Last Sunday, in what we're calling our stewardship "pep-talks", Chuck Fosha mentioned the series of commercials that present a number of awkward situations that are resolved by someone saying, simply, "Thank you." As Chuck described it last week, there's a woman who offends another by assuming she's pregnant, which she's not--and so, to resolve the discomfort, the offending party says, "Thank you." A man forgets to do some important, critical task at work, and is called on the carpet by the boss, and the negligent employee says, "Thank you." And the boss walks away gratified. What's funny in the commercials, of course, is the fact that nothing is really done that deserves a "thank you." It's presented as a way of getting out of a difficult situation. Kind of like, "thank you is always appropriate--and it always makes things better." Having been a communication major in college, however, it strikes me that these commercials fail, in that no one seems to remember what's been advertised. We just remember, "thank you". And I guess that's not a bad thing to remember. I guess there's never a bad time to say thank you--even if there's nothing you're really saying thanks, for. How much better, then, to remember to say thanks--when there is something, indeed, for which to be grateful!

     That's the message, of course, in our gospel reading for today. Oh, there are several messages there. There's the message that Jesus doesn't discriminate between Jews and Samaritans--he shows mercy to all ten lepers, the outsider from Samaria, as well as the lepers from Galilee. There's the message that all ten were healed, but only one was made well, or whole. And then, there's the overarching message that that wellness, that true wholeness comes, not from physical healing, but from receiving gifts of grace and mercy, with a thankful heart! Yes, maybe saying "thank you" in any situation may be helpful, but when saying thanks to God for his manifold blessings of love, and mercy and faith and healing--then, it's not just nice to say thank you--saying thank you brings a wholeness and a well-ness--a completeness that is more than just receiving the blessing. A grateful heart makes one fulfilled, and whole. We see that in the experience of the ten lepers who were healed by Jesus, and then went on their way, as Jesus commanded, to show themselves to the priests, who could examine them and declare them physically and ritually clean, so that they could re-enter society. Jesus told them to go and show themselves to the priests--and while they were on their way, evidently, they were made clean. For all ten, the joy, the excitement and the possibility for new life must have been overwhelming. Surely, they couldn't wait to get started living these new lives they'd been given. Nine couldn't wait to get started, and wanted to waste no time getting to the priests and then getting on with their lives. But one, the Samaritan--the one who was considered by the Jews to be "tainted" by Gentile blood, as the Samaritans were of both Jewish and Assyrian descent--this one, was the one who was so moved in his heart that Jesus had mercy on him, and had healed him, that BEFORE he went to the priests, BEFORE he went to his family, BEFORE he claimed his new life and started off renewed and refreshed...he turned back, praising God with a loud voice...he prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him! And this faith--this trusting, thankful heart, made him, not just physically clean, but well--the Greek word can be translated, he was made whole, in fact, some translate it as, "Get up and go on your way--your faith has saved you." Gratefulness, an appreciative heart and life, giving thanks to God for his grace, mercy and love, is not just nice...it's not just the right thing to do...there is something about it that completes us and makes us whole. There's something about offering our thanksgiving, by faith, that fulfills God's work of healing and saving, in us. We don't know how it works; we would have to say it's not our WORK, at all--but somehow, someway, when God comes to us, when God feeds us, when God cares for us, when God heals us, it will naturally, touch our hearts and turn us, again, toward Him--in praise and thanksgiving. And in that, we are made whole. When we are distracted, when we take God's gifts and run with them--when we neglect to return and give thanks, we may have received God's gifts--but we are not made whole. Through the gratitude, through the faithful, grateful heart, God completes us. We are fulfilled, in the act of offering to God our thanksgiving.

