Thank you, Jesus!

Let's turn to the Word of God as found in the Gospel of Luke, and the 17th chapter, the 11th verse. Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him.

They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, Jesus, Master, have pity on us. When he saw them, he said, go show yourselves to the priests, and as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.

He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him, and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Or as the original says, the nine, where? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? Then he said to him, rise and go. Your faith has made you well.

Let's go to the Psalms. Psalm 117, 118. Give thanks.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever. I was pushed, verse 13.

I was pushed back and about to fall, but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation.

Verse 17, I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the Lord has done. Verse 19, open for me the gates of righteousness. Verse 28, you are my God, and I will give thanks.

You are my God, and I will exalt you. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever.

Five times at least in that psalm, the writer expresses gratitude to God. Let's go to 2nd Corinthians, and a little verse just tucked away at the end of the eighth chapter, the ninth chapter. Verse 15, thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.

I suppose if there is one thing that characterizes the twentieth century, it is this, that we're not as quick as to acknowledge kindliness as we ought to be. Our Anglican friends in their Book of Common Prayer have a particular acknowledgment of the grace of God, where the congregation will say, it is meet, right, and our bounden duty at all times and in every place to give thanks to thee, O God. When our Lord was on earth, almost the last thing He did before His horrific death, in the company of His disciples, was to set up a little memorial, acknowledging the type of death that He would die.

And He said to them, as often as you take bread, and as you break it, as often as you hold the goblet of wine and drink it, remember me. As though our Lord was saying, fellows, I've done something for you, something that will, when you think over it in the years to come, be beyond your wildest dreams to fully comprehend, though your understanding then will be greater than it is now. And I want you always to be a thankful and a thanksgiving type of people.

There is in the history of the church a special service that is given the posh name, never allow Latin terms to put you off, because actually the English language derives a great deal from the Latin. And one Latin name that is given to a service is the Eucharist, which actually is a verb that gives the concept of acknowledging something that has been done, giving thanks. When the Apostle Paul was writing to the Corinthians, he speaks about the gift into this world from God the Heavenly Father of our Lord Jesus, and magnificently in that ninth chapter of the second epistle to the Corinthians, he contrasts and commends the kindness of early Christians with the even more magnificent generosity of God.

And he strains the Greek language to its very limit as he tries to weigh up what God has done for this world in sending Jesus, born in a manger, dying on a cross, and being raised from the dead. And he says, thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. And as I've punned on several occasions from this pulpit, the best word to translate the Greek is actually a nonsense word in as much as it's not in the English dictionary, but everybody knows it.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Beyond your wildest dreams. Now, isn't it interesting that when the Bible sets the scene of the Nativity, one of the rivers of meaning and emotion that flows through the various narratives is the river of joy.

I mean by that, here is Mary. She's no more than a teenager. And in the most wonderful language, particularly captured in its beauty in the Authorized Version, she is told that she will conceive and bear a son.

And when Mary appreciates just what is being told her by her angelic visitor, she rejoices in the words of the Magnificat. This is what God has done. He's taken the poor, unknown, the uninfluential, inconsequential teenage girl from Galilee, and he has appointed her to be the medium whereby into this world should be born God's own Son, God incarnate.

The Lord has done great things for me, whereof I am glad there were shepherds abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flock. Shepherds were amongst the riffraff of society at that time. They'd fallen professionally from the standing that they had in earlier books in the Bible.

And it was these unknown shepherds that received the information that born in Bethlehem, just a mile or so from the undulating pasture land where they'd looked after their sheep, that born in Bethlehem was someone so special that they should leave their sheep for a while and go and see Him. And we're told that the angels, the very people who brought this information to the shepherds, they were ecstatic. And we're told that the shepherds were informed that they ought to be filled with a sense of great joy for all that had been achieved that particular night when an old, faithful, righteous couple, almost pensioners, received the news that despite the age of Elizabeth's womb, she too was to bear a son.

When that son was born, her husband who temporally had been struck dumb erupts in a paean of praise and thanksgiving for what the Lord has achieved. Throughout the whole of those narratives and indeed the prophetic anticipation of those narratives in the Old Testament, there is the concept of joy, there is the concept of thanksgiving. Thank you, Lord, for what you have done.

Now here is my argument, and this is the reason for this evening. You see, we're stealing a march, or just about, on the world of commerce. They will soon be broadcasting the dawning of Christmas in the shops, and there will be the regular exploitation of this season, with a bit of a religious veneer, but not much.

And what we're wanting to do is to say to you good friends, this evening, that we are moving into the season when we commemorate the greatest gift of all, and we long to see Christ put back into the festivity. You see, the gift of Jesus, to quote an old Anglican theologian, is a gift that triggers all other gifts. It's not Santa Claus or Father Christmas, though that's not dishonorable in terms of its mythology.

