thanksgiving-sermon.md

St. Paul’s Nov. 22, 2015

Thanksgiving Day
Year B RCL
Joel 2:21-27
Psalm 126
1 Timothy 2:1-7
Matthew 6:25-33
Last Sunday after Pentecost: Christ the King
Proper 29
Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14
Psalm 93
Revelation 1:4b-8
John 18:33-37
Year B
lectionary
text this week
draft1

Gratitude does not come easily

As an annual celebration of the harvest and its bounty, moreover, Thanksgiving falls under a category of festivals that span cultures, continents, and millennia. In ancient times, the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans feasted and paid tribute to their gods after the fall harvest. Thanksgiving also bears a resemblance to the ancient Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot. Finally, historians have noted that Native Americans had a rich tradition of commemorating the fall harvest with feasting and merrymaking long before Europeans set foot on their shores. citation

• Prophet Joel a strange reading, with apocalyptic as well as pastoral images
• Ps 126 like a vision of the restoration at hand
• Timothy urging supplications and thanksgivings
• Matthew: don’t worry about … Gentiles strive for these things … rather strive for Kingdom of God righteousness

The images we receive from the gospel for this day are attractive.
Look at the birds of the air; … Are you not of more value than they? … Consider the lilies of the field,
When my son and I took kayaks down the Catawba back in August, one of the most poignant aspects was that we put ourselves into the midst of natural patterns and of nature itself that I could really appreciate it. The herons over in the tidepool. The turtles sunning themselves on the rocks.
In many ways I was grateful.
Jesus also speaks to us through the gospel and makes clear that to be a follower of the kingdom we need to let go of worry, of all the things that we can find to be anxious of. That none of those things “add a single hour to your span of life” he says.
Thanksgiving Day is a day that has evolved for us all too often into countless opportunities to worry. All the food preparation. Storage in the refrigerator. Family traveling. What will we do with Uncle Zachariah (whatever the particular family member is that can be depended on to say something inappropriate or sure to cause offense to someone.) All the freight surrounding watching sports, the winners and losers, the ones who presume too much and those who resent too much… oh it’s a tremendous opportunity to hold onto stuff rather than let it go.

Gratitude knows when to let go

To move to a spirit of gratitude takes some doing, some intentionality, some decision-making that this is going to happen. To give up worry and anxiety is to let go, to let God, …
to move from “This is the day that the Lord has made …” to “Serenity prayer”
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
The Serenity Prayer, penned by theologian Reinhold Niebuhr and adopted by Alcoholics Anonymous, says so much in so few words:
By[^1] adopting gratitude, we can discover that what we imagine is is vital to our well-being may well be the thing that stands in the way of vision of the gospel.
If we can let go of anxiety, we have the freedom and the peace to be able to recognize that we have far more than we need.
[^1] see citation

Gratitude knows what is important

Zach was born with his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. As might be expected he developed cerebral palsey. He was not severally handicapped but visibly so and I knew that socially he often discriminated against. I knew him from my parish in Michigan City many years ago.
There was another side of Zach that I also knew. I saw the emotion, the passion, the excitement that he showed when he served as an acolyte. In a Sunday School class he gave me the best definition of ordination that I have ever heard. [I’ll have to tell you that story later.] I had tears when I saw him carry the cross one Good Friday, with his shuffle, his determination, his inner joy all the way around the church.
Zach showed me what gratitude was like when you knew what important and what was not.

Gratitude costs

“You’re not you”

Kate (Hilary Swank), a classical pianist is diagnosed with ALS. Her husband Evan (Josh Duhamel) tries to find someone to take care of his wife. Bec (Emmy Rossum) – a college student – applies for the job despite her lack of experience. Kate sees something special in Bec and wants to have her as her caregiver to help her with everyday things
A drama centered on a classical pianist who has been diagnosed with ALS and the brash college student who becomes her caregiver.
The phrase came at a point where Kate (the piano player) can no longer speak to carry on a conversation, the caregiver (Bec) speaks for her. At one point she is speaking to her estranged husband – and Bec’s anger breaks into the simple translation – Kate says, “You’re not you” – meaning she’s supposed to just be speaking for herself.
In the end both characters have fought through many tears, the anguish of holding someone as she takes her last breath, knowing that she has been seen by another – truly loved – they have reached a place of peace (of Shalom) that they could each say, as it were, “They can take me away.” Both have learned, through the pain and the laughter, through the loss and the riches, – how to love.

Gratitude has an eye on God

Isaiah was another young person I knew in my parish in Honolulu. I met him when he was about 1 year old. He had been born to drug addicted parents and he had a number of learning type disabilities that it took him years to overcome.
I baptized him after his foster parents adopted him. I was there to greet him the day the judge made his ruling. We baptized him on Easter following that date. From that moment on Isaiah received communion, bread and wine, (we used real bread). And I will never forget the way he responded, his look, his expectant eyes, … He showed us what it looked like to be receiving God himself into his hands.
As a youngster of 4 Isaiah would go out and meet visitors to the church and if there was a child he would make sure that he or she was brought to the altar to receive “Jesus.”
Isaiah showed me that gratitude – deep gratitude – comes from keeping your eye on God and not on ourselves.

Gratitude has to be cultivated

Gratitude, like grace it turns out, isn’t free. It costs. It is hard won. It’s not something that comes with a privileged background.
It’s the grace that comes free. Our response, our response of gratitude to the grace we have received, comes with the cost of

• letting go
• keeping focused on what is important in our lives
• recognizing God as the source of it all
• and giving it away

For some it might take a lifetime of struggle to find that place of peace and gratefulness. For others it seems to accompany us from the earliest age. But never is it cheap. It is among the most valuable things there is.

You will welcome your priest home with gratitude

Sally will be back next week. I encourage you to welcome her with gratitude for what God has done in her life. She will have been in a special environment for over a week. Not just the time away, the vacation, the re-creation. But

• Clergy
• retreat
• education
• discernment
• opportunity

A priest friend of mine once said that a basic principle about personal expectations in presenting to people:

1. with a morning presentation, you can teach someone something
2. with a weekend with someone you can persuade them to do something
3. with a week or more you can hope to change someone

Your rector will have been changed by God. I don’t know how, but I give thanks for it.

Training for Gratitude

NB that next week Advent begins.
- time until Christmas
- school year, children at home, grandchildren to visit (we got a picture of our youngest – he looks so grown up. his mother says, “he’s not a baby any more. He’s a boy!”)
- a year of focus on another set of readings on Sunday (and if you use it, the daily lectionary)

Sharing our models for Gratitude

Finally, then, I want to make possible what I have always done on Thanksgiving – for 30 years or more. I invite others to share with us the things, the people, the events, for which they are grateful.
Perhaps you can share with us people or events like I have tried to evoke that mean “gratitude” for you.

Among the gems of the BCP is the prayer with which we can close:

Almighty God, Father of all mercies,
 we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks
 for all your goodness and loving-kindness
 to us and to all whom you have made.
 We bless you for our creation, preservation,
and all the blessings of this life;
 but above all for your immeasurable love
 in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ;
 for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.
 And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies,
 that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise,
 not only with our lips, but in our lives,
 by giving up our selves to your service,
 and by walking before you
 in holiness and righteousness all our days;
 through Jesus Christ our Lord,
 to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit,
 be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen.