Gift, and Grace, and Gratitude

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things (Philippians 4:8).

Think about whatever is true….well, I’m thinking it’s true that nobody wants to hear a sermon when there’s feasting to be done…so let’s do a sort of mediation together instead. Close your eyes for just a minute…breathe deeply, so deeply, you can listen to your breath in the quiet of the room…Feel your lungs fill with air and them empty, and fill again…

Where have you been in your life that has deeply affected you emotionally, intellectually, physically or spiritually? The places you have visited, the places you have worked, the places you have lived…these have provided you with experiences that shape who you are today. What is one place in particular that has given you strength and inspiration? Picture that place for a few moments…

What skills, talents, personal characteristics, values, beliefs, and education opportunities that you use every day bring you joy? Does music make your heart sing? Poetry? Cooking? Walking the dog, or running a marathon? Caring for children or playing with grandchildren? Teaching? Learning? Picture yourself exercising one particular gift you’ve been given that brings joy to you and others…

Who in your life — past or present — has given you inspiration, motivation, love, support, care, and guidance? Parents or grandparents, friends, teachers, mentors, or co-workers. You carry these people around like angels on your shoulders, because they are always giving you energy. Picture someone in particular who has been a blessing in your life…

This kind of exercise could be viewed as self-serving—I have dozens of articles I’ve clipped that talk about benefits of gratitude. I saved a new one just this week. It says that people who practice daily gratitude exercises are more optimistic and positive about their lives, more physically active, have more empathy for others, have fewer doctor visits, sleep better, have reduced anxiety and depression, and reduced risk of heart failure. Science shows that gratitude affects brain and body function on a physical and chemical level, that the practice of giving thanks promotes increased feelings of self-worth for us and compassion for others. It seems we are hard-wired…created, you might say…to live a life of gratitude. I wonder if this “science” is, in the end, just another way of saying “love your neighbors as yourself…”

Gift, and gratitude, and grace…It’s all the same word in Latin: gratia. That word means, first of all, gratitude—thanksgiving. It also means grace, as we know this time of year when, we hear everyone from Perry Como to Josh Groban to Barbra Streisand to Beyonce singing “Ave Maria, gratia plena,” “Hail Mary, full of grace.” And it means gift, something freely given, as when even today we say when we get something free, that we got it gratis. Gift, and gratitude, and grace.

The beauty of creation that we’ve seen in the places we’ve been, the talents and skills and passions that we have been given, the people in our lives who nurture and care for us and bind up our wounds and sit with us in our sorrows and exult with us in our triumphs…These are all gifts we have been given that fill our lives and the world with grace. And when we think on these things, our lives overflow with gratitude.

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.  Paul wrote this to the Philippians from his prison cell. Paul’s message to the Philippians…Paul’s message to us…our message to the world…is that this mysterious, miraculous, circular fountain of gift and grace and gratitude is not some ridiculous, impossible Rube Goldberg contraption, nor is it some naïve and childish wishful dream—it is the very structure of the universe. We…the earth…the stars…the expanse of the galaxies…everything that is…everything has been created in joy and love as a gift of grace, a universe-sized garden watered and fertilized by gratitude. In good times and in bad, happy and horrific—always, Paul says—the Lord is near. God’s presence, God’s grace, is seen and heard and felt in all the gifts we are given—in all the gifts we are to each other.

I’m going to close with this poem I adapted from Vienna Cobb Anderson, entitled A Prayer of Thanksgiving:

  

God of all blessings,

source of all life,

giver of all grace:

We thank you for the gift of life:

for the breath that sustains life,

for the food of this earth that nurtures life,

for the love of family and friends, without which there would be no life in our living.

We thank you for the mystery of creation:

for beauty that the eye can see,

for joy that the ear can hear,

for the colors we cannot see and the sounds we cannot hear,

known only to you and our fellow creatures, great and small,

for the unknown that we cannot behold that fills the universe with wonder.

We thank you for setting us in communities:

for families who nurture our becoming,

for friends, who walk beside us in love,

for companions at work, who share our burdens and daily tasks,

for strangers, who welcome us into their midst,

for people from other lands, who call us to grow in understanding,

for children, who lighten our moments with delight and offer us hope for the future.

We thank you for today:

for life and one more day to learn to rejoice in your creation,                                                                                            

for opportunity and one more day to work for justice and peace,

for neighbors and one more person to love and by whom to be loved,

for your grace and one more experience of your presence,

for your steadfast promise-keeping: to be our God, to be with us, to give us salvation.

For these, and all your blessings,

we give you thanks—

Eternal, loving God, redeeming savior and brother Jesus Christ, and sanctifying Holy Spirit, companion and guide and comforter.

This is my prayer for you on Thanksgiving:

May your eyes and your heart and your life be always open to the graces that surround and sustain us. May you be filled with gratitude and generosity, celebrating the abundance of God's good gifts. May thankfulness rise up within you, not just during this season, but every day. May Jesus, who gave all for us, bless your Thanksgiving table with his presence and fill you and your loved ones with his peace. And may the blessing of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be with you this day, and always. Amen.