The Consumer Says 'More!', While the Steward Says 'Thanks!'
Luke 17: 11-19

February 2, 2003

Good morning. I bring you greetings from my home congregation in Winnipeg, Young United. Thank you for the opportunity to be with you this morning. It is good to be among you.

In January I spent a week in Mexico – my first trip of this kind. Some of you will have visited there and be familiar with this beautiful corner of creation. Walking along the beach just as the sun sets is an experience unlike any other. The beauty is stunning. Depending upon the cloud cover, depending upon the temperature and the wind, depending upon the position of the sun … the colors change, the contours shift, the visual delights keep changing. These sunsets are powerful, utterly engaging. All kinds of travelers roamed the beach, overcome with the spectacle.

I took a lot of photographs. I wanted to grab the moment. I roamed the beach seeking just the “right” place to get the “right” picture. At some point I came to realize that there was something wrong with my attitude. I was almost obsessed with getting the “perfect” picture. And then, in the midst of a spectacular sunset, I remembered something. A poster of a sunset that said: “I am so grateful when I see a perfect sunset that I know who to thank!” I am so grateful when I see a perfect sunset, that I know who to thank!

That was it. I no longer needed to have the perfect photo. My obsession with sunsets, and my need to possess the best one was gone! What I was really longing for was a better way to respond to the beauty which surrounded me. This was utter wonder. And there really was no photo that could ever capture it. Standing there, enjoying the view, I finally had the good sense to say to God, the Creator: “Thank you, thank you, for this gift”. So here I am today telling you that I AM grateful that I have been guided - at least at times - to be on the ball enough to say thank you when the beauty of Creation surrounds me; to say thank you when the pleasure of human love encompasses me; to say thank you when the mysteries of Faith enfold me.

Every day, you and I have the opportunity to be either consumers of life, or stewards of life. Let me try to explain. When we are tempted ONLY to be consumers, we grasp for more and better things: better bank rates, better movies, better children, better deals, better religious experiences, better sunsets. The consumer energy always wants and demands more. On this track there is no ultimate peace, and satisfaction lasts only for a little while.

There is another way besides the consumer way. The way of the steward. A way we have learned through Jesus. As we follow his way we sometimes find ourselves uttering THANK YOU spontaneously, overcoming the temptation to consume life. On our Christian journey we are encouraged to receive life as a gift. Receive the sunset, receive even the storm clouds, receive the ecstatic moments, receive the songs that bring tears to our eyes, receive the loving embrace of a friend, receive the wonder of each day, and say: Thank you.

The consumer gives us an appetite that can never be satisfied. While true faith provides endless wonders and endless works of love to pass around. “Thank you” on the lips of a steward will long outlast the word “More” on the lips of a consumer.

The reading we heard earlier told a familiar story. Jesus and his friends were on their way to the city of Jerusalem. Passing through the districts of Samaria and Galilee, they entered a small village and came upon a familiar sight. A clutch of poor pathetic folk stricken by leprosy. That dreaded disease with the double curse. Leprosy made a mess of your skin and your nervous system. It put you in physical pain, constant distress. But even worse, leprosy was a spiritual curse. It was believed that lepers deserved to be expelled from the regular community. Lepers were outcastes. Unclean. Unwelcome. Cursed.

So there was a dusty huddle of lepers at the edge of the village and they cried out as Jesus approached: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” Immediately Jesus responded: “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” Now this is very interesting. Why did Jesus send the ten lepers to the priests? Because the priests were the gate keepers. They were the group who could verify that a cure had taken place. The priests had the authority to exclude or to welcome people into the heart of the community. In this instance, it seems that at the VERY MOMENT of turning towards the priests, each of the 10 lepers found themselves to be CLEAN. Skin healthy. Nerves intact. Sores dried up. Cured. Whole. OK. Ten lepers healed, but only one of the ten ran to Jesus and said: “Thank you, thank you.”

That person was a Samaritan. Remember that Samaritans were 3rd rate cousins of the dominant group. Not respected by the upstanding, law abiding, true blue members of the community. Who cared about a Samaritan? Who would ever notice a Samaritan in a decent crowd? But look: one Samaritan came back to Jesus, full of gratitude. Couldn’t stop thanking Jesus. For what? There is no record in Luke’s story that Jesus even touched this man, or any of the other nine. But it was Jesus who received gratitude, the enthusiastic “Thank You!”

The text reveals something very moving, very human about Jesus: this man’s gratitude made Jesus say: ”were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they?” It seems that no one had come back to give praise to God except this foreigner. And to the Samaritan Jesus said, “Get up and go on your way, your faith has made you well”.

A simple but wonderfully told tale. Jesus appears shocked that the other people would not naturally be grateful. It may be fair to say that Jesus doesn’t get it. How can you receive your health and your place back in the community, and not be grateful? Imagine that! Also, Jesus doesn’t take credit for the cures, but he salutes the Samaritan whose faith, whose gratitude, whose warm thankful heart has saved him.

