Matthew 5:1-11
When
Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his
disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
“Blessed are
the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are
those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
“Blessed are
the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
“Blessed are
those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
“Blessed are
the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
“Blessed are
the pure in heart, for they will see God.
“Blessed are
the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
“Blessed are
those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven.
“Blessed are
you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil
against you falsely on my account.
Last week I attempted to take a concept that we perceive of
as simple, and explain it in a new light.
The main point that I wanted to make is that Gratitude is not transactional.
And I believe that if we can shift
the view of gratitude away from transaction --- we can change the world
Unfortunately, that is how most of us experience it.
Most of us
see gratitude in a debt/duty type of way
We often think of it in terms of some benefactor giving us a
gift
We are the beneficiaries
of that gift --- and we are in the benefactor’s debt for it
Think
of how often we say: I owe you a debt of gratitude
We are in debt until we discharge that debt.
How do we do that --- all kinds of
ways
·
giving a return gift
·
sending a thank-you note
·
doing a favor in return
This cycle of reciprocity is so pervasive in our society
that we don't even recognize it anymore --- it is just a part of the way things
are done.
But it also is hierarchical
Generally you have a benefactor --- who has more resources,
maybe even richer --- who then gives a benefit to people who are without the capacity
to have those things themselves.
This cycle is very demeaning to
people who are in need of our "generosity"
But, this is not the vision of gratitude that the bible
presents
In the Bible it is all about abundance and the sharing of
gifts for free without any expectation of return --- and the image that the
bible loves to use over and over again is one of table fellowship.
In the 14th chapter of Luke there is a great exchange
between Jesus and the Pharisees on what it means to be a follower of his.
Jesus is talking with some of the leaders of the Pharisees,
and they are discussing table etiquette.
First Jesus talks about where one should sit and he suggests
that we should give up the seat of honor and sit in the last place.
And then Jesus makes this rather profound comment.
I am going to share this from The Message (Luke 14:15-24),
the text says Jesus turns to the host of the party and says:
“The next time you put on a dinner, don’t just invite your
friends and family and rich neighbors, the kind of people who will return the
favor. Invite some people who never get invited out, the misfits from the wrong
side of the tracks. You’ll be—and experience—a blessing. They won’t be able to
return the favor, but the favor will be returned—oh, how it will be
returned!—at the resurrection of God’s people.”
Jesus seems to be
destroying the debt/duty understanding of gratitude and gift giving and quite
literally says to us --- that we must invite the poor BECAUSE there will not be
any payback.
Immediately
following that story, Luke gives us the story of the Great Banquet in which we
are charged to fill God's table with whomever can be found.
In other words,
we are all invited --- even though
we have no capacity to repay this gift.
Because it is a gift --- there is no obligation.
Personal
gratitude --- once we move beyond the debt/duty cycle to one of gift and
response is fairly easy.
·
being
more attentive to people around you
·
keeping
a gratitude journal
·
celebrate
each day --- as the gift that it is
I could go on and on, there are hundreds of books written
all the time about how we can experience gratitude more fully in our lives.
But how do we experience and live out gratitude in the
public square?
Diana Butler Bass wants to make clear in her book GRATEFUL,
that if gratitude is deployed as a transaction of debt and duty, it will then
become a mechanism of control in order to reinforce the structures of
injustice.
What she has challenged me to do, and what she is
challenging you to do --- is to see gratitude differently.
What if gratitude is put into the context of a communal
table?
What if gratitude is understood to exist within a universe
of abundance --- where, quoting Wendell Berry "everything we need is
here".
The question becomes for us:
How do we pass the gift around with no expectation of return to make
sure that everyone is fed and everyone is cared for and that everyone has
access to the good gifts of all creation?
Think how different the world would be if we lived with an
attitude of: How do we steward these gifts? rather than, How do we control
their distribution?
The responsibility of the Christian community (the Church)
is to build practices around the understanding of gratitude as table fellowship
so that we can create a doorway into grace and gift.
We need to help end the debt/ duty cycle and usher in God's
more grace-filled approach to gratitude.
So how do we do this?
