Anatomy of an Ingrate

 

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Big Idea: Thanksgiving flows most dramatically from the heart of the one who recognizes that God owes them nothing but chooses to bless them out of his love and mercy.

Introduction:

“The Pilgrims landed in Plymouth in December 1620 and faced a bitter winter without adequate shelter or food. Only 55 of the 102 immigrants survived to see the spring. The following autumn, an ample harvest assured the settlers that they would have food for the winter months. Edward Winslow, in a letter dated Dec. 12, 1621, describes the Pilgrims' three-day celebration feast.

Our corn did prove well, and God be praised, we had a good increase of Indian corn, and our barley indifferent good, but our peas not worth the gathering, for we feared they were too late sown, they came up very well, and blossomed, but the sun parched them in the blossom; our harvest being gotten in… many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest King Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.1

This celebration is what many refer to as the "First Thanksgiving," and indeed it had the feast, the gaming and the praises to God that we associate with traditional Thanksgiving.” (http://www.family.org/cforum/teachersmag/features/a0008368.html)

This week we will have another occasion to celebrate the tradition of Thanksgiving.  The unfortunate part about tradition is that it has, in many cases become just that, a tradition, void of deep and authentic gratitude and void of focus on God who is our total and complete supply. 

In too many homes this week, I wonder if Thanksgiving has become simply a matter of routine...we practice the tradition, but it’s rather mechanical and wholly uninspiring?  Too often Thanksgiving can be reduced to a couple of days off work, a good holiday to start the Christmas season, a football game, maybe a parade by Macy’s…not enjoyed in person but playing in the background on T.V. while an already overtired meal preparer scurries to complete a ton of food prep and a big ole meal…then, after a tryptophan-induced sleep fest, there is an extraordinary amount of clean up. 

The title of my message today is Anatomy of an Ingrate.  What’s inside us that makes us so prone to drift toward ingratitude?  I fear that as a culture, not only have we lost the soul gripping gratitude expressed that first thanksgiving...we are susceptible to becoming a nation of ingrates. Simmering on the stove of time, meaningful traditions of giving thanks have settle into a rather mindless routine as ingratitude becomes overdone.

Has there been a time where goods and services have become more routine and expected than in our culture today?  We do know that ingratitude has been around since the dawn of time and that mankind has always been prone to drift there.  Maybe that’s why throughout the Bible people are repeatedly instructed and exhorted to express thanks…Paul even says, “on every occasion” we are to give thanks.

[Transition] – Jesus tells an inconceivable story of ingratitude in Luke the 17th chapter. I want to review this story with you today to see if we can discover what’s inside us that makes us susceptible to ingratitude.  My hope is that in looking at this story, we can be reminded of some key principles that will help you restore a grateful spirit if yours has slipped some.  The lessons learned from this passage will not only enable you to more fully engage in this Thanksgiving...but, that you will be renewed in gratitude as an attitude in your life.  Let’s look at Luke 17:11-19

A story of Ingratitude

This story shows us that even in Jesus’ culture grateful people were in the minority.  Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem...walking in a border area... when this group of lepers cries out for Jesus to have mercy on them and heal them.  We don’t know for sure what the makeup of this group was.  We do know that at least one of them was a Samaritan.  And, given the location where this takes place and the comment Jesus makes in verse 18, it seems reasonable to deduce that the other nine were Jewish men. 

I think it is worthy to note that all these men exercised a level of faith in this story.  Jesus tells them to go show themselves to the Priests.  This was the protocol laid down in the Jewish law.  Whenever there was a healing or cleansing that had taken place, the person cleansed was to go to the Priest to be official examined and pronounced clean and non-contagious and after offering the appropriate sacrifices and offerings, they were able to reenter the flow of society.  But, notice, when Jesus told them to go show themselves to the Priests, they were not healed yet.  The text says, “as they went they were healed.  You see, it wasn’t until they trusted Jesus’ instructions to them and acted on it; did the miracle of healing happen.  There is a huge lesson right there.  Often, the miracle of God isn’t realized until you step out in faith and trust God at his word and act on it. 

To their credit, these men recognized that Jesus had the power to heal them and help them...and they called out to him...and when he spoke to them, they listened and acted on it and did what he told them to do.  And as they did that, they experienced the life-changing power of God.  Yet, despite experiencing God’s mercy and life-changing power, only one was gripped with gratitude and came back to praise and thank Jesus for all that he had done for him.  Is that amazing to you?   Jesus is obviously surprised by the lack of gratitude.  He asks three questions...Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?  Only the foreigner...the Samaritan came back to praise God and worship me and thank me?  What’s up with that?

[Transition] – Now, let me ask you a question:  What breeds a spirit of ingratitude?  What could have possibly led the other nine to just take their blessing from God in stride and go about their business without ever returning thanks to the one who made it possible for them to even have any “business” or life to go about?

