Gratitude Arises in Our Humility

Today we are finishing the first series of our year of gratitude. Some of the major things we must remember as we move forward in this year of gratitude are:

• Gratitude is a biblical response to adversity. This is our response to all that the world has and is going through as of late.
• Gratitude grows from humility. Do you remember the parable of the sower? Most gardeners think they know best where the fertile spots are and sow sparingly. Jesus says to sow indiscriminately, understanding that we do not always know where God has been plowing and preparing the soil.
• Gratitude causes us to dream. It creates in us a way to move forward in our faith.
• Grumbling, resentment, self centeredness and the like are gratitude killers. Gratitude is our weapon of response to those things in the world. 

Today we finish with these important foundational pieces of gratitude for us to build our year of gratitude on. I suggest that gratitude arises out of our imperfections. OUR IMPERFECTIONS - YOURS . . . MINE . . . AND THOSE TO WHOM WE EXPRESS GRATITUDE. We have to remember this as we embark on this year of gratitude. If we do not, we will only express gratitude for those who are easy to like. True gratitude means also saying THANK YOU, GOD for those who are hard for us to get along with. It’s easy to say thank you on a sunny, 70 degree Saturday when everything in our life is perfect. The task of following Jesus teaches us to be thankful on those less than perfect days, even some of our worst days. Jesus also teaches us and CALLS US to be thankful for ALL PEOPLE - those easy to like and those hard to like. In other words, life with God will help me learn to be grateful for imperfect people and imperfect circumstances. 

IF WE WAIT UNTIL WE FIND PERFECT PEOPLE AND PERFECT CIRCUMSTANCES IN ORDER TO BE GRATEFUL THEN WE MAY FIND OURSELVES WAITING AWHILE. Perhaps this is why we do not see more gratitude in our world today, because we are only thankful in those perfect circumstances. This is why we need to look for gratitude in our imperfections. 

Jewish Rabbis talked about this too. A rabbi will say, "One is obligated to say a benediction over evil as well as a benediction over good." Why? Because evil is a good thing? Suffering is a good thing? No, of course not. Those are bad things, and God is at work to one day overcome and overturn them. The rabbi will say that one is obligated to say a benediction at all times because we are always in danger of being thankful only when good things come our way. When we do that, our threshold for gratitude gets higher and higher, and we become ungrateful people. Being transformed by God means learning to see ways in which God is at work, even in bad situations. "For I know that in all things God is at work for good." The rabbi will say, "Only God knows for sure what will turn out to produce good." A lot of times I'll go through something hard, painful, bad, and I'll wish I didn't have to go through it. Then I'll look back on it and say, "Oh God, I'm so grateful I didn't miss that." So the rabbi will say, "We bless God all the time, giving thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you." The grateful life with God is the best opportunity ever offered to the human race. This is what we are working toward. And remember . . . JESUS WAS A JEWISH RABBI AND WOULD HAVE ESPOUSED TO THIS WAY OF THINKING. 

Here is what I want us to see in this understanding of gratitude. We spend our life trying to minimize our sin and maximize others. We do this internally in our head and then we try and externally carry it out. We make ourselves feel better that way. Yes, I sin, but my sin is no way as bad as their sin. So when we do this, we create us and them and then we ultimately create those who deserve grace and those who do not, those who deserve our gratitude and those who do not. It is us trying to justify our life and make us feel better about it. 

Paul, in his letter to the church at Rome has a lot to say about Justification. Our text for today is a key to this whole understanding. It begins - ALL HAVE SINNED AND FALLEN SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD. There are none who are perfect. We have all messed up, failed, fallen short of God’s desire for us. What he means by this is that there is not a person on the planet who can enter heaven on their own merit because they can stand before God blameless - not one is blameless. That means we are all in the same boat, in need of someone else to save us. Thank God, Paul says for Jesus. We are justified by his grace that redeems every single one of us. Jesus is the one who can stand blameless before God, yet he sacrificed himself for us. US is the whole world - All of us in the same boat that sin puts us in. We owe our ultimate gratitude for God's ultimate gift. 

We (YOU AND I) are imperfect people who have received God’s grace, and we have to realize that and have gratitude to God for it. Then out of a recognition of God’s gift to us, we should seek to extend grace to others. This is how gratitude works. Like I said at the beginning: Life with God will help me learn to be grateful for imperfect people and imperfect circumstances. Because God first extended grace to this imperfect person and my imperfect circumstances. Now I need to be grateful for others. 

It’s easy to be grateful for the server in a restaurant or drive through line who takes great care of us and is easy to like and goes above and beyond. Our tips reflect it, right? But what about the person who is short with us and obviously isn’t engaged in their job or who ignores us. It’s easy to be grateful for the person who moves over a lane to let us pass on the interstate but what about the person who is oblivious and has 10 people waiting to get by? It’s easy to be grateful for those who are like us and say and do things we agree with but what about those who are not like us and say things we disagree with or infuriate us? We are quick to write them off or return fire with them aren’t we? 

But if we live in a space of gratitude, we recognize that God first extended grace to me and we are grateful and that should impact everything else about our lives, helping us to be grateful for imperfect people and imperfect circumstances. Gratitude should change us and cause us to look to express gratitude to EVERY SINGLE PERSON WE COME INTO CONTACT WITH BECAUSE THEY TOO ARE IN THE SAME BOAT WITH US, THEY TOO ARE EXTENDED GRACE BY GOD, THEY TOO ARE LOVED BY GOD AND SO SHOULD BE BY US. 

This is where gratitude really rises up into something special - out of our imperfections and gratitude to God that turns to show that gratitude to others. 

Thanks be to God 
AMEN