How do we shift our attention away from the world's mode of
gratitude --- one that is based on debt and duty --- to God's vision of gratitude
that is filled with:
·
real grace
·
real gifts --- with no strings attached
·
and authentic response not drawn from obligation
but from real gratitude
The key I believe is attention --- attention to anything
that draws our eyes toward places where grace and gifts are present in our
lives (just a hint --- that is everywhere!)
Robert A. Emmons, is the world’s leading scientific expert
on gratitude.
He is a professor of psychology at the University of
California, at Davis, and is engaged in a long-term research project designed
to create and disseminate a large body of novel scientific data on the nature
of gratitude, its causes, and its potential consequences for human health and
well-being.
His website: Emmons Lab is
fascinating.
Along with all kinds of scholarly books, Robert Emmons has a
little tiny pocket book that can go anywhere with you called: The Little
Book of Gratitude. It offers great
tips on how to practice gratitude daily.
Emmonds' offers what he calls the "ARC" model of
gratitude:
Gratitude: amplifies
goodness
Gratitude: rescues
us from negative emotions, and
Gratitude: connects
us to others in meaningful ways.
Amplify, rescue, connect
but following this does not make it easy --- it just helps
us have tools along the way.
Mary Jo Leddy in her book Radical Gratitude offers
ten "habits of being that can help us live with spirit . . . in dispirited
time and place."
Her ten habits are:
1.
Begin before you are ready.
Take baby steps
"Beginning steps in gratitude do not have to be great or grand.
They need only be real"
2.
Practice gratitude
Prayers
Chants
Reflections (journals)
Meditation
3.
Gather with like spirited people
Find or create a group that is willing to be committed to practicing
gratefulness as a way of life
4.
Live more simply
Let go of material things that burden you
5.
Look for good examples to emulate
Learn from people who have
figured this out
We all have grateful people in
our lives, they can teach us a lot!
6.
Think with the Mind of Your Heart
Trust your feeling of gratefulness and your longing for a better way of
life.
7.
See from the Center and the Edge
See differently --- develop
"soft eyes"
eyes that see nuance, eyes
that are less judgmental
8.
Be Connected to a longer Tradition, a Wider
Community
Go deeper in your spiritual walk and learn from the masters of the past
9.
Find a Beloved Community
Get involved in your community
--- truly commit to it
10.
Contemplate the Face of the World
Gratitude empowers us to stare at reality and overcome what is
challenging, violent, and evil.
Do
not turn away from the world, turn toward it.
You don't need to do all ten things --- but you must do
number one BEGIN
Bass writes:
Leddy's list is a hinge between
personal and public practices of gratitude, but if we want to create a politics
of gratitude, we need to develop specific practices for shaping our common
life. If it is difficult to live
gratefully as individuals, achieving a communal sense of gratitude will
challenge us in profound ways.
Bass goes on and quotes from Robert Christian, a young Roman
Catholic ethicist as he was explaining the Golden Rule in an article called The Politics of Gratitude.
The politics of gratitude
necessarily leads to a focus on the common good and a whole life commitment to securing conditions that reflect the worth
and dignity of all. It leads one to
affirm the universal destination of goods --- the recognition that the goods of
creation "are destined for the whole human race." One's claim to such goods, to one's most
basic needs, is just as legitimate if one is an orphan in the Democratic
Republic of Congo as if one is born to a Senator or CEO in one of the wealthy
enclaves of the United States.
What a powerful political description of gift and response
gratitude when he wrote: goods of creation "are destined for the whole human
race.
The question is how can we move toward practicing generosity
in community?
Bass offers two suggestions.
First, those beloved communities that we are engaged and
committed to --- that Leddy talked about --- we need to focus on gratitude as a
community.
What would it look like if we focused only on GRATITUDE?
What if we started every meeting,
every class, every small group by sharing a few minutes of gratitude?
What if school boards did that? Or City Councils?
What if businesses emphasized how grateful they were for
their employees and their customers?
That is what
we saw happening Thursday night at the Holiday Block Party
The simple truth is; we cannot create a politics of
gratitude if we fail to practice it together.
Where else to begin but in our schools, our work places, and
our churches?
Secondly, Bass suggests that we need to frame a new
political language.
Too much of our political language is in the form of debt
and duty.
