Luke 17:11-19

What happened to the other 9?
1. One didn’t believe Jesus did it. There was some explanation, he would figure it out.
2. Maybe this one found it too easy. He didn’t get to earn it. He wanted to work hard and then have the healing because of his efforts. Jesus had offended him.
3. One had been away from her family so long, she had to return in the excitement, she ran to hug her children and kiss her husband.
4. One did know Jesus did it and wanted to get the word out, to spread the joy, to tell of this great healer, the messiah is here and there is not time to waste. It never occurred to him to stop and say thank you. He was too busy telling others about it and about Jesus.
5. One had been reduced to begging all of this life. The disdain he faced. The shame, the looks, the pennies people begrudgingly gave. The demands to be thanked for every crumb they dropped his way. He could no longer say thanks, not even to Jesus.

6. One was never taught to say thank you. His grandmother always sent him thank you notes. But saying thank you and those types of pleasantries were never part of the man’s background. We may call it manners, but it may be that it was not part of his or her culture.

We could fill in the blanks with our own excuses. I think it is important not to judge the motives of those not saying thank you. It helps to look at the log in our own eye and not the speck in another. How can I give thanks this thanks giving season? Instead judging other’s motives, how can I practice gratitude?

That first Thanksgiving I am sure the food was sparse. A quick google search said perhaps on the menu was oysters and mussels for these would have been available. That caught my eye because we will soon have an oyster supper here at Lima.

As we can image their primitive huts were built with material on hand. Now we have so much. They would not have had cranberries or pumpkin pie or mashed potatoes or green beans or dressing or stuffing.

Many of us had smaller houses as we were earning money and then bought a comfortable home. Most of us will eat plenty of food this thanksgiving. We live in comfort now in our homes. And we have access to a feast. Hear the words, the warning, in our Bible when the Hebrew people are going to the promised land:
Deuteronomy 8:7-18
7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, 9 a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. 10 You shall eat your fill and bless the LORD your God for the good land that he has given you.
11 “Take care that you do not forget the LORD your God by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes that I am commanding you today. 12 When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them 13 and when your herds and flocks have multiplied and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15 who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous[a] snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock. 16 He fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you and in the end to do you good. 17 Do not say to yourself, ‘My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today.
Let us live in gratitude this season and always. Let us not forget when things are better, than God provides and God is at work in our lives.

Go into the world showing a gentle attitude toward everyone.
Be joyful and thankful!
Fill your mind with those things that are good and deserve praise:
things true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honorable.
Put into practice
what you have heard here.
And may the God who gives peace be with each of you.