What breeds a spirit of ingratitude?

DEVELOPING A SPIRIT OF ENTITLEMENT

Maybe the Jewish lepers felt that since they were God’s chosen people it would only make sense that Jesus would heal them.  The Samaritan leper apparently didn’t make that assumption.  He was gripped with gratitude for this totally unmerited touch of mercy and grace.  Not unlike the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15 who was humble and grateful for any mercy or grace Jesus would show her.  She compared herself to a dog that would be happy to receive the crumbs that fell from a table.  She recognized that any favor she got from Jesus was more than he was obliged to give.

Do we pass over occasions for saying thanks because deep down, when we’re really honest with ourselves, we have come to believe that we sort of deserve whatever was given us anyway?  We might think, we’ve made good choices...or we’ve worked hard.  Perhaps many of the expressions of God’s kindness or goodness to us in our lives have subtly become routine?  In other words, we’ve quietly but gradually come to actually expect it and it’s no longer truly appreciated?  Could it be that you and I have unnoticeably grown spoiled? 

[Quote] - Someone writing in Christianity Today several years ago got to the heart of why you and I must never forget to take a thorough inventory of the ways God has blessed us when they wrote, "Shall I thank God at this Thanksgiving? Why was I born at this particular time in the history of the world?
Why was I born in a spotless delivery room in an American hospital instead of a steaming shelter in the dank jungle of the Amazon or a mud hut in Africa?

Why did I have the privilege of going to school with capable instructors while millions around the world, without a school book, sit or squat on a dirt floor listening to a missionary?

"How does it happen that my children are tucked into warm beds at night with clean white sheets while millions of babies in the world will lie in cold rooms, many in their own filth and vomit?

Why can I sit down to a warm meal whenever I want to and eat too much when millions will know all of their lives the gnawing pangs of hunger?

Do I deserve to share in such wealth? Why me and not other millions?

Why was I born in a land I didn't build, in a prosperity that I didn't create and enjoy a freedom that I didn't establish?

Why an American sitting comfortably in my own living room this Thanksgiving rather than an Indian squatting in the dark corner of some infested alley in Calcutta, shivering in the cold, or a Cambodian in the rubble of what used to he my home, or a terrified, running Nicaraguan in the jungle?

Do I deserve it? By what right do I have it?"

Citation: Joel Gregory, "The Unlikely Thanker," Preaching Today, Tape No. 110.

When you stop to think about it, the fundamental thing that breeds a spirit of ingratitude inside us is the disease of entitlement.  In some remote place in our heart, we feel that we are entitled to the day to day blessings God extends to us...God is only doing what God has agreed to do.....MEET MY NEEDS.

[Transition] – That type of thinking can breed a spirit of ingratitude.  But, I wonder if the ingratitude of the nine in this story is exacerbated by a second condition that breeds an ungrateful spirit.  Maybe ingratitude is increasingly fostered our fast paced lives.

LIVING A FAST PACED LIFE

Maybe the reason the other nine did not return to give thanks is that their new found health opened up all sorts of new possibilities for them and they got busy catching up on their lives.  Understandable, but is it desirable?

Max Lucado in his book, The Touch of God imagines the thoughts of a leper in a segment he calls, “The Ultimate Outcast.”  He imagines the leper’s thoughts, “For five years no one touched me.  No one.  Not one person.  Not my wife.  Not my child.  Not my friends.  No one touched me.  They saw me.  They spoke to me.  I sensed love in their voices.  I saw concern in their eyes.  But, I didn’t feel their touch.  There was no touch.  Not once.  No one touched me.  What is common to you, I coveted.  Handshakes.  Warm embraces.  A tap on the shoulder to get my attention.  A kiss on the lips to steal a heart.  Such moments were taken from my world.  No one touched me.  No one bumped into me.  What I would have given to be bumped into, to be caught in a crowd, for my shoulder to brush against another’s.  But for five years it has not happened.  How could it?  I was not allowed on the streets.  Even the rabbis kept their distance from me.  I was not permitted in my synagogue.  Not even welcome in my own house.  I was untouchable.  I was a leper...... Oh, how I repulsed those who saw me.   At the sight of me, fathers grabbed their children, Mothers covered their faces.  Children pointed and stared......Several weeks ago I dared walk the road to my village.  I had no intent of entering.  Heaven knows I only wanted to look again upon my fields.  Gaze again upon my home.  And see, perchance, the face of my wife.  I did not see her.  But I saw some children playing in a pasture.  I hid behind a tree and watched them scamper and run.  Their faces were so joyful and their laughter so contagious that for a moment, for just a moment, I was no longer a leper.  I was a farmer.  I was a father.  I was a man.” (pp. 29-34)

When Jesus spoke healing to these ten men that day, their lives were indescribably altered.  Life replaced death...smooth replaced grotesque...hope replaced despair...community and family replaced isolation.  What they were absolutely forbidden to do before...God had now enabled them to do...and they rushed to catch up on their lives...and who can blame them?  They touched and were touched...hugged and were hugged...reclined and ate and laughed and enjoyed all the blessings that they had been starved for, for so long...and in the process they neglected the One who made it all possible.  I’m not criticizing them...just trying to learn from them. 

