Today’s readings, particularly the psalm and the Gospel reading, carry a theme of praise and gratitude. In both cases, our praise of who God is and what God has done is expressed in thankfulness and gratitude.
Gratitude and praise both require noticing, paying attention to the things around us.
The psalmist notices God’s work, which is full of majesty and splendor and enduring righteousness. The psalmist notices the ways God has continually been gracious and full of compassion, and committed to faithfulness and justice. Even one of these things would be enough to elicit our praise, and yet God’s goodness is abundant.
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| Photo by Bud Helisson on Unsplash |
In the Gospel reading, we hear about the tenth leper noticing that he is healed, and returning to Jesus to give thanks and praise. As a Samaritan, it’s likely that his healing and thankfulness would not have been accepted at the Jewish Temple, and so he turns his worship to Jesus instead.
In returning to thank Jesus, the healed leper is blessed a second time. There is a way in which his expression of praise and gratitude contribute to a fuller experience of wholeness and healing. All of the lepers were made clean, but the tenth one was made whole. All of the lepers were healed, but the tenth one experienced in the presence of Jesus the fullness of salvation.
The practice of gratitude is like a lens through which we look at the world. I’ve noticed many times that when I’m in a grumpy mood, it snowballs quickly as the kinds of things that make me more grumpy seem to jump into my field of vision. You know those days – your alarm doesn’t go off, and then at breakfast you spill on your shirt and have to change, and then you’re running late, and then you get all the red lights on your way to work, and then the only available parking spaces are far away, and then…At these times, it seems that all I notice are ways that scarcity is prevalent, the ways in which there is not enough. In the midst of this perceived scarcity, I become so focused on getting my share of the limited things that are available that I am unable to express gratitude for any of it. I wonder if that’s also true for you?
Luckily, the same thing seems to be true for a joyful and thankful mood. Once I’m looking at the world through the lens of gratitude, it becomes easier and easier to notice more things for which to be thankful. The small act of noticing things for which I am thankful expands even further when I am able to share it. Soon others are also encouraged to notice and express gratitude. Feeling grateful has an overall effect on our sense of wholeness and well-being as we instead choose to focus on the abundance that is present – enough for all!
I want to share a story with you that perfectly illustrates these kinds of noticing. It's called Last Stop on Market Street.
Both CJ and his nana are in the same places, but they notice totally different things about their surroundings. CJ focuses on the things that he’s lacking – no car, no fancy iPhone, no free time that afternoon.
His nana, on the other hand, looks at those same things through a different lens – the community found on the bus, the joy of live music, the time shared with their friends at the soup kitchen.
I wonder about this ability to reframe our view. I wonder how we might be called to be like CJ’s nana, pointing others to the presence of God’s goodness all around us. It takes practice, certainly, and intentionality. Noticing, and expressing gratitude in this way – I wonder how it changes our relationship with God? Or how it changes our relationship with our neighbors?
I wonder how expressing gratitude for the many blessings we have freely received might lead us to the experience of wholeness in our own lives? God gives us grace, and forgiveness. God provides for us and gives us one another. All of these things contribute to our sense of being made whole, and I think gratitude does, too. For the goodness of God that is all around us, we give thanks and praise.
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