The Samaritan is a model of faith. He got things right. He knew how to express joy. He was not burdened with traditions. He had not sold out to consumerism. He was able to jump and bend with joy because something beautiful had happened to him. This Samaritan is an enthusiastic spontaneous steward of faith. He realizes that he has received his life back. He has a new future because of this contact with Jesus. He is overjoyed to the point of throwing himself at the feet of Jesus who invokes him to GET UP and GO ON YOUR WAY.

When the Samaritan is healed, he experiences a gift, he shouts his thank you. He asks nothing more of Jesus and doesn’t even stay around to be part of Jesus’ band of followers. He gets on with his life. A moment before, he is part of a pathetic crowd of broken lepers with no serenity, no future. But following his encounter with Jesus that Samaritan emerges as a whole, productive member of the wider community. He is a steward of his new life. And what about the other nine? I would claim, for the sake of argument, that the others who also got back their health and headed down the road without a word of thanks, were consumers. They got what they wanted and went off looking for more! The Samaritan stopped in his tracks, overwhelmed by the gift, and was filled with wonder, awe and gratitude. The Samaritan was a steward of life, and presumably passed his joy on to others.

The systems of our world encourage us to live for comfort, success and personal fulfillment. Many of us would agree that our dreams have been shaped by property and fashion and Freedom 55. We consume a huge percentage of the world’s natural resources. We seem to believe that our way of life is more important than 2/3 of the planet. The TV teaches our children to use their energy and even their sexuality to grab more and more for themselves. But these experiences do not satisfy us deeply. Consuming more and more will not fill us up, or set us free.

The Spirit of Christ contradicts those messages of our modern culture, urging us to recognize that our wealth, our wellbeing, our comfort are GIFTS. We find ourselves gifted, so that we may be generous, justice seeking, compassionate.

When Jesus met ten miserable lepers at the edge of the village, they were in dire need of liberation, healing. When they turned and received their future back, nine of them ran off looking for more experiences, while ONE got in touch with the thrill, the wonder of it all. And gave thanks, and was blessed and encouraged to spread the word on his way.

At one level, my ministry - Planned Giving - is about helping people think about and plan to make a gift from their estate or accumulated financial assets to the Church. A gift like a bequest in their will, a gift annuity or a gift of life insurance. But it is much more than that - you know that it isn’t about the money – money is simply the means to the end. It’s about what wonderful things – what mission and ministry - the money can accomplish. It’s about just one aspect of Stewardship. Stewardship is about highlighting the importance of sharing our gifts, sharing our money and our energy, for the healing of our world and the building up of our Church. We are the stewards of the gifts God has given us. The question is, how will we use the abundance that God have given us. How will we say “Thank you, thank you.”.

When it comes to making a financial gift to the Church, the consumer in us will ask: “am I getting my money’s worth? What’s the bottom line? Am I satisfied?” But the steward in us will want to grasp the chance to say THANK YOU, and throw our support behind the ongoing mission of Christ’s Church, whose agenda it is to liberate, heal, forgive and turn the world around. We do not use guilt to bring forth fruit from our garden. The gospel story today may shake us into an attitude of gratitude, out of which our stewardship emerges. With this attitude our budget is easily set.

Being a Christian steward is a voluntary act. It is a voluntary response to what life offers us. It begins with the words THANK YOU on our lips. And even in the midst of the disappointments and the tragedies of life, the steward holds to the conviction that God’s love will see us through.

It may feel more natural to be a consumer of life’s pleasures, it is certainly a popular life style, but consumerism is not the life that satisfies. The life of stewardship is the life that we were created for, in faith. Remember the words of Jesus to the healed Samaritan: “your faith has made you well.” In a similar spirit, the Westminster Confession claims that the chief purpose of human beings is to know God and to enjoy God forever. That is the promise of stewardship: abundant life. That is the blessing upon us when we claim the mysteries of life as gifts from God: thankfulness leads to satisfaction in the Spirit.

I want to tell you one more thing about expressing our stewardship. Some people pledge 5% or even 10% of their household income to the church and/or charities. This style of stewardship is called “tithing”. And while any type of stewardship is voluntary, I have never met a person who voluntarily tithes, who did not express gratitude for doing so. Committed stewardship is satisfying; it brings happiness.

Committed stewardship is an act of defiance to the gods of society who tempt us to consume more and more and more. Being a steward is not a burden, it is liberation.

The motivation for being a good steward
- comes from believing that beyond the storms and within the sunsets of the Universe, there is a generous Creator.
- comes from believing that within the surprises and the burdens of everyday life there is a Holy lover.
- comes from believing that underneath all the human love we enjoy there is a cross where love once was broken, and then restored with a resounding song of joy!

Our joy is now unstoppable, unrelenting, reflecting the Love that has found us. The same love that turned the Samaritan and his nine friends towards an open future.

God help us to have the good sense to be stewards of this Good News. To see that storms and sunsets are gifts. To remember that all that we have is due to God’s grace, and that the foundational response to grace is gratitude and thankfulness. To let Thank You emerge from our lips before we think too much. And may we have the energy to pass on the gifts we have received, to enjoy the Church, and to build up the fabric of Christ’s holy reign of peace on Earth. AMEN

Preached by Kathryn Hofley
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan