The Attitude Of Gratitude
Sermon
THE WORD IS NEAR YOU
Sermons For The Church
A group of tourists watched a grizzly bear catching salmon from a stream in one of our national parks. The bear would flounce around in the water until it managed to snag a pink trophy. It would then take a few bites out of it, toss it aside, and go after another fish. One of the tourists watching this show noticed this waste. Why didn't the bear simply eat all of its catch instead of wasting so many salmon?
As we gather here on this important day, we cannot but help feeling a bit like the grizzly in the park. We are surrounded by such bounty. We have an embarrassment of wealth. But like the hungry predator we seem to go from one bite to the next without being able fully to appreciate what we have. That is why Thanksgiving is such an important time. It offers the perfect opportunity to pause and consider just what it is that we do have. Paul's word for us is vital. Hear it again: "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation ..." (v. 12).
Someone has defined contentment as the power to get out of any situation all there is in it. And our spiritual ancestor Paul certainly knew how to do that. He wrote Philippians from a prison cell. Imagine that. From a dark, smelly hole in the wall comes the greatest demonstration of the attitude of gratitude. His chains actually gave Paul freedom to consider the most important things in life. He realized, as I hope we can, that much of what we think is necessary is only a luxury. For Paul, even captivity could not shake his courage and gratitude because freedom is not a matter of being without chains. It is a matter of living from one's spiritual center, despite any and all circumstances.
Thanksgiving Day gives us the opportunity, then, to get back to our spiritual roots, to recognize that life is so grand simply because God is good. If we forget this, then nothing else much matters. Abraham Lincoln recognized this fact. In an address in 1863 proclaiming a national fast day, Lincoln said: "We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!" If Lincoln believed this was true in 1863, what would he think today?
Paul's words are relentless: "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation...." He could get out of any situation all there was in it. When he was free to roam the ancient Mediterranean, he preached the good news about Christ. When he was shackled in some prison, he wrote the good news about Christ. You see, that news was the secret of Paul's contentment. Verse 13 reads, "I can do everything through him who gives me strength." Yes, there was the source of Paul's power, and for our attitude of appreciation for what we have.
Today is not a spiritual abacus on which we simply count our blessings. Doing that is certainly all right, but it is never enough to enumerate everything we have and then offer up a prayer of gratitude. Instead, today is a time to be aware of our greed, and to determine with Christ's help to keep it in check. Many of us remember the Weekly Reader we had in grade school. One lesson was on good grammar and it was showing children how not to run words together. The example was of the words, "Give me." The lesson pointed out that we should not say, "Gimme." It even had a picture of this character. He had eight arms all outstretched for something, and the words were coming out of his mouth, "Gimme, gimme, gimme." But for the grace of God we would all be that way, and sometimes we are anyway. But Thanksgiving Day helps us repent of the sin of "gimme" and instead to be changed by the secret Paul knew.
In Christ we are strong enough to get out of every situation all there is in it. On this day, then, we learn to share with Paul the attitude of gratitude.
As we gather here on this important day, we cannot but help feeling a bit like the grizzly in the park. We are surrounded by such bounty. We have an embarrassment of wealth. But like the hungry predator we seem to go from one bite to the next without being able fully to appreciate what we have. That is why Thanksgiving is such an important time. It offers the perfect opportunity to pause and consider just what it is that we do have. Paul's word for us is vital. Hear it again: "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation ..." (v. 12).
Someone has defined contentment as the power to get out of any situation all there is in it. And our spiritual ancestor Paul certainly knew how to do that. He wrote Philippians from a prison cell. Imagine that. From a dark, smelly hole in the wall comes the greatest demonstration of the attitude of gratitude. His chains actually gave Paul freedom to consider the most important things in life. He realized, as I hope we can, that much of what we think is necessary is only a luxury. For Paul, even captivity could not shake his courage and gratitude because freedom is not a matter of being without chains. It is a matter of living from one's spiritual center, despite any and all circumstances.
Thanksgiving Day gives us the opportunity, then, to get back to our spiritual roots, to recognize that life is so grand simply because God is good. If we forget this, then nothing else much matters. Abraham Lincoln recognized this fact. In an address in 1863 proclaiming a national fast day, Lincoln said: "We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!" If Lincoln believed this was true in 1863, what would he think today?
Paul's words are relentless: "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation...." He could get out of any situation all there was in it. When he was free to roam the ancient Mediterranean, he preached the good news about Christ. When he was shackled in some prison, he wrote the good news about Christ. You see, that news was the secret of Paul's contentment. Verse 13 reads, "I can do everything through him who gives me strength." Yes, there was the source of Paul's power, and for our attitude of appreciation for what we have.
Today is not a spiritual abacus on which we simply count our blessings. Doing that is certainly all right, but it is never enough to enumerate everything we have and then offer up a prayer of gratitude. Instead, today is a time to be aware of our greed, and to determine with Christ's help to keep it in check. Many of us remember the Weekly Reader we had in grade school. One lesson was on good grammar and it was showing children how not to run words together. The example was of the words, "Give me." The lesson pointed out that we should not say, "Gimme." It even had a picture of this character. He had eight arms all outstretched for something, and the words were coming out of his mouth, "Gimme, gimme, gimme." But for the grace of God we would all be that way, and sometimes we are anyway. But Thanksgiving Day helps us repent of the sin of "gimme" and instead to be changed by the secret Paul knew.
In Christ we are strong enough to get out of every situation all there is in it. On this day, then, we learn to share with Paul the attitude of gratitude.
