Three Words for Our World: Gratitude
November 19, 2023
Psalm 103:1-8
“Three Words for Our World: Gratitude”
David Shirey
Broadway Christian Church
Our November worship series is Three Words for Our World. We’ve explored gentleness and generosity. This morning, Thanksgiving Sunday, the word is gratitude.
When I was in elementary school, our teacher gave us a piece of paper and told us to write the letters T-H-A-N-K-S-G-I-V-I-N-G vertically down the left margin. Then, next to each letter we were to write something for which we were thankful that began with that letter. It was a neat little exercise in counting your blessings. For elementary school-aged David Shirey, the assignment would have been returned as follows:
T is turkey.
H is for health. (Back then everybody as far as I knew was filled with vim and vigor and was going to live forever.)
A is for Aunt Joyce (My dad's sister. We spent our Thanksgivings back then with her and my Uncle Jim and their five kids.)
N is for a new winter coat. (late-November in Northeast Ohio called for one.)
K is for Kinsman, Ohio (where my Grandma and Grandpa Shirey lived and where the whole Shirey clan would gather for Thanksgiving dinner.)
S is for stuffing (cooked inside the turkey, moist and tasty, by family chef Grandpa except for the year he got all gourmet on us and mixed oysters into the dressing and what kid in his right mind is going to eat those grey, slimy things?)
G is for gravy (to ladle over the stuffing)
I is for inside. Inside a warm house on a blustery November day, snug as a bug in a rug.
V is for very. As in "I'm very full" which my Dad would announce for all to hear.
I as in "I'm" as in "I'm uncomfortable. I ate too much" which Dad said after his last bite of pumpkin pie.
N as in nap as in "I'm uncomfortable. I ate too much. I'm gonna take a nap.”
G as in good friends and family like my cousins, Aunt Joyce’s kids, Susie and Donnie and Scott and John and Jimbo, all of whom were right around my age and always up for a good time when we were together.
That pretty well does it. All of that spelled T-H-A-N-K-S-G-I-V-I-N-G when I was a kid. I leave it to you to ponder how you'd have completed that assignment when you were 10 years old.
But what about as grown-ups? Does the list of things for which we’re thankful change as we age? The Psalmist was a grown-up. Psalm 103 has a subtitle that says Of David followed by Thanksgiving for God’s Goodness. This gratitude psalm wasn’t written by shepherd boy David. It was written by grown-up David who had been around the block a few times in life and had the bumps and bruises to show for it. So, what does adult David give thanks for?
Bless the Lord, O my soul
and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and do not forget all his benefits—
And what are those “benefits” David doesn’t want to forget? Bob read them:
Forgiveness. “Who forgives all your iniquity” Some adults have a hard time asking for forgiveness. Somebody said the five hardest words to pronounce in the English language are, “I’m sorry. I was wrong.” David could say those words, did, was forgiven, and was grateful.
Healing is listed as one of God’s benefits. My wife Jennie memorized this psalm nine years ago when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. After the mastectomy, during the long weeks of radiation, as she laid on that cold table with a sheet draped over her getting zapped, she’d say this psalm over and over, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless God’s holy name … who heals all your diseases.” Gratitude for God’s healing graces.
Then there’s Redemption. David expresses gratitude for the God who “redeems your life from the Pit.” I don’t know about you, but I when hear the words “the Pit” and being redeemed from it, lifted out of it and back into the light of day, I can say, “Been there, done that.” You, too? More accurately, we can say “been there” – the Pit – and “had that done for us” – been lifted out by our Savior. With David, we’re grateful for redemption.
Here’s another benefit from God that David names: “Who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy.” There are two very different meanings of “to crown.” There’s “to crown someone” as in bashing them over the head. And there’s “to crown someone” as in blessing them “with steadfast love and mercy.” I ache for people who were taught to think of God as a bad cop in the sky who’s out to catch you doing wrong so he can crown you with steadfast shame and punishment. Which is why Harry Emerson Fosdick, the great preacher from nearly a century ago, when someone told him, “I don’t believe in God,” replied, “Tell me the God you don’t believe in. I may not believe in that God either.” The God we believe in thanks to Jesus Christ desires to crown everybody with steadfast love and mercy now and forever. Talk about a benefit for which to be grateful!
And were that not enough, David continues, “Who satisfies you with good for as long as you live.” Mick Jagger may not get no satisfaction, but if you’ve followed Jesus long enough, you’ve had moments when, to quote a phrase from another of David’s psalms, your “cup runneth over” (Ps 23:5). That’s the satisfaction David is talking about!
Talk about a list of benefits for which to be grateful! Forgiveness. Healing. Redemption. Being crowned with steadfast love and mercy. Being deep down satisfied with God’s goodness for as long as we live. How good is all that? As Nollie sang, “Grateful, grateful / Truly blessed / And duly grateful”[1] Indeed!
Speaking of the word grateful sung beautifully, I think it’s inarguable that life is best lived in the key of G— gratefully. But as you and I know, not everybody’s attitude and actions come across sounding like gratitude.
