At the end of 2019, I am posting two homilies I gave during the close of the Church Year that centered around the theme of thanksgiving. This homily was presented at Christ Episcopal Church,
Yankton, South Dakota on November 10, 2019.
LIVING GRATEFULLY
+ In the Name of
our gracious and loving God +
One of the legacies Fr. Jim Pearson established for our church
family was to use the short period between All Saints Day and the First Sunday
of Advent as a season of Thanksgiving.
In keeping with that legacy I invite us to reflect on what it means to
live a life of gratitude as the deepest expression of our faith, hope, and love
in God.
Like so many things in life, developing a life of
gratitude begins at home. So this
morning I give thanks to God for my wife, Kathy; for the love that binds us
together, for her love that sustains me, that keeps me in check, and in so many
ways has shaped me to be the person I am.
I am grateful for our children, our daughters Andrea and Elizabeth, who
bring us much joy.
Gratitude is an essential feature of a healthy home
environment, and it is also an essential feature of a healthy church
environment. And like a family, we don’t
get to choose who becomes a member of it. As Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica,
“We must always give thanks to God for you brothers and sister beloved by the
Lord, because God chose you…”[1] God has chosen all of us because God has
created all of us. Like Paul, we are to
be grateful to God for those who come through our church doors and into our
lives; seeing them and treating them as a gift from God.
It is easy for me to be grateful for this congregation
and grateful to it; for the opportunity to serve as your organist and to be
able to stand here this morning and deliver this homily. I thank God for all of you, who by your very
presence here today is a service to all who are here because all of you, in
your own and various ways, are gifted by God to contribute to the overall
ministry of spreading the Gospel of Christ in your daily lives.
Living life in gratitude readily dismisses the attitude
of taking anyone or anything for granted.
Living life in gratitude requires a dogged determination to seek and to
find the goodness inherent in all of God’s creation; including those who would
treat us badly and those who might be considered an enemy, as we heard in
last’s week’s Gospel.[2] That type of gratitude and grateful living
always seems to be in short supply.
When we think about giving thanks, it is helpful to keep
in mind that throughout our nation’s history this practice; this dogged type of
giving thanks has been woven into our nation’s fabric through various
proclamations from the time of the pilgrims to during and after the
Revolutionary War until Thanksgiving was proclaimed a Federal holiday by
President Lincoln in 1863; a time when our nation faced its greatest
existential threat, the Civil war; a time when there seemed so little to be
thankful for.
It is against the backdrop of uncertain times that giving
thanks as a nation has always been juxtaposed.
It is against the backdrop of uncertain times that our forefathers and
foremothers remind us that we are completely reliant on the blessings of a
benevolent and loving God; that gratitude is to be woven into all our endeavors
to help create a better world for ourselves and our posterity.
It is against such backdrops that giving thanks becomes
more than a momentary nod of appreciation; that living thankfully is to be a
persistent attitude that we, as individuals, as a community of faith, and as a
nation aspire to carry with us at all times; for it is in thankful living that
we are enabled to see and to seize the opportunities in which to exercise
gratitude as kindness and to pay forward the benevolence of God without
exception or expectation of a return in kind.
And grateful living begins with me, it begins with you,
it begins in our homes, and it begins in our church home because gratefulness
cannot be mandated by proclamation or law but must come from the truly grateful
hearts of each and every one of us. So
this morning I ask that we express our gratitude for each other as we share the
peace of Christ with one another (something you’re good at doing very well)
because there is no peace without gratitude.
In closing, I want to share a prayer with you that I have
used at family gatherings on Thanksgiving.
I found this handwritten prayer in the back of a book of poetry
belonging to Kathy’s great aunt, Esther Taskerud.
Aunt Esther was a remarkable woman born and raised in
this state, ahead of her time, a trailblazer, and a pioneer in establishing 4-H
programs in her adopted state of Oregon and serving for a time as a trustee for
the National 4-H foundation. Esther
eventually became the Director of the Home Economics Extension Program at
Oregon State University; a person I was blessed with getting to know and a
person who knew the value of living a life in gratitude.
This is her handwritten prayer. Let us pray:
Eternal and ever loving Father, we remember before Thee,
the weaknesses and sins which so easily betray us in the relationships of the
home; but we remember also in gratitude the depth of Thy mercy and the renewing
power of the forgiveness which is born of love.
We would be strengthened by Thee that Thy desires for our
homes may have fulfillment, that the richness of Thy love may find expression
in us and in our children.
We dedicate to Thee the homes which Thou hast blessed us:
Our
daily life in those homes;
Our
words and deeds;
Our
hopes and aspirations;
Our
hearts and wills;
Beseeching Thee to transform them with the touch of Thy
divine power, and to bring them into harmony with Thy will. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * *
Until next time, stay faithful.
Norm
[1] 2
Thessalonians 2:13
[2]
See Luke 6:27
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