“Thank you, Jesus!”
Rev. Carrie Kreps Wegenast, M.Div.
October 10, 2004

Eugene Simonet, a Social Studies Teacher, gives the same speech to his seventh graders at the beginning of every school year – look around the world and develop a plan to fix what you don’t like. In the course of his twelve years of teaching, Mr. Simonet has seen few plans of notable mention. Community recycling, helping the poor and being nice to others are noble, however, they lack the power to change the world.

After giving the speech to this year’s seventh graders, one of them comes up with a plan to change the meanness invading society. Trevor develops a plan called ‘Pay it Forward.’ The first person has something nice done for him or her. They in turn do three more nice things to three other people instead of returning the favor to the person who originally did something nice for them. The ‘nice’ things are suppose to be acts in which the person could not have done on their own.

Trevor puts his plan into practice, but is discouraged by the results. His Pay it Forwards seem to fail. What he does not realize, though, is that by helping people he is influencing the people closest to him. His actions may not have the direct consequences that he intended but the kindness is being paid forward.

The author of this novel shares her own story of gratitude. Twenty years before she wrote the book, Pay it Forward, Catherine Ryan Hyde was driving alone at night in a rough area of downtown L.A. Driving an older car that had not had all of the necessary car maintenance, Catherine braked at the end of a freeway off-ramp. Her car’s engine suddenly died. With that, all the lights went out and the passenger compartment started to fill with smoke. Jumping out of the car, Catherine saw two men running towards her, one carrying a blanket that he had pulled from his trunk. Her first thought was ‘I’m dead,’ as she remembered where she was. Pushing past her, one of the men popped open the hood of the car. The engine was on fire. The strangers smothered the blaze with the blankets despite the risk that the car could explode at any moment. Catherine reflects that the next several minutes were a blur of activity. The fire department arrived and the car was cared for. When she looked up to thank the men for their help they were gone.
It was later when Catherine was able to offer service to another stranded motorist that she was struck by the ‘Pay it Forward’ method of gratitude. She stopped to help a woman whose automobile was leaking radiator fluid. The problem was quickly fixed and as the two women drove to a nearby gas station to get water, it became evident that the woman Catherine had stopped to help had been subjected to physical abuse at some point in her life. In this experience she expected the worse of the persons who might stop to help. In gratitude, the woman offered Catherine money. Instead, Catherine asked her to pay it forward by offering someone else an act of kindness.

A kind expression of gratitude is a ‘Thank you.’ What Trevor in fact suggested through the words of Catherine Ryan Hyde was a tree of ‘Thank yous.’ First there is one. Then three. Then nine. The numbers add up until the world has been touched by one person’s Pay it Forward.

You may have seen this Citigroup commercial on television. Two women are chatting in the produce aisle of the supermarket. One turns to the other and asks, “Oh, when are you due?” The second woman becomes offended because she is not pregnant, but well-padded in the middle. There is an uncomfortable moment of silence as the non-pregnant woman looks to be deciding if she should beat this other woman up. Before the first punches are thrown, the first woman blurts out, “Thank you!” In the moment of surprise, the two women hug and all is forgotten. The announcer adds, “It’s amazing what a simple ‘thank you’ can do.”

It is a commercial that makes no sense. Why, ‘thank you’? How did ‘thank you’ suddenly become the heal-all? I thought that was ‘I’m sorry.’ However, ‘Thank you’ does have a magical ring to it. Parents teach their children to say please and thank you from a young age. My parents developed a dinnertime game around good manors. If we forgot to say please or thank you we were fined a penny. At the end of the meal we could keep the pennies left in our pile.

Later in life, the ‘thank you’ became the motivator rather than the pennies. A thank you note is a sign of gratitude. Receiving and sending these Hallmark cards make the original gift worth the effort and expense taken in picking it out and delivering it to the person. Maybe, Citigroup is on to something. It is not just the words, but the idea that behind a ‘thank you’ is a person’s true gratitude for an appreciated act. How this fits into the scene of their commercial, I have no idea. Maybe the first lady is thanking the second for not hitting her. Either way, ‘thank you’ are two powerful words.

