Sermon – October 12th, 2025
Hope Lutheran Church, Port Coquitlam BC
Text: Luke 17:11-19
Theme: Thankfully standing firm
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Intr – Thanksgiving Day usually reminds us of saying thank you to God for our house, food, family, harvest, nature, our job, health, etc… When we hear today’s Gospel, the healing of the 10 lepers, this is what usually happens too. It directs our mind to think about physical gifts, like the healing from a fatal disease. And those are great reasons for us to thank the Lord for sure, especially when we see from the Gospel reading that 90% of the lepers didn’t take the time to come back and thank Jesus.[1] Ingratitude hurts.
However, when you take a closer look, you see there is more behind the healing. The often-forgotten side of a life of thanksgiving are the most important gifts of all – spiritual gifts, that God has given us, and the opportunity of putting our faith into action. What about them? Do we take time on a regular basis in our prayer to be thankful for those gifts as well?
Think about it: ten men are healed and one comes back. Jesus says to him: “Your faith has made you well.” Does Jesus connect faith to being healed? That doesn’t seem quite the case here, for the other 9 who didn’t come back, therefore, demonstrating the lack of that faith, were also healed. “Your faith has made you well” indicates that, as the man was surely thankful for physical healing, the wellness caused by faith goes deeper. He acknowledges Jesus as the object of his faith. This is the type of faith that makes a person well, faith that holds on to Him. Jesus is the one who acknowledges the outcasts and calls them to Him.
This is deepened as one wonders if is there an explanation for why those 9 didn’t come back? Here’s one: because they were told to follow a ritual of cleansing. Since they did as told by the Nazarene, conclusion might have been: “We followed the commands and rules, we were healed. Yay, thanks be to our capacity of following rules!”
When you think you work for what you achieve, there’s less reasons to look up and thank God. We you acknowledge your total dependence on the Lord, then you are forced to conclude: I can plan my path, but the Lord is the one guiding my steps. It means that may faith makes me well even when I am not healed. For as we know, the leper who had faith eventually died of something else.
That’s why thinking about spiritual gifts helps us deepen our understanding of thanksgiving and what it means to live a thankful life as Christians.
First, when it comes to material blessings, it’s easy to fall into the mindset, “I succeeded because I followed God’s commands. I worked hard, earned my salary, and provided for my family—thanks be to God and to my ability to do the right thing.” But remember, even those whose faith faltered were healed. It’s not about our ability; it’s about God’s grace. We easily forget that everything is gift, not mere achievement.
Second, reflecting on spiritual gifts reminds us that, as much as we’d like to see ourselves in the one thankful leper who returned, we often find ourselves among the ninety percent who forget to give thanks for God’s gracious gifts.
Thinking about spiritual gifts, and the source of them, draws us deeper into true thanksgiving.
The hymn we sang today “We stand firm in our faith” helps us in that purpose. It brings to memory the essence of what we receive from God, what we believe, confess and teach. It helps us to underline the importance of being grateful to God for the spiritual gifts. Think about how many times you have done that lately, or in your whole life, thanked the Lord for these gifts we just sang about before the sermon.
The first verse reminds us of the Gift of God’s Word. His TEACHING that brings the essential news for our spiritual life – in Christ we have forgiveness –all the teachings derived from it.
1 – It refers to Jesus as our Good Shepherd. His sheep listen to his voice. We are thankful for having spiritual ears givens by the Holy Spirit to listen to God’s Word.
2 – Law and Gospel – that is a treasure that Lutheran Theology gives to the Christian World. When you approach the Bible with this key in hands, many things become clearer to our understanding.
3 – We stand firm – thankfully standing firm. For He is our Saviour and our Truth – the Truth for the whole world.
4 – The hymn evokes other ways in which Jesus referred to Himself, such as the Bread, The Way, the Door, and others. Let’s sing together:
- 1. Jesus Christ, our Lord, called as Your flock, we delight in hearing Your Voice
teaching to our hearts what Your Word imparts. Law and Gospel, unchanging Light.
