A Culture of Gratitude
Sermon | November 8, 2020 | Rev. Julie Lombard
A person has to always consult find now cheap viagra the doctor for this seemingly minor problem. Blurred vision These symptoms let you contradict your usual behavior and the intimacy with your partner. cialis 5mg sale Get the best pdxcommercial.com buy sildenafil australia item and carry on as though nothing’s wrong until things get too bad. pills viagra canada If you encounter severe side effects, immediately get in touch with a doctor.“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you. and give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
As we settle into November, let us embrace the change of season that leads us to the American tradition we call Thanksgiving. Why must we only celebrate ‘a day of thanks’? We ought to ‘think bigger’, maybe we ought to celebrate for the entire month, how about year round?
This time of year, some dream of running off to warmer destinations as winter returns, while others prefer to hunker down and attempt a semi-state of hibernation spending much of their time indoors, safely away from the pandemic. Then there are the folks, like me, who revel in winter’s return- a chance to get the skis out, we long to be outdoors building snowmen, and drinking hot chocolate topped with whipped cream.
These responses are just that, they’re habits reflecting how we deal with change. A thermometer is not the only way to measure change [of temperature]. There is an internal gage- one that I urge you check this time of year. I call it the internal gratitude gage.
This gage isn’t found in a particular place like a thermometer hanging outside your window. You find it by listening to your heart. It’s more of an inner-awareness worthy of listening to.
Checking your internal gratitude gage isn’t something that we ought to do once a year either like celebrating a birthday, an anniversary, or hosting a church pledge drive… Yes, we ought to tend to this business year round- as if it is an ongoing practice.
So, is that true here? Is a “culture of gratitude” an ongoing practice here in this church?
Does it matter what your theological grounding is to participate in a culture of gratitude? There’s a study that says it does. I learned about it in an article when I took a class in seminary called “Show Me the Money”. Seminary Pres. Nick Carter taught the class, it was all about the approaches to fundraising & stewardship in religious and non-profit organizations. There, seminarians established their theological perspectives on money and giving.
President Carter had a ton of experience doing this work making him the ideal professor. Before being the President at Andover Newton Theological School, he was the minister of the First Baptist Church of Beverly, MA. They are like the NASA of churches, launching social programs left and right for their wider community. Long after he left serving that church, they are still reaches out as they serve their community. Their culture of abundantly giving continues.
So, getting back to the article, the one that has shown the generosity of various churches… it doesn’t paint a pretty picture for us UUs. Top on the list for faiths that are the most generous givers are the Mormons and the Assembly of God. The more conservative theologically happen to be the loosest with their purse when it comes to sharing their commonwealth.
Where did UUs fall on that same list? We fell at the bottom under a handful of other of liberal faiths. OUCH! Are liberals really that stingy? Why are we the Scrooge’s of all churches? Why is it that we are rock bottom with our generosity? Might it be that we could improve our culture of gratitude?
I believe it is. It’s not only our issue. It is a denominational concern. UUs are consumed with comfort which begets us to continue the status quo. If we struggle to give thanks, could it be because we don’t know whom to give thanks to? In a faith where God is optional, what’s the purpose of offering thanks? Who benefits from our gratitude? We might not reflect the denominational norm here, or do we? How do we give thanks and to whom do we give it to? Who benefits from our culture of gratitude?
How dare I talk about money when I promised you a sermon about gratitude… shouldn’t I know by now that it’s impolite to talk about money, politics, or religion?
You may not be comforted by what I preach. Sometimes I will challenge you. However, one thing you must know that trumps all other duties while I serve you, I am here to love you. And I take that job very seriously.
But before I challenge you to step outside your comfort zone, let us look at how Dr. Gordon Livingston confronts challenges in his book titled: “The Thing You Think You Cannot Do”. Chapter nine is titled: “Courage is not a feeling; it is a habit.” There, Livingston states that ‘fear is a disorienting emotion and that it can freeze us or impel us towards frantic, irrational action.’
