Sermon. " To give thanks."
Tak er Kun et fattigt ord. Thank you is only a simple, poor word, says an old Danish song. But I do not agree with that. Thank you (TAK) is a rich word. A big word. A necessary word. A life-affirming word. Thank you is not just a poor word, thank you is a rich, great, life-affirming word.
Thank you is a short word in Danish T-A–K. Just three letters and yet a great meaning. The Danish language can be complicated and intricate, just ask the language learners who attend Søren’s language classes every week. THANK YOU is one of those great basic words, one of the first things we teach our children, and thus also the Danish Students.
THANK YOU is far from a poor word. That's a rich word. A big word. Three letters and yet a capital word. It seems to be the case in the Danish language that we have short 3-letter words for the big things in life: TRO faith, HÅB, Hope, LIV Life, DØD Death, MAD Food, ÅND Spirit, GUD God, DÅB Baptism, BØN Prayer, LYS Light, And TAK- THANK YOU
Linguistically, it is a small, short word, a minimal utterance, but in an existential, spiritual, and Christian sense, it is among the most important manifestations and expressions of a human being. One of life's most important acquisitions is the ability to say thank you. As children, we learn to say thank you for food and thank you for the gift. Later we also learn to say thank you for the evening, thank you for the help, and thank you for now.
Think about whom you said THANK YOU to this week. Your wife, your husband, your kids, your friends, the cashier, the Amazon driver,....or whom you forgot to thank.
In a culture of profit and constant consumption like ours, gratitude is often forgotten. As if we are entitled to everything, we get. As if we can just count on the smile, the help, the kindness, the love, the health, and the life. If we lose the ability to say thank you, we lose something fundamental, because that spoken and expressed gratitude points beyond ourselves. Gratitude reminds us that we depend on each other and God in the small and the big. As well as the daily bread and the content of our lives, our relationships, our children, our family, and friends — all of this we have been given.
Therefore, it is far from accidental that many religions, not least Christianity, are built on thanksgiving and gratitude. The worship service is one such exercise in saying thank you. To God and our neighbor. Thank you for life, faith, hope, and love. In prayers, we give thanks, in the hymns, we express our gratitude — and at the baptismal font and the Holy Communion table, give thanks and praise that we are not alone.
Thank you is our answer to all that life has given us and gives us. Regardless of where we are in life when we think about it, there is something to thank for.
To say thank you for this beautiful day in October. To say thank you to the little child who was baptized.
To say thank you for the soft seats to sit on. To say thank you for the fellowship, songs, and food.
We should not say thank you because we get something in return or because it is polite. We say thank you as it directs our minds away from ourselves,.... and who knows, it might be contagious?
The right way to give thanks is with humility, joy, and grace. Yes, with surprise.
The wrong way to give thanks is with contempt, comparison, or conceit.
If we forget gratitude or if we do not consider gratitude a fundamental virtue, then we are missing a very important dimension in life and our faith relationships. This is exactly what is happening in today's Gospel when the 10 lepers meet Jesus and meet salvation. Maybe the 9 are so busy living and rejoicing that they completely forget the thank you - because only the one, measly 10% return to give thanks. That doesn't mean that the 9 weren't healed or happy, but at the moment, in the bliss, in the excitement, - they forgot the gratitude for this unexpected and unlikely salvation. Yes, that life was given back to them again. That attitude we do recognize all too well. In Christianity, gratitude is an important part of our faith. You can so easily find something to be unhappy with, something to complain about, as the Danish group TV2 so aptly once sang about the Danes' national sport to complain about the weather:
And then the stupid weather And that Henrik Volborg
It always raining here - Right around where I live
Come let's complain That's probably what we're best at!
We may be more comfortable complaining, but we don't get better if we overlook everything there is to thank for. Thank you is not just a poor word. That's a big word. A warm word. An important word. Autumn services are carried by thanksgiving. We thank you for the harvest. We give thanks for what grows while we sleep. We give thanks for the rain, the sun, the earth, the grain, the wife, the husband, and the children.
Before the sermon, we sang so beautifully: Lord, we thank you. Lord, we praise you. Lord, we sing your holy name. And after the sermon, we sing even more beautifully in the old hymn: All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above So thank God, then thank you, God, for all his endless love.
So, think of someone you forgot to thank. Think about the last time you were thanked.
Now repeat after me and let's be the 10% who returned and remembered to give thanks:
Thank you, God, for this bright morning, thank you, God, for this new day.
Thank you, God, for the love and warmth I can live on.
Thank you, God, for what your word has told me,
thank you, God, for help when I am weak.
Thank you, God, for the joy of living this bright day.
AMEN.