For instance, I’ve known people whose lives sound like one long, uninterrupted whine. I’m talking about complainers, “Woe is me-ers,” people who aren’t happy no matter what. The late Fred Craddock, beloved Disciples of Christ teacher and preacher, told about when he had malaria as a child growing up dirt poor in West Tennessee. He said he turned yellow and was sweaty, took quinine, and was quarantined. Nobody could come into the house and he couldn't go out. All the other kids and his brothers and sisters were out playing and he was confined indoors feeling miserable. On one occasion when he was whining about his predicament his father came into the room and said something he never forgot. “Son,” he said, “there is no way to modulate the human voice to make a whine acceptable"[2] His dad was right.
Other lives produce other disagreeable sounds. Some people growl. Grouches. Grumps. People who are always picking a fight. Others grunt. The listless. The apathetic. Whatever.
Over time, the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts emit an audible soundtrack. Would that our lives be lived in the key of G: in gratitude for all God’s benefits.
Because get this – gratitude is good for us! Several years ago, researchers did a study with several hundred people. One group was asked to keep a journal noting all the events that happened in their day. A second group was instructed to note only the unpleasant things. A third group was told to list the things that happened for which they were grateful. After just three weeks, those in the group who kept gratitude lists showed “higher levels of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, and less stress. They also felt more loved and were more inclined toward acts of kindness”[3] Which goes to show that an attitude of gratitude is good for the soul, but whining, growling and grunting aren’t good for anybody. Gratitude is vitamin G.
Speaking of gratitude, every Thanksgiving I remember with gratitude one of my friends and colleagues, the Rev. Mike McGarvey. When I was serving North Christian Church in Columbus, Indiana, the ministers of our district used to meet second Tuesdays of the month at Noon at a Cracker Barrel at an Outlet Mall north of town. At one of our November lunches, Cracker Barrel was advertising their Thanksgiving dinner hours by way of a little placard on our table. I pointed to it and made a sarcastic remark, “Hey look! Anybody planning on coming to Cracker Barrel next Thursday?”
Whereupon Mike said, “We came here last year.”
Open mouth and insert foot. Wanna get away?
Mike smiled and said, “My wife announced she wasn’t going to cook Thanksgiving Dinner. Her sister, a single mother, said the same. So, the whole crew of us, my wife and I and our kids and her sister and her kids went to Cracker Barrel.”
He said there was an elderly lady at a table catty-corner from them sitting by herself. He got up, went over, and asked her if she’d like to join them. She did. Her name was Rose. She said she had two sons in California and grandchildren whose pictures got passed around the table. She showed Mike and company her late husband’s picture, too, and told them how, with his being gone and her sons and grandchildren so far away, she dreaded the holidays.
Rose said, “I can’t tell you how much it’s meant to me to have shared this Thanksgiving with you.”
Mike said after the waitress bussed their dinner plates they played a tournament of that game where you jump the golf tees over each other to see who ends up with the least. Mike said Rose won and they dubbed her The Queen of the Pumpkin Pie. One of his nieces made a crown out of a napkin and they concocted a coronation ceremony. As Mike played a make-believe trumpet – Toot toot toot toot Toot Toot! – one of his girls walked behind Rose and placed the napkin crown on her head. Mike said out loud, “We crown thee Her Majesty Rose – Queen of the Pumpkin Pie” whereupon the folks at nearby tables applauded. Rose grinned, shook her head and said, “Oh, you all!”
My buddy Mike’s gone now. So is Rose, the Queen of the Pumpkin Pie. So are my Aunt Joyce and Uncle Jim and two of my five cousins and my dad and mom and grandparents. Which would bring me down if I let it. But it dawned on me that when I was little, I thought Thanksgiving was for what I had. But now I understand Thanksgiving is for Who has us. You see, if it's what we have that spells Thanksgiving, there will be times in our lives when many of the letters we use to spell Thanksgiving will be missing – the A for my aunt, the K for Kinsman, OH, the I, V, and I for my dad’s “I’m very full I think I’m gonna take a nap,” the G for many good friends and members of my family.” Some may not have the T for turkey or the N for a new winter coat. If Thanksgiving is for what I have and I don’t have some of those things, I won’t be able to spell Thanksgiving. But if it's Who has us that spells Thanksgiving, there is always cause for gratitude:
Because Jesus promises, “Lo, I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20).
Because “faith, hope, and love abide” (1 Corinthians 13:13).
Because “there is nothing, neither things present nor things to come, nor life nor death, nor anything else in all creation that can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 838-39).
So I choose to be grateful. Would you join me?
Toot toot toot toot Toot Toot!
Let all God’s grateful people say AMEN.
[1] “Grateful,” words and lyrics, John Bucchino
[2] Craddock Stories, Chalice Press: 2001, p. 98.
[3] Quoted in Adam Hamilton’s book Enough and the HuffPost article “Flex Your Gratitude Muscle, and Lift Stress Away” https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gratitude-benefits_b_3321351