Be a Surprise!

 22^nd Sunday after Pentecost!

 

                                                                         Prayer

Luke 17:11-19

Movement One:

 

Why is it so hard to say thank you?  We talked about last week the need to serve and do for others and God whether or not we were thanked or appreciated or not.  That is an attitude of service and sacrifice!  This is an attitude that all of us should have; again, it shouldn=t matter whether someone thanks us.  This is dealing with our attitude toward service.  On the other hand, another attitude we should have is one of gratitude!  This deals with the attitude of those being served.  Gratitude that flows from a thankful heart.  If we are really serving and not expecting or needing to be thanked or appreciated, someone who is grateful or thankful can really be a surprise.   That is what we are going to look at today; thus the title, “Be a Surprise!”

 

Movement Two:

 

In our scripture today, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem by way of a region between Samaria and Galilee.  He goes through a village where he encounters 10 lepers.  As would have been expected, they kept their distance from him because they were lepers, but they cried out to him, AJesus, Master, have mercy on us!@  Jesus tells them to Ago show themselves to the priest.@  In Jewish society, they would have to do this to be pronounced clean and to again be able to be a part of society.   As they go, they are healed.  One returns to thank and praise Jesus for making him clean, and he is a Samaritan!  Jesus asks where the other nine are and commends this one for coming back to offer praise to God!  He tells him, >your faith has made you well.@  It isn=t real clear what he is saying here since he has already been healed of leprosy; perhaps, there was a spiritual healing that took place here too.   It is clear that Jesus appreciated and commended him for coming back to say thanks and praise God after experiencing healing.  It is also clear, he was not pleased with the other nine who did not come back!

 

Movement Three:

 

Last week, we talked about the need to serve God because God is God, whether or not anyone ever thanks us for it or whether or not we feel thanked by God.  We talked about suffering for Christ!  God has already done more for us than we deserve!  God has already blessed us more than we deserve!  We serve God sacrificially, whether or not we are thanked or made to feel appreciated!  It is probably, at least in part, pride that makes us feel we need and should be thanked!

 

It is also pride that makes it hard for us to express thanks to others and to God!  As we look at both sides of this issue, we should serve whether or not we are ever thanked; being thanked, should come as a great surprise not something we expect, because we are only slaves, doing what we ought.  On the other hand, we should feel gratitude toward God and every person who has helped us on the journey, and we should express thankfulness quite freely!   We should be some of those surprise thank yous along the way!

 

We have trouble expressing thanks.  Maybe it is a part of our society again.  We feel that we have certain things coming to us, so if we have it coming to us, why thank anyone or God when we get it?  God has given us so much knowledge in medicine, it is easy to explain healing away as good doctors.  We think doctors are just doing their job; after all, we pay them well for it.  Why thank anyone?  We think the government or someone should provide us with a good living, so we aren=t thankful when we have a good job or get a good job; after all, shouldn=t we have that coming to us as Americans?  Why should we thank God for what we have coming to us?  People are suppose to serve God; right?  They are suppose to do what is right; shouldn=t we just expect it of them instead of thanking them when they do good?  After all, isn=t that what they are suppose to do? 

 

A past experience I’ve had illustrates this.  A Vet called in to the office one day.  Please understand I do not think all Vets are this way, no more than I think all people are this way; this is only an example.  He was talking real nice and checking out the church.  He told me he was a Vet who had been disabled, and he lived in Louisiana in a motel. I was serving a charge here is Missouri.  He talked like he planned to move to the town where I pastored, so I talked to him about the churches I served.  Then, he came out with it, what he really wanted was for me or the churches to pay for his motel in Louisiana for a week or so because we knew how to take care of our Vets.  If we did what we should do, we would take care of him and pay him some money because of his service.  I told him we couldn’t do that, but I would be glad to pray with him, and if he did move to my town, I would be glad for him to check in with us and see what we could do then.  With that, he refused for me to pray with him and cussed me out something fierce!  He felt that the church and myself owed him something.  I see that a lot when people come asking for help.  I see this as a problem in our society, this attitude that someone owes us something, that society or the church owes us something, and when someone does pay up so to speak, there is no need to be thankful because they have only done what they should.  I think we all have a little of this; our culture has trained us to think this way!  The message last week calls us to sacrificial service whether or not we are thanked, but at the same time, we should do so from an attitude of thanksgiving and gratitude!

