An attitude of gratitude

2 Kings 5.14-17 Naaman the leper returned to Elisha and acknowledged the Lord.

2 Timothy 2.8-13 If we hold firm then we shall reign with Christ

Luke 17.11-19 No-one has come back to praise God, only this foreigner

 

 

‘Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’

 

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Our Gospel reading today holds up to us the nature of gratitude and shines a light on our appreciation of the abundance of God’s mercy and goodness.

 

It takes us well beyond the moral of politeness and courtesy because it relates to healing, holiness and salvation.

 

This is not just Jesus telling us to say thank you for something; this is not Jesus highlighting just how rude some people can be – think of the nine who never said thank you – rather it takes us deeper.

 

What we see in this well-known story of the healing of ten people with leprosy, or some such isolating condition, is the nature of gratitude, its absence in the nine who presumably just carried on, and its presence in the one who returned to give thanks.

 

We can go further, and say that we see both the response an outlook of scarcity, contrasted with an outlook of abundance which is unlocked by gratitude.

 

So, let’s take a look at both, and honestly assess where we fit in the spectrum of scarcity and abundance.

 

Scarcity expects the bare minimum and is grudging in the face of generosity.

 

Scarcity experiences little or no delight when good things happen.

 

Scarcity doesn’t look beyond its own horizons and preferences: its first question is ‘how does this suit me?’ rather than, ‘how does this benefit others?’

 

Scarcity is life shut in on itself, closed down and frankly miserable.

 

An attitude or culture of scarcity is not about being poor or being rich, it is a spiritual condition not an economic one.

 

Too often the attitude of scarcity is a feature of human life (and the life of churches) and it needs resisting, for we become locked into ways that are sterile and frankly dead, rather than generating and life giving.

 

Thankfully the young are good at resisting this attitude.

 

Scarcity is utterly remote from Jesus’ call to life in all its abundance (John 10.10).

 

And St Paul in his first letter to Timothy gives a vision of what transforms scarcity into abundance:

 

[You] are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for [yourselves] the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that [you] may take hold of the life that really is life. (1 Timothy 6.18-19)

 

What transforms our spirit of scarcity is gratitude; gratitude in God ‘who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment’ (1 Timothy 6.17).

 

Gratitude is deep level thankfulness for that which has not been created by us, that which understands there is a Giver and gift that is not something we generate.

 

Gratitude does not expect, but delights in the good, the beautiful and the true.

 

Gratitude is about both counting our blessings and savouring them and attributing them to the Giver of all good things; to God.

 

Gratitude is a spiritual disposition that moves us toward the action of that one healed, saved man, who attributes his salvation to the Saviour, to Jesus Christ.

 

Gratitude moves us towards abundance of life which is life imagined in the glorious Technicolor of God’s kingdom.

 

If your life is locked into a cycle of scarcity, lived in monochrome, then practice gratitude in the little things as well as the big things.

 

Ask yourself:

 

·        What am I grateful for in my life?

·        What things can I savour more?

·        Who have I failed to show gratitude towards and how can I appreciate them more?

 

The word Eucharist derives from the Greek word εὐχαριστία (eucharistia) which means ‘thanksgiving’.

 

So every Eucharist should be an outpouring of gratitude that moves heart, mind and body to the praise of the giver of all good things.

 

Every Eucharist has a harvest character.

 

It gathers in the fruitfulness of our lives that we offer to be received - fruits and gifts that we have been given in the first place – and what flows back to us in the body and blood of Christ is his life and presence.

 

If our lives are lived in scarcity then we will have nothing to bring, nothing to offer.

 

If our lives are transformed by gratitude then we will have an abundance of thanksgiving to offer and to share.

 

And remember this is a spiritual issue not an economic one.

 

Flowing from spiritual abundance - formed by gratitude - will be generous living.

 

It is no accident that Jesus speaks of ten lepers who were healed.

 

A tenth of them, one of the ten, returned to give thanks.

 

That speaks of the Biblical principle of the ‘tithe’ the offering back to God of a tenth of what we have received from him and his creation.

 

The farmer, the gardener, the cultivator knows well that a small seed that is sown will yield far more than they plant, so they ask God to bless and multiply what they have sown and they will be richly rewarded.

 

In gratitude we learn that when we give we receive, and when we give generously, lavishly, abundantly then we receive more than our hearts can desire.

 

Those ten men were healed; one returned.

 

May we in our lives turn our backs on scarcity, open up our imaginations to the ways of God’s kingdom and return to the one from whom all blessings flow: God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.