Well, 2004 is finally behind us.  It’s been a wonderful, terrible year.  Wonderful for many of us who have been, once again, blessed beyond measure with life, health, loved ones, work, financial security and living in this marvellous city; but a struggle for those whose lives have been shattered by the death of someone close, ill health and money or family worries. Then, of course, there are the many, many who all around the world have been affected by hunger, poverty, war, crime, prejudice and political oppression. 

And sadly, 2004 couldn’t have ended on a more tragic and heart-rending note – with the news of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster.  The images of death, destruction, pain and suffering of the millions of people whose lives have literally been torn apart by this disaster are almost too unbearable to look at.  In fact, I have to confess that I have actively avoided the News since Boxing Day. I haven’t really read the newspapers either.  It’s not that I don’t care or haven’t prayed or responded, but it has simply been overwhelming… call me a coward, but I can’t explain my actions in any other way.  I want to come back to this later.

The question is, how do we respond as Christians, as another year of joy and pain, blessing and struggle ends and as we stand at the beginning of a new year with eagerness and anxiety?  Two things come to mind:

People of Gratitude
        Alongside the Lord’s Prayer, the great prayer of the worship of the Church is the Eucharistic Prayer.  It is no mere coincidence that the Greek word eucharistos means ‘thanksgiving’.  In fact the Eucharistic Prayer is sometimes called ‘the Great Thanksgiving’.  It begins with the words, “let us give thanks to the Lord our God.”  The great spiritual teachers of our faith, indeed our own personal experience, tells us that the more thankful we are the more joyful and complete we will be.  In other words, the more our hearts our filled with gratitude the more our hearts will be full.

            Think of it this way, it’s the difference between looking at a doughnut and seeing or choosing to see the doughnut rather than the hole in middle. If that analogy isn’t British enough for you think of it like this:  It is looking at a glass that is half filled with water – you can either see it as half empty or half full. The heart of gratitude sees the glass as half full.  Christians are invited to have hearts of gratitude, to be people of gratitude, to see the glass half full.

            Why is a heart of gratitude so important in the life of faith?  Why does God invite us to be people of gratitude?  Perhaps I can best illustrate this by telling you two stories:

            I know two women.  The one has suffered great loss and tragedy in her life – the death of two of her children and two husbands.  No one could blame her if she had become a bitter and cynical old person.  But actually she is quite the opposite.  In fact, I have rarely seen a person filled with more love, faith, hope, generosity; at the centre of which is a grateful heart. Grateful, not psychotically blocking out the pain of the past or naively ignoring the uncertainties of living, but grateful rather out of a heart that has, yes, known great pain but is also alive to the wonder and mystery of it all, and has ‘tasted and seen that the Lord is good.’  The other lady is someone who has certainly had her share of troubles, some ill health, financial struggles and family difficulties, but no more so than that many.  And yet this person seems always to look on the dark side of things, is always ready to think and assume the worst, and is actually someone with whom it is very difficult to spend any time as a result. 

            Why is a heart of gratitude so important in the life of faith?  Why does God invite us to be people of gratitude? 

• By having or choosing to have grateful hearts we enter into the life and love of God

• By having or choosing to have grateful hearts we become sources of encouragement to others

• By having or choosing to have grateful hearts we live fuller, richer more joyful lives ourselves

• By having or choosing to have grateful hearts we find that we are more able to affect people and situations for good

• By having or choosing to have grateful hearts we see and experience the joy of God’s presence in the small, everyday things – and so find peace and contentment
  

People of hope
        God invites us to be people of gratitude and He also invites us to be to become people of hope.  When I was writing this sermon I almost wrote faith, but I decided on hope – I’ll tell you why a little later on – but actually faith and hope are deeply intertwined, if not almost the same thing.

            God invites us to be people of hope.  What does this mean?  What might this look or feel like?

            Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was interviewed shortly after the Indian Ocean disaster struck last week.  One of the questions that was put to him was this:  “Where was God when the tidal wave struck?”  Of course the subtext, the unspoken or underlying question was (and is), ‘how can a loving God allow such things to happen?’ or perhaps more simply, ‘why do things like this happen?’  “Where was God when the tidal wave struck?”

• We can agree with the French philosopher Voltaire who said that ‘this is the best of all possible worlds’.  In other words for life to be like it is – with the possibility for love, joy, reason and so on – there must be pain, suffering and tragedy, even if the bad things are only there to help us see and appreciate the good.  Or put it another way, the world is as it is – this is a good as it gets!

• We can say that people choose, out of their own free will, to live or go on holiday in that part of the world – a part of the world which is known to suffer from periodic tidal waves caused by volcanic eruptions.

• We can say – as did the Archbishop – that God was there when the tidal wave struck.  That God was drowned, that God was running for fear and life, God put His arm (through another human being) around a loved one or stranger at the moment of death, God is a widow and orphan, God is waiting for news of a loved one, God is there picking up the pieces, God is working in the bodies of the injured repairing the damage to flesh, bone, mind and spirit, God is praying, God is donating and helping… that’s where I believe God was when the wave struck and is now as life must go one.
                

God invites us to be people of hope. 

• Seeing God at the very heart of us and all that there is, His beloved Creation

• Knowing that God is at work among us – healing and restoring

• Sensing God’s love at all times – in the midst of heartbreak as well as in the mountain-top experiences

As we look back on the year that has been and we look forward and anticipate the year that is to be God invites us – and never more so than now – to be two things:  To be people of gratitude and to be people of hope.

• Filled with gratitude for the wonder of life and mystery of love. 

• Grounded in the hope that God is always close to us and working with us for the fulfillment of “the Kingdom which is given, yet still to come.”

          May you be blessed with a New Year 
...................that is filled with the life and love of God’s Presence,
        
                           Simon                                  

  Sermon delivered on 2nd January 2005
by the Reverend Simon Justice, Rector of Christ Church, Morningside, Edinburgh.

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