Luke 17:11-19 (ESV) ¹¹On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee.  ¹²And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance ¹³and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”  ¹⁴When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed.  ¹⁵Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; ¹⁶and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan.  ¹⁷Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?  ¹⁸Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”  ¹⁹And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” 

In 1621, “after the ingathering of the first harvest in a new world,” Governor Bradford of the Plymouth Colony invited the Pilgrims to keep “a day of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving.”

      In 1789 President George Washington set aside Thursday, November 26^th as “A Day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer”, this decree of law was appointed and I quote “to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God.” 

In the fall of 1863 after the bloody Battle of Gettysburg, President Lincoln urged the entire nation to observe a day of prayer and thanksgiving on the last Thursday in November.  Once again a governmental leader was attempting to call our nation back to faith in God as we heard in the Thanksgiving Proclamation today “we have forgotten God as a nation and become too proud to pray.”

      A mere 76 years later President Franklin Roosevelt surrendering to pressures from retailers attempted to set the date for Thanksgiving to be November 23^rd, because that year the last Thursday was the 30^th and the retailers wanted more than 24 shopping days before Christmas.  It seems that this decision almost spilt the country, as two states had two Thanksgiving Days and thirty other states chose to stick with Lincoln’s date.  On December 26^th, 1941 Congress resolved this problem declaring that Thanksgiving Day would occur on the fourth Thursday of November. 

      For many today, it seems that Thanksgiving Day has become the meal you eat at half-time, between games, or before the masses rush to shop, hunt, and get stressed out during the days leading to their all too often Christ-less Christmas.  Even many in the Church want to skip over the penitential season of Advent altogether making the penitential messages of Thanksgiving Day even less desirable and both Thanksgiving Day and the Season of Advent call to repent are replaced with the messages of food, fun, and fifty percent off, we are an ever increasing people who “worship our work, work at our play, and desire to turn worship into play.” O Lord, have mercy upon us!!! 

      All this conspires against maintaining the reason for Thanksgiving Day, as few are found wanting to return and remember to “give thanks to God” instead Martha has over taken Mary and we have forgotten the one thing needful.  Thus taking our heavenly Father and His Church for granted, even forgetting to stop and give thanks to God on Thanksgiving Day or any other day for that matter, which makes our Gospel lesson from Luke a fitting text for us to remember. 

      A quick refresher on the Samaritans, the Samaritans are a people whose Jewish heritage had been adulterated through intermarriage and whose observance of Judaism was regarded as corrupted by the “proper Jews”.  Samaritans descended from Israelites left behind after Assyria’s destruction of the Northern Kingdom (722 BC) and included foreigners imported by Assyrian kings.  They inhabited the area between Judea and Galilee, hence our text today.  The Samaritans accepted as authoritative only the Pentateuch that is the Five Books of Moses, they worshiped on Mount Gerizim as the holy mountain, rejecting Jerusalem as the proper place of worship.  Most Jews regarded Samaritans as outside the bounds of the covenant people and avoided them as if they all had the lepersy. 

      Jesus is not most Jews and is passing along between Samaria and Galilee on His southward journey to Jerusalem, and a Roman Cross, followed by an empty tomb, but first He is greeted by the cry of ten lepers, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”, this cry for mercy we join our voices to today in the Kyrie.  This cry is a cry out of desperation and faith, which is why this is a fitting cry for the church; these ten are confessing their God given faith by calling out for God’s rescue, just as we do today.  They are much like us, they publicly declare themselves to be unclean as we confessed today, but I am heartily sorry for them (my sins) and I pray You of Your boundless mercy and for the sake of holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to be gracious and merciful to me, a poor sinful being.  Lord have mercy upon us!  

      With the ten lepers Jesus shows us God’s merciful heart as He heals them, telling the lepers to “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed.  Just as everyone here today had their cry for mercy answered, your sins are forgiven, every last one of them even the ones you struggle to let go, even the ones that can make this day and all the holidays uncomfortable to be with family and friends.

      That’s what the Holy Absolution is for, as your pastors declare to you “in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  For the Christian the absolution is a life changing declaration from God to you through your pastors, your sins are forgiven, before man and God!!!  To this gift, all I can say is thanks be to God, or we might just say, “Amen!” Yes, yes it shall be so.  “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. The ten were cleansed at the speaking of the Word made flesh, just as God has spoken you cleansed today.  You are clean, this is why we Christian know to give thanks, and the fourth Thursday in November is not enough, our entire life is to be one of thanksgiving to God and forgiving our neighbors.

      Yet our text lays before us the sad reality is that not all who have been cleansed will return to give thanks to the one they cried out to in their time of despair “have mercy on us”.  “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?  ¹⁸Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”  Only one was found to return and give thanks, and he was a Samaritan.  (I guess it is true that misery loves company, for in their sickness Samaritan and Jew could live side by side and cry out for help together.)  So, also in the church, when we are in the despair we have no problem crying out “have mercy on us!” But let the troubling issue pass, and we are quick to return to the old routine of greed, gossiping, and griping. 

      This is why it is important for the Christian life to be one of repeatedly crying out for the Lord to have mercy on us, and rejoicing in His unending mercy.  To the Samaritan Jesus said, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”  The faith of the Samaritan, knew to rely on God to provide and God does, and we would do well to learn this valuable lesson.  Nowhere does the text tell us that Jesus removed His merciful healing from the other nine, they were still cleansed.  Their thankless attitude robbed them of thanking God in the flesh, and kept them with a God who is distant. 

      But God desires that we know Him, after all He has revealed Himself to us, in His Word, washes us clean in the waters of Holy Baptism, and feeds us His food of forgiveness at His table, as we receive Jesus in our mouth, as our God is an up close and personal God.  As the God/man Jesus humbled Himself to be conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffer under Pontius Pilate and die a sinners death on the Cross, as He is the One who would crush the serpents head, at Golgotha, the place of the skull, Satan’s headship is crushed no more can he claim us as those forsaken of the Father, because Jesus was forsaken in our place.  No, more can death have claim over us Jesus died our death.  No, more need we be separated from God and one another God and man are reconciled. See how God has answered our cry for mercy! “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” 

      Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, it is only peace with God and one another that enables us able to say rightly, Happy Thanksgiving Day !!!  Through Jesus God continues to answer our cry for mercy, may we continue to give Him all thanks and praise each day.  In Jesus name, Amen