14TH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY-2

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the heavenly Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

Dear friends in Christ Jesus.

In Psalm 50:15 we read the glorious, well-known passage, "Call upon me in

the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." We see from this: no one has reason to despair in any distress of body or soul. According to this passage, though a person may be forsaken by everyone, he still has one Friend in distress, the gracious God in heaven, to whom he not only dares go and on whom he not only dares call for help, but also should; God, God himself, has even commanded it. Therefore, though a person's misery may be so great that there seems to be no possible way out, he dare not despair; for God is all-wise and almighty; he always knows how to help and can always help; Paul Gerhardt sings thus:

Thy hand is never shortened

All things must serve Thy might;

Thine every act is blessing,

Thy path is purest light.

Thy work no man can hinder,

Thy purpose none can stay,

Since Thou to bless Thy children

Wilt always find a way. (520,4)

Though a person may know that he dare not reckon himself among God's children, though he may be completely unworthy of God's help, if he finally lets his distress drive him to God, if it is only in misery that he calls upon God, even he has no reason to despair in his distress because of his unworthiness. God has commanded everyone, "Call upon me in the day of trouble," no matter who he may be, and has promised everyone, "I will deliver thee;" in these words God has bound himself; since he is truthful and cannot lie nor deceive with false promises and pretence, everyone dare and must appeal to God's command and promise in his distress, everyone will then be heard. Only, he should not tire quickly of praying and imploring; he must persevere and not prescribe to God the time when, nor the manner in which he should help; finally, God will certainly hear him.

It is, therefore, also a great sin not to call upon God in distress. Thus a person sins first against God through disobedience, since God has commanded it, and through contempt of his goodness and truth, since God has promised to hear him. Thus he also sins against himself, for when he does not call upon God in distress he wilfully jams shut the source from which help could flow to him. St. James, therefore, writes, "Ye have not because ye ask not," Jas 4:2, and again Paul Gerhardt writes:

By anxious sighs and grieving

And self-tormenting care

God is not moved to giving;

All must be gained by prayer. (520,2)

My friends, although very many people almost completely, forget about God as long as all is well, nothing is more common than this, that even the worst despisers of God turn to him with sighs and praying when they fall into trouble, and especially when they are in great trouble. Few people are so hardened, as that malefactor at the Lord's left hand on Golgotha who in the Savior's most frightful anguish of death could mock and say, "If thou art the Christ, save thyself and us." Though most people never think of nor ever speak to God, yes, deny God, they, as we said, finally take their refuge in distress in God. In the 26th chapter of his book, Isaiah, therefore, writes, "Lord in trouble have they visited thee, they have poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them." V. 16. And of the godless Jews God himself says in Hosea 5, "In their affliction they will seek me (German has: and say): Come; and let us return

unto the Lord; for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up." Hos 5:15c.16:1.

My friends, as there are many who let that word, "Call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee," be told them, so there are, on the other hand, few who do what follows this command and promise: "Thou shalt glorify me." Scarcely has God heard the lamentable cries of a person, scarcely has he provided help, scarcely is the distress over, when most people also forget God and the divine help they experienced. The natural heart is unutterably unthankful. An example of this is presented in our today's Gospel. On the basis of this text permit me, therefore, to speak to you on the great unthankfulness of the human heart toward God.

The text. Luke 17:11-19.

On the basis of this Gospel just read I will now speak to you on,

THE GREAT UNTHANKFULNESS OF THE HUMAN HEART TOWARD GOD

I. Wherein it Consists, and

II. How One can be Healed of it.

Oh Lord, how manifold are your works! in wisdom you have made them all, and the earth is full of your goodness! The heavens declare your glory and the firmament shows your handiwork. Day after day pours forth speech, and night after night declares knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. All the earth offers you thanks, praise, glory, and honor. Only we, we human beings, we sinners whom you created as proof of your highest love and over whom you have poured all the fullness of your goodness, we are dumb, we are silent, we do not want to praise nor thank you. Oh, have mercy on us, change our heart and set us afire, so that also our mouth will show forth your praise here in time and hereafter in eternity. To that end bless your holy Word in this hour for the sake of your infinite love and goodness. Amen!

