Today we begin a new liturgical year as we celebrate the First Sunday of Advent. The shortest of the liturgical seasons, Advent can often be taken for granted. We spend most of Advent busy with a lot of activities in preparation for Christmas. There are presents to be purchased and wrapped, cards to be sent out, the house and tree to be decorated, and let’s not forget about the baking. Then there are the gatherings: an office Christmas party, a class Christmas party, get togethers with family and friends. These are all wonderful things, but crammed into a short period of time, it can start to seem more of a burden than a blessing.
To help us stay focused on the blessing of the season, we began a new message series last weekend, “It’s A Wonderful Life.” This series is focusing on gratitude. Scripture, science and our own experience all tell us that gratitude is essential for happiness. On the other hand, ingratitude is a trap that makes us unhappy. Ingratitude can come from a variety of sources; an unfairly high expectations of other people, a sense of entitlement, pride, wounds, sloth or laziness, or selfishness.
Last weekend we looked at the three basic, but not always easy, steps for fostering an attitude of gratitude. First we need to literally count our blessings. We need to increase our awareness of the gifts and blessings we have. Next we need to turn our attention from the gift to the giver. We cannot say “thank you” if we do not know that we have received a gift, nor if we do not know who gave us the gift. Ultimately, all good things come from God above. Finally, we need to practice gratitude. It has to become part of our daily routine, as much as brushing our teeth.
This week we want to look at what can get in the way of us seeing our blessings and gifts from God – what can steal our gratitude. To help us, we are going to look at a passage from the Gospel of St. Luke.
Today Jesus describes a time of great trial and tribulation. He is warning the apostles about the future destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem. For the Jewish people the Temple was the place where heaven and earth met. Jesus is warning the disciples not confuse their faith in God with the church building. Jesus is speaking about the end of Temple worship. He is launching a new era in which the meeting place between God and humanity will be in the Church, the body of Christ – the gathering of believers. Jesus warns that people will be scared to death when the Temple is destroyed. The foundations of their faith would be shaken.
We can lose sight of God’s blessings when we are facing big problems or experiencing great big challenges or changes. And when that happens, it can be difficult to be grateful. George Bailey, from the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, experienced that when he suddenly is facing a debt he cannot pay and which he did not create.
The pain and problems of life can be all we see sometimes. Christ teaches that that does not have to be the case, “And they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these signs begin to happen stand firm and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand” (Luke 21:27-28).
Jesus uses the title “Son of Man” to emphasize that while he is 100% divine, he is also 100% human. As the Son of Man Jesus not only understands our problems, he also has the power to do something about them. Jesus tells his disciples, and us, when facing big problems to stand firm because the Lord is redeeming the situation, or using it to change and transform our character, to mend us or mold us, to prepare us for what’s next in your life, to prepare an outcome unknown to us, or thru us to do the same for someone else. When it comes to great big problems, Faith means being grateful to God in advance of the blessing.
Little problems and pains can also rob us of our gratitude. “Be aware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap” (Luke 21:34). The daily anxieties of life can trap us so that we lose sight of our reasons to be grateful.
The busier we are, the more we are doing, the better chance things are going to go wrong. Obviously it becomes accelerated this time of year. We can’t slow down the world, and we can’t slow down the speed of the season, but we can slow down ourselves. When the daily anxieties are bothering us, slow down. Faith means being grateful for the blessings behind the burdens.
We can be grateful in our problems. We can be grateful for the big ones because they are opportunities for God to show his faithfulness and come through for us. We can be grateful during our big problems because we know that God will use them in a big way to change and transform us. We can be grateful for the small ones because they often spring from blessings – blessings that we often take for granted or lose sight of.
Elsewhere in Scripture, St. Paul writes, “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). If we can learn to see our blessings no matter the circumstances, we’re going to recognize more and more blessings because…we tend to see what we’re looking for.