How Would You Say Thank You To Jesus?
Good Morning Friends,
When Jesus was about to enter Jerusalem, he wept. However, others, who were about to greet him upon his entry into the city were preparing great cheers of thanksgiving. The tears came before the triumphant. The mood shifted from hopeless to grateful. Then it shifted again at the Last Supper and the time at the Wine Press, the Cross, the death and resurrection in preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit. And how we choose our reply to this rollercoaster of emotions reflected in our own lives makes all the difference. Ultimately, if we are to be Christians, we must figure out our response to the sacrifice made for us…for the darkness of life as well as the light. How Would You Say Thank You To Jesus?
Scripture: As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”
Luke 19:41-44 (NRSV)
the twenty-four elders fall before the one who is seated on the throne and worship the one who lives forever and ever; they cast their crowns before the throne, singing, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”
Revelation 4:10-11 (NRSV)
Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name.
Psalm 100:4 (NRSV)
You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever.
Psalm 30:11-12 (NRSV)
Message: Gratitude is to be expressed creatively and with joy for both the good and the bad. Now, there is the story about Rudyard Kipling that in part illustrates this. But I need to set the stage first. Kipling was a distinguished literary genius, a great British poet and famous writer whose works have blessed some of us and perhaps cursed the spirit of others. He grew up in Imperialist India. His poem, The White Man’s Burden, for example, was really a fight song for the white imperialists to take over the world written to support Teddy Roosevelt in the takeover of the Philippines. Christian missionaries were thrilled but in today’s reading we are very shocked and disappointed at how racist it is. I first learned about Kipling through a very different poem my father shared with me, as a lesson in manhood entitled, If and through my mother reading to me Rikki Tikki Tavi from the Jungle Book. Yes, I was privileged to be raised in a Christian home but also a thinking home. For, the Kipling books were not overtly about God. Still, the connections to our faith are there without religious overtones. Now back to the story. You see, Rudyard Kipling made a great deal of money at his trade though this writing approach. He was privileged to be a colleague of G. K. Chesterton and C. S. Lewis who recognized his skill. Now the story is told that a newspaper reporter came up to him once and said, ”Mr. Kipling, I just read that somebody calculated that the money you make from your writings amounts to over $100 a word.” Mr. Kipling raised his eyebrows and said, ”Really, I certainly wasn’t aware of that.” The reporter cynically reached into his pocket and pulled out a $100 bill and gave it to Kipling and said, ”Here’s a $100 bill Mr. Kipling. Now you give me one of your $100 word.” Rudyard Kipling looked at that $100 bill for a moment, took it and folded it up and put it in his pocket and said, ”Thanks.” But friends, let’s be honest, unlike the clever response in the story, real gratitude is not just the nice feelings we experience or even the valuable words we share. It goes deeper and really is rather transparent whether it is born out of darkness or of light. Now Kipling is not an apologist for faith or dogma of any kind. And yet in the very struggle against dogma, he can at times open the door to a rediscovery of what faith might be about, that should strike every person of faith with a freshness and a challenge. You see, he shared in fiction what is so difficult to believe about God in real life. We are to learn from Kipling’s honesty enough to thank God in whom we sometimes believe passionately and sometimes disbelieve equally passionately. For out of this honesty about those dark places of devils and children, can come words to change our hearts. Here, real gratitude is both a verbal response and physical action that demonstrates just how thankful we really are for it all. Friends, God wants us to respond to Him in ways that demonstrate our deep gratitude for what Jesus has done for us and given to us. Sure, it is a commandment but it starts with a changed heart. And perhaps the best way to do that is to share the gifts we have been given with love and enter a dialogue for healing. Friends, the gift of our gratitude for those who passed on the faith to us might well be the first gift the King unwraps and redeems.
Pray on this Thanksgiving Day that
we have thankful hearts for parents and family, for the hurricanes of life and our survival of them. Pray we have the attitude of gratitude even for inspirations that come from dark places. Pray God reveal a work for us that is rewarding. Pray our hearts are transformed by the mother of all virtues and the father of all creation. Pray we have hearts that are overwhelmed and overflowing because we have discovered a way to glorify God. Pray we discover we know more than we know we know simply because we are grateful. Pray we not make the world small by focusing on the God of laws but more so on a God who changes hearts. Pray that before we squeeze the toothpaste tube we realize that it is not easy to put it back.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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