"Entitlements" is the
very antithesis of gratitude, and it provokes sharp, competitive feelings
between citizens. Far better is a
language of "benefit." We ---
all of us --- can, should, and do benefit from the goods of public resources
and economic growth (like education, transportation, and clean air and water.) We need to recognize that our lives are
profoundly dependent upon goods and gifts that others created and, in some way,
shared. We all receive, and we all
give. No one is only a "taker"
or a "maker." (p. 191)
Ann Fleming Tannehill sent me an article from the Wall
Street Journal this week written by A.J. Jacobs.
He started his piece by saying:
I recently had the opportunity to
gaze at one of the most mind-boggling accomplishments in history. This marvel
is the result of thousands of human beings collaborating across dozens of
countries. It required the combined labor of artists, biologists, politicians,
mechanics, miners and goatherds. It took airplanes, boats, trucks, motorcycles,
vans, pallets and shoulders. It depended on a vast range of materials, from
steel and wood to explosives and bat guano. It relied on ancient wisdom and
space-age technology, on freezing temperatures and scorching heat.
It is my morning cup of coffee.
His son, for some reason dared him to thank everyone who
helped bring about his coffee.
I pledged to thank every person who
had even the smallest role in making my cup of coffee a reality: the barista,
the farmer and everyone in between.
Some were easy and obvious to thank -- the barista, the
farmer --- but as he got thinking about it, there were thousands of people ---
the everyone in between --- who brought him his cup of morning Joe.
He traveled to Brazil, and New York City --- he even visited
NorthWest Indiana to thank the steel workers who made the steel for the coffee
machines.
What he realized is that we are all interconnected and all need
each other.
And ultimately that everything is a gift of one form or
another.
I don't know if you noticed the quote at the top of the
bulletin. It is from Albert Schweitzer.
“The greatest thing is to give
thanks for everything.
He who has learned this knows what
it means to live.
He has penetrated the whole mystery
of life: giving thanks for everything.”
I think Schweitzer figured it out.
To learn
gratitude is to know the "mystery" of life.
However, he makes a huge mistake in the bible verse he
alludes to.
We are not called to give thanks FOR all things, rather we
are called to give thanks IN all things.
That is a huge difference.
We don't give thanks for evil or injustice, for violence or
hatred.
But we give thanks that despite the evils, God is with us
showing us --- inviting us --- to a better way.
I chose the Beatitudes to be the text this morning, and I
did so for a simple reason. I wanted to
start with something that sets the table for gratitude.
Come to the table
All are welcome
All are invited
There is a place for you!
Give Thanks!
Diana Butler Bass concludes her book with this Thanksgiving
Prayer that I want to share with you and end with this morning.
Let us pray:
God, there are days we do not feel grateful. When we are
anxious or angry. When we feel alone. When we do not understand what is
happening in the world or with our neighbors. When the news is bleak,
confusing. God, we struggle to feel
grateful.
But this Thanksgiving, we choose gratitude.
We choose to accept life as a gift from you, and as a gift
from the unfolding work of all creation.
We choose to be grateful for the earth from which our food
comes; for the water that gives life; and for the air we all breathe.
We choose to thank our ancestors, those who came before us,
grateful for their stories and struggles, and we receive their wisdom as a
continuing gift for today.
We choose to see our families and friends with new eyes,
appreciating and accepting them for who they are. We are thankful for our homes, whether humble
or grand.
We will be grateful for our neighbors, no matter how they
voted, whatever our differences, or how much we feel hurt or misunderstood by
them.
We choose to see the whole planet as our shared commons, the
stage of the future of humankind and creation.
God, this Thanksgiving, we do not give thanks. We choose it.
We will make this choice of thanks with courageous hearts, knowing that it is
humbling to say “thank you.” We choose to see your sacred generosity, aware
that we live in an infinite circle of gratitude. That we all are guests at a
hospitable table around which gifts are passed and received. We will not let
anything opposed to love take over this table. Instead, we choose grace, free
and unmerited love, the giftedness of life everywhere. In this choosing, and in
the making, we will pass gratitude onto the world.
Thus, with you, and with all those gathered at this table,
we pledge to make thanks. We ask you to strengthen us in this resolve. Here,
now, and into the future. Around our family table. Around the table of our
nation. Around the table of the earth.
We choose thanks.
Amen.