It’s the fight or flight concept we’ve heard of before, fear unleashes it in us, but that’s not the whole truth… those who tend to be comfortable, freeze more often than they flee. Freezing is an adaptation strategy for those who live in an environment with an inability to overpower larger forces. UUs have found comfort in freezing, we’re small denomination. How could we ever overpower the bigger churches?
Dr. Livingston hated heights. All was well because he seldom had the chance to challenge that fear. Joining the Army changed all that. As a soldier he was required to jump out of airplanes as part of his training. By doing so, he managed to overcome his fear of heights. He was gratified to realize three important things;
- The parachute opened as planned.
- The landing he had practiced didn’t result in injury,
- The view on the way down was pretty spectacular.
The second time he jumped- he was still afraid, but less so. By his tenth jump, he actually enjoyed the experience. By the twentieth jump, he was seeking out opportunities to jump again and later he started teaching others how to jump.
This reminds me of the kids in the diving program at the COM. I prefer to do my lap swim where I can watch them progress. You can easily tell those who are jumping from a new higher level for the first time. And then there are those who bounce, flip, twist, and dive as if they were born doing it, but we know that isn’t the case. They took a leap beyond their comfort zone many times before achieving such freedom.
What caused this change to be possible?
As Livingston faced his fear, like the kids in the diving program, the fear diminished. Livingston claims the larger lesson is implied in the decision to confront our fears: he asks :“What does it mean to live a small life as opposed to an expansive one- a life that benefits others?” I think what he is talking about is a leap of faith. He was successful at changing his culture of habit through facing his fears.
What we can gain from this wisdom is that the more we confront the topics we’d rather avoid, the less we fear them. I might add that we may even come to enjoy them and be grateful we did. So, is it possible to change our culture? Might we increase our culture of gratitude? I believe we can.
Look into your heart, as I search my own. Let us be as giving of our talents, time, and treasures as we are with our love for one another. Let us radiate our love and gratitude for all that is our life into the wider world so we too can be as generous as other churches. Spirit of Life and love, give us the strength to elevate us from the bottom of that list of generous givers so that as we give, we deeply gain. Let us not live a life consumed by scarcity and fear, but rather a life aware of our abundance and the many gifts we have to share.
I know all of this to be true because I have experienced it. I have been tricked into being more generous by this faith. I was one of those who thought I gave handsomely to my church with little change to my gift amount, but after the weekly collection plate ceased to go to the operating budget, it began being given away to local social programs in the community; I proved I could give more.
That wasn’t all, after I went to seminary and began serving other UU churches- each one received gifts from my bounty. I proved I can be far more generous than I intended to be. Was I was tricked into giving more?
No, I couldn’t help it and nor do I want to stop because the more I give, the more I gain. If you looked at my internal gratitude gage you would find that it’s increased greatly overtime. I’m not saying you ought to give me a Nobel Peace Prize or anything. I believe the concepts of gratitude and generosity are inherently intertwined. The one who is served greatest by my giving is me. It makes me happier to give more.
Might this be called the economics of happiness? “ The Economics of Happiness” happens to be the title of a documentary that challenges us to restore our faith in humanity and to believe that it is possible to build a better world. The film describes a world moving simultaneously in two opposing directions.
On the one hand, an unholy alliance of governments and big business continues to promote globalization and the consolidation of corporate power. At the same time, people all over the world are resisting those policies and moving towards demanding a regulation of trade and finance—and, far from the old institutions of power, they’re starting to forge a very different future. And isn’t that what we are doing here- forging our future?
In that documentary, communities are coming together to re-build a more human scale life, ecological economies based on a new paradigm – an economics of localization. I like to think that what we’re doing here in this church for the Permian basin.
Friends, I invite you to come together and be the leaders as we re-build a more human scale of localization here. Let us question our culture of gratitude until we feel we are giving to the point of ultimate utmost happiness. Let us be a model within our own denomination. As churches around us close their doors, closing forever as a result of the pandemic, let us open ours widely for all who need this sanctuary. May we connect with our truest giving potential today and every day, let our rewards be reflected best in our interior gratitude gage and may our leap of faith show that we too can become ongoing grateful givers.
May it be so. Amen.