In
the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
There
is a distinction between being grateful and giving thanks. Both concern your
reaction to receiving a gift but being grateful is oriented toward the gift
itself. You are grateful to have received this specific thing. Giving thanks is
directed toward the one who gave you the gift. Giving thanks recognizes the
value of the gift in the person who loved you such that they gave you this
gift.
An example might help clarify. If my wife
gives me a tenon saw for Christmas, I am grateful to have received a saw that
will help me make more precise cuts. I give thanks to my wife because she has
listened to me talk about tenon saws and went through the effort of finding one
and buying it for me.
In much the same way, there is a
difference between praise and worship. We give praise to God by recounting what
He has done for us. The Psalter is full of psalms of praise that tell the
story of salvation. Worship is oriented toward the Person of God. In worship,
we not only receive the things God gives us, but we recognize the origin of
these gifts as being in the Person and attributes of God.
To be fair, these distinctions are not
perfect. These words can be used in different ways. But to distinguish the
concepts is very helpful. It is helpful because it places our focus not on what
we are doing—being grateful, giving thanks, praising, worshiping—but on the
object of these actions. On whom or toward what are we grateful, giving thanks,
and offering worship or praise?
All ten lepers cried out to Jesus to
have mercy on them. All ten lepers were grateful for the cleansing. They
rejoiced to have received a life-altering miracle. Leprosy caused them to be
separated from their families, their communities, and the life of the Temple,
where God dwelt with man. The gift of healing meant these lepers would be
reunited with mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and children. It meant they
could go to church again, to receive the blessings of God. All ten lepers
undoubtedly recognized the goodness in the gift of healing and were abundantly
grateful.
It is possible, and quite likely, that
all ten lepers praised God for what He had done. When they went to the priests,
the lepers probably told the story of how they were healed. They proclaimed the
works of God. This is the essence of praise—to recount what God has done for
us.
Although all ten were grateful and
possibly praised God for this miracle, only one gave thanks to God and
worshiped Him. Only the Samaritan leper recognized the value of healing in the
person of Christ and directed his worship toward God in the flesh. Only the
Samaritan realized the true nature of the Man standing before him.
When Jesus commanded the lepers to show
themselves to the priests, it was the Samaritan who realized that the true High
Priest was standing before him. With a loud voice, he glorified God, fell on
his face, and gave thanks to Jesus. This is an act of worship.
Our worship is oriented toward the
Triune God: One God in Three Persons. We worship the Trinity in Unity and Unity
in Trinity. This means we see that the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation
are meaningless if they do not originate in the Person of God. If God is not a
Person, that is, someone with whom you have a relationship, then He is not
worthy of worship or thanks.
Our world is content with an ambiguous
god. Quite often, we are content with an ambiguous god. Perhaps it is because
we don’t like something the True God has said. Perhaps it is because we are
afraid that we will say too much and so we purposely remain ignorant of who God
is. Perhaps we know exactly who the True God is and yet we prefer a god of our
own choosing.
Whatever the reason, an ambiguous god
cannot save you. The abstract concept of a divine being who loves you just because
will not save you. Even the idea that god loves you, if not given the flesh of
meaning, is not enough to save you. The only god who saves is the God who took
on your flesh, then died for your sins. The only god who saves is the God who
calls you to repentance for your sins. It is this God alone who loves you such
that He would die for you, rise from the grave, and call you out of the
darkness of your sin and into His marvelous light. An ambiguous god can do no
such thing because it is not a person.
God is love and this means He acts on
your behalf. Leprosy kept these ten people from going to the Temple to be with
God so God came to them wrapped in flesh. Your sin, both the sin from your
birth and the sins you commit in thought, word, and deed, prevents you from drawing
near to God. Your sin prevents God from smiling upon you for it is evil in His
sight.
God is love and this means that He
cannot abide His beloved children dwelling in evil. He comes to you, wrapped in
flesh, that you might come to Him. He comes to you in water, where you are
drowned in the first death. In Holy Baptism, you died. But if you died a death
like His, you shall certainly rise in a resurrection like His. You rose from
the waters of Holy Baptism a New Creation, breathing new life in Christ. Therefore,
the faithful Christian has nothing to fear in temporal death. You have already
died in Christ. Now, the sleep of death is a portal to eternity.
Between your death in the waters of
Holy Baptism and your rest in the grave, God comes to you wrapped in bread and
wine. He comes to you not as a performance, not as an act, but as your loving
bridegroom. He comes to you just as certainly as He came to that village where
ten lepers came out to meet Him. Your eyes of flesh do not see it, but the eyes
of faith see the face of Christ in the Eucharist.
Our worship is oriented toward Christ.
Physically, we orient ourselves toward the altar as the primary symbol of that
which is truly happening. Jesus Christ comes to you today and every day. He
comes to you today in Word and Sacrament. He comes to you every day as you
pray, sing, read the Scriptures, and obey His commandments while serving your
neighbor.
There is nothing fake about what
happens when we worship. There is nothing theatrical about giving thanks to
God. Thanksgiving and worship of the Triune God cannot be done without
sincerity because to do anything else would be to deny that God is a Person.
In
+ Jesus’ name. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment