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Gratitude
SERMON - 10.15am, Emmanuel Church, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Sunday 14th October 2007
Revd. Matthew Vernon
Kate and I went to Hanoi the weekend before last.
For our 10th wedding anniversary.
As usual, I was dependent on local people's ability to speak English for communication.
A cunning linguist I am not!
But I was determined to learn how to say thank you in Vietnamese.
Something like "Garm earn"
It's important to be able to thank people, especially when you're a visitor and receiving so much from them: wonder; culture; history; food; welcome.
Thanking people is deeply important.
"Thank you" are deceptively simple words.
The times when its difficult to say thank you when we know it's the right thing to do, remind us of these simple words' importance.
An alternative in Vietnam is French.
Anyone?
"Merci"
Nine of the ten lepers in this morning's Gospel story had gratitude issues.
They forgot altogether!
"Were not ten made clean?" Jesus asks.
And then central to the story, "Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?"
The man who had come back to express his gratitude and praise was a Samaritan.
Samaritans remember were the enemies of the Israelites; from a different religion; worshipping on a different mountain; considered impure and outcasts.
In this story, we have another Good Samaritan.
Luke once more is making the point that it's not who you are, but how you are that matters to Jesus.
Thank you in Tagalog?
"Salamat"
Some days we are like the grateful Samaritan.
Other days we are like the other nine lepers.
Most days, we are all ten combined.
In our depths we know we have been made for health, wholeness, understanding and freedom.
But in our honest moments, we know we are more wounded than whole, more enslaved than spontaneously free.
We carry emotional and spiritual scars, as the ten lepers carried physical scars.
Sometimes when we receive healing we are self-obsessed and forget gratitude.
But sometimes when we receive healing we remember to say "thank you".
Thank you in Cantonese?
"N'goy"
Living such busy lives here in busy Hong Kong doesn't help our gratitude.
We can be so busy we forget to say thank you.
Whether to the person holding the lift for us, the woman at the check out packing our bag, the person on the check in desk at the airport, our helper at home…
A word of thanks is so important, so precious.
It reveals our humanity and acknowledges the humanity of the other person.
Busyness undermines that humanity.
I like this analogy for our lives.
Imagine that the walls of this chapel are covered with CD players and large speakers, and that each CD player has a different kind of music playing on it.
Imagine that each player is turned up to its maximum volume; the speakers are blaring a cacophony of discordant sounds; the noise is unbearable.
Now, imagine that in the middle of this room a small bird is sitting, softly singing.
It is the song of the bird that we long to hear, not the noise that overwhelms us.
The song of the bird is God's voice, but we cannot possibly hear God's voice because of all the noise.
The song of the bird is our true identity.
It is not until we begin to clear our mind—to turn down, to turn off the CD players one by one—that we will finally hear what we are meant to hear, what we want to hear.
It's called mindfulness.
Mindfulness is turning down the noise so we can hear the soft, sweet song of the bird.
The voice of God. Our real identity.
It's not possible or desirable to turn off all the CD players all the time.
Some of them are important and need our attention.
Not all of them, but some of them.
But we can train ourselves to give priority to some noises in our life.
We can turn down the volume of other noises and amplify the song of the bird.
Getting the balance right helps with gratitude.
Thankfulness comes when we hear the noises that are worth hearing.
They inspire us, they move us to gratitude.
When we hear the song of the bird we are overwhelmed with gratitude to God.
Thank you in Mandarin?
"Share-share"
We have so much to be grateful for.
Did you notice in today's Collect?
"grant us the grace to receive the tokens of your love new every morning"
"new every morning"
My first thought in the morning is not always "thank you for this new day".
I don't always wake up with a smile, grateful for twenty-four brand new hours.
Similarly when I get out of bed.
If I have managed a grateful thought on waking, it's because I'm comfortable and sleepy in bed.
Breaking that comfort is a great effort for me.
My soundtrack for getting out of bed is often a great sigh and my thought is "I haven't had enough sleep".
Instead I might be still be thinking "thank you for this new day" or "thank you that I can move my body and get out of bed"; "thank you for the feet that carry me. Thank you that I can stand. Thank you for the floor."
The order of subsequent events will vary for each of us, so just one more example.
Turning on the water.
I usually take the water for granted: turning on the tap without thinking about it.
But it's thanks to water that life is possible.
Our bodies are more than 70% water.
Our food is grown and raised because of water.
Water is a good friend which nourishes the millions of species on earth.
St. Francis called it "Sister Water".
She deserves are constant thanks.
Thank you in Japanese?
"Arigato"
The children of a family used to say prayers together when they were young.
One day their mother told them about some people who don't pray.
The children said, "But who do they say thank you to?"
We come together on Sunday mornings to say thank you to God.
Eucharist is "thank you" in Greek.
Each week we have the Eucharistic Prayer – the prayer of thanksgiving.
But the whole of our Service is a Eucharist, a thanksgiving to God.
The community of Iona use a Eucharistic prayer with these words:
"Gratitude, praise, Hearts lifted high,
Voices full and joyful …
These you deserve.
For when we were nothing, You made us something.
When we had no name and no faith and no future, You called us your children.
When we lost our way or turned away, You did not abandon us.
When we came back to you, Your arms opened wide in welcome.
And look, You prepare a table for us
Offering not just bread, not just wine,
But your very self
So that we may be filled, forgiven, healed, blessed and made new again.
You are worth all our pain and all our praise.
So now, in gratitude, we join our voices
To those of the Church on earth and in heaven".
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