I.

My friends, once as the Lord upon a trip to Jerusalem journeyed through Galilee and Samaria and came near a town, ten lepers met him, people who were in the most pitiable condition. Afflicted with a most loathsome and contagious disease, such people were expelled from human fellowship. Shunned by everyone as an abomination, besides being plagued day and night by violent pains in all members, they had to live alone, away from inhabited cities and villages. Since the sickness was beyond any medical help, their condition in addition to all their present great distress was a hopeless one. The one hope which the lepers in our Gospel had was that Christ: would perhaps come into their neighborhood; they had heard that he could miraculously heal even incurable leprosy with divine power and was always ready to heal.

For a long time these unfortunates may have waited with great yearning for such a happy moment. And behold! this moment finally came. Jesus comes into the region where they stayed. And so the moment they saw Jesus they humbly remained in the distance but they raised their voice as loudly as they were able because of the hoarseness connected with their sickness and cried, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." V. 12. The Lord sees them and says to them, "Go shew yourselves unto the priests." (The priests must decide whether a person still had leprosy or not.) And what happened? As they went they were cleansed.

The joy that must have gripped the ten when they saw that suddenly they had been cleansed and healed cannot be described in words. It must have seemed as though they were suddenly pulled out of a horrible slimy pit and, stylishly clothed, seated at a royal table, yes, lifted from a hell into a heaven.

What more do we hear about them? The moment they had shown themselves to the priests according to the law, should not all the ten have turned about, hurled themselves at Christ's feet, ardently thanked him, and said, Lord, how are we to repay you for all your benefits which you have shown us wretched. little worms? Here we are, you have given us new life; we also want to be yours body and soul and serve you as long as we live!? Alas no! Only one of the ten did that; the Lord must complain, "Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger." Vv. 17,18. No! Scarcely had they experienced this blessing when the nine forgot their gracious Benefactor; no word of thanks and praise to him comes from their lips, no thought in their hearts of the debt they owed for the blessings experienced; yes, in black, accursed thanklessness they appear to be convinced by the hostile priests that they were healed not through Christ but through them, the priests and their sacrifice, to have joined Christ's foes, and used the health they received through Christ only to join in blaspheming and persecuting Christ!

Who is he who, when he hears of this, does not turn from such wicked, such shamefully unthankful persons with the deepest aversion? However, my friends, just so we don't silently bless ourself at seeing them and perhaps say with the Pharisee, "God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are." For, though it may sound hard, it nevertheless is true when I say: in those nine lepers we have a living picture of the unthankfulness of every human heart, as long as it is in its natural state and has not been changed and renewed by God's grace. Let us draw a parallel and We will recognize it only too soon.

The thanklessness of the nine cleansed lepers showed itself above all in the fact, that, first, they forgot the inexpressibly great blessing which they received, second, that they were silent about it and had no word of praise for it, third, that they showed they were not ready; to repay their Benefactor and serve him, and finally, that they even used this blessing to do evil to their Benefactor.

Now I ask you: do the people who still do not have a changed heart act in a different way toward God? On the contrary, the nine lepers are a true image of them.

The blessings which everyone has and continually receives from God are just as inexpressible in their number as in their greatness. Our existence, our soul with all its powers and our body with all its members are God's gifts and blessing. Every moment we live, every thought we think, every breath of air we draw, every beat of our heart, all the food we eat, every drink we take, each night's slumber, all the strength to work, each success which crowns our labors, each possession we own, each pleasure we enjoy, each deliverance we experience, every warning of misfortune which strikes another, all these are pure gifts of the creating, preserving, ruling, and providential love and goodness of God. No day, no hour, no moment passes by in which we do not enjoy thousands of God's benefits; wherever we go, sit, stand, or lie, everywhere we are encircled by God's blessings and surrounded by them as by the air. If God would not let countless blessings continually flow to us in veritable torrents, we could not exist for one moment; yes, the instant God would withdraw his hand from us for one moment, we would receive nothing but hell and eternal death. And if I were

