11And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. 12 And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:13 and they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. 14 And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. 15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16 and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. 17 And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?18 There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. 19 And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole. — Luke 17:11-19, KJV
A Bible study I am a part of had a special time Tuesday where we asked people to share verses on Thankfulness for us to discuss. One particularly astute woman brought up the above passage. We had a lot of fun conjecturing on why the other 9 didn’t come back. But the main point we pulled from this, is that we tend to have a sense of entitlement for things that we should be thankful for.
When we are thankful, we know what we have, the good things, are all gifts.But today too many people have a sense of entitlement for everything they get. Entitlement is the poison that removes thankfulness.
So my homily for this Thanksgiving Day is “give up your sense of entitlement”. You don’t deserve things, other people don’t owe you things. Be grateful for them, and be grateful to the people who provide.
At The Rainbow 