A few weeks ago I began a four-part
series on gratitude based on reflections on the lectionary in conversation with
the book, Gratitude – The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks, by
Diana Butler Bass. You may or may not remember that I’m calling this series
“Gratefully Alive,” and yes, the pun is intended.
It may or may not have been a good idea
to interrupt that series with a guest preacher last week, but I think we all
enjoyed learning more about our Living Waters project in Cuba. Since our
readings repeatedly remind us that Jesus is the bread of life this month, it
certainly didn’t hurt to hear that he is the living water for the world – then
and now.
In case you are like me and you find
that a few nights’ sleep may challenge your immediate recall of the past, I’ll
remind you where we left off. We started out talking about the connection
between grace and gratitude and the way that it holds us in our darkest times
and spills out into our lives like water running down a mountain!
At least it can— It can if we want it to
do so. If we cultivate the practice of gratitude – not as quid pro quo, but as
an act of participation in the moments of grace that hold us dear – then God’s
grace will move us and shape us into something so much greater than we can
imagine.
So, today we are being called deeper
into the imagination of God. Today we are being called deeper into the
opportunity of gratitude for the free gift of good loving grace that God has
given us through Christ!
Now, we could talk about habits and the
power of ritual and studies about training your brain and all that fun stuff,
but I’d rather talk about Truman. Not the president – Truman was a member of my
church. I did not really know him as a child. He was one of the old guys that tolerated
children like me that ran about. I didn’t really know him, although he knew me.
He knew my family. He saw our rise and
fall from the perfect young family to the struggling single mom. He saw me
become engaged in youth ministry and struggle through college. He knew of my
young, ill-conceived marriage and the divorce that followed. When I came back
to the church after a time of wandering in a spiritual desert, he bought me
lunch. We didn’t really talk about much. He just wanted me to feel cared for –
BBQ can do that in a special way.
Truman was actually serving the church
as a Parrish Associate at the time. That’s a term some churches use for an
elder or a retired minister that enjoys a ministry of visitation for the sick
and elderly. Anyway, it wasn’t actually the BBQ that impacted me the most in
that visit. It was his whistle.
It may not have even been the same day.
I had been visiting with our Pastor and preparing to preach my first sermon,
and I heard Truman in his office whistling the tune of a hymn. What struck me
about it was that this was a man who meant every note. This was a man whose
faith was sincere, nose to toes, and I thought, “Wow. I hope I get there one
day.”
Sadly, I don’t think I ever thanked him
beyond the basic social expectation of gratitude, but through that one little
act he became a reason for me to give thanks to God. He became a model of
thanksgiving as a person filled with the joy of salvation when he had no reason
to be, at least none that I could see.
I’m sure we all have “Trumans” in our
lives, and many of us have been a “Truman” for others. There are certainly
greater witnesses of committed Christians standing up for the less fortunate
and demonstrating the active presence of God through acts of love and service,
but it all starts with a guiding principle. It starts with a kernel of faith
that moves us from self-centeredness to self-awareness and even into
God-centeredness and connectedness to others.
As odd as it may seem, that is the same
point that Jesus is making in today’s reading by calling himself the “Bread of
life that has come down from heaven.” The Jews who have gathered have followed
him in boats to Capernaum, because they saw him divide the loaves and fish.
Jesus has told them that they need to get it straight and set their minds on
things that last instead of things that rot.
It’s important to remember that this
gospel was written for a small community in which some have left and others
have tried to push them out of the synagogues. This gospel was written for a
people like us, who are trying to get their heads around a guiding principle
that will drive all of their decisions. That principle is a basic belief in
Jesus as God’s self-revelation – not just for them, but for all of humanity!
What does that mean – that God revealed
God’s self in and through Jesus? What does it mean that the flesh of Jesus is
the bread from heaven? It means that the flesh of Jesus has given way to an
experience of grace that reverses the hold of sin and death in the world! It
means that just as David followed the pattern of the sin of Adam through
forbidden fruit and a fractured family, Jesus broke the pattern of Absalom –
the rebellious son who died hanging between heaven and earth!
For Jesus hung on a cross between heaven
and earth to prove that nothing is stronger than the love of God. He set the
pattern that we might follow, a pattern that opens our eyes to what Diana
Butler Bass calls a habit of gratitude that reshapes our lives and helps us see
with “soft eyes”. She explains what she means with a quote from the renowned
Quaker and teacher, Parker Palmer as saying,
“In the Japanese art of Aikido there is
a practice called “soft eyes”—it means to widen one’s periphery to take in more
of the world. If a stimulus is introduced to an unprepared person, his [or her]
eyes narrow and the flight/fight response takes over. If the same unexpected
stimulus comes to someone with “soft eyes,” the natural reflex is transcended
and a more authentic response takes its place. Soft eyes.. [illustrates] what
happens when we gaze on sacred reality. Now our eyes are open and receptive,
able to take in the greatness of the world and the grace of great things.”
Sounds like a great theory, but how does
it walk and talk? Well, I submit to you a man named Ked Parker. Amidst all the
chatter of White Supremacy and division and hate in our country – of which he
was a voice at a microphone – a courageous black pastor did something his
little congregation did not expect. He invited a white supremacist named Kid to
church, and he came; and his eyes were opened; and he found life and love and
redemption and hope.
I believe that’s what Paul had in mind
when he wrote to the church in Ephesus and told them to be “imitators of God”.
Simple task, right – imitate God? Yeah. Easy-peasey. In truth we often act as
though we are the ones that control the universe, but that’s really not what he
meant.
No, he meant imitators of the love and
forgiveness that we have received. All his talk about an ethic of work for the
sake of generosity, overcoming the sin and negativity that separates us, and
building one another up is hinged on one thing – the sacrificial love of Jesus.
Again, Bass encourages us to see that
when we focus on that love – not just on Sundays, but in the pattern of our
days – we find that we get a wider, more honest, vision of the past. We also
get a clearer sense of God’s active presence here and now, and we become more
receptive to the future that God is drawing us into.
Brothers and sisters we are being drawn
into the Spirit’s tether, here in this place.
And it comes down to this: who are you and I going to invite into a life
of love and redemption, and how will that action – like all the rest – flow
from our gratitude to God?
Beloved of God, I want you to know that
even though you have decisions to make about your own ethic of gratitude, I am
ever grateful that we’ve been given one another to work out our collective
response to God’s grace together. That is what we’ll be looking at next week.
As we move through this week, I want to
encourage you to take a moment every day and think of at least one thing that
you are grateful for. Let it be for God’s glory, amen.
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