Rich in Heart: Generosity
October 9, 2016
Dr. Tom Pace
Luke 17:11-19

Today we begin a new series on Generosity and we’ll be looking for four weeks at what are the practices and principles that undergird generosity. It isn’t just a discipline but it’s a response to things that are going on in our hearts and we’re going to look at how generosity is a response to those, and then also how generosity helps to create that spirit of being rich at heart.
Our scripture today is from the Gospel of Luke, a story called The Thankful Leper and I’d like for you to listen as we hear the gospel read this morning.

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” (Luke 17:11-19 NRSV)

Let’s pray: Gracious and loving God, open us up, open our eyes that we might see, and our ears that we might hear. Open our hearts God that we might feel, and then O Lord, open our hands that we might serve. Amen.
I had a conversation with one of our members this week and he said he was going to be absent this week, this coming week as well, and miss some meetings. I said, “Are you going on a business trip, where are you going?” He said, “I’m going to Louisiana.” I asked if he was going on a business trip and he stuttered around a while. And then he informed me they were going to gamble at the casino in Louisiana. He said we just do it for fun, it’s not a big deal. We don’t lose or gain a lot of money there, it’s just for fun. I said, “What would help your cause, if it’s just for fun why don’t you give 90% of what you make to the church, of what you earn. I think that will probably help your odds. You’d probably do better.” He said he would be glad to do that if we picked up 90% of the losses also. I didn’t agree with that so he’s off on his own. Who knows what will happen to him.
It did strike me, though, the conversation brought to mind how many people will say to me over the years, “You know, if I were rich I would fund that whole building. If I were rich I would underwrite this ministry that we’re doing.” The implication of course is that they are not rich. What I want us to think about is, are you rich? I would be willing to say to you that you’re rich. I could do that little deal where I say if you make more than $20,000 a year you are in the top quarter of one per cent of the world’s income. That’s not really what I mean. I mean that being rich is not something about how much money you have. The Psalm that we’re using for the theme of our generosity campaign is Wealth and Riches are in His House and His Righteousness Endures Forever. That doesn’t mean if you do certain things, if you make your tithe, or send in your check or sow a seed then the harvest is going to come in for you and you’ll get rich, rich, rich financially. I don’t believe that. What I believe is if we follow certain practices, certain disciplines of our lives then there is a different kind of richness. A rich in heart that takes us over, that we are able to say our cup runneth over.
Delia Stroud sent me a story about her father, that when he was 88 he had a bypass surgery, triple bypass. The whole family was gathered in his room before the surgery. Dr. Bud Frazier, the surgeon, came in and they were talking together. Her father looked around at all of the family crammed there together in the little hospital room and said, “Bud, I am rich, rich, rich. Look at this, I am rich in love.” Maybe that’s one way of thinking of being rich.
Dr. Jim Moore, my predecessor, liked to say to his kids when they’d say, “Why don’t I get a new car like so and so.” He would say, “Because we are rich in the things that matter.” Which had to just annoy the fire of them I’m sure. We are rich in the things that matter. I hope that you spend some time, if you think of nothing else when you leave this place, ask yourself, am I rich?
With that in mind I’d like to look briefly at this wonderful passage. This is called The Thankful Leper. It’s found only in the Gospel of Luke. It says in Luke 17, and it’s really two stories. I want to talk briefly about each one. The first part of the story goes this way: On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region of Samaria and Galilei. And as he entered the village ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance they called out, “Jesus, master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests, and as they went they were made clean.” This is a healing story. A story of the cleansing of the lepers.
Here’s what I want you to see in it. All ten had leprosy and all ten were made clean. All ten. Ten is a number in scripture that signifies completeness. All of us. All of us have leprosy of some sort. When I was a young pastor I went to Reynosa, Mexico on my first mission trip. I led a group with youth. While I was there we were in a place called Las Cumbres. There was a church in downtown Reynosa who sponsored small churches all through the Colonias there and the United Methodist Church of the Good Shepherd in Reynosa and the Pastor there was a man named Raul Garcia. In the midst of a few days I got to know him pretty well. I said, “Raul, I feel like I made a bad decision. I shouldn’t be a Pastor at a church like St. Luke’s. (I was a youth pastor here then.) I should be down here. These people don’t have a place to live. They don’t have clean water. They don’t have anything to eat. They don’t have anything. I should be down here.” He laughed at me. He was a young guy. He said, “Oh, Pastor Tom, everybody has problems. Everybody needs Jesus.”
It was that simple. Everybody. You’ve got your form of leprosy. You’ve got your thing that needs to be taken away. Everybody’s got an issue. And here’s what’s so awesome about this part of the story. And everybody got healed! Everybody got cleaned. It wasn’t the good ones. It wasn’t the religious ones. It wasn’t the ones that prayed the right prayer. It wasn’t the ones who jumped through the right hoops. God is indiscriminate in his blessings of people. What God wants for you is the very best and does everything God can to give you the very best. That’s who God is. What this says is all ten were made clean. You know the scripture the rain falls on the just and the unjust. It’s so funny because it shows our context problem. We’ve always interpreted that to mean bad things happen to good people and bad people both. Friends in Israel rain is good. It’s not bad, it’s good. The rain falls. The good thing is happening to good people and bad people alike. God is indiscriminate in his desire to bless us. You are one of the ten. You have been blessed.