 

Our attitude should be that we see that we are greatly blessed by God!  We have messed our lives up royally, but God loved us while we were still sinners and made a way for us to have a new start.  God has given us food to sustain life!  God has given us a roof over our heads!  God has given us a way to be here this morning!  God has given us friends, family, etc.  God has given us the gift of life for however long we have it!  God has given most of us so much more than any of this!  We are blessed!  We should be thankful to God every day!  It shouldn=t be an effort to express thanks to God!  It should just flow out of us!  We should thank God in our prayers!  We should thank God in our words to others!  We should thank God through our service!  We should thank God through our giving! 

 

Too many times we forget to say thank you!  An example of this, we make a prayer request; we have someone put on the prayer list.  We should be that person who goes back and says thank you to God for answered prayer and thank you to people for praying when our prayers are answered!  We shouldn=t be the person who puts a concern on the prayer list because they are really on our heart, and a couple months later, the pastor or someone has to call and ask how they are doing.  Oh, they got better a month ago, or Oh, they died a month ago!  Where is the thanks and appreciation to God for healing or helping the people through the ordeal, when we just leave a concern on the prayer list that is not even an active concern?  Where is the thanks to people for praying?  Too many times, whatever answer we get, we forget to go back and say thank you!

 

We should be thankful to other people!  People have chosen to do good that has blessed our lives!  We should be thankful to them!  None of us have gotten here today without the influence of other people; we should be thankful!  Contrary to what society says, we are not self made!  We are the product of the touch of God and many people that God has touched us with along the way!  Forsyth UMC is the product of the labor of many people who have given themselves and continue to give themselves for the ministries of the church!  We should thank people for their service among us!  We should thank people for their faithful giving and support of Forsyth!   We should be thankful, and we should find it very easy to go back and tell them!  Tell them when they have blessed your life!   We should be some of those surprises along the way that people who sacrificially give themselves in service for God and God=s work, not expecting anything in return,  find along the way!  

 

If you feel convicted that you have not been a very grateful person and have failed in this area of giving thanks to God or others who have blessed you, bring it to God as we encounter Christ at the table this morning!                                                              

 

                                                             Prayer of Confession!

Service of Communion!

 

Go, Be a Surprise!

It's a Thankless Job!

                                                   Luke 17:5-10 & II Timothy 1:8-12

Movement One:

 

There is a movie that came out several years ago called AIndependence Day.@  It was one of the early movies in Will Smith=s career.  It is probably one of the classic SiFi movies of that time.  As the moving opens, it is July the 2^nd, and large alien ships settle in and hover over critical sites all over the world.  Mass hysteria spreads over the world as this happens.  One man, who is a computer nerd and we later learn is named David, discovers they are using our satellites to communicate and the clock is ticking down to the time they will act.  He communicates this to the president, and the White House is evacuated.  The clock ticks to zero, and the alien ships begin to incinerate cities all over the world. 

 

As July the 3^rd dawns, Los Angeles, Washington, and New York are left in ruins.  The president regrets he didn=t evacuate hours before when the ships first began to hover.  An attack is planned where our Air Force will launch a full blown missile  attack on the alien ships.  Will Smith is one of the lead pilots!  Our missiles are ineffective against their shields.  The aliens counter attack with little space ships who also have shields, and we are dropping like flies!  The attack is aborted.  Will Smith ejects under attack and captures an alien by hand-to-hand combat and drags him back to base.  Meanwhile, David has evacuated on Air Force One with the president.  The president’s advisors are telling him to launch a Nuclear Attack on alien ships; David advises against it.  The president learns of a secret research project that has been going on for years after catching a small alien ship before.  He visits there and finds it is an identical ship to the small ones that fly out of the mother ship who is attacking them now.  Everything they try doesn=t work against the invasion!  They can=t seem to penetrate the shields with anything they try.

 

July 4^th comes, and David comes up with a plan to plant a virus on the mother ship to destroy the shields, giving them a few minutes to launch an attack with the shields down.  David and Will Smith will fly onto the mother ship using the captured alien fighter ship from years ago, release the virus, and the countries across the world will launch an attack on the invaders while the shields are down.  This worked, except our little missiles were not causing much damage to the alien ship, even with the shields down.  We were running out of ammo and still had only slightly damaged the ship.  It looked like the mission would be a failure.  Only one man had a missile left.  If he could shoot the missile up into the ship, instead of into the hull of the ship, maybe that would work.  He proceeded to do that, but his launching device failed, and he could not launch the bomb.  In a moment of self-sacrifice for the greater good, he radios for command to tell his children he loves them and flies his plane up into the ship to deliver his cargo to its destination personally.  The mother ship is destroyed!  He is a hero!  Now the rest of the world knows what to do to the rest of the ships, and the invaders are destroyed!   There are several heros in this story, but the one who stands out above them all is the one who delivered the bomb to the alien ship, knowing he would loose his life in the process.  He knew he would not live to receive any words of thanks or praise.  He knew he would not live to tell his children the stories himself, but he did what he felt needed to be done anyway!