According to our gospel story this morning Jesus also recognized the power in our two words. Found only in the Gospel of Luke, this story of healing is also a story of gratitude. Jesus is slowly making his way to Jerusalem. On the journey he encounters a group of lepers. From their place in the distance they asked for mercy. Not healing, but mercy from the disease that left them with stumps for hands and feet and soars on the rest of their bodies. No touching was needed. Jesus sends them to the priest who would certify their healing and allow them back into the Jewish community. On their way, the ten realize that they have been healed. One, overcome with gratitude, returned to Jesus, praising God in a loud voice. He falls at Jesus’ feet ‘giving him thanks,’ the author of Luke tells us.

I really like this image described by Luke. This leper, once in so much pain that walking was difficult, runs down the road, yelling at the top of his lungs. People would have stopped to stare. Children may have laughed, but for this man, the gift of healing overpowered the questioning eyes of those on the road. He had to say thank you. His whole body got into the action. His thanks could not be contained and he fell at the feet of Jesus.

In the course of this description, the key to this story is revealed. We are told that this man is a Samaritan. The Jews and Samaritans did not like each other much. The Jews accused the Samaritans of causing trouble and impurity. There are several places in the Bible where Samaritans are accused of worshiping other gods. Both groups worshiped in different places and mixed only when forced to. Knowing this history, the mixing of this group of lepers is interesting. In their common misery, Jews and Samaritans lived together. The whole group calls to Jesus for healing – even this Samaritan who would not have normally associated with a Jewish teacher such as Jesus. Jesus asks him, why has only one returned to give thanks when ten were healed? And, why is this one a foreigner? What happened to the Jews? Jesus then tells him, ‘Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.’ Even with this man’s Samaritan upbringing, it is his faith in Jesus that heals him.

The healing of the one leper who comes back to say Thank you is two fold. Yes, his body is healed of the debilitating disease. He is free from living in exile and can return to the community. He is also healed in another manor. Ingratitude is a disease worse than leprosy. I once knew a person who was never thankful. On several occasions I wanted to give her a gift. Each time, she would open the carefully wrapped present and find something negative to say. She either already had it, didn’t want it, or couldn’t imagine why I thought of her when I saw it. In the end, her attitude left me empty. I had given a gift to be nice and her ingratitude ruined the moment and to be honest, most of the memories I have of my time with her. Ingratitude is a disease worse than leprosy. It erodes at the heart rather than at the body’s limbs. It destroys relationships and leaves a bitter taste in the mouth of the giver. The Samaritan, though, was healed of this bitter disease. In his moment of joy he returned to give thanks. His voice and healed limbs rejoiced in the God who had given him his life back. He did not need to say thank you in order to be healed. The others got off just fine, or so we assume. This man needed to say the two powerful words.

Several years ago Oprah Winfrey promoted the use of gratitude journals. She, or someone on her staff, recognized that when one thinks about the blessings of each day the person takes on a new outlook in life. Instead of seeing the negatives or the miss-wrapped presents, the person begins looking for the things to be grateful for. It changes the person.
Two scientists have determined, through initial studies, that “gratitude plays a significant role in a person’s sense of well being.” Dividing their study group into three smaller groups they asked one group to keep a daily diary of things that had happened during the day. The second group wrote on their ‘unpleasant experiences,’ while the third focused on the things they were grateful for. The study showed that those who reflected on items of gratitude reported higher levels of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, optimism and energy. The group also experienced less stress!

Saying ‘Thank you’ can change us too. On days when I struggle to find a non-disappointment to write in my prayer journal, I force myself to think of three good things that happened that day. Soon, my page is full and my heart is lighter. In my three gratitude’s, I am thanking God for guiding me through the day and providing good moments in the midst of bad. On many days I feel like one of the ten lepers who came to Jesus for healing. Something has not gone right or I have been disappointed by something done or not done. I seek healing as the lepers did. In order, though, to be fully healed, I need to return to the feet of my God to offer thanks. We need the full package, so to speak. Barbara Sholis writes, “Gratitude may be the purest measure of one’s character and spiritual condition.” In our prayers and in our laments there is room for gratitude. Saying ‘Thank you’ is a praise to the giver. It is in the saying of ‘Thank you, Jesus’ that we are truly healed.

Please join me in a moment of Thanksgiving,
O God, gracious giver of all things and accepter of all burdens, hear our prayer. Accept our thanks for the blessings in our lives. Help us to be like the Samaritan who had faith to be healed and yet who returned to give his thanks. Give us the vision to see the gratitude to be offered from the healings in our lives. It is with thanksgiving that we pray, Amen.