Rev. Dave Campbell
Special to The Guardian
At Park Royal United Church, we are in the middle of a six-week worship series on Gratitude.
The more that I dive into these sermons the more I feel that gratitude should permeate our lives on a daily basis. Sadly, feelings and expressions of gratitude are often hard to come by. We’re far more prone to feelings of worry, fear and cynicism, which have such a negative effect on us.
We often fail to recognize that complaining requires no training at all but having an attitude of gratitude takes work.
This certainly resonates with me as a parent of a young child. When a child receives a gift, most parents will have to prompt the child with the words: “What do you say?” in order to elicit a response of “thank you.” Yet, I’m pretty certain that I didn’t teach my child how to complain. Complaining comes naturally to us.
There is an important difference between feeling gratitude and expressing it. In Luke 17: 11-19 we read the story of the 10 lepers who came to Jesus to be healed. Jesus was traveling through a region between Samaria and Galilee. Ten lepers approach him and cry out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” “Go show yourselves to the priests,” Jesus responds. The lepers go to the priests and are cleansed. But one leper, after being healed, returns to Jesus and thanks him for restoring his health. This one leper not only felt gratitude, he expressed it by returning to Jesus and praising him. The other nine may have felt grateful, but we’ll never know.
In this story Jesus is teaching us about the nature of faith. In short, to have faith is to live it and to live it is to give thanks and show gratitude. It is living a life of gratitude that constitutes living a life of faith. As followers of Christ we need to show thanks, give thanks and be filled with thanksgiving.
Expressing our gratitude is an important part of influencing the world around us. The expression of our gratitude doesn’t have to be grandiose in nature. The simple act of saying “thank you” is an easy starting point.
One of my favourite theologians, David Lose, describes gratitude as something that becomes easier to choose as we practice it. He writes: “Gratitude, like faith and hope and love and commitment, are not inborn traits that some have and others don’t, but rather gratitude is more like a muscle that can be strengthened over time. And as you practice giving thanks and more frequently share your gratitude, you not only grow in gratitude but create an example for others. More than that, you create a climate in which it is easier to be grateful and encourage those around you to see the blessings all around us.”
Displaying an attitude of gratitude can be infectious. To be honest it’s something that needs to be spread a lot more since we’re given an unfortunately large dose of all the worst that humanity has to offer on a daily basis. If you don’t believe me then scan the news headlines and you’ll see it. Accusations, excuses, anger, hatred –these things all contribute to negativity. Don’t you think gratitude might be a powerful response to these situations?
An attitude of gratitude can be empowering for us not just as individuals but as a community. When we can lift each other with a few simple words then I believe we are moving closer to God. The apostle Paul wrote letters to many Christian communities to encourage them. Do you remember what he often started his letters with? – “I give thanks for you…”
May our gratitude be as natural as our complaining and may it be in response to the many blessings we receive from God and from one another.
Rev. Dave Campbell is with Park Royal United Church, 11 Christie Dr., Charlottetown. A guest sermon runs regularly in Saturday’s Guardian and is provided through Christian Communications.
