Thanks to Thin Air

Directing our thanksgiving to the Triune God

11/22/2018

Luke 17:11-19 As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem, he traveled through Samaria and Galilee. As he was entering a village, ten persons with leprosy met him. They stood at a distance from him and raised their voices, saying, "Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!" And when he saw them, he said, "Go show yourselves to the priests." As they were going they were cleansed. And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. He was a Samaritan. Jesus said in reply, "Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?" Then he said to him, "Stand up and go; your faith has saved you."

On Thanksgiving day every year we Americans feel a deep sense of gratitude for all our blessings. And we should – we have much to be grateful for. But do we know whom we are saying “thank you” to? Are we aware of the Author of all our blessings? If we wrote a thank you note today, would it begin with the words, “To Whom It May Concern”? We have a sneaking suspicion that maybe our blessings just fell out of the clear blue sky without any Benefactor behind them, like the great Wizard of Oz turned out to be a man behind the curtain. We say “thank you” to thin air.

A recent survey was taken of Twitter users of all the tweets since January 1, 2018 that began with the words, “I am thankful for…” Here is the top ten list. First, “I am thankful for you.” That makes me feel good. Second, “I am thankful for life.” Third, “I am thankful for People.” Fourth, “I am thankful for family.” Fifth, “I am thankful for Everything.” He wanted to make sure he covered it all. Sixth, “I am thankful for love.” How romantic. Seventh, “I am thankful for friends.” Eighth, “I am thankful for everyone.” Ninth, “I am thankful for today.” And tenth, “I am thankful for God.” I was so happy to hear God got on the list, but just barely. But notice we are not sure who to say thank you to. We even include God on the list but fail to see that he is the Author of the whole list. In other words, out thanksgiving does not have a target; our gratitude is not directed to God. It’s as if we’re saying thank you to thin air, to whom it may concern.

Today’s gospel relates the familiar story of the miraculous cure of the ten lepers. Even though it is blindingly clear Jesus it the Benefactor of their cure, only one returns to give thanks to him. And to add insult to injury, Jesus observes: “Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?” Presumably, the other nine were Jews and should have known the Author of all blessings is God and returned post haste to worship Jesus. But the nine were like modern American twitter users: they no doubt felt deep gratitude, but they did not know whom to send their thank you note to. They were saying thank you to thin air, their notes were written “to whom it may concern.” The episode of the cleansing of the ten lepers is like our modern Thanksgiving celebrations: giving thanks without a target, feeling gratitude but not to God.

My friends, this Thanksgiving day, let me invite you to give gratitude to God for all your blessings. In other words, don’t just move God to the top of your Twitter list of things to be grateful for, but realize that there would be no list without God’s benevolent love for us. Here are a few tips to thank god for our blessings all year long, so it’s a little easier on Thanksgiving. Always say “Grace before Meals” – every morsel of food on your plate comes from “God’s bounty through Christ our Lord.” Do you pray before you eat? When you wake up in the morning, say a “Glory Be,” even before you rush to the bathroom. God opens your eyes every morning more than the alarm does. At night before you lay your head on the pillow say a Hail Mary and thank God for the day that is ending. His providence was present in every second of the day. Today as you sit down for Thanksgiving dinner point your prayers of gratitude to God, he is the Author of all. Do not say thank you to thin air.

Let me conclude with this humorous anecdote from Stephen Hawkins book The Universe in a Nutshell. The late theoretical physician wrote: “A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said, ‘What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.’ The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, ‘And what is the tortoise standing on?’ ‘You’re very clever, young man, very clever,’ said the old lady. ‘But it’s turtles all the way down’ (The Universe, 2).

So, this Thanksgiving day, when you bow your heads to pray, you can give thanks for your blessings to a tower of turtles or to the Triune God. Sadly, some Americans may be saying thank you to thin air.

Praised be Jesus Christ!