 

Movement two:

 

In our scripture today from Luke, Jesus asks his disciples, AWho among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, >Come here at once and take your place at the table=?@  He says rather you would say, AFix me something to eat,@ and when the servant is done, you don=t thank the slave for doing what is commanded, because he is only doing what he should do!   Jesus says, so it is with you Awhen you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, >We are worthless slaves: we have done what we ought to have done=!@ 

 

This is a hard one for us, because we are so used to not doing something for someone unless they say thank you.  Or not doing something for someone unless they pay us.  We live in a world where the world owes us rights, a living, and many other things, but we too many times are taught we do not owe anybody anything, even God!   Even God owes us something, if we serve God!  Isn=t that what we think!  God is suppose to take care of us, bless us, and not let any bad thing happen to us if we serve God; right?  If God doesn=t, we don=t have to serve; right?  If we do something at church and aren=t thanked for it, then we don=t have to do it anymore!  They should be more appreciative!  Isn=t that really how we sometimes think?  This scripture says we do what is right, even if we do not receive thanks from anyone and sometimes even when it seems we are not getting anything from God, because we are God=s! 

 

We have to get over this need to be thanked to serve!  This doesn=t mean we don=t need to say thank you, but we will look at that next week.  Being willing to serve whether or not we are thanked and being a person who says thank you to others and to God is two different things!  This scripture is about being willing to serve because it is the thing to do, whether or not we are thanked for it!  Just like the man in our story did!  We aren=t all called to physically give our lives for the common good or God, or are we?  How much different is it to sacrificially and totally give ourselves to God in service, to present our bodies a living sacrifice?  God is the ultimate good!  God loved us when we were unlovable!  We serve because of that!  We serve God because of who God is!  We serve God to be a part of what God is doing in the world!  We serve God as a part of our worship of God!  So find your place in the Kingdom of God!  Match your gifts with the opportunities that are out there!  Is it teaching?  Is it preaching?  Is it folding bulletins?  Is it taking out the trash?  Is it cleaning the carpets?  Is it taking care of the physical grounds of the church?  Is it singing?  Is it playing a musical instrument?   Is it helping with the tech or sound booth?  Is it serving on one of the teams in our church?  Is it gathering information so the church can make a decision?  Is it coordinating an event to reach out into our community?   Whatever it is, do it for God!  Do your best, and do it for God!  Whether or not anybody even notices!   That is what this scripture is about! 

 

This is a hard one, even for me!  I like to have positive feedback!  I like to be thanked or appreciated, but sometimes people leave in a spirit of thinking about the message and may not be sure if they want to thank me or not for the message!  Sometimes people feel what I do is just what is expected and why say thank you, so I really have to hear this message from Luke!  I have to look at the big picture!  I am called to lead God=s people to reach out beyond themselves to those around them with God=s gospel of grace and love and make disciples!  Sometimes that pushes us!  Sometimes we want it to be about us, but it isn=t about us!  We have to constantly keep the goal before us of making disciples!   It is about keeping us focused!  Hunters know that if they shoot at nothing, if they have nothing in their sights, that is exactly what they will get.  So we as a church need to know what we are shooting for: sharing the love and grace of God and thereby making disciples!

 

I think it is from this attitude of service that Paul says, ADo not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace.  This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.  For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, and for this reason I suffer as I do.  But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him.@  (II Tim 1:8-12) 

 

Movement Three:

 

I challenge you then today as we take communion to give yourself wholly and totally, without reservation for service to the one Awho saved us and called us with a holy calling!@   I challenge you to join with Paul in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God!  I challenge you to trust in the one who is able to guard until that day what we have entrusted to him!      Amen!

 

As we prepare to take communion this morning, let us pray Wesley=s covenant prayer:

 

Let me be your servant, under your command.

I will no longer be my own.

I will give up myself to your will in all things.

 

Lord, make me what you will.

I put myself fully into your hands:

put me to doing, put me to suffering,

let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you,

let me be full, let me be empty,

let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and with a willing heart

give it all to your pleasure and disposal.                                Amen.