point. It’s not just about being thankful for good things, or happy times, or beautiful scenes, as wonderful as they are. But neither are we expected to mop up all the hard times and just ‘be grateful’ like a miserable child succumbing to an abusive parent. 

Thankfulness, when it comes down to it, is acknowledging the gift given. It’s true that God’s presence in our lives can sometimes bring unwanted change, or scary uncertainty, or even, for a while, great pain.  But, like the leper, the lesson for us to learn is to notice God’s presence all around us, to absorb the mysterious workings of the Spirit, and to trust the promises and motives of Jesus. Nothing, I mean nothing, can se parate us from the love of God. And so, in even the hardest of times, that golden thread is being woven in our lives, if we will look out for it. The future is more easily navigated if we will take note of God in the ‘now’ and acknowledge that presence as the gift it is.  

Sharon Grenham-Thompson