Pastor Sherry’s message for October 12, 2025

Scriptures: Jer 29:1, 4-7; Ps 66:1-12; 2 Tim 2:8-15; Lk 17:11-19

Modern psychological research has demonstrated again and again—when research results are replicated in study after study over differing groups of people, this is called a “robust finding”—that practicing gratitude helps us become happy.: When I have worked with depressed persons in the past, I have challenged them to thank God, daily, for 3 good things that happened to them for each of 30 consecutive days.: Practiced often enough, expressing gratitude becomes a non-medical way of healing depression.: AA programs have long recommended finding things daily for which to be thankful.: They have found over time that giving thanks for being clean or sober one more day, or even one more hour, helps an addict avoid their substance or activity.

Paul admonishes us in Colossians 3:16 (NIV):Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.: An attitude of gratitude takes your focus off yourself and your complaints—what you don’t have, and keeps your spirit uplifted and focused what the Lord has done for you—what you do have.

Consider the following story from Mother Theresa:: She had heard of an alcoholic man who had been beaten and left for dead in the streets of Melbourne, Australia.: The sisters in her order—the Missionaries of Charity–had located him and taken him into their hospital there called the “Home of Compassion.”: Their kind and compassionate care of him helped him discover that God indeed loved him.: When he was able to leave the facility, he apparently never again touched alcohol, but returned home to reconcile with his family and to regain his former job.: (A healing from alcoholism is a huge miracle, but so too is having a family willing to reconcile and a boss willing to take another chance on a previously underperforming employee.) Upon receiving his first paycheck, he brought it to the Home of Compassion and gave it to the nuns, saying, I want you to continue to demonstrate the love of God for others as you did for me.”: This man was healed through the loving care of these Sisters of Charity.: He saw the heart of God in what they did for him and was immensely grateful!: Their treatment of him changed his life.: He was so thankful that he gave them his first paycheck as a restored person.: (Graham Twelftree, Your Point Being…?,: Monarch Books, 1988, p.125.)

Our Scripture passages today all express God’s desire that we practice an attitude of gratitude for His blessings, no matter our circumstances:

A.: In our Gospel lesson (Luke 17:11-19), Jesus heals 10 persons suffering from leprosy.: Jesus is headed to Jerusalem to die.

At the fringes of some unnamed village, 10 lepers appeal to Him for healing.

He gives them what they want, freely, graciously.: Notice, they had faith in Him and in His ability to heal them.: He says to them (v.14):Go, show yourselves to the priests.: He knew the requirements, stated in Leviticus 14:1-10, which designated all the things the leper who had been healed had to do:: (1) Show him/herself to the priest.: (2) The priest would then perform a detailed ritual to ensure physical and spiritual cleansing. (3): Lastly, the healed person was to wash his/her clothes, shave off all his/her hair, including eyebrows; and bathe with water.

The 10 obey Jesus and scurry off to begin the cleansing process.: It is while they are on their way that they are healed.: They had stepped out in faith, trusting in Jesus.: But only one guy notices his healing and returns first to thank the Lord.: Perhaps the other nine were just too overjoyed to focus on gratitude; or maybe they felt somehow entitled and believed they deserved it.: We don’t really know why they didn’t think to express their gratitude to Jesus. Most likely, however, their attention was on finding a priest, remembering and performing the religious requirements, and anticipating happy reunions with their families.: Remember, they would have had to have lived outside their community, quarantined away from loved ones and even all worship services.

At any rate, the one guy who does return to thank Jesus was a hated Samaritan!: We would say today that he wasn’t socially acceptable; that he was considered by the Jews to be a mongrel (Samaritans descended from the Jews who escaped captivity by the Assyrians and the Babylonians, and then went on to intermarry with Canaanites, and Assyrian and Babylonian overseerers.: The Jews returning to the Promised Land had contempt for them, considering them to be—as they say in our area–“Sorry from way back.” Regardless of his ethnic heritage and his upbringing, this man seemed to know enough to express his thanks.

Jesus’ response to the Samaritan’s gratitude was fantastic:verse 17:Rise and go; your faith has made you well.: This implies that he was kneeling at Jesus’ feet or had prostrated himself in adoration. Jesus is so pleased that He commends him for his faith and his manners. 

