“One turned back … giving him thanks”
It is the quintessential thanksgiving Gospel that embraces all the forms of thanksgiving, both harvest thanksgiving and national thanksgivings. It does so in the face of poor harvests and trying political, social, and economic times. Thanksgiving is profoundly spiritual. As the Gospel shows, in returning and giving thanks, we are made whole. Here is the deeper meaning of thanksgiving for it is about the greater gathering of all things to God, from the lowly zucchini to the mighty pumpkin, and of our humanity to its truth in God. This is signalled in the Eucharist, which means thanksgiving, thanksgiving as rooted and grounded in the love of Christ for us and for our world.
Thanksgiving is the freest thing that we can do. Like learning and religion, it can’t be forced. It has to come freely from our hearts and minds. We constantly remind children to say ‘thank-you’, but real thanksgiving can’t be coerced. It belongs to the intellectual and spiritual freedom of our humanity as embodied spiritual and intellectual beings. It counters all and every aspect of the entitlement culture in the assumption that we are owed whatever we want and think we deserve. Its significance is captured in the power of prepositions. Prepositions?! Why prepositions? Because we can’t make any sense of thanksgiving without giving serious consideration to prepositions, particularly three prepositions, namely ‘for’, ‘to’, and ‘with’.
What is so special about prepositions? What are they? They are one of the parts of speech. They are those little words which carry a great weight of meaning and are often so hard to master when learning a new language. They position nouns and verbs in relation to one another to indicate meaning and purpose. Theology is really all about prepositions in the idea of the gathering of all things into unity in God: the God from whom all things come, the God to whom all things return, and the God in whom all things have their being, especially our being with God – to use but a few. Paul in Ephesians, the Epistle for Trinity 17, recalls our vocation to “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all;” more prepositions that complement the thanksgiving theme of the gathering of all things to their truth and fullness in God.
First, thanksgiving is for something or other acknowledged as good. Rather than taking all the good things of life for granted and/or thinking that we deserve what we enjoy, we give thanks for the good things we have as a gift. Secondly, there can be no thanksgiving without the idea of giving thanks to someone; ultimately, in the religious and spiritual traditions, to God, the ultimate source of all and every good. We give thanks to God for what we recognise that we have received through the labours, the care, the thought and the actions of ourselves and others. At harvest thanksgiving, those labours and the fruits of the earth in their season are only conceivable by human labour working with the good order of creation. And all because of the providential care and love of the author of all that is, God.
But let us pause and consider that third preposition, ‘with’ a little more closely for it goes to the heart of our thanksgiving celebrations. Thanksgiving is a fundamental feature of religion as one of the forms of prayer, the prayer of thanksgiving. It is an integral and essential part of the liturgy. We give thanks to God together, in other words with one another as a community of spirit and purpose. Yet our thanksgivings with one another extend to the idea of sharing with one another the good things which we are privileged to enjoy. We share with others who do not have the things which we have. Thanksgiving is ‘for’, ‘to’ and ‘with’.
The Gospel story of the one leper, a Samaritan, who returned and gave thanks to Jesus after he was healed, reveals the power of thanksgiving. It is a totally free act. There were ten that were cleansed. Only one returned to give thanks. About him, Jesus says, “Arise go your way. Your faith has made you whole.” Not just healed but whole, complete. In returning and giving thanks, we are made whole. He gives thanks for his healing; he gives thanks to God, glorifying God and falling down on his face at the feet of Jesus. Such are the motions of intention in the liturgy really. But what about that third preposition, with? He is made whole, Jesus says, not just healed, it seems. What is that wholeness except our being with God in whom our humanity finds its truth and being?
Voltaire, in his classic novel, Candide, takes us to El Dorado in Latin America, an imaginary place. It is an utopia which, like all utopias, functions not just as an ideal place but as a critique of the status quo, the existing power dynamics in the cultures of the Europe of his day. The question is raised about the religion of El Dorado. It is, we are told, entirely a religion of thanksgiving. They have all that they need for which they are profoundly grateful. This is Voltaire’s critique of the greed and exploitation of 18th century European culture. It counters those same features in the contemporary world of global capitalism.
To be thankful is the freest action of our humanity and it is what we are meant to learn from the leper who was also a Samaritan; in short, an outsider whom Jesus uses yet again to teach us about the highest things of our humanity. It is our recognition of the things for which, and the one to whom and with whom we are thankful, namely God, together with all whom we are thankful and with whom we share the good things of creation and human labour even in the hard times.
Harvest Thanksgiving celebrates the gathering in of the fruits of creation and human labour, God be willing, but it is also about the gathering of our souls to God in the realization that all that we have – both the fruits of creation through human labour and the healing of our wounded and sin-wracked humanity – comes from God, the fons et origo, the fount and source of all good things. Thanksgiving is, profoundly, about our participation in the goodness of God himself; it is our being with God.
Ultimately, we participate in the great thanksgiving of the Son to the Father. We are gathered to him in prayer and praise in “the sacrifice of prayer and thanksgiving,” as our liturgy so beautifully puts it. What more can be said? What more can we do than to be thankful? “Come ye thankful people come!” Come to the great festival of thanksgiving where we are more than healed. We are made whole but only in returning and giving thanks. Be with God in Christ Jesus. Be with the one who “turned back, giving him thanks.”
Fr. David Curry
Harvest Thanksgiving, Trinity 17, 2025
(2014 reworked)