A Difficult Thanksgiving

Rebecca Sheridan
Sunday, November 24, 2024
Luke 17:11-19

    In many Christian traditions, the appointed gospel reading for Thanksgiving Day is from Luke chapter 17, a story about ten lepers asking Jesus for healing.  He tells them to go show themselves to the priests, but before they even get there, on their way, they discovered that they are already healed.  However, only one out of the ten, who is a Samaritan, an outsider, turns back to give praise to God and thank Jesus for this healing.
    So the common interpretation is the simple, powerful reminder to be thankful.  It’s like a parent reminding their children when they receive a gift, you say, “thank you.”  Don’t forget to say thank you!  This is a value we all share despite our religious differences, that gratitude and practicing giving thanks regularly makes a positive impact on the world.  We should try not to forget to say thank you.  Giving thanks is so, so important.
    But.  But. In this interpretation, it fair to blame people who have undergone great suffering and trials, who have been social outcasts and dealing with chronic physical illness for years for not being quick to thank God?  When we think of people in our own traditions who have suffered much, sometimes because of their faith, or because of a chronic health issue, or because of a tragic loss, would we expect them to thank God first before any other emotional response?  We probably actually are amazed at anyone who CAN give thanks when dealing with the reality of suffering and wonder how people are able to still be thankful in difficult circumstances.  
So also something all of our religious traditions grapple with and as far as I know, no one regardless of faith has figured out the complete answer to is the problem of evil and suffering in the world.  Where is God in our suffering and what is our faithful response?  If you have a good answer, I might become a convert.  This is has been an incredibly difficult year for many of us.  October 7th and its aftermath impacting many families here in our communities directly with so much suffering, including the fracturing of relationships and the very disturbing rise of antisemitic and Islamophobic acts.  Many of you have had to struggle with immense personal loss and grief this year which makes this Thanksgiving time difficult.  A presidential election year that has highlighted deep divides politically in our country and makes us less eager to give thanks around a table together with family members who we might actually not want to be gathering with. Sometimes we don’t just forget to give thanks, we struggle to be grateful for good reasons.  We wonder what we have to be grateful for.  Our religious traditions include room for questions and struggling with God, and the practice of lament – naming our hurt, our fears, our distress and grief to God.  Just read the psalms.
    So I think it’s important to note that the one who gives thanks and praise to God in this story from the gospel of Luke is the Samaritan, the outsider, the foreigner.  The stranger who is able to give thanks is reminder that we need each other to help us find things to be thankful for or ways to be thankful despite the realities of a suffering world.  We need the person who is different from us to share a practice of faith we perhaps haven’t been familiar with before, or a perspective about God or a theological explanation we hadn’t considered.  We need the outsider for a more complete wholeness and healing of our community.  Often the dialogue with a person who is of a different faith background helps us understand our own tradition better; why we believe what we believe.  And in the coming together despite our differences, we discover once again that we do still have hope for peace and joy in a suffering world.  May God help us give thanks; may we help each other give thanks.  Amen.