Sermon

One of the things I've been enjoying about my Monday pastoral visits at St. Joseph's hospital are some of the patients I meet. In particular, I remember visiting one diminutive elderly woman curled up in her bed. Unlike just about every other patient in the hospital, she didn't have an IV or any other medical paraphernalia. I gathered that she was very poor, perhaps living in a nursing home, and not getting much attention from the nurses. She seemed weak but happy to see me. All she could talk about was how much she loved the Lord, how grateful she was to Jesus and praised God for his kindness to her as she repeated the 23^rd Psalm.

What impressed me about her and some of the others I have visited who are devout Christians is their easy access to thankfulness. It impresses me because I do not have such ease in moving into that state of mind. It could be that these people are just suffering from religious delusions. They are out of touch with reality and if they were in touch with reality then they would be responding more appropriately to the problems of living in this world - they'd be depressed!

Whether or not the diminutive elderly woman I visited was suffering from religious dementia, she was able to overcome her circumstances and move into a thankful state of mind which clearly brought her comfort in her hour of need. I expect there are many here this morning like me who do not have such easy access to a thankful state of mind when troubles come.

Just give me a toothache, a spasm in my back, a headache, a pain in my knee or soreness in my feet and I'm not thanking anyone. I'm worrying what I should be doing to deal with the problem. If a doctor or dentist recommends some procedure, I'm anxious about what will happen. If some medications are prescribed, I'm watching for side affects. If the problem is something I could have prevented by flossing my teeth, curbing my appetite or doing more exercise, I'm likely to be kicking myself rather than thanking the Lord.

Being in good health is certainly no guarantee of easy access to thankfulness. Having a spouse or close friend who is suffering can bring on emotional distress. The precarious health of aging parents can keep their kids constantly on guard for the next health care crisis. The troubles of children at any age easily disturb their parents' well being. The lines of blood which nourish us and add to our quality of life can as easily become a source of woe.

And even if our health is good and our family happy, one need only read the front page of the newspaper every morning to become mired in pessimism and hopelessness. The tremendous size of the national debt, the many ecological crises augmented by new ones each month, the endless conflicts around the world as civil wars are fought by ethnic groups, the consolidation of power by multinational corporations who have loyalty to no nation or people, and the likelihood of nuclear proliferation. For many Native Americans, Thanksgiving is a day of mourning during which they fast to remember the many broken treaties with them and the many atrocities committed against them. Behind every problem is some group who has established their needs and desires or aversions as more important than the general welfare of all or have vowed to sacrifice all to avenge the wrong done to their people.

For all these reasons, getting to a thankful state of mind can be very challenging. And being in a thankful state of mind can be very helpful to cope with the difficulties of life. There is the often quoted story of a woman in the end stages of very painful disease lying in a hospital bed in agony. In her torment, she lashed out at the nurses and her family. She had been a strong business woman and mother who was always in charge. Now she was helpless in the face of her suffering. Because she was so hostile to those around her, she found herself more and more alone. Her despair was intense, probably matching most of our worst fears of how we would not like to die. In her despair, she suddenly had a vision of other women dying in different places across the globe as she was. The effect of this vision was to make her feel a strong sense of connection with them which suddenly opened her heart. She was transformed in that moment in a way the liberated her mind from her pain. Yes, she still had intense pain but now she was able to feel love for those around her. She started being very kind and appreciative to the nurses. She thanked her family for visiting her. Her family came more often. The nurses began to spend more time in her room and even lingered to chat with her. The woman was able to die surrounded by family and friends feeling thankful for all the blessings which had come into her life and loving all those who were around her in her final hours.

The state of being thankful can transform our lives. And we don't have to wait until we are facing our last breath to be thankful. There many ways of getting into that mind state which we can practice every day. I thought I'd share with you some of the ways I cultivate my thankfulness which I hope you may find useful.

The easiest way I've found to get into a thankful state of mind is to count my blessings. Although ministry has its ups and downs, I'm tremendously thankful to be serving this wonderful congregation. I regularly hear of the trials and tribulations of ministers in other congregations and each time feel silently thankful to be serving you. Ministry is often demanding work but also very satisfying. And the demands of ministry do not stress me to the degree my work in engineering and software development did and without the same degree of satisfaction.

I need only think of my good fortune to meet and marry Philomena and have such a delightful child as Andy; I need only think about our comfortable home and having for the first time in my life more than enough closet space; I need only think of the sheer pleasure of walking into the grocery store and being able to select from such a wide variety of foods and ; I need only think of going to the store in my shorts in November, and I'm ready to break into song.

Contrast this with a story I heard of the plight of camel herders in India on National Public Radio. One afternoon, I think it was on All Things Considered, there was an interview with a woman who managed to go on a caravan as they took their camels out in search for food. Because the region they lived in had seasonal droughts, the camels would be taken long distances in search of grazing lands. The journalist had a difficult time being accepted by these semi-nomadic people as it was so unusual for a single foreign woman to want to join them. One group rejected her because they couldn't trust her to sleep with their women because she must obviously be a man in drag. Finally she was able to join a caravan and has chronicled their life and hardships. She had a horrible time with respiratory diseases caused by constantly breathing the microbe filled clouds of dust created by the camels. She noted that everyone in the caravan suffered some kind of ailment or other. Many had broken knee caps from being kicked by the camels. Many had malaria. She spoke of the sheer will and determination of these people to survive, of watching a man with malaria and a 105 degree fever, getting up each morning to do the work that needed to be done then walk for 20 miles.

