Leading with Gratitude: A Sermon for 2 Christmas
It wasn’t until I became the rector of a parish that I began to fully appreciate depth and breadth of the ministry of the Apostle Paul. Prior to my time with you here at Christ the King, I saw him as the first and greatest theologian of the Christian Church. I saw him as a brilliant thinker and writer – with letters like the one to the Church in Rome simultaneously inspiring and baffling me. As such, I oftentimes held him at arm’s length, and I rarely preached on his epistle texts, due to their emphasis on doctrine combined with their lack of compelling stories.
But once I became a rector of a parish, I began to experience Paul’s letters differently. I slowly began to see Paul not only as a brilliant theologian whose writings I should study, but also as a committed, faithful pastor whose ministry I should attempt to emulate. Once I began to connect these dots, and see Paul in all of his fullness, I gained a new friend; a peer; and a colleague in ministry.
And as we embark upon a new year on the secular calendar, I feel so blessed to have this section from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians as one of our readings. Paul opens up this letter with gratitude for God and for his flock. One thing I have learned about Paul is that more often than not, Paul leads with gratitude. And I don’t think that is because Paul was a nice guy. Paul had many gifts, but niceness wasn’t one of them.
So Paul led with gratitude not because he was nice, but because he was a spiritually mature person. He profoundly understood “where he stood” with God – a sinner who received the free gift of God’s unmerited grace and redemption. He understood that Christ appeared to him on the road to Damascus – which led to his conversion to Christianity – not because Paul deserved it. Given Paul’s violent persecution of Christians it was quite the opposite. So Paul’s entire ministry was one that was steeped in gratitude. And his deep gratitude for God’s grace, mercy, and blessings carried over to those to whom he ministered. In other words, his spiritual discipline of gratitude towards God was contagious, and spilled over into his relationships with people.
I have used the phrases “spiritually mature” and “spiritual discipline” intentionally. To be a spiritually mature person requires intentional spiritual discipline. For many of us, including my self, gratitude doesn’t come easily. For those of you who are familiar with the Enneagram Personality Assessment, I am a 7, which is nicknamed “The Enthusiast.” There are a lot of positive attributes of 7s. But when we are at our worst, we are never satisfied. We don’t lead with gratitude and contentedness. We are always looking for ways to improve upon what has just been accomplished. So for 7s, we have to discipline ourselves to hit “pause” and simply be grateful for our present situation. And that requires intentional spiritual work. And this sort of work is what leads to spiritual maturity.
So when I consider the Apostle Paul, and read the introduction to his letter to the Church he founded in Ephesus, I am both inspired and challenged. As we look back at 2020, there are many ways that we could struggle to lead with gratitude. For many people all over the world, it was hands-down the worst year of their lifetime. It was especially a difficult year for churches, for a whole host of reasons. And ours was no exception. But we must remember that Paul was no stranger to suffering, imprisonment, and persecution. Perhaps his most joyful letter – the one to the Philippians – was written from a prison cell! So, he wasn’t a grateful person because he lived a prosperous, charmed life. Again, it was quite the opposite. Note that in the opening sentence of today’s letter, Paul writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly place…”. Paul is reminding us that the ultimate blessings from God are spiritual, not material.
On New Year’s Eve, a priest I follow on Twitter posted a fill-in-the-blank question: “I wouldn’t have made it through 2020 without _______________.” My reply was “The Daily Office.” The reason I believe that it was my discipline of praying of the Daily Office from the Book of Common Prayer that sustained me last year is that by doing so, every day I was engaging the spiritual discipline of gratitude. The entire opening segment of Morning Prayer is grounded in grateful praise to God. Like I said, on my own, I am not inclined to lead with gratitude, much less first thing in the morning. At Evening Prayer, the very last prayer we pray is the General Thanksgiving, which is probably my favorite prayer in the Prayer Book. So, if you pray Morning and Evening Prayer, you are bookending your day with gratitude. In a year like 2020, it was those bookends that held me together.
One thing we must recognize about Paul’s spiritual discipline of gratitude is that it is never stagnant - it doesn’t only look backwards from the present moment. Paul’s profound gratitude serves as a springboard for hope, which is another spiritual discipline that leads to spiritual maturity. Hope is grounded in gratitude. A person who is not grateful will always struggle to be hopeful. And Paul models for us how these two disciplines feed off of one another.
After leading with gratitude in today’s reading, Paul then turns to hope when he writes, “I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ…may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you…and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe.” In other words, we don’t stop with gratitude, but rather, our gratitude empowers us to move forward in hope. Could we have had a more perfect scripture lesson to begin 2021?
I, for one, am deeply grateful for God’s many blessings – spiritual and material – that God bestowed upon us last year. In an odd sort of way, it was the most rewarding year I have had with you at Christ the King. I feel that way because so many of you have been so supportive, flexible, helpful, and faithful during this terrible pandemic. Out of necessity, lay leadership has risen to a whole new level of engagement and responsibility. Our staff has grown in number and level of responsibility and engagement. And the fact that we will have created a new full-time position for Family Faith Formation, built a new school building, ad launched a capital campaign during a global pandemic is a testament to the steadfast faith and hope of the people of Christ the King. All of those bold, forward-thinking initiatives were grounded in the profound hope and belief that God will provide.
Both Morning and Evening Prayer end with the choice between three sentences of scripture, all from Paul’s letters. While all three are a perfect way to wrap up the service, in 2020 I found myself being drawn to the second option, which is from Paul’s letter to the Romans. It reads, “May the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing through the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Christian hope is not wishful thinking. It is as much about who as it is about what. The “who” of course is Jesus Christ, in whom we live and move and have our being. And when we, grounded in gratitude, engage in the spiritual discipline of hope, we, like Paul says, will be filled with joy and peace. Let us carry that grateful hope with us into 2021.