Filled with a Spirit of Gratitudeephesians 5:15-20

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Aug 192018 Psalm 34:9-14

Filled with a spirit of GratitudeEphesians 5:15-20

By Rev. Dr. Janet Macgregor-Williams

West MilfordPresbyterian Church

Last week we looked at Ephesians 4, as we explored what it means to imitate Christ. The theme that runs throughout Ephesians is how we come together and find wholeness in Christ, both personally and as a community. Today’s reading challenges us to be wise. So many times we think wisdom is something that comes with education, or maybe years of schooling. But then I am reminded of a book by Robert Fulghum. He claims that all he really needed to know about how to live, he learned in kindergarten. Here are the lessons he learned at that young age:

• Share everything.
• Play fair.
• Don't hit people.
• Put things back where you found them.
• Clean up your own mess.
• Don't take things that aren't yours.
• Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
• Wash your hands before you eat.
• Flush.
• Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
• Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
• Take a nap every afternoon.
• When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
• Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
• Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
• And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

It is a great list, but I believe that there is one more important lesson learned in kindergarten, that he neglected to include. It is this:

Always say “please” and “thank you.”

Over the years I have done many sermons on gratitude, whether it is the healing of the 10 lepers, where only one returned to give thanks or singing the hymn “Count our Blessings.”

As we prepare to say good-bye in just over a month, I find I have been counting my blessings. I think of all the friendships I have formed over the last 18 years. I remember the people who have touched my life and are no longer here, people like George and Evelyn Eckhardt, Art and Shirley Cahill, and Eileen Shaw. Or I look out at the congregation on a Sunday morning and am so grateful for the love and support of all of you. Ministry is a partnership, so I give thanks to God for all of you. Together we are the body of Christ. It is as we take time to give thanks, to count our blessings that we discover that God is with us in difficult times. It is remembering all that God has given to us and done for us in the past that gives us strength and hope for the future. Eleanor Roosevelt said it best, when she said:

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift; that’s why they call it the present.

Take time each day to celebrate the gifts that God has given to you, skills and abilities, family and friends, and most important, love and grace. As I was working on this sermon, I saw this poster on facebook:

Thank you to the special people in my life, who have listened without judgement, helped without conditions, understood with empathy, and loved me no matter what.

This is the love God has shown us, this is the love we are called to show to others. The challenge is to live gratefully, realizing every moment of life is a gift. So, begin each day by opening your eyes and be grateful that you have eyes to open, and look at each moment through the lens of gratitude, till you put your head down and you close your eyes, grateful that you have a bed to sleep in.

When we encounter those things that are hard to give thanks for in our life, from violence, to infidelity; from hatred to injustices you might wonder where we mind find gratitude. But even in the midst of the negatives, there are opportunities to do something to make a difference. It is then that we can discover that gratitude takes away our fear and helps us change the world, bit by bit. You may think that one little piece of gratitude doesn’t matter, but think about the Grand Canyon. As the Colorado river winds through it, carrying a little bit of dirt down river, it changes the landscape and carves out the beauty that amazes us. May thank you be the first prayer you offer and the last, may you look at your life through the lens of gratitude.

Paul says that we should:

be filled with the Spirit,as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts,giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

May we be filled with the spirit,

May we sing hymns of praise,

And give thanks.

In so doing we live out our spiritual calling, we live out our baptism, as we become the people God intended for us to be.