to begin to name the blessings which God unceasingly shows all people also in spiritual matters, when he not only gave and offered his only begotten Son for their deliverance and salvation, but now also, offered them his grace through the means of grace, his Word and sacraments; uses them to knock at their hearts through his Holy Spirit and draws them and so guides and directs all things that everything, even their troubles, can and must work together for their good and their eternal salvation, if only they would allow it,where would I find words to describe the greatness of God's blessings which every person continually experiences?

And how do people react? Most do not even once perceive this or never think of the fact that everything which they are and have is a gift and blessing from God. They live on like the irrational animals who know nothing of God. They, as it were, swim in a sea of God's gifts and yet their heart and mouth say, There is no God; it is all nature.

Others indeed know that there is a God; but scarcely have they received some blessing from God, if they now and then think of the fact that it comes from God, scarcely have they enjoyed this blessing when the heavenly Giver is also again forgotten. If most people do not once keep their divine blessings in a faithful, thankful heart and remembrance, then naturally their mouth is even less often full of continual praise and glory to God. If they are in trouble, particularly great trouble, then indeed they, as we heard above, often cry immediately to God; then God should help them immediately; but when God has helped them, then only a few feel compelled to offer thesacrifice of praise to this gracious God for his kindness.

Most are silent about, what God has done for them; yes, they try to convince themselves that God did not hear their prayers but that they helped themselves or a happy accident rescued them. With all their blessings of which they speak many indeed say, God be thanked, praise God, etc.; but whilst this thankful hypocritical talk crosses their lips, their heart knows nothing of thankful feelings toward their divine Benefactor. Especially if people took great pains to acquire something, they consider it the greatest folly to sing to God a psalm of praise for it. Without supplication, therefore, they sit down like animals at the table and without a prayer of thanks they leave.

And finally, where are the people whose heart is melted by the knowledge of the host and greatness of God's kindnesses which they daily and hourly receive, so that day and night they think about how they want to repay God for these kindnesses, how they might serve him more and more faithfully and zealously, and want to live, suffer, and die to him wholly in body, and soul? In trouble many indeed still promise God that if he would again deliver them this once they would become different people and begin an entirely different life. As a rule, however, what happens when God hears their prayer? As that song says: When the sick recovered, he becomes so much the worse. Far be it that they would then pay to the Lord their vows; they repay him evil for good. That by God's help they are no more in trouble is for them reason enough no longer to ask about God, to live on in fleshly security according to the ways of the world in its vanity, with a heart which forgets and scorns their God, without daily watching and praying, without daily struggling against sin, without daily and devoutly using God's Word, without concern for God's approval and their soul's salvation. God does not cease to do good to them day and night; his goodness rises upon them every morning with the sun, and nourishes and clothes and strengthens and cheers them, and they - do not cease day and night to insult God with a thousand sins.

Oh the thanklessness of the human heart! If this very person shows another only a small kindness and the receiver is not thankful, yes, even repays the good with evil, how this enrages the giver! how contemptible, how godless, how wicked

that thankless person seems to him! And he himself lives and moves in nothing but benefits from God and still deems himself pious, even though he never truly thanks God in his heart, nor with his lips, nor by his life but rather every day and hour lives contrary to God's will. Oh thanklessness! oh the black, damnable thanklessness of man's heart toward God!

Is there no way by which a person can be cured and become thankful toward God? Yes, indeed, there is such a way, and in the second place permit me to speak to you of this.

II.

As our Gospel tells us, there was one among the ten lepers who showed himself thankful toward Christ. We read of him, "And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks; and he was a Samaritan." Vv. 15,16. Certainly a wonderful example! Indeed, he also, as all men, by nature had an unthankful heart, but his heart was changed. What was the way by which this glorious change had been produced in him? The Lord tells us when at the close he says to him, "Arise, go thy wav; thy FAITH hath made thee whole." See, faith was, therefore, the means by which the Samaritan had been completely helped and healed, not only physically but also spiritually, and by which he had, therefore, also received a thankful heart. When he had in faith looked at Christ in prayer, his faith was not only directed to his physical but also to his spiritual leprosy, to his sins. And behold! his faith had also made him well body and soul.