It's good for the kids. But the real reason for giving presents is to reflect the generosity of God, who gave a gift to us that was well thought out. Long before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, God had determined he would visit the world in this fashion, and at the right moment the gift came, and it was tailor-made for the needs of people like you and me.

And it's meet, right, and our bounden duty to stop at the beginning of Advent season, and to thank this great God for this incredible gift. You see, there will be three reactions once again to Christmas. There will be those who will ignore the gift.

To them it is not particularly important, or particularly unimportant. They're sort of neutral about it. And then there will be those who will reject it, bringing Christianity into Christmas, I ask you.

That stupid sort of reaction you'll discover. But then there will be those, and surely the larger part of this company this evening is described in this particular group, who are so thankful. Almost like a kid on December the 25th, enthusiastically diving into his stocking or whatever they give children in these days, taking out the present and unwrapping it, and a sense of joy that what he wanted has come his way.

But the present that God gives is far, far greater, and it's our opportunity and our right to thank the Lord for what he has done for us. You see, one of the things that hurt Jesus, one of the things that hurt our Lord was the ingratitude of these lepers, ten of whom had come to him and sought physical relief. Only one was non-Jew, a Samaritan.

The others of our Lord's nationality went back to their own homes. I'm not suggesting they didn't have any sense of indebtedness at all, but the fact of the matter is they never registered it. They never came back.

Just this one. And our Lord, when he sees this man, he says, the nine, where? Why not give thanks? They had the opportunity, but they didn't seize it. Now this evening, in a more relaxed fashion than normal, and in a very thoughtful way, we're going to thank the Lord that Jesus came.

Twelve days after his birth, they took him, Mary and Joseph, to the temple, and there he was circumcised. There was the shedding of blood, and the blood that tinged that early manger was prophetic of a fountain of blood which would flow from his body some thirty-two or thirty-three years later. He was born to die.

He came as Savior, and we're going to thank him this evening. In our songs, some will be slow. At times, you'll just listen to music.

You'll follow words. All the words have scripture at the back of them, and then later on, as we conclude, we'll go to an old-fashioned hymn of praise, and thank the Lord for his goodness and his grace. With you, O Lord, is life in all its fullness, and in your light we shall see true light.

With you, O Lord, is life in all its fullness, and in your light we shall see true light. With you, O Lord, is life in all its fullness, for we can see him in heaven as God the Lord in Jesus today. Because of Jesus, we enjoy the light of God.

We enjoy his love, and we do so in an enormous company, the company of angels, the saints, followers of God that go right down through the ages. And so as we now sing Adoramus Te, O Christe, as Pastor Tony has already pointed out, we're singing words that have been sung by followers of Christ down through the centuries. We join with them, with this company, adoring Jesus.

Adoramus Te With the angels and archangels, Adoramus Te With the patriarchs and prophets, Adoramus Te With all who witness to the gospel of the Lord, Adoramus Te With all your people of the church throughout the world, Adoramus Te Adoramus Te It is he who forgives all your guilt, who heals every one of your ease, who redeems your life from the grave, who crowns you with love and compassion. Yes, the Lord pursues you with your holy hand. The Lord is compassion and love, slow to anger and rich in mercy.

He does not treat us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our faults. Bless the Lord, my soul, and bless your broken knees. Bless the Lord, my soul.

As a father has compassion on his children, the Lord has pity on those who fear him. For he knows of what we are made, he remembers that we are but dust. Father, we pray for those who are seeking a touch from you in their lives, those who came into our service here ruffled and perplexed.

We thank you for your word, and we thank you for this table. We thank you for songs, some unusual, but nonetheless emphasizing the truth of scripture. We thank you for yourself.

We thank you for healing. We thank you for the peace which our Lord Jesus gives. We ask that we might go on into peace, and ever be grateful for all that you have done for us, not like the nine who fail to show gratitude, always like the one, Praising God, blessing the Lord, my soul, for all he has done for me.

Amen. Before David continues and leads us to this last piece, some of our youngsters, I think, have to go to Little Hampton. We don't mind if you slip out, as long as you go fairly quietly.

But David, just take us into this final piece, and towards the end we'll stand. And as we stand, our friends who served us with bread and wine will have the opportunity to get these glasses back as well. As we rest in the light of God, as we rest in his love, so we find peace.

And we are encouraged by Jesus to take that peace out and about, not to just keep it to ourselves. And we will find, as we already, I'm sure, very often have found, that as we go about with his light and his love and his peace, we do not need to say much. George is going to sing these words of Jesus to us, and then we'll sing the song gently together.

My peace I give you, trouble not your hearts. My peace I leave you, my peace I give you. Be not afraid.

My peace I give you, my peace I give you. Be not afraid. My peace I give you, my peace I give you.