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Thanksgiving 2004
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DIGNITY / SUFFOLK
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P.O. Box 1336
Patchogue, NY 11772-0794
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Dignity USA Dateline
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Breath of the Spirit
THANKSGIVING REFLECTION
(Jon/Boston)
November 25, 2004
Twelve step programs like AA encourage its members to have an “attitude of gratitude,” suggesting that having a thankful heart is an essential step on the way to recovery from the ravages of alcoholism and substance abuse.
I believe that gratitude is a fundamental way of orienting ourselves to the world. It’s a basic choice about how we will be in the world and how we will relate to each other. It’s more than just counting blessings. Or seeing the glass as half full.
As Jesus suggests in the gospel (Matthew 7.7-12) this kind of gratitude comes from knowing and believing in a God, in a higher power who never turns away, who never abandons us, who never closes the door or leaves a prayer unanswered.
I wish I could read this passage with the same passion that I suspect was behind the words of Jesus. It’s found in the Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus proposes a new covenant, a new blue print for living in a new age.
Jesus is speaking to a weary, defenseless, oppressed people who also cling to a vibrant Advent hope that God is about to do something quite remarkable. Jesus speaks of a loving God who will always give what is necessary. God will give good things to those who ask. The specific examples Jesus gives are those requests children might make: the basic staples in the Middle Eastern diet, namely bread and fish.
Significantly, later in the same gospel Jesus would provide bread and fish for his followers, reminding us that God will provide for us in our daily need. Of course, all of us have prayed to win the lottery, but the basics which God provides do not include status symbols or other objects of passing or shallow value. What God provides are those things ultimately necessary for God's reign-and anything necessary for us to fulfill our life and call.
So Jesus urges us to gather up our deepest longings, our dreams, and our woundedness and bring them to God, whose heart can hold us and whose love can minister to us and empower us.
Empower us for what? To give as we receive. Gratitude is empty without action. If God so loved the world as we are told, then mustn’t we? The gospel passage ends with what we call the Golden Rule: whatever we wish others would do to us, so we must do to them.
This rule was a widespread principle of ancient ethics. It appears, for instance, in Confucian teaching from sixth-century B.C. China. This teaching is wired into our psyche. We naturally know deep within us that we need to extend our own worth to others, to value others as we value ourselves.
So when we refuse to demean and exclude others we are acting from a grateful heart. When we refuse to let social standing or human diversity keep us from welcoming and affirming the goodness of others, we are acting from a grateful heart. When we recommit ourselves to justice and equality in every corner of our life, we are acting from a grateful heart. When we can bless the presence of every person who comes into our lives, and bless their work, we are acting from a grateful heart.
We have had a full and busy year. It’s been a year of elation and a year of disappointment. It’s brought us the Goodridge decision and it’s brought us “four more years.” On this threshold of Advent we pause for gratitude. With a grateful heart and spirit we are able to recognize the giftedness of life and to seek out even the blessings that mysteriously accompany our pain and misfortune.
In his book “The Lord is My Shepherd,” Rabbi Harold Kushner cites a story about a group of tourists on safari in Africa. They had hired several native tribesmen to carry their supplies while they made the trek. After three days, the porters told them they would have to stop and rest for a day. They were not tired, they explained, but “we have walked too far too fast and now we must wait for our souls to catch up with us.”
Thanksgiving is a time to allow our souls to catch up with us.
“Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.”
“It is right to give God thanks and praise.”
Indeed, indeed it is.
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