There you see, my friends, the only means by which also all others can be healed of the natural thanklessness of their heart: it is nothing else but faith.

A sure sign that a person still does not have the true faith is that he still lacks a heart thankful toward God; on the other hand, a sure sign that a person has the true faith is that his heart is filled with thankfulness toward God. A quickly passing emotion of thanks can at times also be found in a godless heart, but only faith works the state in which a person is always full of thanks over everything which he is and has.

No one, however, can give such a faith to himself; no one but God the Holy Spirit can work that, and he works it through his Word.

The first stage to which the Holy Ghost tries to bring a person is that he learns to know himself as a poor, great, wretched sinner, unworthy of any of God's grace and kindness. The Holy Spirit works this knowledge partly through the Law which is preached to men, partly through all kinds of misfortune which strike him. Of course, most people resist the Holy Spirit. Though it may be shown them over so clearly how holy and strict God is and in how many ways and how seriously they have sinned against God, they still try to convince themselves that they are not such great and damnable sinners; and then if severe trouble strikes, instead of letting their heart be softened, it becomes only the harder; instead of accusing themselves as sinners they accuse God of being unjust.

However, if a person does not resist the Holy Spirit, if he believes that God certainly has the right to demand that he should be perfectly holy and that he is a damnable sinner; if he lets himself be softened and moved by his trouble to see into his unworthiness and guilt more deeply and clearly, then he also begins to look around for help for his poor lost soul which he cannot find

in himself; and if in this condition he hears the Gospel of Christ, the Savior of sinners, the Holy Ghost awakens him to pray, as the lepers in our text, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on me!"

And, blessed is the person who lets himself be brought this far by the Holy Spirit! Such groans not only bring true faith but are already the first workings and revelations of the truth faith. The moment true faith enters into the heart of a person in this way, his heart is also suddenly changed by God. Along with faith the Holy Spirit enters the heart, with the Holy Spirit love, and with love thankfulness.

He who has become such a true believer can then scarcely hold back his tears when he glances back over his past life. Often his heart almost wants to burst when he thinks back on how sinful his life was and with what shameful thanklessness he had every day and hour received and misused God's countless benefits. Along with true faith in Christ the desire has then entered this person's heart to thank and to praise and to extol God that he must not only thank and praise and extol him for everything, even the least which he has and enjoys, but of which he considered himself completely unworthy, even for the cross which God sends. Then he says with David, "It is a good think to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High; to show forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night." Ps 92:1,2. Yes, even in tribulation he will, if not immediately then finally, cry with Job, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." Job 1:21. Above all, that here the true believer, oppressed by the flesh he still has, often feels unable and averse in praising God, therefore makes the temporal life so burdensome for him and awakens in him the yearning for heaven. Even now in the spirit he looks forward to eternity when with all the angels and elect he hopes to be able to thank and sing praises to God eternally with pure lips and from his whole soul.

And now, my friends, whom are you like? the one thankful Samaritan, or those nine thankless? Do you still have the old thankless heart, or is your heart already changed by a true, living faith? Do you consider it a good thing to praise the Lord and .to sing praises to the name of the most High, and is this your only pain that you cannot thank your God often enough, nor ardently enough, nor joyfully enough? Do you turn around as the Samaritan every day at morning and at night and every time you enjoy God's kindnesses and as the Samaritan cast yourself humbly on your face before your God in thanks?

Ah, let no one who has not learned to thank God ardently every day think that he will some day be among those singers who will hereafter offer to God the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving in eternity. He who does not want to howl eternally as one cast, away by God, let him learn here to praise and thank.

To him be honor and praise in time and in eternity. Amen.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -