WIn the Washington Post this past week, the Health section had an article entitled, ’ÄúGive Thanks. It’Äôs Good for You: Research on Gratitude Shows Evidence of Mental Health Payoffs.’Äù The article’Äôs main point was this: research is showing that the actual process of giving thanks may hold benefits for the giver. Giving thanks has been shown to improve self-esteem, relationships, sleep, self-motivation and general well-being’Äîqualities that count in managing stressful times like the holidays and much more serious ones, too.

One of the most interesting parts of the article for me was this: gratitude is also associated with being less materialistic. A professor of psychology at Lewis-Clark State College gave separate tests for gratitude and materialism to 206 college students. On the materialism test, students indicated how much they admired someone because of the size of their house. On the gratitude test, students rated their appreciation of family and friends, and simple pleasures such as eating. The results showed that 99.9 % of the time,a student with high marks in gratitude scored low on materialism. The professor who administered this test was quoted as saying, ’Äúif you’Äôre a betting person, you could make a pretty confident prediction that, the higher someone’Äôs gratitude is, the lower their materialism will be.’Äù

Gratitude: the state of being grateful. That’Äôs the definition. A state of being grateful. I love that. I love this idea of a ’Äústate of being grateful.’Äù Gratitude is more than just a moment, a lone action or thought. Gratitude is a state, almost like a mode or condition. This Washington Post article shows us the power of gratitude. In the midst of a culture that love things, gratitude pulls us back to what is the most real for us, the most true, the most life affirming. Gratitude isn’Äôt magic. It isn’Äôt make believe. It doesn’Äôt make the bad stuff and disappointments of life go away. It doesn’Äôt leave you as this super cheery person all the time. But gratitude can be an experience of affirming who we are, the way we live, the values we hold in the midst of what life brings us: the highs and the lows. 

When Jeff was on sabbatical this past spring, Margee Iddings gave me the idea of keeping a gratitude journal as my responsibilities and time increased while Jeff was away. Margee reminded me that I’Äôd be going through a lot of change while Jeff was gone both personally and professionally. I needed to stay grounded and connected to those things that affirm who I am and what I’Äôm about. I did the journal daily for almost three months. Sometimes my list of gratitude focused on the small, mundane moments in the day. Sometimes my list was about the harder stuff in life. What changed in me in keeping this journal was my ability to have a new perspective on the daily happenings of my life. I was able to give witness to myself the connections and clarity that were building around me.

My friend and Presbyterian minister Murphy Davis writes that gratitude is key. Gratitude makes us real. Gratitude helps us build solidarity and community 1. Gratitude is at the heart of the Christian life and the struggle for justice is at the center. When I connect the Washington Post article on gratitude and its ability to shape our choices around material good to Murphy’Äôs words that gratitude builds community, then gratitude is, for me, a spiritual practice of resistance. Gratitude enhances our power and capacity to resist a world where negativity and individualism reign supreme. Expressing gratitude fills us with what we need: naming mutual relationships and connections that give us our humanity back in the midst of a culture that practically yells at us to fill-up with the material things in life.

Gratitude as an act of resistance. What a powerful discipline to lift up as we enter into Advent and the holiday season. Maybe’Ķ.if we name the gratitude’Äôs we have each day, we could resist the temptation to spend away the holidays and stay focused on the revolutionary story of the birth of Jesus.

Gratitude as an act of resistance. On the church calendar, today is known as Christ the King Sunday, a culmination of the church year. Throughout the year, the church has rehearsed the story of Christ’Äôs coming, his life, his death, his resurrection.  We come full circle on this last day of the year, when the church celebrates that the final word of all is this: Jesus reigns!

We’Äôve talked about this image of Christ as King before at Pilgrims. To claim Jesus as ’Äúking’Äù for the early followers of the church was an act of resistance, proclaiming your allegiance to Jesus rather than Roman rule. This proclamation put you at risk. This proclamation was one reason Jesus was executed. Now, unfortunately, over the centuries this image of Christ as King has become less an image of resistance and more an icon of dominating might and make believe.

