First Give Thanks Luke 17:11–19

Grace, mercy, and peace from God our gracious Father, who gives us all we need to sustain our body and life, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who heals us and gave Himself to save our lives.

Our message is based our Gospel, where we have the example of the healed Samaritan who first gave thanks.

We’re in the 11th hour, if you will, of 2020. Only a little over a month left. 2020 might be one of those years we’d rather forget. It will be a just memory pretty soon, but the impact of 2020 will probably live on for a while.

It seems we have a few months to go before we’re through this pandemic. And we have a few moths of winter to go through. It appears there will be a number of political changes for us to go through in the next years. The economy seems to be gaining strength but who knows how it will be in the coming months or years.

So in the midst of this uncertainty, why give thanks? And not just why give thanks, but why give thanks first, before it even happens?

Why make giving thanks to God the first thing we do? Why make it a prelude for all that follows, for everything? 

It has something to do with our character and attitude, but it has more to do with God’s character.

Knowing how our God is, how much He loves to bless His children, gives us the confidence to make giving thanks our first order of business, if you will. Our first priority, our first action.

When our daughters were toddlers, one of the first things my wife taught them was to say thank you. It came out as something like dee-do. Of course, my mother, their grandmother, thought it was one of the best things ever!

When we make giving thanks from the heart one of the first things we learn and do, it helps to get things started right, be it the event, or the day, or your life; first giving thanks gives you the right attitude and the right confidence to face life with

It says a lot that we would have the faith to first give thanks, not a lot about how good we are, but a lot about how good our God is!

In our Gospel, Jesus commends the man who, along with 9 others, had just been miraculously healed from leprosy. His first thought was to give glory to God. 

Luke says, One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising 

God with a loud voice; 16 and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

Nine thought of themselves; one thought of God.

When things seem to be going your way, what’s your first thought or impulse. To think that you’re just lucky, that “lady fate” as they say, has smiled upon you.

Or is it to pat yourself on the back? To think that you have it coming, that you deserve all the good things that are happening to you?

That would certainly be a conventional, worldly way to look at things. But the problem is, it’s not set in reality; it’s just self-centered delusion.

Jesus reminds us in Matthew 5:25 that He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 

Jesus teaches us this so that we’ll realize that even the air we breathe, all we have on this good earth that keeps us alive, is from God. He didn’t have to make life and all we need to sustain it, but He did, because of His love and mercy.

The explanation of the First Article of the Apostles’ Creed says, All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me.

God loves to bless His creation. He loves it when people receive His gifts with 

faith, and love, and thankfulness, and with the intention to share.

God doesn’t want us to be unaware or unappreciative of the blessings He so graciously and joyfully gives.

To turn down any of His blessings would be arrogance. Supreme arrogance is turn down His blessings of salvation: to think you don’t need a God and Savior, that your soul doesn’t need healing and saving, and your thoughts, words, and deeds don’t need forgiving.

Refusing to repent and believe in Jesus as your Savior is the most haughty, arrogant thing that a human being can do. 

So those of us who repent and believe must be pretty good. Right? Wrong.

No one can say Jesus is Lord, and believe it, except by the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians 12:3, teaches us.

The explanation to the 3rd article of the Apostles’ Creed says, I cannot by my own reason of strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, and kept me in the true faith. 

It’s all by grace. Jesus did it all FOR us, and the Holy Spirit does it all IN us.

What a blessing it is to not have to think or pretend that you’re greater than you are, or better than you are, or stronger or more powerful than you are, or smarter than you are, or more deserving than you are. 

What a miserable charade to always have to come off as better than or above others. God’s mercy allows us to be honest and open about who and how we are. 

Sin and grace are the great levelers. In the eyes of God no one is more or less deserving than any other. 

We all deserve what sin gets us; but God gives us not what we deserve, but His Son deserves. What we deserve is NOT something worth giving thanks for; what Jesus deserves is something to be extremely and eternally grateful for.

In Christ, by faith, none of His baptized children is less loved or less saved or less forgiven or less spiritually blessed than any other. No blessing or gift from God is any less wonderful. 

And that’s why we all can, first give thanks. We owe it all to God, and all He gives is so good! James 1:17 says, Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Light.

Every good thing we are and have is because of our Lord’s unconditional mercy, and His mighty power to bless us.

Every bad thing that happens to us, He can help us overcome. And so we can first give thanks, even when we know that some bad things are going to be mixed in with the good things in life. 

When your life and trust are in Christ, then there just aren’t enough bad things that can happen to keep you from being loved and blessed by your Heavenly Father.

Back to the challenges of 2020, and the possible upcoming challenges of 2021: there’s not a single one that has the power to break you, from your Baptism, or to take you, from God’s love.

When you hold on to Christ, there’s not a single hardship or heartache that can take God’s healing love, and His heavenly inheritance away from you. 

So not knowing exactly what is going to happen, knowing that we must take the good with the bad, but also knowing that all things work together, Romans 8:28 says, for the good of those who love God; armed with this information, empowered with this promise, we first rejoice and give thanks and praise to God, and then, as we receive His blessings to live by, we walk boldly into the world to serve Him with joy, to share His blessings, especially the blessed Gospel, and to gladly help our neighbor in need.

May we always “first give thanks” to our generous, merciful God, who has blessed us in so many ways. And as we do, His peace, which passes understanding, will guard our hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus, our gracious Lord and Savior. Amen.