The Very Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
Have you heard the expression, “Looking at the world through rose-colored glasses?” The person who looks at the world through rose-colored glasses sees only that which is good in the world, or that which he or she wants to see. Perhaps the person who would accuse another person of wearing these peculiar metaphorical glasses might imagine that he is looking at the world through clear glasses, realistically, without bias.
But is it possible, really, to look at the world through untinted lenses? Don’t we all tend to look at life through a particular perspective? A person has just gone through a crisis and may be bitter; for that person no one may be trustworthy, everyone has ulterior motives, and the world is basically an unfriendly place. Another person who is chronically ill might see the world as a caring place, with persons who show that care on a daily basis. Another person in the same circumstances might see the world as a place of pain. Some people see the world as a place where the possibilities to learn something new are limitless, a place where there is so much to see and do, and they want to learn and see and do. Others see life as dull, routine, where nothing new ever happens. There are those who see the world as a very imperfect place, and their job is to find the imperfections and point them out. It’s the same world, looked at through different lenses.
Milton, in Paradise Lost, said: “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, and a hell of heaven.”
The point is that everyone has a perspective through which he or she views life. That perspective can and often does change as our experiences change, but two people having the same experiences can respond to them in vastly different ways. Kierkegaard said, in speaking of the experiences of children: “If two children were brought up together and shared everything in common, so that if one was singled out for commendation, the other was also; if one was punished, the other was also; still it might be true that they would learn absolutely different things. For the one might learn whenever it was commended, not to become proud; every time it was rebuked to humble itself under the admonition; every time it was punished to profit by the suffering. The other might learn when it was commended, to become arrogant; when it was rebuked, to harbor resentment; whenever it was punished, to store up secret anger.”
In today’s Gospel, Jesus heals ten lepers. Persons with leprosy were considered ritually unclean and highly contagious. Many skin disorders in that day were considered to be leprosy, and many of those disorders were not, in fact, contagious. Psoriasis, for example, was considered to be leprosy. At any rate, if you had leprosy you had to live apart and could have no contact with persons who did not have your disease, including your spouse, your children, and close friends.
Jesus heals ten lepers, yet only one returns to give thanks. Only one was thankful enough to thank the one who healed him. What were the metaphorical lenses through which the other nine looked at the world? Bitterness from what they had experienced? Were they still angry at God? Maybe Albert Schweitzer was right when he said all were undoubtedly grateful, but the other nine were in a hurry to get on with life. Maybe their lenses were more like mirrors; they could only see themselves and their own desires.
Each of us has a kind of set of lenses through which we view and respond to life. Experiences help to shape those perspectives, but our perspectives also determine how we view our experiences. The attitude toward life which Holy Scripture advises us to take on is that of thankfulness. Psalm 95 says, “Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving.” In St. Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians, he says, “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
The apostle St. Paul in his own life had this attitude toward life. St. Paul was the spiritual father of many of the New Testament churches, and he took very seriously his responsibility for their nurture in the faith. If a church needed encouragement, he encouraged them. If a church was on the wrong track, he didn’t hesitate to tell them so. Such was the case with the church in Corinth, a church which the apostle himself started.
Corinth was a wealthy Greek city and was rather well-known for its loose morals. The free-thinking group in the church at Cori nth had a lax attitude toward sexual matters and pagan sacrifices. St. Paul was disturbed about what he heard about the Corinthian Church, and he wrote a letter telling them so and instructing them concerning Christian morals. Yet, even in this distressing situation, at the beginning of his letter, he writes, “I give thanks to God always for you because of the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus.”
The attitude of the Christian toward life and toward God is thankfulness. It is no accident that the principle act of worship in the Church throughout the ages is called the Eucharist, which means thanksgiving.
The attitude of those present at the first Thanksgiving here in America was obviously thankfulness. Those first settlers at Plymouth had suffered much that first year because a plague had ravaged both the Indians in the area and the settlers of Plymouth Colony. Many had died, but many also survived. And those that remained gave thanks for the harvest. They could have perceived their situation as depressing. They could have been angry toward God because of the suffering they had undergone and to which they knew they had to look forward in the winter that was to come. Yet, these people gave thanks.
In sharp contrast to the settlers in Plymouth Colony is the family in the film Shenandoah. Jimmy Stewart played the part of a patriarch of a clan of well-to-do farmers. Early in the film he and his family are at table, ready for grace. Stewart asks the blessing by declaring before God that what he and his brood were about to receive came from the sweat of their brows, the work of their hands, and the talent of their business acumen. He concludes the prayer by letting God know flat out that there is no need for any divine blessing, since nothing divine has anything to do with what is on their table.
Soon, however, the Civil War begins. The family is split up and pitted against one another. The land and business holdings are ravaged by the conflict, and the father is left a defeated man. Yet, he gains from all of this. He finally recognizes who it really is from whom all blessings flow. It is odd that prosperous times often find persons less thankful than difficult times.
It was right in the middle of the Civil War, in 1863, that Abraham Lincoln decided this nation should have a day of Thanksgiving. In his proclamation he first confesses that “we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all (the blessings of this great nation) were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.” In the context of that confession, he proclaims a day of thanksgiving, “that God should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.”
We find ourselves at this Thanksgiving remembering that we are to give thanks in all circumstances. Our giving of thanks is not like looking through rose-colored glasses, where we pretend that everything is good. We are giving thanks to God in whatever circumstances we find ourselves, thanking God for life, for the means to sustain our lives, for the many blessings which enrich our lives; for our families, for friends, for the Church. Above all, we give thanks for our Lord Jesus Christ who has given us the gift of everlasting life.
Sermon preached by The Very Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota, Florida
Thanksgiving Day
27 November 2014