Thanksgiving Day (Luke 17:11-19)

Five blocks north of the University of Washington in Seattle, near the corner of 50th and University, there was a little storefront painted Mediterranean blue. The sign, blue letters on a white background, read “Sahara” and had little camels painted on it. Frankly, it was not very promising-looking, had little street-appeal. Inside, there were 15 small tables with white tablecloths and glass tops. The walls were decorated with paintings done on white ceramic tiles, portraying the heroes of the owners, including Dwight D. Eisenhower, though the place of honor and largest painting showed the “Mahmoud grandparents,” the parents of Gus, the owner. Gus and his family were from Lebanon, and they ran the restaurant themselves, with their one employee, a gracious waiter from Morocco. Gus and his wife did the cooking, including the handmade baklava. Their son and his wife helped with the cooking and serving, and the grandkids were often to be found playing or doing homework or helping out. The food was wonderful – I still dream of their lemon chicken and shish kebabs. But what made it a truly memorable restaurant, one that we went back to over and over, was that Gus made it his business to invite everyone who walked through the door into this family, if only for a few minutes. When you walked in the door, he greeted you at the door with a huge smile and wide arms, and showed you to a seat. If it was your second or seventieth time there he remembered you. As he showed you to your seat, he asked about your health, your family, your life, and pulled the chair out for you. Whenever you thanked him, whether for seating you or for bringing water, he responded in a huge booming voice, “You are welcome!” And you knew that you were indeed welcome, in every sense of the word. And it was Gus’ great pleasure to be the source of that welcome for the time that you spent in his restaurant.
It is God’s great pleasure to be the source of that welcome for you in the world. And, like Gus, God wants to offer that welcome directly to you. So much did God want to offer that welcome directly, “in person” so to speak, that God came into the world as a human being, as Jesus Christ. In today’s story, we see an example of the welcome that God came to share. Jesus, walking along the road, enters a village and is approached by ten lepers. These are the last people to expect any welcome from Jesus, since they receive no welcome from anyone else they meet. Yet they approach him and ask him for mercy. And Jesus gives it to them. He tells them to go to the priests, and on the way they were made clean. Jesus doesn’t require anything of them, he simply sends them to the priests. It seems that they don’t even have to go there, since they are made well on their way to the priests. We don’t really know what happened to nine of them from that point on. They may have done exactly what Jesus told them to – gone to the priests. They have obeyed Jesus’ command, and they are anxious to have the priests restore them to society now that they are clean. They can’t be blamed for that.
But one, a Samaritan, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. But Jesus looked around for the other nine, “where are they?” We often hear Jesus’ remark here as scolding. Like when someone gives my daughter Grace a gift, and I nag, “Say thank you!” Read one way, Jesus says, “But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God?” But read another way we might hear the longing in Jesus’ voice, the desire to know where they are, so that he can go and find them, and know them and be their friend. “But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God?” In that reading, we hear Jesus’ desire to say “You are welcome!” He has said it to the one who came back, but he still wants to share the welcome of God with those other nine. Jesus wants more than a healing, Jesus wants wholeness. Jesus wants more than a quick encounter in the street, Jesus wants a relationship. God wants a relationship.
It was for relationship that God came to us, that God continues to come to us. Over and over, God tells us, “You are welcome!” We first hear that message in the promises of baptism, when we are welcomed into the body of Christ, sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross. “You are welcome!” We hear it each week when we join in the Eucharist, a word that comes from the Greek for thanksgiving or grateful. While we give thanks for God’s willing sacrifice for our sake, God again offers God’s own self to us in bread and wine. “You are welcome!” And we hear it from one another, in so many ways, when we offer friendship, support, prayers, fellowship, and love. “You are welcome!” Our friend Gus chose to carry out his calling from God by opening a restaurant and sharing God’s welcome with all who entered. Each of us is called to offer God’s loving welcome to one another. Christ Church Lutheran practices hospitality and welcome with one another, and is intentionally working to turn that hospitality outward to our neighbors. It is a challenge, but it is also a joy. Gus has retired now, and the Sahara has closed. But I will always remember the hospitality that Gus offered me and so many others. It was genuine, it was a joy. It was an inspiration to learn how to share the same joy that Gus always took in saying to each person he hosted, “You are welcome!”
We are called to receive that welcome as well. God desires relationship with us so much that God came to earth in human form, as a tiny baby. God desires relationship with us so much that the Father gave His only Son to die for us. And for that, we give our thanks, not only today, but every day. God wants our thanks, not because God needs it, but because God wants the chance to say to us, “You are welcome!”