GRATITUDE

REYNOLDS RAP
October 9, 2010





BEFORE WORDS


Thanksgiving: turkey and pumpkin pie and the abundance of harvest. It’s a time when we stop and remember our many blessings, in many ways the most fortunate of people of any time and place. But the lean years and the hard times are not so far in the past or so distant in the present. Deep in our hearts we hear the cries of the hungry of the world today. And in my lifetime, an old man in my first congregation told me he remembered that as children they dug seed potatoes out of the ground because they had nothing else to eat. Perhaps we should celebrate Thanksgiving with fasting rather than feasting. We might be more thankful for what we do have, more ready to recognize God the giver, and more anxious to share with others.



GRATITUDE


(Yes, the following is, as last week, a section from my book A Troubled Faith, an affirmation of Christian faith for the 21st Century. Next week I promise to quote someone else on a very different subject – the devil!)



There are times when there is nowhere to turn but to God, not only because of grief or guilt or threat of danger, but also there are times when a sense of gratitude fills us with such joy that there is nothing to do but say thanks to God. There are those moments of transcendent beauty or joy, “a sunset touch, a fancy from a flower-bell, a chorus ending from Euripides”(Robert Browning). when our hearts scream to say, “Thank you!” Even when we seem to have otherwise no need of God, we still have a need to say “thank you.” And it's always, remember, someone! It's never something! We don't say "thank it" – we say "thank you!" It's a response instead of a reaction, implying a personal relationship.

It seems that our sense of gratitude must reach behind the stage of our human existence to the One we call God. When the feeling of gratitude for the beauty and the joy of life swells up inside us and overflows, there is no one to say "thank you" to excepting to God. The primitive symbol of “man in adoration,” a stick person with arms stretched out to the skies, is a symbol of our recognition of God and of our gratitude to God.

That's why thankfulness and the very sentiment of gratitude must be an embarrassment for the professing atheist. Who does he or she thank when feeling so profoundly grateful for the gift of life or love? Chuck Colson, in his autobiographical Born Again, tells of such a moment. He was teaching his ten-year-old son to sail.

As the craft edged away from the dock, the only sound was the rippling of water under the hull and the flapping of the sail when puffs of wind fell from it. I was in the stern watching the tiller, Chris in the centre, dressed in an orange slicker, holding the sheet. As he realized that he was controlling the boat, the most marvellous look came over his cherubic face, the joy of new discovery in his eyes, the thrill of feeling the wind’s power in his hands. I found myself in that one unforgettable moment quietly talking to God. I even recall the precise words: “Thank You, God, for giving me this son, for giving us this one wonderful moment….”

Afterwards, I had been startled when I realized that I had spoken to God, since my mind did not assent to His existence as a Person. It had been a spontaneous expression of gratitude that simply bypassed the mind and took for granted what reason had never shown me. More – it assumed that personal communication with this unproven God was possible. Why else would I have spoken, unless deep down I felt that Someone, somewhere, was listening?

There is something admirable but very, very sad in the lines written by Sir Leslie Stephen after his wife's death. "I thank . . ." he began, and then remembering he had no God to thank, went on rather lamely, "I thank – something – that I loved her as heartily as I know how to love.”

In our gratitude we evidence one of the most human and personal expressions of which we are capable. We indicate that there is a living God to whom we can speak. It implies not only appreciation of the gift but also recognition of the giver, and it indicates that saying thank you requires of us more than just saying thank you. We don’t give thanks to God that we have so much without recognizing that we have so much to give. It is easy to give thanks, but it is Christlike to give.

(A Troubled Faith, pp.28-29. To order the book, send $10 (Can) or equivalent to cover my costs – 8280 Mirabel Court, Richmond, BC, Canada V7C 4Y2.)



AFTER WORDS



From last week’s Rap on the book of Job:



Owen Anderson:

Thanks for your thoughts on Job!

I see Job as an example of a great transformation of an individual from normative to spiritual, one who goes from ignorance to wisdom, a journey from alienation to relationship with God.

Job is a man who undergoes a profound transformation and becomes a sage.
In studying Job we, in a sense, get to overhear part of the eternal conversation at the centre of the universe.

And it is Good News.



From Bob Latimer:

Drat you, Reynolds.

You're asking questions that are more easily left unasked,

questions I tend to relegate to the archival attic of consciousness,

where they can be filed rather than faced.

It is the presence of such unanswered questions that gives

the lie to the myth of man as master of the universe.

Much is still unknown and much will never be known.

We still see reality and truth through a darkened glass,

and are only able to live in such ambiguity through

hope, love and most of all, faith.

Thanks for pulling back the curtain even a smidgeon





LAST GASP


Children’s Answers on a Science Exam:



Q. Name the four seasons.

A. Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.



Q. Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to drink.

A. Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes large pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists.



Q. Name a major disease associated with cigarettes.

A. Premature death.



Q. What does the word “benign” mean?

A. Benign is what you be after you be eight.







Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.
Leave the rest to God.



It’s a Rap. Grace and peace. Alan