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Thanks be to God! Paul’s words of gratitude written to the early Christian community at Corinth are a perfect refrain for the Thanksgiving season. For this is the time of the year when we focus on the blessings that have shaped our lives, The people and the places, The opportunities and yes – even the responsibilities - The many things that have the ability to move our heads and our hearts - and sometimes even our hands - in gratitude and praise. Thanks be to God! For – as the treasured hymn says – The beauty of the earth and skies that over and around us lies. For the family and friends that will surround our holiday tables, And as the apostle writes – For the indescribable gift of Jesus Christ! For in Christ, we know the love and mercy and compassion of God, For now and for all eternity. Thanks be to God! Over the last several weeks, I’ve heard people – Myself included – Utter these same words. A car barely avoids crashing into me on the way to work. Thanks be to God! I got a 96 on my math quiz. Thanks be to God! A relative returns home after serving in Iraq. Thanks be to God! The doctor called and the test results are better than we thought. Thanks be to God! Friends, even though they are often taken for granted, it’s easy to lift our hearts in gratitude for the abundance of blessings in our lives or the ways that we believe that God is acting on our behalf each day. But this year, This thanksgiving, let me invite you to consider other gifts that can be a source of gratitude in our lives. Anthony de Mello was the director of a Pastoral Counseling Center In Poona, India. As an author and a world-wide speaker, De Mello offered series of meditations designed to lead people to new understandings of God and God’s grace. In his book, The Way of Love, He asks a simple and powerful question about gratitude. “Think of some of the painful events in your life. For how many of them are you grateful today, because thanks to them you changed and grew?” I confess, there are times when I find it difficult – And maybe you do, too, To thank God for the painful events in life – Those experiences where someone we love betrays us, Or where our health deteriorates, Or we lose someone or some dream that has been close to our heart for years and years. It’s easier to turn away or turn inward when we go through challenging times, but as de Mello says, “every painful event contains in itself a seed of growth and liberation,” a seed of hope and possibility, a seed of transformation and freedom. And haven’t we seen that happen in our lives or in the lives of others? Someone loses a parent and decides to become a hospice volunteer. We become temporarily immobile because of an injury, and we find a deeper sense of compassion toward others that face issues of accessibility every day. Or we discover in our grief and loneliness, with a hole in our heart, we discover God’s sustaining presence and companionship, filling that hole in the way that only God can. So, in the midst of life’s pain and suffering, we discover the seeds of compassion and grace beginning to grow and flower. Maybe you’re experiencing a time of struggle right now. Can you see those seeds of freedom and love beginning taking root? Friends, I do not believe that God brings these difficult or painful things into our lives, But I do believe, As our Scripture testifies, That God can work all things for good for those who love God. Can we be grateful for what we’ve learned about ourselves and our Creator, And join in with Paul’s refrain of gratitude: Thanks be to God! Thanks be to God! Now, de Mello, says, take this one step further. “Look at everything you think and feel and say and do that you do not like in yourself.” You know, those parts of ourselves that we hide from the world, And for a good part of the time, We hide even from ourselves: The pride, or the self-doubt, or the jealousy, rage, prejudice, or the shame. Friends, here’s where it gets really tough, doesn’t it? How can we possibly be grateful for these things? Because just as in painful experiences, within us and our neuroses, and faults and failings and yes – even our sins – There, too, lie the seeds of growth and transformation. Can we, as De Mello asks, See them as a part of our development, As opportunities for grace and growth that never would have been there were it not for the thing we dislike so much? Maybe we need to know pride first before we can live as humble children of God. After we confront and embrace our own weakness of character, then we can know what it is to be strong in spirit and faith. Perhaps only when looking at our intolerance and the ways we build walls can we then move with God’s grace to acceptance and building bridges. Friends, this Thanksgiving, let us ask ourselves: What can our failings teach us and how can they help us live more fully and faithfully as children of God and disciples of God’s indescribable gift, Jesus Christ? For the questions and the opportunities to grow in God and in grace, We join in the thanksgiving refrain, Thanks be to God! Thanks be to God! But the gratitude is not for us alone, or for us to share only with our God. Paul reminds the church at Corinth and the church today in Rocky Hill that there is an ever-widening circle of thanksgiving. Paul writes that because God has given in abundance, Members of the community will share abundantly with others. For those in the Corinthian community, It meant following through on their promise to provide for the needs of the saints in Jerusalem. Even in the midst of strife in their community – There was much infighting and, as Paul names, “testing” - The apostle reminds them that their gift can be a source for others to give thanks to God. It can be the same for us. In fact, this way of giving has already begun for us. Last week, our Board for Missions with some constraints in its budget, voted to give a significant contribution to FoodShare, The Regional Foodbank and Anti-Hunger organization. This year, the Board for Deacons annual thanksgiving appeal is supporting the Rocky Hill Food Bank, And this afternoon the youth group will pack up food baskets for Human Services. I believe that some of folk in Hartford and Rocky Hill and in this region will be grateful and lift their praise to God. As Paul writes, thanksgiving to God can come through us and the sharing from our abundance. Because that is how God works. That is how gratitude works. It’s like a pebble dropped into a pond, The gratitude that begins in our own hearts Gratitude ripples out and out and out and out…. From our lips into this sanctuary to the outside community to the entire region and throughout the world. The refrain grows louder and louder on this thanksgiving Sunday and each day of our lives as people everyone join together: Thanks be to God! Thanks be to God! Thanks be to God! Amen. |