Worship

"...And These Thy Gifts..."

A Thanksgiving Sermon by Rev. Charles Blustein Ortman
November 21, 2010

READINGS: ANCIENT AND MODERN

Our More ancient reading of the day is from the thirteenth century Sufi mystic Rumi, who wrote a beautiful poem expressing a sense of gratitude as something integrally a part of us in "The Guest House:"

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

The more modern reading today is an excerpt from African-American Quaker pastor Howard Thurman's Thanksgiving Day Reflection:

Today, I make my Sacrament of Thanksgiving.
I begin with the simple things of my days:
Fresh air to breath,
Cool water to drink,
The taste of food,
The protection of houses and clothes,
The comforts of home.
For these, I make an act of Thanksgiving this day!

SERMON:

"Bless us oh, Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty through Christ our Lord, Amen." These are the words I was taught to say before every meal, starting from about the age of three. I suspect a few of you learned the same or some kind of similar blessing in the homes where you grew up. I suppose some of you didn't as well.

The overt theology of these words is no longer one that I feel much of a connection to. I no longer imagine that there is an omnipotent overlord out there who wants or has any need expressions of my gratitude. Nor do I believe that the only gateway to heaven was death of a Christ figure who paved my way to the entrance.

But the tacit, the underlying theology, is one that still leads me in a direction I want to go. The gifts that sustain me in this life - love, nurturance, shelter, hope - are just that - gifts. They come from some unfathomable source, not one that I understand anyway. I don't really earn those gifts, and yet they are regularly bestowed on me. And for them, I want to be and I am grateful.

A couple of weeks ago, the Religious Educators of the Metro New York Unitarian Universalist District invited the ministers to join them for a one-day conference on multi-cultural and multi-generational worship. It was held at Middleton Collegiate Church in the East Village. Our host and presenter for the day was the pastor there, Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis. Though she is ordained to the Presbyterian ministry, she knew her audience of UU ministers and religious educators well. She was amazing.

She began by conducting a worship service for us. Like I hope happens here each week, she reached out to welcome us to the worship experience. It didn't matter who you were or what you believed, you could not help but to feel her welcome. In her homily, which was about coming home, she talked about the members of her congregation who, on Sunday mornings, filled those same pews where we were sitting on that Wednesday morning.

There were those in her congregation, she told us, who were quite rich and famous and whose homes were penthouse apartments in the city. There were those whose homes were gray stones and red stones; those who lived in apartments and condos and co-ops. There were those who lived with family members or friends, and there were those who lived very much alone. And there were those, she told us, who arrived each week with their homes bundled up in big, black plastic bags that they carried with them into the church and everywhere else they went.

She told us about how an important part of their worship service each week was a prayer of thanksgiving for life and for the blessings of life. And she talked about how all those different people, from all those different kinds of homes, came together in their expressions of gratitude. And then she invited us to experience and express our own gratitude. And so we did.

After the worship was over, Jacqui invited us to regard and respond to the various elements of the service that we had experienced, so that we could learn from them. Nearly every person there had been deeply moved, deeply touched by their experience of the worship. There were many expressions of appreciation for the ways in which Jacqui had invited us in, made us feel welcome, called us into a spirit of worship, put before us opportunities of transformation through thankfulness, and she blessed us.

After a while, a woman I did not know, who was sitting towards the back of our group, just a couple of rows or so behind me, raised her hand. Jacqui called on her and the woman said, "Yeah, that was great for what it was. But you have to recognize that you, you have that gratitude thing going for you. Without that, without that gratitude thing, there really wasn't much to it." Everyone turned towards the woman, eyes wide and mouths agape, in disbelief.

The woman went on to talk about how it isn't so easy for a lot of people who do not share that, "gratitude thing." There are people like her, she said, who have difficult lives even though they may be relatively affluent. There are kids to feed and get through school. There are job issues, transportation issues and countless other challenges to occupy one's energies and thoughts. "What good is that gratitude thing if you just don't feel grateful?" she wondered aloud.

I felt a sort of sick feeling beginning in my stomach. I don't imagine I was alone. The nausea came for me, not just because this woman was so obviously off the wall, but because perhaps more often then I'd like to admit - I'm a lot like her. More often than I'd like to confess, I too get caught up in the hustle and bustle of life in the fast lane. I too, fail to notice, let alone express my gratitude for, the many blessings of my life.

George Bernard Shaw prayed:

"This is the true joy in life...being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one…being a force of nature instead of a feverish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making [me] happy…"

And the Sufi mystic Rumi prayed:

"Be grateful for whoever [whatever] comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond."

I'm not saying that whatever we may be struggling with in our lives, we should just get over it and…don't worry, be happy. I am suggesting that our survival, our ability to get through and live with the issues of our lives, in some significant way comes down to our ability to see through those issues and in full awareness of them, open our hearts in gratitude anyway. And if we can't do that, if the burdens get to be just too great, if we are simply unable to embrace our experience on whatever narrow passage we might find ourselves passing through, then maybe our prayers need to be for hope. Maybe we need a prayer for hope that we might one day again experience and express our gratitude.

From where I'm sitting, I find three meaningful responses to the incredible gift of this life that we have been given, responses that I aspire to - responses I try to live out. I offer them to you for whatever they might be worth. They are awe, gratitude and service. Gratitude is at the center. It is our pivotal point between awe and service.

During this season of thanksgiving, I invite you to be grateful for these thy gifts. I invite you to locate your gratitude within you for the blessing that is your life and for the blessings that sustain you in it. I invite you to face your challenges with gratitude for the character those challenges add to your growing soul. And if gratitude is just something that is beyond what you can find within the confines of your own backyard, if the course you are passing through is just to rough at this moment for you to find your gratitude, I invite you to pray for hope, that one day you might find it again.

Howard Thurman suggested to us how we might pray our thanks:

And he went on:

I bring to mind all the warmth of humankind that I have known:
My mother's arms,
The strength of my father,
The playmates of my childhood,
The wonderful stories brought to me from the
lives of many who talked of days gone by
when fairies and giants and all kinds of
magic held sway;
The tears I have shed, the tears I have seen;
The excitement of laughter and the twinkle
in the eye with its reminder that life is good.
For all these I make an act of Thanksgiving this day.

We hold before one another - and our world holds before us all - so many opportunities of transformation, this and everyday. They are our honored guests.

Bless us, of Life, and these thy gifts which we continuously receive, from thy bounty, through strife, to accord, Amen.