Gratitude

Psalm 30; Matthew 6:19-21

A Sermon by Donald Mackenzie

November 14, 2004

University Congregational United Church of Christ

Seattle, Washington

“O Lord, my God, I will give thanks to you forever.”

In her book, Radical Gratitude, Mary Jo Leddy gives us a poem that describes each one of us at least one point in our lives. For some it may be wholly defining. “A driven man is driving along a familiar highway past the usual signs and signals. Then one day, on a day like every other day, he pulls over to the side of the road, pulled up short. He wonders where he is going, where everyone is going, so fast and so furiously. He bows his head on the wheel and intones: I would like to be happy. Still memories beckon back to the time when he wondered about the cloud in the sky which hung there, just hung there, forever; to the time when the girl of his dreams looked at him steady and sure and said you matter to me; to the time when he watched his child sleep and realized she was better than anything they could have planned. He clenches his hands on the wheel and again tries to get a grip on himself.” There’s more but that’s enough for this sermon. How many of us have been that person? How many of us have had at least one moment of desperation when we cried out because of the confusion of life, the loss of dreams, the inability to appreciate the important features of a life?

Such experiences, if they pile up upon each other can lead to resentment. I know this because I have been there. About thirty years ago, Henri Nouwen, a Dutch Roman Catholic priest who was lecturing at Princeton Seminary gave me a copy of a manuscript he was working on called “From Resentment to Gratitude.” I was completely taken by it, so much so that I volunteered to lead a faculty discussion about it. The discussion didn’t amount to much. Perhaps too many of us where trapped by the side of that road Mary Jo Leddy describes. But the idea that we can choose to live in the realm of our blessings, or in the realm of our curses had never occurred to me until then. After I read that paper, I vowed I would try to live among my blessings and I have been marginally successful. The paper and its ideas changed my life and I have heard echoes of that paper in this book, Radical Gratitude, that are equally as life changing. If you have not had the opportunity to read it, I heartily recommend it.

It wasn’t long after reading Henri’s paper that Judy and I received a handwritten announcement of the arrival of a child from Korea to be adopted by our friends, George and Merle Chorba. The card said something like this: “George and Merle Chorba announce with great happiness the arrival of their daughter Bethany from Korea—then it gave the date and some other particulars. At the bottom preceding an exclamation point were written four important words: “thanks be to God!”

Judy and I had the same reaction: we cried with joy for them and, at the same time, received some clarity on a decision we were working on then. And so it was that on November 6, 1979 we sent out a similar card announcing the arrival of Mary Hye Won Mackenzie from Korea with the same important phrase at the bottom and similarly, on December 13, 1983 a card announcing the arrival of Alice Eun Ah Mackenzie also from Korea and ending “thanks be to God!”

The moments of their arrivals and the sense of gratitude that had been developing in us was a time of liberation for us—thirty-somethings, career oriented and self-absorbed. And, since then, life has been a mixture of blessings and curses, perhaps in the same way that yours has been, but the energy of gratitude has been present in our lives to keep us going and to encourage us.

We have learned three things from this set of experiences. Gratitude is a way of life; it defines every experience, every thought, every feeling that we have. Sometimes, it fails us, or we fail it, but it is there nonetheless. Second, gratitude values human life and its relationships and the sacred grace of creation above everything else. Third, gratitude moves us to do things that we would not have done otherwise.

So it is no accident that this book has been chosen to be read during this pledge campaign this fall. It relates directly to our sense of our giving to the church. But luckily, it goes far beyond that. For by helping us to see gratitude as a way of life, it gives us a new frame for our lives and our participation in our ministry is a feature of something much larger.

By now you have received the wonderful brochure from Betty Spieth and the budget committee outlining three possible budgets for 2005. If we don’t increase our pledges, we will have to cut about $40,000 from our operating budget. A five per cent increase in pledges means no increases but no cuts either. And a ten per cent increase in our pledges would mean that we could make some badly needed increases to the operating budget. A ten per cent increase in pledges would be as radical as the book we have been reading. And while budget increases would be wonderful, the fact that it would reflect something far more substantial would be truly life-giving.

The point is not simply to support the operating budget of the church as important as that is. We must have a balanced budget. The point is that we can help each other be transformed by the power of love that brings us to that place of gratitude and makes our lives different even when we feel overwhelmed and need to pull off the road for awhile. The pledge campaign committee and the budget committee have each contributed so much to our common life by providing a picture of what we can do and by providing the reasons that would help us to do it. This is a time in human history when the confusion is so great, it will be remembered just that way. It will also be remembered as a time when we realized that we could no longer take any part of our lives for granted.

Mary Jo Leddy offers this poem as a description of the Christian response to gratitude: “You arise again, between us and among us within us and beyond us. Love without end breaking out from the tombs of our times and the containers of our lives. Even death could not contain you. Power to begin again, Power to create anew. Power to lift us up and draw us on. Power of our power! Amen.