13th Sunday after Pentecost 10.8.08 Thanksgiving
When things go wrong we hear people say things like: ‘It’s just my luck; this would happen to me.’ Funny that so many say that. ‘Why is it always me that these things happen to?’ It is not actually true that we always get the wrong end of things. It is just that when we get the right outcomes we take it for granted. (For example, we notice parts of our body when there is pain, eg in the elbow, but otherwise would not think about that place.) And we notice and dwell on the bad things, and store up resentment.
Look at the balance sheet of life; is it worth being born? We had no choice. We just have to live with it. Your parents thought you deserved a chance. And their parents thought they deserved a chance. In any case God thought we deserved a chance. We were planned by Him. They talk of unwanted babies. Never unwanted by God.
Is it worth it? Well, for an eternity of bliss, millions of years of happiness. For such a reward just about any suffering is worth it.
Why are we so inclined to complain and be bitter and resentful. Because we are not quite right with God. We commit sin and it puts us in a bad mood, easily annoyed, all out of sorts.
The balance sheet shows that we face an eternity of bliss on one side and have only short-lived sufferings on the other. We are running at a profit!
But there is a temptation to be ungrateful, to blow up our troubles out of proportion. Ingratitude is at the heart of all sin. Sin is when we say to God: I do not like how You run things, so I will take it into my own hands! It is saying, ‘I didnt want any of this.I never asked to be born; I never wanted to get involved in all this etc etc’ It is like having a tantrum with God. (If it goes on long enough it can become eternal, and there we have a definition of Hell) We can be like that when we are bitter with God: ‘Lord, why did You do this to me? How dare You treat me like this, and I am one of your best people!’ The devil tricks us into copying his own attitude. It is such a waste, when all that happiness is there beckoning us.
So what we have to be instead is humble and grateful. Grateful for what? Everything. Being born, being baptized, having the gift of life and the gift of faith. For the sun in the morning and the moon at night, and all the blessings of nature around us. For everything that is not hurting, or that does still work.
And for what is going wrong, thankful that God among His many abilities can heal us, and can make things come right, bringing good out of every situation.
We will be far more sensitive to positive things if we have right attitude. ‘Give thanks in all circumstances’, says St Paul.
God makes things better; union with God makes things better. This is the attitude we need.
If we can’t stop evil altogether we can certainly reduce it and give it less space.
This is the balance sheet. We are running at a profit.
So we can be like the one leper who returned to give thanks. His salvation was not complete until he had done so. We are not fully saved until we have stopped arguing with God about how He should run the universe. Just be glad that you are here. It’s better than non-existence.