Closer to home, I was visiting a nursing home patient who is very old, suffering from frail bones, a weak heart, and may never see her own home again. She at times has found comfort by looking at the suffering of the woman in the next bed with serious wound healing problems and will likely lose her leg. Comparing our suffering with others who are worse off can stimulate in us a sense of thankfulness. Even remembering times of suffering in the past can do the same thing. I struggled with a broken leg for a total of three years before it was completely healed. When I was a teenager, I had health problems which caused me great discomfort and misery. I suspect all of us have had episodes of intense pain and suffering we are grateful have abated. All these different ways to count our blessings can do a great deal to ease our minds and move us into a state of thankfulness.

If counting my blessings doesn't work, sometimes bringing myself fully into the present moment is effective. I like to shave in the shower and last week stupidly cut a gash in my side with my razor as I swung the razor around to rinse it off. I immediately longed for the moment before it happened , berated myself for being so careless with a sharp instrument and wondered if I would be troubled by the gash the rest of the day. Gradually I let go of my self judgment, inspected the cut, took comfort that the cut was shallow and the pain manageable, released the mistakes of the past and the discomfort possible in the future and focused on just taking care in the present moment. Releasing the past and future, releasing worries and concerns and attending to what is happening now can make a big difference in coping with adversity and finding a way out of mental distress.

By remaining as much as possible with the present moment can also give us greater access to the uplifting pleasures of our senses. I remember when I was recovering from surgery at the age of 14 sitting out behind my parent's house on a cool spring morning basking in the sunshine and enjoying the intense pink of the azalea bushes in full bloom. The smell of the warming earth filled me with gratitude. Yes, I had suffered a great deal and would likely have much suffering ahead for me in life. But to have just this moment of enjoyment of being alive transformed me into a state of thanksgiving. Receiving the tremendous power of sensations in the present moment can energize us and open us thankfully to the goodness of life.

Unfortunately, it is not always easy to open to the present moment. In those times I have taken great comfort in the presence of others. When I was sick as a teenager, I remember how much it meant to me to have our cat and dog curl up with me as I rested on the living room couch and stroked their fur. I remembered with great appreciation several of my friends coming to visit and play games with me. Probably the most consistent source of uplift to my spirits has been attending UU church services over the last 20 years. Just seeing familiar faces and catching up on the events in people's lives brings on a feeling of gratitude for being involved in a religious community. Occasionally I will arrive here on Sunday morning not feeling like conducting the service or preoccupied with some problem. But generally after spending a few minutes greeting people and exchanging smiles and hugs and I'm ready to go again.

The enjoyment of relationships with others, dwelling in the present moment, and counting my blessings are all good ways to cultivate a feeling of thankfulness. But the most powerful way I've cultivated this state of consciousness has been doing spiritual practices. When everything else fails to break my mood, I sit down on my meditation cushion and begin both concentrating on and observing my breathing process.

We are very fortunate to be living in a time when so many different methods of spiritual practice are being shared and so many capable teachers are available to elucidate their use. If traditional Christian prayer to a God you don't believe in has prevented you from the benefits of spiritual practice, today you can practice Buddhist meditation which is completely atheistic and get many of the same results. If meditation isn't your thing, you can chant powerful mantras or lift your voice in song. Working with exploring and developing the range of motion of the body with different types of yoga can bring excellent results. Conscious eating can be a powerful practice. For the intellectually inclined, the study and analysis of sacred and inspirational texts can bring us to a state of thankfulness. If the Bible turns you off, try the Bhagavad Gita or the Quran or one of the many books explaining and comparing religious traditions. All contain rich resources of understanding to guide us which illuminate the universal truths of existence. Being in touch with these truths and seeing them operate in our lives can inspire great gratitude.

And there have been times when even spiritual practice has failed me. In those times, all I have been able to do is to call out the name of God. There are many names, Holy Spirit, Lord, Jesus, Allah, Ram, some of which I have greater connection with than others. In particular, my time spent with Sufism has brought me a strong affinity with the name, Allah. In the Sufi tradition, there are 99 different names for Allah which can be used in different circumstances. One in particular I have used to good effect for my chronic intestinal problems: ya shafee, ya cafee, O Healer, O Remedy. There are times when the only thing we can do is to let go and welcome whatever good is beyond our conscious will to step in. I share this not to try to make any of you atheists theists or to try to provide any rationalization of how this works. Calling on the name of God has helped me in difficult times get to a place of thankfulness.

I believe thankfulness is a natural, spontaneous response to the wonderful opportunity to participate in being something rather than nothing. And what a rather marvelous something we are. If just for a moment, we can let go of what gets in the way of this natural, spontaneous response such as unmet desires, irritating aversions, regrets and ambitions, a softening of the tension and an opening of the mind can occur. A warmth can begin to grow in our chest. The something we are without anything being different is so much bigger and grander than this particular body I awakened in at birth.

So this Thanksgiving, I encourage you to cultivate a thankful state of mind. The thanks may arise from reviewing your current blessings and good fortune. The thanks may arise from taking the time to go for a walk on the beach smelling the salt air and listening to the waves. The thanks may arise from the warmth of family and friends gathered around a common table. The thanks may arise from a prayer offered to God. The thanks may arise in gratitude for the life of a man named Jesus who suffered and died. The thanks may arise thinking of those policeman and soldiers who have suffered and died for us too, for our parents who brought us into this world and cared for us the best way they knew how, for the teachers who inspired in us an enjoyment of and dedication to the life of the mind.

Be our circumstances good or bad, may we all find within us a natural, spontaneous feeling of thanks which we may harvest to renew ourselves and comfort us in the face of adversity.

Copyright (c) 1996 by Rev. Samuel A. Trumbore. All rights reserved.