It’s so ironic and annoying to realize how often I get so busy enjoying or managing all the blessing God has given me and I rarely stop and devote time to bow before Jesus like this former leper did and worship him and say thanks.  In fact, I recognize that I blow past opportunities to say thanks to others because of this too.  It’s as if I’m on such a tight schedule that I don’t feel I can take the time to jot a note of thanks.  Has that ever happened to you?  Or you’re so exhausted from your hectic schedule that you don’t have the energy to say or write a word of thanks.  This thanksgiving...and beyond...in the midst of full lives, let’s commit to not neglect the One who makes full lives possible.  Let’s be in the minority of grateful people. 

[Transition] – How can we fight against the ingratitude syndrome?  How can we paddle against the human proneness to drift toward ingratitude?  How can we make Thanksgiving more this year in our homes...more than routine, more than rote, more than time off, food in, T.V. on and extra work for the chef in the house?  The purpose of Thanksgiving is to stop the routines of life and like this former leper...make time to come before God and honor him and thank him for all the good gifts he mercifully extends to us. 

How can we fight against the ingratitude syndrome? 

I think it important to remember that the beginnings of Thanksgiving all centered around remembering, recalling and responding with praise to God for his goodness and provision.  Listen to some of the words from the early leaders of our country and the one’s who established Thanksgiving as we know it today.

“On Nov. 1, 1777, the Continental Congress declared Dec. 18 a national "day of solemn Thanksgiving and praise." This Thanksgiving Day was the first proclaimed by a national authority.4  Notice their intentional purpose is to thank and praise God.  The Continental Congress' proclamation read: Forasmuch as it is the indispensable duty of all men to adore the superintending providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with gratitude their obligation to Him for benefits received, and to implore such further Blessings as they stand in need of; and it having pleased Him in His abundant mercy not only to continue to us the innumerable bounties of His common providence, but also smile upon us in the prosecution of a just and necessary war, for the defense and establishment of our unalienable rights and liberties: particularly in that He hath been pleased in so great a measure to prosper the means used for the support of our troops and to crown our arms with most signal success: it is therefore recommended to the legislative or executive powers of these United States, to set apart Thursday, the 18th day of December next, for Solemn Thanksgiving and praise; that with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their Divine Benefactor ...”5

Again, due to our human proneness to drift towards ingratitude, Thanksgiving later died out but George Washington revived it in 1789 with these words…

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

But, Thanksgiving proclamations did not become an annual tradition until Abraham Lincoln’s Proclamation of 1863…notice his awareness of the drift towards ingratitude when he said, “The year that is drawing towards its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.”

… I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens...    (Quotes from Founding Fathers from Focus on the Family Article found at http://www.family.org/cforum/teachersmag/features/a0008368.html)

Let’s take advantage of this Thanksgiving.  Don’t be like the other 9 in Luke 17…choose to be one who takes the time and makes the effort to cultivate a grateful spirit.  Remember, rehearse & respond to the wonders and blessings of God in your lives.  Be creative in how you take inventory of your blessings...be creative in how you share your gratitude with those around your Thanksgiving tables this year. 

[Quote] – I came across this statement...maybe it will serve to prime the pump on your grateful well.  “This Thanksgiving I'm thankful ...

That there aren't twice as many Congressman and half as many doctors.

That grass doesn't grow through snow, necessitating winter mowing as well as shoveling.

That there are only twenty-four hours available each day for TV programming. That civil servants aren't less civil.

That teenagers ultimately will have children who will become teenagers.

That I'm not a turkey.

That houses still cost more than cars.

That the space available for messages on T-shirts and bumpers is limited.

That liberated women whose husbands take them for granted don't all scream at the same time.

That snow covers the un-raked leaves.

That hugs and kisses don't add weight or cause cancer.

That {CD} players and radios and TV sets and washers and mixers and lights can be turned off.

That no one can turn off the moon and stars.”

Citation: Christianity Today (Nov. 17, 1978), cited in the Pastor's Story File, November 1991

Now, let me send you out with this final challenge...like this one former leper, take some time...perhaps early in the day...to come before God and bow before him and praise him and thank him for all that he as so mercifully given to you. Thanksgiving flows most dramatically from the heart of the one who recognizes that God owes them nothing but chooses to bless them out of his love and mercy.