Secret 4: Show Gratitude Preached on March 14th, 2021 for Wollaston Congregational Church Scripture: Numbers 21:4-9 This morning the focus scripture for our sermon is from the book of Numbers. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever preached from this book before. After all “Numbers” is not a very inspiring title. This morning we might want to refer to the book’s Hebrew name, instead, which is “In the Wilderness.” This may still sound a little dreary, but at least it is more descriptive. Also, “In the Wilderness” is the perfect title for the journey of Lent. The 40 days and nights of Lent correspond to Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness, where he was tempted. The writers of the scriptures love recurrent themes, and so Jesus 40 days in the wilderness reflects the 40 years Jesus’ ancestors, the Israelites, spent wandering in the wilderness before entering the Promised Land. The Israelites are the people who were led, by Moses, out of Egypt, where they had been enslaved by the king, Pharaoh. They received the gift of the law at Mount Sinai and then God leads their encampment into the wilderness. They remain there, wandering for 40 years before they are allowed to enter the land God has promised them. By any standards, this is a long time. It seems excessive, to say the least. And we might wonder, why couldn’t they enter the land sooner? Perhaps 40 years is the length of time it takes for them to transition from being enslaved people, to independent people who trust in God, and not in Pharaoh. Or perhaps this is the length of time the people need to learn to live compassionately and wisely in the Promised Land. Perhaps God is testing the people, to make sure they are deserving of the land promised to them. Whatever the reason, God provides for the people in the wilderness. At first God’s provisions seem miraculous: fresh water and manna, a kind of crispy bread that appears on the ground each morning. But the manna only lasts for one day. If the Israelites try to store it, it becomes worm infested and spoiled. They have to rely and trust in God, daily, for their daily bread In spite of this miraculous provision, the early harmony of their encampment evaporates over time. The people become impatient with the wilderness wandering, the people complain to God. They complain about their monotonous diet. They remember how they were able to eat fish, various vegetables and fruit, while they were in Egypt. They forget that they were slaves, but they remember the menu. The passage we heard today describes their fifth and final episode of complaining. We don’t know how long they have been wandering at this time. It’s safe to assume they are well into the 40 year long journey. This fifth and final complaint is directed at both God and Moses. The people have suffered enough. They might be expected to lament the trials they have been through and they are going through. But instead, they complain about the food. They are tired of the daily bread God is providing for them. They have lost patience and they stop trusting God and God’s provision for them. Gratitude is non-existent. God gets angry about the Israelites’ complaining and sends a plague of poisonous serpents. These venomous snakes bite the complaining people. But there is an antidote. God instructs Moses to make a bronze serpent, set on a pole. Whoever looks at the serpent will be healed. This is a success. And the snake on the pole serves as a reminder to trust in God and give thanks for God’s provision and protection. The people survive their punishment and their time in the wilderness. They do finally enter the land. And I expect that this story would be all be forgotten, if the evangelist, John, had not referred to it in today’s gospel text. We return to the theme of gratitude today. We’ve talked about it before, on a number occasions. Gratitude is the cornerstone of a spiritual life in many traditions, including Christianity. In the Christian faith, we are called to gratitude for God’s gifts in creation and in each new day. Ultimately we are called to gratitude for the gift of Jesus, God’s own child, who lived among us as John says “full of grace and truth.” Jesus’ life, death resurrection, and ascension, demonstrate to us God’s grace, in the face of humanity’s lost-ness. As the Swiss theologian, Karl Barth, said “Grace and gratitude belong together like heaven and earth. Grace evokes gratitude like the voice an echo. Gratitude follows grace like thunder lightning.” The fourth secret of the Mr. Rogers effect is “Show Gratitude.” Fred Rogers had a particular take on gratitude. As a “people person” Rogers regularly showed appreciation for the people, especially the children, around him. In his speeches, in person and on television, he reminded us to pause and take a moment to remember the people who had “loved us into becoming [ourselves].” Mr. Rogers didn’t only feel appreciation for people, he expressed it even to his TV audience, “It’s such a good feeling to know you’re alive” was his signature tune and opening to his TV show. You may remember that one of the aspects of the first secret of the Mr Rogers effect, “Listen First”, was to practice “prizing.” “Prizing” means showing appreciation for the person we are with, by lighting up when we see them, and genuinely appreciating their presence with us. Prizing isn’t fake or phony. If you smile