Giving Thanks As We Grow Older Sermon Iv: Gratitude Changes Attitude For The Better Series

GRATITUDE CHANGES ATTITUDE FOR THE BETTER

Colossians 3:15-17

We all know the story of the coming to America by the Pilgrims in 1621. Perhaps you, like I, have visited historic Plymouth Rock - the place where those searching for a better way of life came ashore. If you go there, you will find encased in a glass tomb the rock which supposedly marked the exact spot where Captain John Smith stepped onto American soil.

The highlight of my visit to that hallowed shrine was not the rock. It was the village in which those weary pilgrims first lived - preserved in part but restored as it was almost 400 years ago. In the center of the village, there is a meeting house where it is said that the Pilgrims gathered each year on the anniversary of their coming to America to give thanks to God for the blessings of religious freedom and daily provisions, even though these courageous seekers of peace suffered hardships we cannot begin to imagine.

Getting here was fraught with many dangers and multiple deaths. Arriving here was met with resistance the likes of which none of us have ever faced. Can you imagine occupying a land already inhabited by warriors armed with spears and deadly arrowheads?

Neither can we imagine the bleak winter of snow storms while trying to build thatched roofs for shelter; nor can we relate to the hunt for wild game to put meat on the table - hunting it and getting back home with it against the odds of becoming the hunted rather than the hunter; and running the risk of having it taken away from you by savages - losing your scalp in the process.

Despite all the difficulties that challenged our forerunners, they nevertheless gathered together once a year to commemorate freedom from religious persecution and to express gratitude for God’s provisions.

We Americans have been so blessed that we can sing along with the composer of that great hymn of praise: “Great is thy faithfulness, O God our Father, morning by morning new mercies I see; all I have needed thy hand hath provided; great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.”

Gratitude changed the attitude of those who celebrated the very first Thanksgiving in America. Their attitude was changed for the better in such a way that they went on, despite their hardships, and never gave up.

Do you think Americans really grasp the price that was paid through the centuries so that we might have the land of plenty and opportunity that we enjoy today – with all our comforts and conveniences?

When I felt the need to go to New Jersey to visit my disabled brother, all I did was go online, punch in delta.com and make a reservation; I could even choose the seat I wanted to sit in; I was served a snack and beverage as we jetted along through the sky at 550 miles per hour; I had breakfast at home, then enjoyed lunch with my brother in New Jersey – on the same day.

Think of it this way: If Julius Caesar had come to America for a visit in 1621 – the year the pilgrims came - he would have had very few questions to ask Captain John Smith; things would not have changed all that much; but, if Smith were to somehow visit America today, there would be no end to the questions he would ask – first, he would want to know where he was; then he would wonder out loud what happened!?

If Captain Smith did in fact return for a visit today, after an absence of more than 350 years, and once he found out that he was back on earth, do you suppose he would feel compelled to exclaim, “You ain’t seen nothing yet!?” (That’s if when he died 350 years ago his soul went to heaven from whence he had come back to visit America.)

We have had it so good; yet so many folks talk and act as if they owe a debt of gratitude to nobody including God their Creator. This self-centeredness of some ungrateful folks causes me to wonder if they could ever sing “God Bless America” with a clear conscience:

“God bless America, land that I love; stand beside her, and guide her through the night, with the light from above.”

It is difficult for me to see how the Supreme Court could join hands with the children of America and sing “God Bless America” – for, you see, it was the court of 1963 that declared this child’s school prayer illegal:

We thank you for the flowers so sweet;

We thank you for the food we eat;

We thank you for the birds that sing;

We thank you God for everything.