I hope you all are well aware by now of our new program, “10,000 reasons for our hearts to praise Him.” As the title implies, we are gathering 10,000 things for which we are thankful as a parish. In order for us to do that, we are counting on you to add to our list those things for which you are thankful.
In asking you to do that, we’re actually helping you to live longer and better quality lives! Robert Emmons, in his new book Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier, tells how people who are thankful “reap emotional, physical, and interpersonal benefits,” including having fewer heart attacks!
So here goes! I am thankful for so many things, big and little. I’m thankful for my wonderful wife, Linda, and our children, Michael and Rebecca; I’m thankful that my kids are self-supporting; I’m thankful for this parish in countless ways: for our children’s and youth ministry, our tremendous music Ministry , our mission and outreach, and our tremendous staff.
I’m thankful that I am a citizen of the greatest country in the world. I’m thankful that, with all of our problems in this country, there is no other time in our nation’s history when I would rather live. In other words, I can’t look back at our nation’s history and wish I lived in some other time, some Golden Age. I’m thankful for hot showers and modern medicine and new technology and automobiles and air travel. I’m thankful for the spirit of compassion that leads so many in our community and in our country to reach beyond themselves to help others.
Last Tuesday I blessed the Episcopal Thrift House. I’m thankful for the people who give of their time, talent, and stuff so that the profits of that Thrift House will go to helping those in need. I’m thankful for all of these things.
Do I always live with that spirit of thankfulness? I’m sorry to say I don’t. Much of the time, I’m just involved in the everyday tasks of ministry, all too often getting irritated at little things like traffic jams. Traffic jams?! In Sarasota! As far as traffic jams go, we really have it pretty good. But I also have to say that most of the time, in the back of my mind and consciousness, is a sense of thankfulness for the many blessings that God has bestowed upon me in this life. And not a little part of the reason for that sense of thankfulness is the fact that I am a Christian, and Christians are called to be thankful. St. Paul, who certainly had much to complain about, admonishes the Thessalonians to “give thanks in all circumstances.” The 20th century theologian Norman Pittenger, in his book Life as Eucharist, says “Thank God every day that you have been baptized; thank him that you have been confirmed, thank him that you can come to the Holy Communion. If you would stop worrying about your failures all the time, and now and again just be glad that you are what by God’s grace you are—a Christian, a member of Christ’s Church, even if a poor specimen—you would get farther along the road to real Christian discipleship.”
Not everyone in this world lives life in this way, and certainly not everyone in this world enjoys the benefits of life which everyone here takes for granted much of the time.
A spirit of thankfulness is the way our Lord lived his earthly life. He lived that life in a time when many of the people of Israel were not thankful at all in their situation. They were not happy with being subjects of Rome. They constantly looked backward to a Golden Age that was far rosier in their minds that it was in actuality, the reign of King David. They weren’t happy with paying taxes to Rome. Instead of being happy with what money they had, they complained about the image of the Emperor that was stamped on their coins. They wanted out and they wanted out now!
When Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do men say that I am?” Peter replied, “You are the Christ.” Christ is the Greek word for Messiah. Jesus was indeed the Christ, but what that meant in reality was far different from Peter’s understanding when he answered the question. For Peter, the Christ would be someone who would deliver Israel from Rome, deliver them from the misery of their present time, and make Israel a great nation like it was under the Golden Age of King David.
Our Lord Jesus knew that to be the Christ meant that he would suffer, die on the cross, and on the third day be raised from the dead. He would deliver not only the people of Israel, but also people of every nationality, in every time, from their sin, and thus reconcile us to God. This understanding of the Christ was so far removed from Peter’s perception that he had the audacity to rebuke Jesus when he told the disciples what being the Christ really meant. That rebuke led Jesus to say one of the worst things he could say to a disciple. “Get behind me, Satan, for you are not on the side of God but of men.”
Because he died on the cross for our sins and was raised on the third day, we are here today. What I am most thankful for in my life is that, through his death on the cross, Jesus has saved me from my sin and has reconciled me to God. I’m thankful that through my baptism I participate in the death and resurrection of Christ, have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, made a member of his Body, the Church, and an inheritor of everlasting life. I’m so thankful that whatever happens to us in this life cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Sermon preached by the Very Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
The Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
16 Sunday after Pentecost
13 September 2015