"The Art of Appreciation"

Sermon from Thanksgiving Eve.
Nov. 21, 2012
Matt. 6:25-34

According to Craig Boldman and Pete Matthews (authors of Every Excuse in the Book: 714 Ways to Say “It’s Not My Fault”), if you burn the Thanksgiving turkey, here are a dozen reasons to be thankful:

1. Salmonella won’t be a concern.
2. No one will overeat.
3. Everyone will think it’s Cajun blackened.
4. Uninvited guests will think twice next year.
5. Your cheese-broccoli-lima-bean casserole will gain newly found appreciation.
6. Pets won’t pester you for scraps.
7. The smoke alarm was due for a test.
8. Carving the bird will provide a good cardiovascular workout.
9. After dinner, the guys can take the bird to the yard and play football.
10. The less turkey Uncle George eats, the less likely he will be to walk around with his pants unbuttoned.
11. You’ll get to the desserts quicker.
12. You won’t have to face three weeks of turkey sandwiches.

Prayer:

Our story is a familiar one. It is part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Most Bibles have this story of Jesus titled, “Worry”. In fact Jesus say’s Don’t Worry” 6 times throughout 9 vs & alludes to another 4 times. So… you might think I’m going to talk about “NOT WORRYING?” No… you and I have been told not to worry so much that I don’t think we listen very much to it anyway.

-       We still worry a lot … don’t we!!

So rather than talk about worrying… I’ve titled this message “The Art of Appreciation”

The way I figure it… perhaps the reason we worry about things is because we don’t appreciate what we already have. What God has already provided. We tend to look at life from the perspective of scarcity rather than the perspective abundance. WHY??? Jesus says, “You have little faith.” We’ve been given so much… yet all we see is what’s lacking.

No doubt we are living in a world filled with lots of anxiety ranging from economic, to health, to work, to relationships.

If we really think about it… We’ve always lived with these anxieties. So… what is God saying to us today?

I believe God is saying for us to be appreciative of our relationships.

Jesus tells us if we are connected to God, there’s no need to worry. God’s got our back… God will provide what we need.

How does God do this?

God works through the lives of people being in relationships.

Caring for your neighbor, your brother & sister, friends, parents, those whom you might

not know.

When we care for others… our worries take a back seat.

When we care for each other…our worries tend to disappear, the focus then is not on us.

There was a story that appeared in the Boston Globe a few years ago. “It can never be said that Adele Gaboury’s neighbors were less than responsible. When her front lawn grew hip-high, they had a local boy mow it down. When her pipes froze and burst, they had the water turned off. When the mail spilled out the front door, they called the police. The only thing they didn’t do was check to see if she was alive… she wasn’t.

Police finally climbed her crumbling brick stoop, broke in the side door of her little blue house, and found what they believed to be the 73-year old woman’s skeletal remains, where they had lain, perhaps as long as four years. “It’s not really a friendly neighborhood,” said Eileen Dugan, 70, once a close friend of Gaboury’s, whose house sits 20 feet from the dead woman’s house. “I’m as much to blame as anyone. She was alone and needed someone to talk to, but I was working two jobs and was sick of her coming over at all hours. Eventually I stopped answering the door.”

Unbelievable… isn’t it? But it points to an important reality… real kindness is sacrificial. Real kindness calls us not just to address a need, but to invest into a person’s life. Sometimes it means building a relationship with them. And… THAT is costly, and sometimes risky. But… isn’t that what Jesus calls us to do?

I also believe God is saying, be appreciative for what we have been given.

Look around… I mean… really look around you. Look at what you’ve been given.

Jesus says, “Look at the birds. They don’t do anything….Yet God cares for them.

 Look at what God has given… the beauty of Creation…. our Relationships… Most of us have a warm place to live…. Food on the table….And… Yes… even a few dollars in our pockets.

John O’Hurley… of Sienfeld, Dancing w/Stars fame shares this story from his book about his dog titled, “It’s OK to Miss the Bed on the First Jump” he says from the chapter titled “A Cold Can of Meat is Still a Feast,”

“Appreciation is a lost art… at least in me. I find myself caught continually in a sad paradox that as I age I have to fight to appreciate more, without realizing that as I age I simply have more to appreciate. I send fewer thank-you notes, return fewer calls. I distract myself with distraction often to avoid the joy of a spontaneous moment or a conversation with a stranger in an elevator.

Appreciation, it seems to me, has an all-consuming, natural enemy. It is the arrogance of presumption. The more I have, the more I assume, and the less I appreciate. There is a universal tension between assumption and appreciation, and it never gives up.

My first car cost most of my personal fortune at age nineteen… $100.00. And… it was worth every penny of that. It was a twenty-year old, paint-faded, blue convertible with a leaky roof and a leaky transmission, which seemed to favor neutral and reverse over the stress of any other direction. Yet for that one moment in time it was the treasure of personal freedom, a magic carpet that I could hitch to my every whim. I would glance out the window at night to admire it. I would run down the stairs in the morning to make sure it was still there.

Today, the style of a car has replaced its function. The convenience of a car has replaced the wonder of its purpose. I move in and out of a car lease with the predictability of a thirty-six month locust. I no longer appreciate the presence of an automobile; I take for granted its inevitability.

Yet our two dogs begin each day with nothing. The trip down to the kitchen seems to come each day as an unexpected surprise to them, as it did to me to find my car still in the driveway. They see a cold can of meat as a feast. They end the day with nothing more than the bond of our companionship and the comfort that, together, we continue to survive another day.

For my dogs there is always time to appreciate the simple joys of life… the pomp and parade to the kitchen each morning, riding with their heads out the window of my car, or chasing the Wicked Witch, the toy of the moment, down the hall until she bounces off enough furniture to come to a rest on the floor, when she will then get the shacking of her life. There’s the soft feel of the grass in the backyard, always worthy of a roll or two. There’s the singular sound of the word “walk,” which apparently sounds like “lotto winner” to them. And, of course, there’s the unexpected joy of a suitcase that returns home. The list is endless, and the list is repetitive. And they are always as grateful as if it were the first time.

As my wife has taught me to love more deeply, my dogs have taught me to appreciate more fully and assume mush less. Appreciation, for me, is an act of humility, a way to acknowledge what we cannot or did not do for ourselves. It sets a balance between being individual acts of self-fulfillment and being simple creatures of need.

The fact that I can have a dog as a pet and companion means that my life is filled with abundance. If I can recognize that, then every day is the Beginning of Time, and the whole world is the Center of All Great Things That Could Possibly Happen.”

Perhaps… if we were a bit more appreciative of the abundance we have we would not worry about the scarcity we don’t have.

Perhaps… if we appreciated & cared a bit more about our relationships we would not have to worry about being abandoned.

Perhaps… if we trusted in God’s gift of grace we wouldn’t need to worry about how tomorrow would turn out.

We’ve all been given all we need & then some.

There’s no need to worry.

This Thanksgiving let’s be Appreciative of God’s Gift of Grace in our lives.

See You Out on the Road