We stand firm in our faith in You, our Saviour, The Way!
You’re the Bread, the Door, Brother, Vine and more; Shepherd in whom we are bless’d.
(SHORT PRAYER)
The second verse directs our eyes towards the privilege we have of SERVING our neighbour.
1 – Faith active in love. St James says that if your faith is not shown in works of love, you should question where it is and if it is still in your heart.[2] Faith saves alone, but faith is never alone.
2 – Help, hope and peace. We are thankful for having the opportunity to share real Help, real Hope and real Peace coming from his Hand.
3 – We stand firm. Thankfully firm. Living our life from above – that is, grounded in Christ, we serve and care.
- Father, move our hearts, move our hands and feet, to the service done in Your name,
for right by our side there is need of help, hope and peace to run this life’s race;
We stand firm in our faith! We love for we have been loved.
As we serve we share, as we tend we care – as we live our life from above.
(SHORT PRAYER)
The Third Verse highlights God’s gifts of the Holy Sacraments. How many times have you ever thanked the Lord specifically for having been baptized, and for His offer of His blood and body regularly to strengthen your faith?
In a world where there is a lot of talk about identity these days, and many different options of spirituality to feed our soul, we are reminded to be thankful for:
1 – Baptism – In Holy Baptism we receive our identity for life: children of God. We were grafted into the Vine and listening to the voice of the Good Shepherd.
2 – With bread and wine, we receive Jesus in us. Real Presence, and Real Food for our Soul.
3 – Means of Grace – the means through which God brings His Grace to our hearts.
4 – Joy and Thankfulness. There is no other response to such marvelous gifts. We adore His Holy Name, “now thank we all our God!”
- Holy Spirit, we have been baptized, grafted in Your kingdom of Love.
Then with bread and wine, beyond reason’s line we have Jesus’ body and blood.
We stand firm in our faith; fed by your means of Grace
Joy and thankfulness, body and soul redeemed, Your Holiness we acclaim!
(Short Prayer)
Finally, the fourth verse remembers us that God never ceases to be with us, grounding us in His Word and leading us to our eternal home. He gives us Meaning and purpose. We live our daily life in Christ (meaning) as we have our eyes in our eternal home (Purpose)
1 – God is present in and with us every day. Thanks be to God
2 – We are blessed. Thanks be to God!
3 – We stand firm in our faith. Thanks be to God!
4 – We walk towards our Eternal Home, New Earth and New Heavens, in which justice dwell and in which we will be, body and soul, in eternal joy and perfection.
- 4. Triune God, we ask never cease your task, ground Your children in faithfulness.
Grant your precious gifts, through which we all live in this fellowship ev’ry day.
We stand firm in our faith! In Your Grace we delight!
Lead our walk on Earth with our eyes in You as we yearn our Eternal Place
(short prayer)
“Your faith has made you well”, says Jesus. When our faith is placed in Jesus, it makes us well. Because it gives all these precious gifts we just sang again. It imparts to our hearts what we need most. And of course, it is also reflected in material blessings. This sermon is not about downplaying God’s provision for our material needs but about highlighting God’s provision for our whole being and our whole life – even when the physical gifts are not present, at least not as we dreamt bout them. The spiritual gifts he gives will always be there.
This is an invitation to thankfulness. This is an invitation to stand firm in our faith that has made us well, that receives forgiveness and that is thankful for all the good things God pours into our lives.
Cc – Pastor, should we be thankful today for housing, clothing, jobs, health, and everything our eyes see? Absolutely, please, keep including those in your daily prayers. But this all shall pass. Remember always to include also what your heart sees in Christ: He is the giver of all gifts. We thankfully stand firm in Him, our Redeemer. Ingratitude hurts. But Christ heals our ungrateful hearts and floods them with all that is good[3] so that we can stand firm each and every day, until our last day. In Christ, our faith makes us well.
Thanks be to God! Amen.
[1] Luke 17
[2] James chapter 2
[3] Philippians 4