I wonder’Ķ.what it would be like to have a Christ the Queen Sunday. That would stir things up. If you want to stick with the feudal language, it seems just as biblically accurate to have a Christ the Peasant Sunday, recognizing Jesus own solidarity with the poor of his time and of this age. Yet, for all the problems associated with ’Äúking’Äù language in our time, today we can be grateful that we proclaim Christ as King. When we do so, we name that that we belong to God and that this child of God, Jesus the Human One,

leads us into the way of gratitude.

Gratitude as an act of resistance. As we prepare to cross the threshold into Advent,

we have a goodbye to make. This fall, we used our homecoming theme of ’ÄúFinding Your Place at the Table’Äù to set the vision for our education, worship, and service. Together, we connected with the Gospel texts in how the stories express God’Äôs holy welcome

’Äîthe welcome that embraces us as we are yet challenges us to grow and change for the sake of Jesus.

In worship, our kids heard stories of resistance-- stories from Pilgrims and their experiences of welcome and challenge. Our adult education classes focused on hospitality, baptism as the sacrament of belonging, the welcoming communities of Taize in France and Iona in Scotland, and finally women in scripture who resisted cultural norms and named their own place at God’Äôs table.

At our Pilgrimage Service Day, we served at local organizations across the city that work

with the poor and homeless. We heard from the Faces of Poverty Panel from the National Coalition for the Homeless. We heard stories from three formerly homeless people

and how they felt that didn’Äôt have a place at anyone’Äôs table, let alone God’Äôs, while they were homeless.

We need to retire this theme of Finding Your Place at the Table. Next week we embrace our Advent theme of Dreaming for a World Made New. But before we start daydreaming about a world made new, we need to give thanks for our place at the table. Whether we have a lot of clarity about our place here at Pilgrims or maybe we are still struggling

with what that means’Ķ.we need to show gratitude for what we have.

When you reflect on your place here at Pilgrims, what are you grateful for? Not just thankful for’Ķ.but grateful for. What at Pilgrims leaves you in a state of being grateful?

In October, I served Open Table, our lunch for homeless folks after church, with two of our kids, Sam and Maddie. That day we served yummy tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches made by Delania Hardy. By the end of our serving, Maddie, our 4 year old, was hungry. So she sat down with a bowl of soup and a sandwich. After a few bites, Maddie declared, ’ÄúMommy, this is delicious!’Äù Then she looked up and said, ’ÄúHey. Those people are eating soup and sandwiches, too. I guess that makes us just like them.’Äù

In eating the same soup and sandwiches, Maddie made a connection between herself and the homeless she welcomed to God’Äôs table that day. This type of experience with my family leaves me in a state of gratitude for Pilgrims and how we work so hard at risk taking and service. I’Äôm grateful that my kids have a place at the table’ÄîOpen Table and within the life of this community. I’Äôve come back to that story in my mind over and over again. It leaves me in a state of gratitude.

What connects you to a state of gratitude here at Pilgrims? What leaves you wanting more? What has enabled you to see your place at God’Äôs table? What allows you to see you are living in God’Äôs circle of grace? What experiences at Pilgrims are stored in your memory?

Take your index card. Write down 3-4 people, experiences, or connections at Pilgrims that leave you in a state of gratitude. You will be invited to share these in a minute. Write down 3-4 people, experiences or connections at Pilgrims that leave you in a state of gratitude.

We need to witness to each others gratitude.

We need to experience this act of resistance.

If you feel moved, you are invited

to come forward to the table,

use the microphone 

and share 1 or 2 things you are grateful for here at Pilgrims.

We just need a few people to share.

When each person is done,

we can respond to their ’Äústate of gratitude’Äù by saying together, ’ÄúThanks be to God.’Äù

Share Maddie’Äôs story. Thanks be to God.

Thankful that as a family we can experience the reality of life and that my kids, in their own way, can experience really important connections that will shape their values. ✞

© 2007 Ashley Goff

1. The Open Door Reader: A Work of Hospitality. ’ÄúThe Sacraments of Hospitality.’Äù Murphy Davis. 2002. p. 211.