Living Lives of Gratitude by The Rev. Donald L. Hamer
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Trinity Episcopal Church
Thanksgiving Day 2016
Deut. 26: 1-11 Psalm 100 Phil. 4:4-9 John 6:25-35
As you know, Trinity Church is home to Trinity Academy, where we serve 40 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders in an extended day, tuition –free, private school setting. One of the important aspects of a church-based school is the teaching of values, and if you take a look along the stairway from Goodwin Hall to the 4th grade classroom upstairs, you see several of those values prominently displayed on the walls: Responsibility, excellence, respect, integrity, leadership, community.
At the recently held Biennial Conference of the National Association of Episcopal Schools, David Coleman, President of the College Board, that one of the distinctive contributions of religiously-based schools is the cultivation of two unique values that form the foundation for many of the other values we teach: those are grace and gratitude. Coleman noted that many college admissions people note the absence of gratitude among young people of college age today.
In his weekly meditation sent to all Episcopal Schools, Fr. Dan Heischman, Executive Director of the National Association of Episcopal Schools, wondered: How might we notice that absence of gratitude in any human being? Would it be the absence of saying, “Thank you?” Would chronic stress or anxiety serve to inhibit it? Would it be connected to our contemporary focus on what we lack, as opposed to what we have? Or would it stem from an increasingly secular orientation to life, where grace might seem to be unacknowledged and where references to God, the source of our blessings, seem in short supply?
What does one’s life look like when it is rooted in genuine gratitude? The context of today’s Gospel passage provides some insight into what Jesus means about living a life of gratitude, and it centers on our having a right relationship with God. Today’s passage occurs as part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount which includes, among other sayings, what we know as the Beatitudes, beginning with the admonition, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” This passage also follows closely the passage in which Jesus has just taught his disciples how to pray what we know as the Lord’s Prayer, with its petition to “Give us this day our daily bread.” Jesus is speaking to his disciples, all of whom have left gainful employment in the secular world to join Jesus’ small band of faithful followers. They no longer provide for themselves – their livelihood and wellbeing are now at the mercy of sympathizers in the community who will provide them with clothing, with shelter, with food and other basic necessities.
I believe that giving thanks to God is not about the expectation of God providing us with the things or stuff in our lives. I think that giving thanks to God is an attitude toward our own lives, and a visceral, central understanding of our relationship to the God who created us and all things. And when Jesus advises us “not to worry” he is not saying that bad things won’t happen to us, or that we will have everything we want out of life.
The key is in Jesus’ question, “Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” Jesus is not saying that such considerations lack importance. He is saying that they are secondary to the ultimate meaning of lives that are created in God’s image, and for whom Jesus walked this earth and died.
Jesus calls us to an attitude of gratitude. Jesus calls us to give thanks for all the possibilities that come with life in God’s Spirit, for all of the aspects of our lives that give them ultimate meaning.
On Thanksgiving Day, we give thanks for our very lives, for being the people God has made us to be. We give thanks for God’s grace to become the people God intends for us to be, understanding that those lives include times of happiness and times of sadness, occasions when God seems near, and occasions when God seems more distant. We give thanks for those opportunities when we can reflect God’s presence to others, and we give thanks for those opportunities when our own powers are not enough, when we seek and find God’s face in the fellowship and support of others. We give thanks when God has blessed us in such a way that we can give back to God abundantly, and we give thanks when, lacking our own resources, God takes care of us through the bounty of others.
So what does a life based in gratitude look like? Going back to Dan Heischman’s meditation, he writes that he found an example in the life of the late PBS news commentator Gwen Ifill. He says that when he thought about what she brought to her roles on PBS News Hour or Washington Week in Review “I realized what the presence or absence of gratitude is all about: a basic orientation to life, seen in how we treat others, deal with setbacks, and keep life’s joys and travails in perspective. It also had to do with a part of Gwen Ifill’s life that much of the media would not likely report on, her deep faith in God and regular attendance at church. God was at the core of her life and the source of so much that made her a distinctive figure in the news world.
“She also modeled the Christian life as reflected in some of the tributes of her colleagues: how she rejoiced in the accomplishments of others, took friendship so seriously, and was quick to admit what she did not know. She radiated calmness, dignity, and respect for those she interviewed or engaged in conversation. These attributes seemed to point to the final things said in tribute to her: She embodied a belief that life was good, which made her deeply aware of what she had in life. Her life was about gratitude.”
On this Thanksgiving Day 2016, we can lament many things going on this world, many things that we as individuals have little power to change. One thing we CAN change is our relationship with God and with each other, and doing so with an open heart and an open mind: Living a life that recognizes the presence of God both when we are able to give to others in need AND when we are able freely to receive the gifts others have to give to us. And we give thanks – thanks for the heavenly and earthly fellowship we have in the One who assures us in this morning’s Gospel, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” AMEN.