Ceaseless Thanksgiving

Bishop Seraphim : Homily
Ceaseless Thanksgiving
10 December, 2006
Ephesians 5:8-21 ; Luke 17:12-19


In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

“‘Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?’” The Lord is underlining some important matters for us to pay attention to in our dispositions as we are passing through our lives. The Apostle Paul was telling us this morning that our lives as Christians are supposed to be lives that are full of gratitude. Everything about our lives is supposed to be full of gratitude towards the Lord for everything that He gives us, beginning with the gift of our lives. We are supposed to be giving thanks to Him every day for everything. The Divine Liturgy is focussed upon giving thanks to the Lord for everything that He is doing for us, that He has done for us, and that He will do for us. This Divine Liturgy, as with every Divine Liturgy, is rooted in giving thanks to Him for His love, His mercy, His life, for His tender care for us as well.

After they had asked to be healed, these lepers were walking back towards Jerusalem. They were on route to do what the Saviour had told them to do – to show themselves to the priests, which was in accordance with the Law. Why ? In accordance with the Mosaic Law, whoever is healed of a disease such as leprosy, has to go and be examined by the priests. The healing has to be proven, because a leper in those days (as is still the case in many parts of the world), is separated from society because people might catch their disease. These lepers lived in little colonies of poverty all by themselves. We do not see it at all in North America, but in other parts of the world such groups of suffering people still exist. These are people who have been separated out, and who are living in dire poverty. They are rejected. People who encounter them anywhere run away from them. In some movies like The Robe we can see what happens with lepers (although the lepers in movies appear to be too healthy – leprosy really is a wasting disease).

These people had to show themselves to the priests. The priests had to pass them through a series of tests to be absolutely certain that the disease was gone. Then they could be returned to normal society and to normal life. Let us also not forget that anything having to do with any weakness or any disease in those days implied absolute destitution. There was no such thing as welfare or universal health care such as we have here in this country. Even if it does not work all that well sometimes, it is still a big gift from God.

The nine, who did not go back to our Saviour to say thanks, were like many of us as we pass through our lives and experience the Lord’s blessings. Perhaps our experience is not as dramatic as being healed from leprosy (when the Lord healed parts that had already fallen away). When the Lord restores and heals people, He does not do a half job of it. He heals completely. I do not recall ever seeing an instance in the Scriptures when the Lord is healing, and He only half heals. When He is restoring these lepers, He is restoring their lost parts, too. These nine, walking along, going back to the city to show themselves to the priests, saw themselves healed. Just like most people, they probably said : “Oh ! Isn’t that nice ! I deserved that !” They just carried on, very happy of course, very joyful that they could return to normal society, but somehow saying : “Well, I deserved that ! I must have done something right”. They immediately forgot where the healing came from. They immediately forgot God’s Grace, His mercy. They immediately forgot to give thanks where thanks was due. Thanks is definitely never due to ourselves for all these mercies. Thanks must always be directed to the Lord. It is important for us when we are paying attention to these words, and the words of the Apostle, to recall in our future days this way of thanksgiving.

Orthodox life has always been full of little habits that reinforce this mindfulness. It is our custom, for instance, when we are going for a drive, to make the sign of the Cross and ask God’s blessing on the driver. Again, when we go out of the house, it has always been a custom amongst Orthodox believers that we make the sign of the Cross. We may even have a little icon near the door which we kiss when we go out and when we come back in, giving thanks to God for the safe return home (because we never know what can happen to us when we go out of the house – unexpected things can happen). We bless our children when they go out and when they come back in. We bless them when they get up in the morning, and we bless them when they go to bed, as we do for ourself. This is our Orthodox way. We bless food when we are beginning to prepare it. We bless food when we are eating it, and we bless God in thanksgiving when we have consumed it. Because of gratitude, we bless everything all the time because the Lord has given us something to be blessed, something to eat, somewhere to go, health to walk, health to drive, protection in the course of our lives.

Making the sign of the Cross on all these things has been the way Orthodox people have remembered to give thanks to the Lord. We need habits. We are not somehow perfect, intellectual creatures who can remember everything. We need these habitual little things in order to remember, because if we are really honest with ourselves, when we go about our lives without these things, we can be like Pooh Bear, a bear of little brain. At least, that is how I sometimes go about my life, and I do not suppose that I am so different from everyone else. Little brain forgets the most obvious things : forgets to say thank-you when gratitude must be expressed. Why do we forget ? Empty space. My mother accused me of that quite a few times. She was right, of course, because mothers always are.

Giving thanks is truly the essence of the Orthodox way. When the light of Christ is shining in our hearts, as we heard from the Apostle this morning, our lives shine with Christ’s love. This light helps us wash away all the obstructions, all the dirt, all the selfishness. It helps us remember Whom we are serving, where we stand, and what we are doing.

As we are standing here today in this Temple, we also are giving thanks for the twenty years of service that n has been giving to the Church. Looking at this congregation here, I am remembering how it was for us twenty years ago, in another building near by, all crammed in. I am remembering farther back than that. I am remembering almost 28 years ago, when I first came to this community : the garage with a few people. The first thing that happened to me when I came back from seminary that season was that I was instructed to lead the choir. We have baptisms by fire : this is the Orthodox way. We learn best by doing. We jump in and do it. How do we learn to swim ? We jump in the water and we just start swimming. How do we pray ? We just begin. We open our mouth and our heart, and we start. That is always how we go about it.

However, I also am remembering how frightened everyone was. They were loving the Church, and loving Christ, but they were afraid of making mistakes (because many could be and were made). They were wanting to do things right for the Lord. It seems to me that we might be getting into that department in our worship here. Also, to some extent in our general parish life, we are getting into that department. By this I mean that I am referring to the danger of doing things right but paying too much attention to the externals and forgetting the heart. There was such a tendency before and there is such a danger now. In no way can we allow ourselves to think that we can rest on any laurels because You-know-who-down-below is always ready to trip us up when we start thinking that we have “got it made in the shade” or that we are really doing it right. We can always do much better.

Moreover, standing here today in the Temple, with the singing as it is being rendered to the Lord, I cannot help but think about how we are fitting in with other parts of the world where people are singing habitually with their whole hearts as a congregation, as it is being done here. They do it with joy. They do it with harmony. I saw this in Slovakia just last year. That made me remember this congregation. I am remembering you, wherever I go, because of these connexions. It made me also remember how in my childhood I was impressed with how the Welsh sing. I am thinking that Welsh people coming to this congregation and hearing the singing of this congregation would feel right at home, even if they did not recognise the melodies (but they would catch them quickly).

At the same time that we are giving thanks that we are able to give something good to the Lord, something beautiful to the Lord, it is really important for us not to start making any comparisons whatsoever between ourselves and anyone else. That is another one of our big weaknesses as human beings. There is the temptation to think : “Look how wonderful it is in this parish ! It is really beautiful to worship the Lord here ! They cannot do it better down the street. We are better”. We cannot ever think that we are better than anyone else. As soon as we think that we are better than someone else, the Lord is going to come and put out a little stick to trip up our heels, so that we fall flat on our face and recognise where we really are. That is what has been happening to me during my whole life, so I know that it is going to happen. If we take our eyes off the Lord and stop being thankful to Him for everything, we will get into deep trouble. The wake-ups are pretty sharp.

It is better not to have a sharp wake-up or a big trip-up, and fall down with a bloody nose or a black eye that lasts quite a while. If someone asks what happened, we can only say : “I tripped over my own feet (which is really what happened)”. It is important for us to look to the Lord, to give thanks to the Lord for everything, to be grateful to Him that we are able to offer all this worship and beauty to Him, and to be supportive to everyone around us. We must help them to do as well as they can, and even to do better, and not put them to shame. We must encourage them, help them, boost them up, strengthen them, because this is the Orthodox way. Let us not say : “Look at us ! Aren’t we great ?” Instead, let us say : “Do not look at my mistakes and my stupidity. Look to the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord for everything, and let me help you, too”. That is our way.

Continuing to give thanks to the Lord for everything, let us praise our Saviour, Jesus Christ, together with the unoriginate Father, and the all-holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.