SERMONS 

Giving Thanks

In a time of anxiety and fear and discomfort in the world, let us give thanks. Despite war and the threat of wider war, and the spreading danger of terrorism, let us give thanks. Let us share our gratitude for life’s gifts. Give thanks for the ordinary—and the extraordinary—everyday gifts of family and friends and a religious community in which to grow and to explore possibilities for the future.

We have a great deal to be grateful for in this community. Though there is always work to be done to build a better community and world, the fact is that there is still much to celebrate as well.

I don’t ordinarily pray, but when I do, this is what it is. It is a prayer of gratitude for life’s ever- present gifts. I never ask for anything specific, but simply for the opportunity to participate in this life and to express a basic trust in life that will carry me through whatever challenges are before me. My favorite prayer is a simple one: I give thanks, for help unknown, already on its way.

This is my most basic faith statement. It is not a plea, but an expression of gratitude for life as it is. It fits with those words of Joseph Campbell, words that set me up in the week after I first read them for the news that I had a tumor in my left kidney and that the kidney had to be removed. Campbell spoke of loving life, “whatever the hell happens.” I regard that as a basically sound attitude. Reading those words when I did was an example of “help unknown, already on its way.”

Now the wonderful thing about the prayer—I give thanks, for help unknown, already on its way—is that it accepts life as mysterious and wondrous. It pretends to no particular ability to get God’s attention—whoever or whatever God might be. It expresses no belief that God will grant any specific wish we might have, but rather accepts that, in life, help is always available, and that we can appreciate that reality. So let us give thanks, for help unknown, already on its way.

Now we all know that things are a mess in the world. Things are always a mess. Indeed, it is through messes that order emerges. I don’t want to be cavalier about the mess we have got ourselves into in the world under the present Administration. But beneath all mess, it remains a fact that life has generally been getting better.

I won’t say much more about this today than that, but can refer you to a book by Gregg Easterbrook, newly released in paperback, called The Progress Paradox, in which he demonstrates rather convincingly that nearly every trend line shows that life is getting better for contemporary Americans and Europeans. But he also shows that society is shifting from “material want” to “meaning want,” with people increasingly secure in living standards but feeling they lack significance in their lives.

Perhaps most significant for today’s message is Easterbrook’s observation that it is in our self-interest to be forgiving, grateful, and optimistic. This is demonstrated by new psychological research that shows these qualities are essential to personal well-being.

Despite the mess in Iraq, there are signs of progress now in Afghanistan. Let it be noted too that Afghanistan produced one of the greatest mystic poets, Jelaluddin Rumi, who celebrated love and friendship and connection to the divine.

Rumi lived in the thirteenth century in what is now Afghanistan, then the eastern edge of the Persian empire. It was a time of great mystical awareness—Francis of Assisi was 25 years old when Rumi was born; Meister Eckhart was born when Rumi was 53. When Rumi was still a young man, his family fled their home just ahead of the invading armies of Genghis Khan. In a couple of weeks I want to tell you about Genghis Khan according to a new study published this year. Genghis Khan as an early proponent of unitarian and universalist ideals?

Rumi was captured by the idea that in a world of mystical awareness we “fall in love in such a way that it frees us from any connecting.” What that means is that we “become friendship.” Indeed, “When living itself becomes the Friend, lovers disappear.” As Coleman Barks, a recent translator of Rumi, said: “That is, a human being can become a field of love, embodying compassion, generosity, playfulness, rather than being identified with any particular synapse of lover and beloved.”

In a poem called “The Most Alive Moment,” Rumi wrote:

The most living moment comes when
those who love each other meet each

other’s eyes and in what flows
between them then. To see your face

in a crowd of others, or alone on a
frightening street, I weep for that.

Our tears improve the earth. The
time you scolded me, your gratitude,

your laughing, always your qualities
increase the soul. Seeing you is a

wine that does not muddle or numb.
We sit inside the cypress shadow

where amazement and clear thought
twine their slow growth into us.

I am a minister because I want to participate in the building of intimate communities of religious liberals, people who are able to appreciate and express in their lives the religious freedom we have. There is a tendency among people generally to live inside boxes, and religions often try to lock us into boxes that can be derived from an unimaginative reading of the Bible. Our task is to develop a faith that enables us to live “outside the box.” Rumi lived outside the box, and so can we. I once heard someone say, “Life is a gift. Be sure to take it out of the box.”

We do possess opportunities to create lives of love and meaning. And we have unparalleled freedom in this community of religious liberals to discover and to express who we truly are, and to find kindred spirits with whom to create joyous, creative, purposeful communities.

I am grateful for the opportunity to be here with you at this time of incredible challenge and incredible opportunity. We can create a new world in which the peoples of the world truly come together in new relationships to deal better with the threat of chaos and disintegration.

I invite you to take the gift of life out of its box; to look at it and acknowlege it. Appreciate the gifts you have been given, and whatever the challenges that have been placed before you in your life, nevertheless love life, “whatever the hell happens.”