Sermon Tone Analysis

Communion Thanks

We take a lot of time with communion to make it special so I want to share with you briefly as we prepare to come to the Lord’s Table.

We have been in Romans this entire Fall and after today we will take a break from romans until the first of the year as we will have a Christmas series called the Songs of Christmas—where we will explore the theology and background behind some of the most well loved Christmas songs and relate it to the biblical stories…and starting in January we will pick up Romans again with Romans 8—we will have an extended series just on Romans 8 called The Great 8.

But today I just want to focus on one verse from Romans 1—

Romans 1 is a brutal chapter.

Paul lists the sins of the culture, and it is ugly.

Idol worship, unbelief, sexual sin, strife, gossip…the list goes on and on.

But the list begins with a foundational sin.

Sin starts with a lack of gratitude.

Paul said, they didn’t give thanks.

And as we enter this Thanksgiving season, I have been really moved and encouraged by the idea of focusing on being thankful.

Meister Eckhart, a 14th Century German theologian said,

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.

~Meister Eckhart

Is that an overstatement?

Don’t we do other things when we pray besides giving thanks?

We praise God in our prayers.

But we can do that from a posture of thanksgiving.

We confess sin in our prayers.

But we can do that from a place of thanksgiving.

When we consider what we have been forgiven of.

When we consider that God can’t remember the sins we can’t forget.

When we consider that we aren’t given a second chance, or third chance, or fourth chance, or a hundredth chance…but too many chances to remember.

So we can confess our sins in a spirit of deep gratitude.

Even when we ask for our own needs and wants, and for others needs and wants we can do it in a spirit of gratitude.

I saw an article the other day from a children’s director and she was giving advice on how to pray with your children.

Her advice was great—pray in the morning, pray in the car, pray for others.

But it left me wanting more because our prayers—many times especially in the context of the family, are so shallow.

And I thought about gratitude and praying from that perspective, and I have found that great advice for our children, for ourselves, is that when we tell someone we will pray for them, or when we pray for someone in general, pray for them by thanking God specifically for everything about them that blesses you in some way.

So that is good advice.

So I began to think, let’s take the next two weeks and really focus our attention on being grateful.

And so I went to the scriptures to see what is said about gratitude and within twenty seconds of searching I found this one:

There it is.

The Law of God.

Give thanks in ALL circumstances.

In other words, in everything give thanks.

In other words, during good times and bad times…give thanks.

The Law of God is perfect reviving the soul…imagine what it would be like to give thanks in all circumstances.

Imagine how freeing that would be.

But give thanks in all circumstances?

We can’t even give thanks for two weeks.

We can’t even give thanks during our thanksgiving tradition of going around the table and everyone saying what they are thankful for.

The reality is that we are most thankful that we are almost done going through this ritual of being thankful.

And Paul takes it further!

One of the biggest questions we all have at times during life is what is God’s will for me.

That is the million dollar question.

Some people spend months or years figuring out what God’s will is for their life.

Paul tells us what God’s will is for our lives….

To give thanks in all circumstances.

This is the will of God.

And he doesn’t stop with will of God.

He adds, in Christ Jesus…so what does it look like to be a nothing but Jesus person?

To be someone who is compelled to give thanks in all circumstances.

So give thanks in all circumstances, not just in your words, but your thoughts and deeds.

Just do it.

The reality is that when we hear to give thanks in all circumstances, our response shouldn’t be just do it…but we should be like Paul and say, “what a wretched man I am who will save me?”

There is a story of the healing of the ten lepers in Luke 17.

It is a famous story.

The way the story goes is that ten lepers beg Jesus for mercy.

He tells them each to go to their priest because the procedure for a leper cleansed of leprosy was he needed to be confirmed by his priest as being clean, as being healed.

So the story goes that they left to do what Jesus said, and as they went they were healed.

So one leper comes back.

One out of ten comes back to thank Jesus for what he did.

Jesus said I healed ten, why is only one coming back?

And the moral of the story, we hear again and again, is that the nine lepers were ungrateful for the healing and the one leper was grateful and thankful, so be like the leper who returned and said thank you and not like the ungrateful lepers who didn’t say thank you.

So be grateful—be thankful.

The problem is that interpretation is not great.

First, Jesus never required someone healed to come back and say thank you.

Jesus didn’t need that.

Jesus was tempted by Satan to gain the respect and thanks of the whole world and he said, no thanks.

I don’t need that.

Jesus isn’t the sensitive type who needs a thank you note.

There is no other record of anyone healed being required to say thank you to Jesus.

This isn’t us parents at Christmas telling our kids to say thank you.

It just doesn’t fit any of the other miracles.

You have to notice the little details in Scriptures.

The one who returned was a Samaritan.

Samaritans were the enemies of the Jews.

They were seen as being unclean, unrighteous, and they were known as dogs.

Luke tells us that the one leper who returned was a Samaritan.

Why would he return and the others wouldn’t?

Jesus told each to go to their priests.

So they did.

They would have scattered.

They would have gone to 9 different locales.

But the one who came back was a Samaritan.

Where would the Samaritan go….to what priest would he go to to be declared that he was clean?

Not to a Samartian—they were already unclean.

He would go back to the only one who could help him.

He would go back and return to the only priest who could plead his case to the father in heaven.

He would go back to the only one who had a strong and perfect plea to the father in heaven.

He would go back not to some lousy human priest, but to the high priest himself.

He turned back to go to Jesus.

Because he had nowhere else to go.

That is what that story is about—going back to Jesus because all he had was nothing but Jesus.

And what was the result of turning back to Jesus?

Gratitude.

Thanks.

Do you want to be thankful not just for the next two weeks or two days, or two minutes at the thanksgiving table, but for the rest of your life, in all things, in all circumstances…turn to Jesus.

Only in Jesus’ righteousness will you begin to be that kind of person of gratitude.