Sunday 19th April – Thankful One – Pastor Adrian Kitson

12-04-2026, Luke 17:11-19, pastor adrian kitson, thanksgiving

Luke 17:11-19,

¹¹Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus travelled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. ¹²As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy^[^a^] met him. They stood at a distance ¹³and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

¹⁴When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

¹⁵One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. ¹⁶He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.

¹⁷Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? ¹⁸Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” ¹⁹Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

2 Corinthians 9:6-15

⁶Remember this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. ⁷Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. ⁹As it is written:

‘They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;
their righteousness endures for ever.’^[^a^]

¹⁰Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. ¹¹You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

¹²This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. ¹³Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. ¹⁴And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. ¹⁵Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

If I was one of those ten lepers who got their life back from the healing words of Jesus, today at least, I would be the one that came back to thank him. It may not always be that way every day, but it is today.

I am thankful to Jesus for giving me a baptised resurrection life in the Lutheran Church of Australia and for sustaining me in his life of purpose, grace and hope here in the St Petri community.

I love this church! We are open and active in not just being church but in Jesus’ kingdom advancing.

Did you know that we have somewhere around the same number of people in our building for worship services on the weekend joining us online most weeks?
Did you know that we have close to twenty little children with their mums enjoying being part of our play group called HoOT every fortnight in our hall?
Did you know that some of those non-church connected mums and their whole families have also rubbed shoulders with us in the Messy Church community and even at worship on Sunday morning?

Did you know that we continue to have contact and bear witness to the grace of Jesus among disconnected church people from all over this region in sheds all over this region in our Shed Happens community and in our hall in the Messy Church community?

Did you know that we hear constant stories from people around the region expressing thankfulness and meaning in how they feel connected to us and the whole Lutheran Church and the Lord because they participate with us in prayer and song and sermon on line or via hand delivered DVD’s?

Did you know that now hundreds of people regularly listen to the sermons that are preached here each week via podcast all over the world.

Did you know that other Lutheran churches have and are participating in our online worship services as part of how they gather for their worship gathering on the weekend?

Without vision the people perish because they lose all shape, all unity of purpose all focus (Proverbs 29:18). Well, thanks to Jesus, we are not perishing! The Lord of the church has gifted us with vision: to see the grace of God the Father in the cross and empty tomb of his Son Jesus coming to life in more people in this community.

I love the fact that we are not a church who is content to drift along being an inward looking group who are not prepared to pay the price of reaching out into other people’s lives, but we actively take that biblical responsibility and privilege on.

We are also a church that can change and have. Sure, like any other church of flawed sinners, we don’t always do change well, but we have adapted to the big changes in how people live their lives and receive the good news as best as we can.

How about our Wednesday morning Holy Communion service. How about our family space under the balcony. How about our digital presence on social media and how about our easy to access, up=to-date and well used website… These tools enable us to be somewhere in people’s lives because we are on their screens. especially those who might not call themselves ‘members of St Petri or even ‘Christian’.

Did you know we have 18 people join a group conversation in the Book of Isaiah through Lent.

Did you know we changed the time of our Lenten gatherings from the traditional 7.30pm to 5.45pm to try and make it one more step easier for different people to participate in those gatherings? And the thing is, it has not really worked. Not many new people have come. But that is not an issue. We tried and we will keep trying because it is not about success but about being faithful to a Kingdom heart not about numbers or getting everything instantly right. We ‘fail well’ around here. We fail and we learn and we try again – all with joy and purpose in Jesus.

This is a church that is living in the grace of the Lord by sharing the love and hope of Jesus with anyone who will listen or receive such a gift.

We are not about ‘surviving’ or ‘keeping the doors open’ or looking good or being in control and powerful or just retreating into the good old days and doing what used to work very well but no longer does. We are a mission outpost of Jesus new creation in this region, and that is fulfilling and satisfying even if it is hard and not always clear and not ‘successful’ by the way most people judge ‘success’.

That one who returned would not have given a toss about being ‘successful’ I am sure! He was just happy to be with Jesus and tell the story of what happened the day Jesus met him.

And did you know that we have a leadership group who listen to the Lord and listen to the community and listen to you to try and discern what to do and what to leave off?

You belong to a local church with focus. We are working in six specific areas of mission so we actually do something rather than trying to do everything and end up not doing much at all. We are focussed in.

Engaging children young people and families in the gospel life

Working with and serving our Seniors

Hosting our Sunday mornings with hospitality and gospel faithfulness

Establishing a regional learning hub to serve and support people across our region

Finding ways to celebrate God’s life and love together, and

Being in the place where most people in our community source just about everything – on their phone or computer.

Are you thankful for this church? Are you thankful for your life here and for Jesus who gives you a life you can’t live without his life and love at work in you? Hope you can be.

I know that you and I can see that we easily can be one of the nine people healed and restored by Jesus who don’t bother to come back and say thanks. But maybe we can be the one who did return today?

If we can be thankful we can be so generous and free and so useful to Jesus’ kingdom advancing. I suspect that one healed man lived his more like this after he was given his life back then less.

That thankfulness to God produced a generosity among people. It was there from day one of the first church

This thankfulness among God’s people bred this ongoing generosity. We see it here in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthian community.

Paul speaks of a general church-wide appeal for the Jerusalem Christians who were at this later time suffering under drought, famine and persecution. Paul called on the Corinthians and other local communities across the Mediterranean region to give; specifically, their money; to ‘practice thankfulness’ in generous giving.

Paul does not demand set amounts or puts ‘the guilts’ on anyone. He is like Jesus with those ten lepers. Jesus did not demand they come back and thank him. They either did or they did not. One did.

Surely Paul knew that if you try and guilt people into being generous, they will resent it and you. They will be under compulsion; give because ‘I have to’. Giving won’t be freeing. It will be done with all the reluctance in the world, and usually on a minimalistic way – “give the bare minimum to keep him off your back” or just to ‘be seen giving’ to keep your name up.

So, there is no ‘guilting’ or specific rulings about what we give for the Lord’s work in this local church. Like the ten healed people, you either give or you don’t. But the encouragement is to be the one, not the nine.

⁷Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Do we need generosity? Yes we do. All local gospel communities do.

Why?

Because mission costs money and effort.
Because people need Jesus’ truth and grace.
But even more, because,

⁸…. God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

and because;

¹¹You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

Like a row of vines, or a paddock of wheat, when we give generously of ourselves and our resources, we sow something that grows.

So, what kind of church are you glad to be participating in and what is the Lord calling you to contribute? What kind of future do you want to share and bequeath to the next generations who live in the beautiful Valley?

I am not praying that ‘the doors of this church don’t close of our watch’ but that the Kingdom of Jesus advances on our watch so that this Barossa Valley has a place of hope, of truth, or compassion, of justice, of care, or purpose all centred in the healing grace of this risen Jesus.

If you are the one who came back to give thanks and worship Jesus, which I assume you are because you are hear worshipping Jesus, then what would your thankfulness flow over into; what could you do to further that wonderful healing grace that is yours?

I pray you are thankful to the Lord Jesus today and that this has its effect of generosity of spirit toward him and others so that you trust his promises to you and generously share yourself and what you have in whatever way. This is how you and we all grow. The promise to you is clear:

“You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God” among many here and beyond…(1 Corinthians 9:11)

O Lord, make prayers for you fill our hearts and many more heart, even of people yet unborn because of the surpassing grace God you have given us in this life under the Easter Servant King.

¹⁵Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift and this community of faith!

See, I am doing a new thing’ says the Lord. And;

“You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God” among many here and beyond…(1 Corinthians 9:11)