November 26, 2020. In her sermon for Thanksgiving, Pastor Meagan preaches that love and gratitude are choices we make that can be extremely challenging at times, but we can trust that God is with us in the struggle.

Reading: Luke 6:27-36

*** Transcript ***

I remember first being introduced to the E.E. Cummings poem “i thank You God” as a musical arrangement for a cappella choir many years ago, and I remember feeling my breath catch as I realized while we rehearsed the piece that the second half of these profound words were a complete sentence, a question:

“how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any — lifted from the no
of all nothing — human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?”

How should any human experiencing the wonder of creation doubt the God who created it? I repeated these words so many times in my head and out loud, each time feeling a deeper sense of groundedness in my own being and all its senses, connectedness with the world around me, that I am tasting touching hearing seeing breathing — and with the God who created it all. This whole poem is such a deep invitation to life and to “yes” as Cummings says.

In this year, perhaps more than others, as we have encountered so many challenges and changes, so many “nos” — to being in person and going to movies and museums and traveling and holiday traditions in school buildings and offices. This year, as both of our congregations experience transitions and all of us are navigating almost constant adaptation, we are in desperate need of life. And yes.

In this time when we are separated from so much, we need to be reminded of the deep connections that, in spite of it all, never fail to persist. We know this year that experiencing these connections, feeling the gratitude that comes from knowing our place in creation, sometimes just happens — and sometimes requires a conscious and intentional choice. At times gratitude is not just an emotion we feel when things are easy, but a decision for yes when things are at their most difficult.

Our gospel today doesn’t talk specifically about gratitude, but it does speak to the challenges that we as humans face sometimes. Loving someone who loves us, being good to those who are good to us, Jesus says, is often easy to do. It doesn’t take a lot of effort or thought, just as feeling grateful when things are going well comes without our trying. It becomes much more difficult and complicated to love when the other person does not love us. It is especially hard when we are challenged to love someone when we must also maintain boundaries and distance to keep ourselves and our families safe when there’s been abuse and violence. Many of us have discovered in these months around the election that it can be hard to love when we have fundamental disagreements on issues that feel so important.

We humans, Jesus knows, can be tempted to offer love easily to those who are doing so with us, and withhold it from those who are not offering us the love we think we need. Love, as Jesus describes it, is not merely an easy feeling that flows without effort, but a choice that we make every day to allow the God of love to love through us. And gratitude, like love, is a choice we make — one that can be extremely challenging at times. In this season of so much loss, it can be hard to recognize what we have and the gifts we are receiving, even in the midst of the grief.

The really good news is that when we humans struggle, we can trust that God is with us in the struggle. We can trust, as Jesus affirms, that we were created for love — we were created by a God of love after all — and as Cummings says, we have a God who lifts us from the no of all nothing and fills our senses with the creative love of God until we are ready to embrace the yes with hearts full of gratitude.

Thanks be to God.

*** Keywords ***

2020, Christ Lutheran Church, Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Webster Groves, sermon, podcast, transcript, YouTube, video, Luke 6:27-36, E.E. Cummings, i thank You God, COVID-19, coronavirus, pandemic