During my work on the sermon, I came across a video produced by Steve Hartman on a story of thankfulness. At the time of the video Frank Grasberger was a 95-year old man who lived in a Care Facility in Ohio. He received a thank you note for his military service from a third grader. The note touched him deeply. He carried the note with him in his wheel chair and told his wife, Delores, that nothing mattered to him more than that letter. His wife noticed the difference the letter made on Frank. She shared that when Frank has the letter he has a feeling of faith and trust and love.
Giving thanks is powerful!
Frank wanted to get in touch with the author of the letter who identified herself as De Shawna. It took a while, but after a long search De Shawna was found. She agreed to meet with Frank at the Care Facility. Coincidentally (or maybe this is a God-thing) De Shawna serves in the National Guard. She showed up to meet Frank with a bouquet of roses. When De Shawna showed up his wife thought, “Where’s Frank's heart pills. This is the big one!”
Frank and De Shawna have developed a friendship. Frank shared that De Shawna is like his third daughter.
This is the power of thanks. A 95-year-old veteran was so touched by a letter of thanks that he sees the author, an African American young woman, as his third daughter.
The full story can be seen here: https://www.cbsnews.com/video/kindness-101-a-lesson-in-thankfulness/
I went to Mass at St. Joseph’s of the Lakes Catholic Church on Thanksgiving. At the start of his homily, Father Mark Anderson said we need Thanksgiving. I cannot agree more. Our spirits need to be touched frequently by the power and importance of thanks. We need to be reminded to respond to the events of life with thanks. Without living and sharing thinks we are limited as people.
In my sermon yesterday I preached about the story of the ten lepers. You probably know the story. Ten lepers were healed of their skin disease. One leper returned to Jesus to give thanks. Nine did not return to give thanks. Jesus wanted to know, “where are the other nine?”
I believe that each of us make choices every day that determine who will we be in the story. Will be the person who returned to give thanks or will we be part of the group who didn't give thanks. And I don't think we are always in one group. Depending on the day we can be part of both groups.
Where we find ourselves is a choice that we make.
Let me ask you, "which group will you choose to join?"
I spent some time last week thinking and doing research on what prevents people from giving thanks. I came up with two reasons—and certainly others exist. The two reasons are entitlement and grievance.
One reason is entitlement—it’s easy to believe that we deserve what we get. I live in a beautiful home and have two beautiful cars and enjoy a beautiful family. It’s not hard to conclude that through my efforts I have achieved this beauty. I’m entitled. At one level I am entitled—just as everyone who is human is entitled to a beautiful life. But it’s easy to forget the force who created the world and provides the gifts that allows me to live this life.
Oops! I guess it’s easier to be one of the nine than I might have thought. I don’t want to be part of that group. Thank you, God!
Another reason is grievance—folks who believe the world is out to get them or have been hurt in the past and respond to life from that pain. That person is going to have a hard time being thankful.
In my sermon yesterday
I asked four questions about thanks. The questions are just as relevant today
as yesterday.
How many times have you said the
phrase, “thank you” in the past 24 hours?”
How many thank you notes have you
written in the past month?
How many times have you told a group
of people, “I’m thankful for you?”
How many times have you shared with your spouse or a friend in the past 24 hours, “I’m thankful for you.”
Congregations can be laboratories of thankfulness. I shared that I’m surprised that I’m not familiar with any congregation that has named themselves, “thankful.” I get it, it would feel a bit weird to say, “I go to Thankful Church.” That probably doesn’t work. What does work is to have thankfulness be expressed frequently from the people in a congregation. I hope that when guests come to Chain of Lakes they will experience thankfulness. I want the people of our congregation to be known as people of thanks.
The relationship between thankfulness and suffering deserves much reflection. More reflection than I am going to share right now. Certainly, events exist for which I would never give thanks—rape, indiscriminate violence, abuse and many other horrors. However, even when we suffer we can find ways to look at our situation with thanks. I shared in my sermon that last week I did my best to respond with thanks to the inevitable occasions during the week when things don’t go as I wanted. When that happened, I did my best to respond with thanks for the growth opportunities these occasions presented to me.
Ultimately my hope or aspiration as a person is to have thanks be my first response to the events of my life.
I don't think that responding to the events of life with thanks is inevitable. I do think we can train ourselves to do this.
I’m going to take some concrete actions to respond more with thanks. I’m going to write a thank you note every Thursday. I’m calling this Thankful Thursday. Certainly I could do more than one, but this is my starting point. And I will continue to pray that I will see my own identity as a person of thanks.
I
might not be able to change the world, but I can influence my sphere of
influence by sharing thanks more often and encouraging others to be people of thanks.
The full sermon that I shared yesterday can be found at the fifteen minute mark at this link: Worship Service November 26, 2023 (vimeo.com)
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