One other interesting thing about this passage. I want you to note that it doesn’t say, and he healed them and they got up and went to show themselves to the priest. You had to show yourself to the priest if you were to be declared clean so you could come back and be a part of the community. The priest would certify you as cleaned and you could hang out with the community again. He didn’t say you’re made clean, now go show yourself to the priests. It said go show yourselves to the priest and then, listen to this, and as they went they were made clean.
Friends, God is at work in your life all the time to help you deal with your stuff. With your issues. With whatever it is that is your leprosy. God is at work right now doing it as you go. Don’t sit around and wait and say, “God make me clean so I can be happy.” No, God is at work in your life as you go.
All right, that’s the first part of the story but not the most important part. Just remember you are one of the ten. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked. “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to give praise except this foreigner?” Now here’s what I want you to see. This one was doubly marginalized. What I mean by that is he was cast out of the community because he was a leper but he was also cast out of the community because he was a Samaritan. He was a foreigner. He doesn’t belong here. So here is this one who is doubly marginalized and he stops and turns and sees the giver in the gift. He sees the giver in the gift and he turns back to the giver and he thanks him.
Here’s the question for today. Are you one of the nine or are you the one? Because if you are the one of the ten, God is blessing you; or are you one of the nine who just goes on about your business? Just going on giving your life? You know, I look back through my prayer journal. I see all the incredible ways God has helped me deal with the various leprosies I seem to encounter in my own life. I seem to just take them on. And when that happens, God somehow continues to let me land like a cat on my feet. But I forget. I forget that God’s done that. I’m too busy with the stone in my shoe in today’s problem. I’ve already forgotten how God got me through yesterday’s problem.
Too often we are one of the nine. We go on merrily about our business and forget to say thank you. That’s really the crux of this. Here’s the coolest part of all of it. He finishes with the best part. Then he said to the Samaritan who stopped to give thanks, “Get up and go on your way. Your faith has made you well.” I thought he was already well. I thought he’d already been cleansed of his leprosy. What does he mean, his faith has made him well?
There is a wholeness to life. There is a richness to life that only comes when you’re grateful. If you really want to know what it means to be completely made well, to be completely made whole, to feel like your cup really runneth over, stop and give thanks. Be the one who turns back and says, “Thank you God, for you have blessed me enormously. You have blessed me incredibly.” Note that the Samaritan was both doubly marginalized at the beginning. He was a Samaritan and a leper but at the end he was doubly blessed. Not only was his leprosy cured but he was made whole.
Here’s the bottom line for today. Everyone is one of the ten. I just want to ask you, will you be one of the one? That one who stops to give thanks.
I want to give you three practical thoughts. First, write a thank you note to God. You know, I bet when your mother or grandmother taught you to write a thank you note you were told you weren’t allowed just to say, “Thank you for the wonderful gift, it’s very nice, Love Tom.” You weren’t allowed to do that. You had to say “Thank you very much for the beautiful crystal bowl. It will sit on my table. We will use it regularly. I’ve always wanted a crystal bowl. I’ve been thinking a lot about a crystal bowl. We’re going to use it a whole lot and it’s going to be wonderful addition to our collection of crystal bowls. Love, Tom.” Right. You’ve got to be specific. You’ve got to get clear about why you are saying thank you. What would it be like if you looked at God and said, “Hey God, thank you so much.” Not, “Thank you because I’m so blessed.” But, “Thank you for this, and this, and this, because this, and this, and this.” Now you can’t mail it because you can’t find God’s address. All you can do is read it over and over again and add to it every time. Write a thank you note to God.
Here’s the second thing. There’s an exercise that was developed by a man named Martin Seligman called Three Good Things. It’s really a good exercise. He’s a physiologist and has done research to identify that in our minds we are prone to remember bad things but not good ones. That’s a survival mechanism that we were hard wired for. So when something bad happens to us it sticks with us, but when something good happens to us we’re prone to forget it, particularly when we sleep, which is interesting. So Seligman has done all this interesting research that if you will, between less than two hours before you go to bed, you will consciously remember and write down, or just remember and speak aloud three good things that happen to you that day, and thank God for them, or say thank you for them, then you are more likely to remember them the next day. And if you’ll do that for two weeks it will change the hard wiring and change the wiring in your brain and you’ll be able to remember the good things more. In research they did six weeks ago, people who did this practice for two weeks regularly and people who took Prozac for depression, found their responses were the same. Think how good it would be if you did both Prozac and these things. I’ve started a petition that they should put antidepressants in the water like Fluoride, you know. They’ve got Fluoride in the water, why can’t they do antidepressants? I think that would work find. We’d all be so happy. Practice three good things.
Here’s the last thing. You can say thank you. You can write thank you. But the real way you say thank you is by doing something. Babysit someone’s child. Go see someone in the hospital. Go visit someone who’s lonely. Take a covered dish to someone who’s ill. Make a gift to World Vision or Living Water International or whatever cause makes your heart beat faster. Just as a physical response to what God’s done for you. A way of saying thank you.
Friends, I want you to experience the blessing of the one. To know a life that is so rich and full. Not just because God blessed you. God blesses all of us. But because you stopped to say thank you.
Gracious and loving God thank you. Thank you for all you’ve done for us. We confess that too often we’re the nine who just go on about our business. But we ask that you would hear our expressions of gratitude and fill us with all the fullness of life. Make us rich. In the name of Christ we pray. Amen.