This guy has received the same physical healing as the other 9; but, in addition, he has also received salvation!: The other nine were healed of leprosy, but because they ran off and failed to express their gratitude to the Lord, they missed out on this very important extra gift:: This lone Samaritan was forgiven of all his sins.

(J. Vernon McGee, Through the Bible Commentary on Luke, Thomas Nelson, 1991, p.213.)

What this says to me—and perhaps to you as well—through offering his gratitude to Jesus, this enjoyed a special encounter with the Living God, and, anticipating Jesus’ crucifixion, was also cleansed of His sins!

B.: Jeremiah predates Jesus by about 600 years, but—because he is God’s mouthpiece–says essentially the same thing in Jeremiah 29:1-7.: Last week, we read where he lamented and grieved over the Jews who had been killed or carted off the Babylon.: We also read Psalm 137 which detailed the peoples’ grief and anger over their defeat by Babylonian forces.: But in today’s passage, the Lord is telling them to settle down and settle in.: They are to build houses.: They were not to establish a tent city, nor live in cardboard boxes.: God wanted them to build something more permanent, in order to “bloom where they are planted.”: Back in the late 1960’s I frequently saw a poster that said that exact same thing.: It used to make me mad because I believed I needed to work to change where I was or to move to somewhere better.: Similarly, I remember conversations with a pastor friend who was continually disappointed with his congregation.: He wished they were emotionally healthier or financially wealthier.: Finally, after continuous complaints to the Lord, he heard God tell him he was to love and care for the church members the Lord had given him—essentially bloom where he was planted.: God places us in the environment we inhabit.: He has a purpose for us there.

 So these captives are to plant gardens, both so they can feed themselves and because God is telling them it suits His purposes that they remain there for a while.: They are to marry, have sons and daughters.

Again, this implies they will be there for some time.: This side of the Cross, we know they were there for 70 years or approximately two generations.: Rather than persisting in frustration or hateful resentment, they were also to contribute to the peace/prosperity of the city.: God says, through the prophet, (v.7) :Pray to the LORD for it, because if it [Babylon] prospers, you too will prosper.

It’s really difficult, isn’t it, to think of being grateful for their captivity, for their deportation to a foreign land.: God has punished them because they were consistently and repeatedly out of line. They had practiced idolatry, abused their power, and polluted themselves with greed and lust.: A holy God like ours cannot abide such sin. We know from Hebrews 12:5-11, that God disciplines those He loves.: If He didn’t, we could not really trust Him. He means what He says in Scripture and through His prophets, and He says what He means. He has punished them, hoping they will change their sinful attitudes and bring their behavior into alignment with His standards.: The point is that, even though they are captive in a foreign land—which seems terrible to them–it comes as no surprise to God because He engineered it.

They can and should be grateful to Him because (1) they are alive!: And (2) He has not abandoned them.

This concept is lost on our secular culture:: We want to be grateful to God for every good thing, but also for the trials and disappointments we experience.: When we go through trials—emotional pain—we are molded and shaped by God.: When we go through trials, we learn compassion for others, patience, and to trust in the Lord despite our circumstances.

C. Our Psalm (66:1-12) is a song of communal thanksgiving (gratitude) to God which looks forward to the Jews’ restoration to their home in Jerusalem and Judea.: They are filled to the brim, in advance, with gratitude to God for their rescue and restoration.: They enjoin us to (v.1):Shout joyful praises to God, all the earth!: Sing about the glory of His name!: Tell the world how glorious He is.

D. Paul’s 2nd letter to Timothy (2:8-15) echoes a similar theme:

Paul wants young Pastor Timothy to be grateful always for the Good News that Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose again.: On any given day, if we cannot find another thing for which to be grateful, we can cite this reality.

Whatever our present circumstances, our God wants us to practice an attitude of gratitude.:  I challenge you to recall for yourself,: every day, 3 ways in which God blessed you that day.: Recite them, tell them to someone else, or write in a journal these three things so you won’t forget.: Watch and see what happens to your attitude and to your mood.: And remember, even difficult things—like God’s discipline—can be blessings in disguise.:  (Play Laura Story’s song, “Blessings” (with the lyrics) which can be found on www.YouTube.com.): Amen!  

©️2025 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams