A Year of Gratitude

Today marks the first Sunday/fifth day of the second half of the 2020s. Gives it a different feeling to think about it this way. In addition, today begins my 28th year in full time ministry. I started working full-time in the church on January 5, 1998, and in my 27 years of ministry I have never experienced anything like the last 5 years. The scope and magnitude of events in the last five years would have been unmatched for impact individually; compress them into a five year period, and it is overwhelming. Let's recap just some of what's happened in our community, our nation, and our world since January 1, 2020. I know I won’t hit everything—and of course, I can't encompass each individual's personal experiences—but I want to touch on some of the biggies: 

3. March 3, 2020
   I woke up at Beersheba Springs Assembly in the middle of conducting interviews for candidates seeking ordination as pastors, something Pastor Rebecca will be doing this spring. Pastor Bucky was there as well. It was also super Tuesday for the presidential primaries, for which our church was a polling place. My phone had blown up with messages all asking if I was OK. It took me awhile to process that there had been a rash of tornadoes throughout the night that did significant damage throughout Middle Tennessee, touching down in east Nashville and charted a path east all the way to my hometown of Cookeville. Of course I was immediately checking in on my family and the church. Bucky and I had ridden together to Beersheba, so we immediately packed up and headed back to see what we could do to help. Chris Hodge helped me to chart a path home, as so many roads were impassable from downed trees and telephone poles. We finally made it to Hartmann Drive, and I remember seeing all the poles snapped in half. It was awful. Power was out at the church, and they were having people vote by paper ballot. It was an awful day that set off a lot of effort to help with the recovery efforts. It was comparable to the 2010 flooding I experienced in Franklin along the Harpeth River...yet who would have thought that wouldn't even be the biggest event to take place in March of that year? 
   
   
4. March 12, 2020
   Governor Bill Lee issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency in Tennessee around the growing world concern of COVID 19. Then the next day, President Donald Trump declared it a national emergency. This led to a shelter-at-home order, something we had not experienced in many if any of our lifetimes. I was unprepared to pastor a church through the pandemic. None of us, regardless of profession, had experience with something like this. Statistics show that over SEVEN MILLION people have died from COVID worldwide, including over 1.2 million Americans. I look back on that time, and it was so hard. Every decision was scrutinized. No matter the decision, people vehemently disagreed. There were many decisions which would elicit a response from one person that I wasn’t doing enough, immediately followed by someone else saying I was doing too much. We all responded to that stress in different ways. AND BESIDES THE PHYSICAL TOLL OF THE VIRUS, THE ISOLATION AND STRAIN ON MENTAL HEALTH WAS GREAT. Depression and anxiety diagnoses went up 25%, and suicide rates skyrocketed. It was just an awful season that seemed to go on forever that we have never fully recovered from. 
5. December 25, 2020
   It was only just recently that 2nd Avenue in Nashville reopened after the Christmas morning bombing of 2020. Four years ago that impacted us and also scared us and robbed us of any sense of security we had. 
   
   
6. I’m going to speed things up a bit because I am starting to get depressed thinking about all this. In February of 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, igniting a war that is still going on. I was so proud of our church stepping up, saying we will sponsor a refugee from the war seeking to escape. We got to meet OLENA and be in relationship with her. That is only one of many world skirmishes and wars we have watched over the last five years. 
   
   
7. We have had to watch multiple mass school shootings, including the March 27, 2023 Covenant School shooting in Nashville, reminding us it could happen here. In addition, how many other shootings/ bombings/ terrorist type events have we witnessed including two things on New Year's Day this year in New Orleans and Las Vegas? All of this takes its toll on our nation. 
   
   
8. January 6, 2021
   The attack on the US Capitol was a culmination of growing divisiveness in our nation. I had hopes that it would be the thing that caused us to come back together, but divisiveness is bad as ever and permeates every aspect of our lives, even impacting around family dinner tables at Thanksgiving and Christmas. 
   
   
9. Did you know that last year was the first year on record in which polls reported a majority of Americans ARE NOT involved in a community of faith? Only 47% of Americans now say they are. The number one reason they give is THEY DON’T SEE THE CHURCH ACTING ANY DIFFERENT THAN THE WORLD. The divisiveness and hatred they see in the world is being modeled in the church to them, and they want no part of it. The United Methodist Church has had its issues in the last 5 years, first with disaffiliation that sought to move the church more conservative, then with General Conference that made it appear to move to the left. We have held a middle ground, but it has come at a cost. And we are not alone in our turmoil. The Southern Baptist Church has also taken their lumps, among other denominations. The truth is, we are all part of Christ’s church, and we have suffered collectively as we seek to model Jesus to a hurting and broken world. 

I know that was rather depressing to rehash and I am sorry, but it was necessary because what I want to share is that there is really only one biblical response to adversity and hardship and peril and tragedy: to be grateful. I know this sounds counterintuitive, and it is. In fact the world tells us it is OK to be angry and self centered and upset and even to give up. The Bible calls us to something different, though. It calls us to be GRATEFUL. When we read Paul’s letters, we see they are filled with a call to give thanks. He says more than once to GIVE THANKS IN ALL THINGS, IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES. 

Our text for today addresses the trials we face in life. It talks about storms both literal and figurative. It talks about wandering around lost and alone and hungry with no hope.It talks about the enemy pressing in on us. It talks about being in prison (literal or figurative). BUT THE REFRAIN AFTER EACH IS THE SAME - GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD FOR HE IS GOOD, HIS LOVE ENDURES FOREVER. The storms were about to capsize my vessel - GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD FOR HE IS GOOD, HIS LOVE ENDURES FOREVER. The enemy was closing in - GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD FOR HE IS GOOD, HIS LOVE ENDURES FOREVER. I was lost and alone - GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD FOR HE IS GOOD, HIS LOVE ENDURES FOREVER. There was a tornado and a worldwide pandemic and political divisiveness that even harmed churches and families - GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD FOR HE IS GOOD, HIS LOVE ENDURES FOREVER. 

The biblical response to adversity is GRATITUDE. So I am declaring on this first Sunday of this first year of the second half of the 2020s that we have a Year of Gratitude. I want us to sow gratitude in our homes, in our church, in our community, and in our world, and I want us to pray and trust that God will make it grow into something amazing that transforms our community. 

Next week, I want to talk more about how this all came about and the thoughts I've had over the last couple months that I believe are from God. But today, I want to tell you this clearly: I BELIEVE WITH ALL OF MY HEART THAT IF WE DO THIS WELL, IF WE DO THIS RIGHT, THEN WE CAN TRANSFORM THE WORLD STARTING WITH OUR HEARTS AND RADIATING OUT. IT CAN BE CONTAGIOUS I BELIEVE IN OUR COMMUNITY. I WANT US TO LOOK FOR WAYS TO BE GRATEFUL. NOW, HERE IS THE OTHER THING I AM QUITE CONVINCED OF: IF WE DO THIS RIGHT, IT WILL COST US—TIME AND EFFORT AND MONEY AND MORE—BUT ANYTHING WORTHWHILE DOES. 

I think the Bible is clear on how we get out of the mess that I have described, that we feel in our hearts and see with our eyes: begin a gratitude campaign. Live out a gratitude campaign. Become people of gratitude that others see something different in. CHURCH - I BELIEVE WITH ALL MY HEART IT CAN CHANGE THE WORLD. And that is what the church is called to do. Now, I need you to come back next week as I continue this discussion. 

Thanks be to God
AMEN