and say “it’s good to see you” to each person you meet, you will mean it. In the book “The Mister Rogers Effect”, author Anita Kuhnley talks about the “science of gratitude.” She says that gratitude engenders hope. It’s less a feeling and more an attitude. It’s a state of mind, or a moral affect. [1] Gratitude is both giving and receiving. The recipient, being appreciated, feels good. And we feel good giving appreciation. There are many quantifiable health benefits, including lower blood pressure, enhanced immune function, decreased depression, increase resilience and happiness. [2] I’ve discovered that a “circle of appreciation” is a failsafe exercise for Youth Groups, often during the last session of a semester or at the close of a youth retreat. We’ll go around the group, each person having a turn to receive appreciations from each other members of the group. Let me tell you, even the toughest groups will melt their own hearts and yours when they do this exercise. As Kuhnley says, gratitude has a ripple effect “not only does gratitude make the grateful person happier, healthier and more successful, it also impacts those around them positively.” [3] With all the benefits of gratitude, you might think it would be simple. But, of course, we know it isn’t. Our moods impact our ability to be grateful. As for the Israelites in the wilderness, there is a lot for us to lament and grieve in these times. Our hope of hopes is that we are very close to the end of the pandemic, at least in the United States. And still, grief and lament are appropriate responses to the tragedy of the human suffering of the past year. As we look forward to the year ahead for our community, anxiety might surface. We might well wish that we were back in 2019, and that 2020 was just a bad dream. We may look back with rose-colored glasses, to days in crowded restaurants and coffee shops, sports events and concerts. We may wish to go back to times when using telecommunications was fun and convenient, instead of an annoying necessity. But, as with the Israelites in the wilderness. there is no going back. We have no direction to go but forward. Going forward we can try to learn from the past year’s experience. -Have we learned to appreciate one another’s company all the more? -Have we learned that our church is the “body of Christ” rather than a structure located on the intersection of Winthrop and Lincoln Avenues? -Have we learned not to take transportation and travel for granted? -Or not to forget to say “I’m sorry”, “I forgive you”, “thank you”, or “I love you” whenever we say good bye? This past week, a number of clergy from the Quincy Interfaith Network put together a beautiful Interfaith Service of Grief & Hope, following one year of pandemic. The service will premier on March 23rd at 7 pm on Quincy Access TV (QATV) and will also be available online. Elements of this service were recorded at the QATV studio on Wednesday. The presenters were carefully scheduled to minimize contact with one another, and of course everyone was appropriately masked and distanced. The service includes litanies, songs and prayers from a diversity of religious traditions and community members. The format was designed to begin by acknowledging grief and loss. And then, having taken the time to grieve, there is a turn toward gratitude and hope, lifting up the resilience of the community and our people. I had the honor of presenting a litany of Gratitude and Hope, with our congregational representative and dedicated worker for the health of the community, Kim Kroeger. Kim and I arrived at the studio on that sunny afternoon, to be greeted at the door by our colleague the Rev. Alissa Oleson, of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. Recording was running a little late, and so we stood outside, catching up on the latest community health news. How is the vaccination roll out going? What is testing looking like these days? As we were given the go ahead to go inside, a group of Hindu women were just leaving. These women were delighted to see so many women religious leaders, and presented us all with a delightful box of sweet treats. Rabbi Fred Benjamin, of the Milton synagogue, had just recorded his message and so we were able to greet him too. Once we had completed our recording a local Imam arrived to offer his words. As a member of the Interfaith Network, I’m aware how difficult it has been to contact and involve the Islamic community. I was so pleased to see that they had been included in this service. The fact that this service was so lovingly created and so beautifully inclusive warmed my heart. I could not help but feel gratitude and joy, in midst the sadness of the occasion. These days, at least for me, emotions rise and fall rapidly: despair, and then hope, joy and then sadness, lament and then praise. We’ll probably be riding this rollercoaster for a while. And so, I invite you, any time you can, any time it feels even a little bit possible, to show gratitude and to show appreciation. Because, as I read on a one church newsfeed this past week “It’s not happiness that brings us gratitude. It’s gratitude that bring us happiness.” May all God’s people say, Amen [1] Kuhnley, Anita Knight . The Mister Rogers Effect (p. 104). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. [2] Ibid., 104-105 [3] Ibid., 111
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