Sunday Sermon - 13 October
I love the summer. Not just because it’s warm, but because it’s easy. No winter snow shovelling or spring post-winter mess requiring garden and yard clean up. It’s dry and not mucky, no leaf raking, you don’t need to wear coats, hats, boots and mittens – the summer is simple. That said, summer is still my second favourite season, my favourite season of the year is actually autumn. I really love fall.
Autumn is full of colour. On sunny fall days you can literally smell nature when you're outside in the country. As sad as it is to close our cottage for the winter and as hard as it is spending hours raking and blowing leaves, there was nothing more enjoyable than watching my kids laugh while jumping in those leaves with the smell of burning maple emanating from the wood stove. I am also a huge football fan, and fall is football season. I get to share time watching games with my son, Paulie. It doesn’t get any better than that.
I am also one of those people that like pumpkin - pumpkin pie, pumpkin loaf, pumpkin spice coffee, pumpkin anything. And I love Thanksgiving. In my opinion, Thanksgiving is one of our most important and least distracted or compromised holidays in our calendar of festivals. In fact, it may be my favourite holiday. Don’t get me wrong, Easter is the most important Christian Holiday but Thanksgiving isn’t ruined by the bombardment of secular consumerism that we see at Easter and Christmas. Thanksgiving is what it says it is - this festival's title reminds us all about the importance of giving thanks, not just of giving thanks for the blessings we have in life, but also for the importance of giving of ourselves and our resources for the betterment and wellbeing of others. We are thankful for the privilege of being able to give.
In our readings today, Joel speaks of God’s promise to restore and abundantly provide after a period of hardship. Matthew also emphasizes this point in his Gospel, calling people to trust in God’s provision and telling us to prioritize our spiritual lives over our material concerns. We are told “do not worry” about these “things” but rather hold firm in our faith and focus our emotional and spiritual energy on striving for the Kingdom of God.
What does that mean, “Striving for God’s Kingdom?”, and how do we do this? We learn that, as followers of Christ, we are called to follow his teachings by living in accordance with the values Jesus modelled; the values of justice, of mercy, of love and reverence to God. If we live in accordance with these values, God will take care of us. Sounds pretty straightforward right, but it’s not so ‘easy peasy’.
As I read these passages, I found myself stuck on the first sentence of today’s Gospel, “Do not worry about your life.” I’m not exactly a worrier, but I’m thinking to myself, “Well, yeah, Matthew. That might be easy for you to say. You don’t live in our consumer driven society that requires a certain amount of money to survive. You don’t have grocery, heating, hydro and other bills that seem to be rising constantly while wages and fixed incomes seem stalled. Our world is becoming ever more polarized and war seems to come before diplomatic solutions, just to name but a few of our modern day worries. Don’t worry, you say, Matthew? How can we not?”
Then, in the midst of all of our worries, comes today. Thanksgiving! The great reminder about how, amidst all of our worries, we are called to pause and to give thanks for that which we have and for that which we share with others.
Last week we sang ‘Make Me A Channel Of Your Peace.’ One of the lines in that great prayer is, “It is in giving that we receive.” This is so, so true. It is in giving that we become closer to realizing the love of God’s Kingdom on earth. In fact, it’s not just a statement of faith, it’s a statement of scientific fact. When we give and give thanks, we also receive.
Over the course of my career I’ve had the privilege of attending a conference called Learning and the Brain, a conference about the science of ‘Positive Psychology’. Positive Psychology was founded by Dr. Martin Seligman, an American psychologist and educator. In his work, Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being, Seligman writes:
"Gratitude can make your life happier and more satisfying. When we feel and express gratitude, it can lift our mood, boost our energy, and even reduce experiences of inflammation in the body."
Seligman, and researchers like him, have discovered actual physical neurochemical responses to the emotion of gratitude. Feeling and expressing gratitude and gifting releases certain hormones in the brain that have profound effects on our emotional and physical wellbeing.
I’m not going to get too deep into the neurochemistry here but I will say this, when we are experiencing and expressing the feeling of gratitude, when we intentionally give thanks in word and prayer, we are actually releasing chemicals in our brain (dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin and endorphins). These chemicals lift our spirits, give us emotional and physical energy, provide us with a sense of belonging, reduce stress and help to reduce pain and inflammation.
Another very interesting study, and scientifically proven fact, is the impact of gratitude on our resilience. Resilience is defined as “the capacity to withstand or recover from life’s challenges.” The more resilience one has, the greater the ability to cope with difficulty and consequently the less worry one experiences. So, by giving thanks we reduce our stress and worry, just as Matthew states.
Dr. Amit Sood, a professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic has also done a lot of work on gratitude and positive psychology. In his “Resilience Living Program” he uses the practices of gratitude to enhance peoples’ well-being and resilience. By focusing on daily journaling and intentional expressions of thanks, and by identifying the positive aspects and moments in life, he found that peoples’ resilience increased.
This program has been broadly implemented with great success. Participants have experienced:
Reduced stress and anxiety
Improved mental health i.e they’re happier and more positive about their life
Improvements in their overall physical health such as:
Sleeping better
Lower blood pressure
Stronger immunity to illness
Sood’s Resilient Living Program research states: “By integrating gratitude into daily routines and institutional cultures, his program has helped countless individuals and communities experience improved well-being, stronger relationships, and a more supportive and empathetic environment. This real-life example underscores the wide-reaching benefits of thanksgiving and gratitude in enhancing both personal and communal resilience and happiness.”
What a fascinating creation we are. Thank you God, for making us so complex. However, when we think about it, we are also straightforwardly simple in many ways. If we just choose to intentionally express gratitude - offering thanksgiving in daily prayer, journaling or whatever means of expression works best for you - you will be blessed in return. You’ll be blessed with resilience, with positive energy, and even a healthier body. Giving thanks, intentionally and mindfully, perhaps gives us a taste of knowing the peace of God’s Kingdom.
Yes, these are worrying times but today we are called to pause. To pause from our worry, to give thanks for the gifts and blessings we have and are called to share. We set aside this day of Thanksgiving as a constant reminder to take a moment, cease our worrying, trust in God, rejoice, and give thanks for all of the blessings of this life.
When we do. When we truly, intentionally, and deeply give thanks to God and give to others, not only will we be closer to the Kingdom of God, we may just realize we have a few less worries and maybe even a few less aches and pains too.
Thank you God for the fascinating creatures you made us to be and thank you, my new St. John’s friends. Today I am deeply grateful for all of you!
Amen.