Please click the link to watch Rev. Cynthia Snavely’s video recording of this sermon.
I used a quote from Tecumseh, a nineteenth century Shawnee chief and warrior, for the blurb for this Sunday’s service: “When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.”
That quote reminded me of a story that the twentieth-century Asian Indian Jesuit priest Anthony de Mello told in one of his books on spirituality.
“The Lord Vishnu said to his devotee: ‘I am weary of your constant petitions. I have decided to grant you any three things you ask for. After that I shall give you nothing more.’
“The devotee delightedly made his first petition at once. He asked to be rid of his wife so that he could marry a better woman, for his wife refused to obey him and this upset him greatly. As soon as he left the temple someone ran up to him to tell him that his wife had been swept away in a flash flood.
“When his friends and relatives gathered for the funeral they began to recall all the good qualities of his wife and the devotee realized he had been hasty. He had been blinded to her virtues by his desire for control. Would he ever be able to find as good a woman?
“So, he asked Lord Vishnu to restore her to him and soon word came that she had been miraculously saved from the flood by a villager downstream and was already on her way back to the village.
“This left him only one wish. He was determined not to make a mistake this time, for if he did he would not have the chance to correct it. He consulted widely. Some friends suggested he ask for great wealth, but others questioned, ‘What good is money if you don’t have your health?’ Still others asked, ‘What good is health if you don’t have friends?’
“And so it went. Years passed. He couldn’t make up his mind whether he should ask for health or wealth or power or love. Finally, he went back to the temple to ask Lord Vishnu to advise him on what to ask for.
“The Lord laughed when he saw the man’s predicament and said, ‘Ask that you be content with whatever life brings you for the secret of happiness begins with the gracious acceptance of what you have.’”
“When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.”
“Ask that you be content with whatever life brings you for the secret of happiness begins with the gracious acceptance of what you have.”
So often we concentrate our minds not on all that we have but on what we still want. It is not our fault. We were taught to do this from an early age. “What do you want for your birthday?” “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
What if we asked children instead questions like “What are the best things that happened to you in your ‘however many’ years?” “What are the things you most like to do now?”
This week my Spanish tutor had me working on the conjugation of the verb dar, to give. She asked me what the best present I ever received was. I said a gift from my childhood, a doll, that when you squeezed her would move her arms and pucker her mouth to give you a hug and a kiss. I hadn’t thought of that doll in a long time. It was a good memory. I am not sure which was better: the doll itself or the many hugs and kisses she gave me.
At this point in my life, there is much from my past as well as in my present for which I am grateful. But what do we do when there is something in our present for which we are far from grateful? We have just been laid off. We just received a cancer diagnosis. Our child has relapsed into an addiction. Our beloved pet had to be euthanized. At such times I think of another story.
“There once was an old Zen farmer. Every day, the farmer used his horse to help work his fields and keep his farm healthy.
“But one day, the horse ran away. All the villagers came by and said, ‘We’re so sorry to hear this. This is such bad luck.’
“But the farmer responded, ‘Bad luck. Good luck. Who knows?’
“The villagers were confused, but decided to ignore him. A few weeks went by and then one afternoon, while the farmer was working outside, he looked up and saw his horse running toward him. But the horse was not alone. The horse was returning to him with a whole herd of horses. So now the farmer had 10 horses to help work his fields.
“All the villagers came by to congratulate the farmer and said, ‘Wow! This is such good luck!’
“But the farmer responded, ‘Good luck. Bad luck. Who knows?’
“A few weeks later, the farmer’s son came over to visit and help his father work on the farm. While trying to tame one of the horses, the farmer’s son fell and broke his leg.
“The villagers came by to commiserate and said, ‘How awful. This is such bad luck.’
“Just as he did the first time, the farmer responded, ‘Bad luck. Good luck. Who knows?’
“A month later, the farmer’s son was still recovering. He wasn’t able to walk or do any manual labor to help his father around the farm.
“A regiment of the army came marching through town conscripting every able-bodied young man to join them. When the regiment came to the farmer’s house and saw the young boy’s broken leg, they marched past and left him where he lay.
“Of course, all the villagers came by and said, ‘Amazing! This is such good luck. You’re so fortunate.’
And you know the farmer’s response by now…
“‘Bad luck. Good luck. Who knows?’
“You were laid off, but perhaps you will find a better job. You were diagnosed with cancer, but because you were diagnosed there is now a chance to be treated. Your child has relapsed into an addiction, but this time they told you and are ready to again try treatment. Your beloved pet had to be euthanized but they lived well into old age and gave you companionship for many years. Misfortune or good fortune? Who knows?
“Ask that you be content with whatever life brings you for the secret of happiness begins with the gracious acceptance of what you have.”
There is gracious or grateful acceptance, but sometimes we can even actively do something to create good fortune out of misfortune. UU minister Phyllis O’Connell used this illustration of an admittedly minor misfortune turned to good: “A one-paragraph newspaper article describes a subway platform at rush hour at Grand Central. A train pulls in; a well-dressed woman who has just left the train realizes she is holding only one of her gloves. She looks back into the train and spots the matching one on the seat. It is obviously too late to dash back in to retrieve it, so with a cavalier shrug, she flings her arm out and, the doors about to close, tosses the remaining glove onto the seat alongside its mate. The doors shut, and the train pulls away. This woman—instead of holding onto the remaining glove, a useless reminder of her accidental loss… with cavalier abandonment, tosses it into the train next to its mate. Whoever finds them finds a pair.”
This woman turns her own misfortune into possible good fortune for another. And isn’t the possibility of doing that something to be thankful for?
“Ask that you be content with whatever life brings you for the secret of happiness begins with the gracious acceptance of what you have.”
When I was a child in my United Methodist primary grades Sunday School class, opening worship included the children who wished to do so lining up to say sentence prayers. One Sunday a little girl prayed, “Thank you, God, for floors to walk on.” My grandmother who led that opening worship found that an interesting thing to be thankful for and shared it with my parents. My father, who had been in the girl’s home, reported that the floors there were rotting and one could easily step through a hole in a rotting floorboard. He could understand why this child would be thankful for floors to walk on.
What do we take so for granted that we don’t think to be thankful?
“When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.”
UUA staff member and UCC minister Michael Crumpler has written a meditation on gratitude for being on the other side of addiction. It takes only minor edits to turn it into a meditation that can be used by any of us whether or not we have ever had to come out the other side of addiction.
“Every day, I grapple with gratitude. Gratitude is that thing that breathes out ‘YES.’ It’s that thing that exists on the other side of bondage. On the other side of struggle. Gratitude is the choice beyond entrapment.
“Anyone who has survived … misery… understands the true nature of gratitude. That it is akin to freedom. That it is not a state of entitlement. Nor is it assumed.
“Gratitude is a choice. We don’t have to be grateful. It cannot be forced or coerced….
“Gratitude is liberation, allowing me to live my life so that others can get a glimpse of what (grateful) living is like.
“Today, I will pursue gratitude…
“Today, I will embrace gratitude as the antidote to suffering.
“Today, gratitude is my release from the petty annoyances that call me away from living a life free from any and all (things) that pull me away from all that is peaceful and safe and good.
“Today, I choose gratitude.”
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