Once upon a time…could have been this year or maybe it was decades ago, there was a farmer who, on a warm summer night, was sitting on the front porch sharing a peaceful moment with his spouse. They had been together for 40 years. On that particular night, the farmer starting thinking about how much he appreciated his partner. They had shared so much together. His partner had been caring, supportive, patient and forgiving. Overcome with emotion, he turned to his partner and said, “You’ve been such a wonderful partner that there are times I can hardly keep from telling you!”
Love and gratitude are wonderful emotions, but particularly so when they are spoken – when we express them aloud. The phrases, “Thank you,” “I really appreciate it,” “I really appreciate you,” and “I Love you” are very powerful! These words have the potential to grow our love and strengthen our relationships. To NOT express those feelings aloud is, therefore, an opportunity lost. Even as a church community we don’t always say it enough. It’s not that we don’t love one another or appreciate the members of this community, what they do and what we do for God’s ministry here at Westworth, it’s just that we don’t say it enough.
We talked a bit about gratitude at Thanksgiving… that the incorporation of saying “thank you” in a meaningful way can lead to a routine of giving thanks. Like every skill, being grateful, especially when the world is chaotic, needs to be practiced. This morning, I want to practice gratitude by thanking all the people who made the Timeless Treasures Sale a huge success yesterday. From hours and hours of unpacking, sorting, and pricing items down in the “dungeon”, to baking, setting up, setting out, attending, packing up, taking down, and cleaning up, all of you have given so much of your time and energy to this event. There were the up-front folk and the behind the scenes folk, there were young people and elders… you all pitched into create something amazing. And we say thank you, thank you, thank you. Your time is valued and appreciated.
To you who are here in person, and who are online this morning, I also want to thank you. Each of you play a role in the ministry and mission of Westworth United. You share your time, your talents and your financial support. I fully believe that thanks need to be said often for this kind of support, not just at Stewardship campaign time, but regularly so that you all know we are seeing what you offer. The variety of gifts in this congregation is amazing. We are not complete without you. I am ridiculously grateful to be sharing this ministry with you. Thanks for taking the risk and continuing to do so!
Expressing our gratitude and our love in words is important and powerful. From my vantage point, I was able to see the physical changes… you sat up a little taller, smiling. Being on the receiving end of gratitude is a lovely experience. But want to know something? The act of giving thanks in words also helps those of us who are doing the thanking! There are recent studies showing that focusing on abundance and expressing our gratitude regularly make us happier and healthier as individuals and stronger as a community of faith. Diana Butler Bass, in her book Grateful: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks, sums it up beautifully: “In addition to heart health, gratitude has also been linked to emotional well-being, lower levels of anxiety and depression, decreased panic attacks and phobias, reduced risks of alcoholism and substance abuse, and longevity. Researchers found that thankful people live happier lives as well.”
While focusing on our gratitude and expressing it aloud is necessary, we all know, however that it doesn’t end there. Love and gratitude must also be lived out – expressed in our actions. We all know cases where someone says “I love you so much” but then their actions are not consistent with their words. They give a mixed message. And we also know that when messages are mixed, people believe our actions over our words. So it is key to say it and live it.
So, how do we express our love and gratitude to God?
We can say aloud, which we do often through our prayers, reflections and singing. Indeed, when you think of it, our worship services tend to be full of words of thanks. But what about our actions? How do we SHOW God thanks and love? What can we DO to give thanks to God when we experience powerful moments of gratitude, when our hearts overflow with love?
Not surprisingly, Jesus had something to say about that. Once when he was asked about what God expected of a believer, Jesus said plainly, “love God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind… and… (and this is the big revelation) love your neighbour as you love yourself.”
This wasn’t new information for the people listening to Jesus. What was new was the way Jesus linked the two, basically telling the people: “If you want to express your love to God, then love one another, love your neighbour. Want express gratitude to God for all that God has done for you? Then reach out and care for all those God loves.”
There’s a similar message waiting for us in the Gospel reading from John today. Newly resurrected Jesus is talking to Peter. Jesus is getting ready to leave again and really wants to make sure that the disciples understand their mission in the world. It is so important that Jesus asks Peter not once, not twice, but three times, “Do you love me?” And each time Peter says aloud: “Yes, Jesus, you know I love you.” Then Jesus gives Peter direction as to how to live out this love: “Feed my lambs” “Tend my sheep,” “Feed my sheep.” Basically, Jesus lets Peter know that the best way to show his love for the Messiah, he should love all the people Jesus loves.
Peter has a complicated relationship with Jesus. In the passages leading up to our story we hear about how Peter denied Jesus after his arrest. Denied knowing Jesus not once, but three times. Can you even imagine the heaviness of Peter’s heart after Jesus’ death. But here is Jesus, come back to be with the disciples, giving a path to Peter for healing and an opportunity to get it right – to proclaim that not only does he know Jesus, but loves him.
Following this experience, Peter will draw new people to faith in God, not just because of his words, but because of how he lived his life. His actions speak loudly and reinforce his words and teachings. Eventually, Peter will give up his very life for the sake of his faith in Jesus.
One final though: when we live our love as well as speak it, we are following God’s example. God tells us about God’s love and then shows us, it’s kinda the central message of the story of Jesus. For the modern mind, unimaginable that God needed Jesus, a vulnerable human with all the suffering, pain, vulnerability, doubts, and fears that are part of being human. But in that sacred and holy human messiah we are shown an incredible, life-changing, and never-ending love. Through Jesus we see what God had been repeating for centuries through the Hebrew leaders and prophets – we are loved, and God will be with us no matter what.
God’s love still needs flesh and bone. Today, God still needs people to show others what it means to live with gratitude. As followers in our time and place, we are called to be nothing less than the hands and feet of God – making a difference in the lives of others, particularly those in need. God promises to be by our side as we do this.
There is a story of a little girl walking home from church one Sunday with her mom. At one point the little girl turns to her mothers and says, ‘Mommy, the minister’s sermon this morning confused me.’ The mother responded: “oh, why is that?” The little girl replied: “Well, she said that God is bigger than we are. Is that true?” the mother replied: “Yes, honey, that’s true.” “And the minister said that God lives in us. Is that true, Mommy?” The mother replied: “Yes, that is also true.” “Well,” said the little girl, “if God is bigger than us, and lives in us, wouldn’t God show?”
Today, on a day when we talk about stewardship and gratitude, we take time to reflect on God’s love, and God’s blessings in our lives, and in the lives of this congregation. Today, we intentionally take time to give words to our gratitude for all of this, and for God. And we take on the challenge of showing God our gratitude by letting God’s love shine through us.
May God bless us through our words, and our actions. Amen.