     Which may very well be why God established for his people, from the very beginning, the practice of making offerings of thanksgiving. To give His people a visible, concrete, tangible reminder of our innate need to give thanks--God required of his people in the beginning, that they make certain offerings of thanksgiving. It's one thing to say, "Oh, yeah, thanks!" It's quite another to actively, consciously give to God a real, physical offering of thanksgiving--what's always been called, a "thankoffering". Throughout the Scriptures, the commanded offering of thanksgiving to the Lord is the tithe, the tenth of one's income, produce, flocks and possessions. These were to be the "first fruits" of one's income--the first tenth, given to the priests to be used in the Lord's service--not the last and the leftover. The first tenth, because the Lord knew that when you give the first tenth to the Lord, you are doing so from a truly grateful heart, not be-grudingly or resentfully. If you use up all your income, and then try to scrape together a tenth for the Lord, of course, you'll begin to think about how much a tenth is, and how much you need that tenth for yourself, and for your family. That's when the tenth, the tithe, becomes a twentieth, or a thirtieth, or an offering of less, for the Lord. When you try to give the last, or the leftover to the Lord, it never works. It never makes you complete, or whole, spiritually, because you're cheating the Lord--and doing so out of a feeling of obligation and command, rather than out of a thankful, cheerful heart. Whatever you give to the Lord, whether 10% of your income, or 5%, it is to be first-fruit giving--the first check you write, not the last. It is to come forth, freely, from the heart, not begrudgingly or resentfully. And we give this thankoffering to the Lord, because we have been loved; because God has sent His Son to set us free from our bondage to sin and death; because Jesus died on the cross and was raised to new life--for us and for our salvation! We give our thankoffering to the Lord because when we cry out to Him, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!", he has had mercy upon us--and he has healed us, not once, but time and time again--and now, we want not just physical healing and blessings--we want to be made whole--well, complete. And that happens, when the faith that is within us, turns us back, toward Him, and causes us to praise God with a loud voice, causes us to prostrate ourselves at Jesus' feet, as we thank him. And you might protest, "But, the Samaritan didn't give a thankoffering--the leper didn't give the Lord a tithe!" Oh, but the leper had no income, no produce, no flocks, so that Samaritan who had been healed, gave Jesus everything! To prostrate oneself before the Lord, is to offer one's whole being, as a thankoffering. The Samaritan's act of offering in thanksgiving to the Lord, was his act of laying his life down before the Lord, so that it was clear, from that point forward, he owed his whole life, to the Lord who had saved and redeemed him, and set him on a new path in life. And isn't that, truly, what our offering of thanksgiving is to be, as well?

     Lutherans have traditionally not emphasized the biblical "tithe", or offering of a tenth of one's income, and we've come to believe, most of us, that it's because we don't like what we think of as a "legalistic" attitude toward giving. For a long time in the Lutheran church, we've talked about freely giving, and giving from the heart, without thinking in terms of giving specifically, a tenth of one's income--as if it's wrong to think concretely, intentionally, about the biblical command to give a tenth. But I think the real reason Lutherans got away from a focus on tithing, has nothing to do with it being a legalistic approach; I think it's because Lutherans, originally, at least, thought it was too restrictive. Restrictive in the sense that it would be wrong and limiting, to think of ONLY giving God a tenth of one's income! For Israel, the commandment to tithe became not only the commandment, it became the rule--faithful Israelites gave a tenth--and only a tenth. For Christians, especially Lutheran Christians, the Gospel doesn't allow us to segment our lives into a tenth for God, nine-tenths for me. Luther was big on teaching that the whole life of a believer belonged to God. In the Large Catechism, Luther writes in the explanation to the First Commandment, "Thus you can easily understand the nature and scope of this commandment. It requires that a man's whole heart and confidence be placed in God alone, and in no one else. To have God, you see, does not mean to lay hands on him, or put him into a purse, or shut him up in a box. We lay hold of him when our heart embraces him and clings to him. To cling to him with all our heart is nothing else than to entrust ourselves to him completely."

     The Samaritan leper, once healed, lay prostrate before Jesus in total gratitude for his life, his health and his very being. He entrusted himself to Jesus completely, in that act of praise and thanksgiving. And we are called to just that act of total gratitude--we are called to entrust ourselves to God, just that completely--in praise and thanksgiving--as we seek to give, not just a portion of ourselves as a thankoffering, but as Luther said, our whole heart and confidence. I know you may find it shocking and hard to believe, but for the Christian, a tenth is to be the beginning place for our giving! You may have to work up to it gradually, a percentage of your income at a time, but once you reach a tithe, giving doesn't end there, it begins there. Because the supreme act of praise and gratitude, for the Christian, is not to give God a portion of our income, possessions and being--but to give our all--to give ourselves totally to God, to be used for his purpose. I've never actually seen a Lutheran prostrate themselves at the foot of the altar in an act of praise and thanksgiving, as did the leper who gave thanks to Jesus--but it wouldn't be inappropriate. In fact, it might even be a useful act of faith--reminding us, that not just a portion, not just a tenth belongs to Jesus--but everything we have and are, should be laid at the feet of Jesus. Because, who would we be, if not for Him? Where would we be, if not for the healing he brings? What kind of life would we have, if Jesus were not our Savior? Where would we end up, eternally, if not for the saving death and resurrection of Jesus? Those are the questions we ought to be asking ourselves, as consider how we show God, our praise and thanksgiving. Those are the questions we ought to be asking ourselves as we consider whether we will indeed, return and give ourselves, completely, in thanks and praise to Jesus--as did the Samaritan leper, or whether we will go on our way and about our business, as did the other nine. And I hope, those are the questions we'll be asking ourselves, as consider how we will give ourselves to our Lord, in the coming year--in our participation in worship, in our service, in the money we will give as a thankoffering. Will we give as little as we can get away with? Will we give a 5th or a 10th of our income--or will we strive to give our all--laying our whole lives down before the Lord, in praise and thanks? I can't give you the answers to those questions, but we can be sure they are the right questions.

     In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.