Gifts, Gratitude and Giving
“Every moment we have to live our life is a blessing. So often I have found myself taking it for granted. Every hug from a family member. Every laugh we share with friends. Even the times of solitude are all blessings. Every second of every day is a gift.”1
This beautiful statement came from a young woman named Jessica Redfield who had escaped, unharmed, a shooting in a mall in Toronto.
This experience led her to see that the things in her life that she most cherished – love, time, life - were all gifts. Sadly, she did not have much time to enjoy these gifts. She moved to Colorado where she was killed in a mass shooting.
The gift of life is precious. And we don’t know how long we will have to enjoy the gifts God gives to us. It is a sober and yet always timely reminder – that the gift of life is precious. In our busy lives it is so easy to forget, so easy to take these gifts for granted – the ordinary but extraordinary gifts of the sun coming each morning, the gift of a smile, a hug, the gift of love and laughter, the gift of life. All of these are gifts from God. Let us remember to give God thanks.
The man in our Gospel story is a man who was reminded – by an extraordinary experience – to notice the gifts that he received. His response was to turn back, praising God in a loud voice and then, when he prostrates himself – which means he falls on his face, an act of worship and complete submission--and he thanks Jesus.
Jesus asks, “Where are the other nine?”
It’s an interesting question since I assume that they were doing exactly what Jesus told them to do – go show yourselves to the priests. The priests were not only worship and Bible study leaders and teachers, they were, in effect, the guardians of the health of the community. Those who had leprosy or any other communicable disease were sent out of the city and left to beg by the side of the road. They were isolated – much as so many people were during the pandemic. And yet, they couldn’t even stay in their homes. The only way they could return to community was by a confirmation of their health by the priests. So, of course, the healed lepers were all eager to go to the priests. Imagine – being able to be reunited with family after being ousted from the community and living outside the walls of the city, not able to work, to see family and without much hope of ever coming back. So, it’s not hard to guess where the other nine are. They are just doing what they were told to do.
But what made the one healed leper turn around? The ten lepers all asked Jesus for mercy. They were all healed. But notice what is different. One man saw: that is, his eyes were opened not only to see his healing, but he let it sink in so that he saw that it wasn’t just a magical healing but his healing showed that God is at work in the world and in his life. He sees, he believes and then he acts – loudly proclaiming God’s praise as he returns to worship Jesus.
Jesus notes that this man is a Samaritan, who in the eyes of the Jewish followers of Jesus who would be the least likely to offer a good example. And yet, the Samaritan, the man who was also called “foreigner” or “alien” or “not one of us” is the one who sees and changes his direction – despite his own yearning to be declared clean by the priests. But the Samaritan sees God doing something even bigger and better than healing his skin and so he cannot contain himself in shouting praises to God and in honoring and thanking Jesus.
Jesus says to this Samaritan, “Your faith has made you well.” This seems odd since he and the other nine were healed of their skin disease already. But as David Lose says in his commentary, the word that is translated here as “made well” can also be translated as “saved,” or “healed” or even, as in the King James version, “made whole.”2 The Samaritan man was not only healed of his skin disease, but he is made whole. And then Jesus sends him back out into the world.
The healed Samaritan man, no longer an ostracized leper, but now made whole, provides a great model of discipleship. Like the Samaritan man, we too have reason to give thanks. We too have been given gifts by God. And we too can respond with thanks, praise and action.
And this, is another way for us to understand stewardship. Last week I shared Bishop Chilstrom’s no-nonsense approach to stewardship. Our church needs money in order to pay the bills and in order to do the mission and ministry that we are called to do. It’s still true. And, as I have found, there is great joy in investing this ministry that we share.
As I often say at the time of offering, we are taking this time to worship God with our offering. For giving your offering is a time and a way of worship. Whether you give online or use billpay or drop your offering in the plate on Sunday morning, gathered together, this is your gift to God to do God’s ministry and work here in this place and in our neighborhood and to make a difference in our world. Giving back to God our time and our talents and our money and resources are all a part of our faithful response to God’s gifts to us.
Today’s Gospel reminds us to: Open our eyes to see God’s work in our lives. Open our eyes to see the gifts God has given to you and to me. God is so generous to us.
The question for you and me is this: Can we be generous too? God is so generous to us. Can we, like the Samaritan former leper - respond to God’s gifts by generously and joyfully giving our gifts of praise, thanks, worship, and adoration to God? Can we offer our gifts of time, skills, and money – because it takes money to do the mission - with the same joyful spirit?
I think we can. And so, instead of getting caught up in comparing ourselves to someone else – as one mentor of mine said, quite plainly, “Let’s get over that nonsense” -- let us be like the Samaritan who was healed. He doesn’t worry about the other nine who were healed instead, he simply turns back, praises God and thanks Jesus. Jesus’ gift to him is that he is made whole. His healing is more than skin-deep.
And so, brothers and sisters, friends in Christ, let us open our eyes to see how God is at work in us and in our time. Let us open our eyes see the gifts God has given us, remembering that: Every second of every day is a gift -- from the ordinary but extra-ordinary gifts of creation to the ordinary yet extraordinary gifts of time, love, and life. And because we see these gifts, let us respond both with our offerings of praise, thanks, and worship and our offerings of money, time and talents as we join God in ministry and mission in our church, our community and our world. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Faith-Lilac Way Lutheran + Pastor Pam Stalheim Lane + October 19, 2025
[1] From MPR Newscut blog by Bob Collins
2 https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-28-3/commentary-on-luke-1711-19 David Lose Oct 10 2010