The Season of Gratitude

Quote of the day:
“It is unbelievable what an icon it is for visitors and residents alike.”
--Stephanie Naidoff, Philadelphia’s director of commerce, talking about the 8-foot Rocky statue now installed on the Museum of Art’s front steps.

Thanksgiving is the day many (most?) of us will reflect on what we are grateful for. Often people have told me that this is their favorite holiday of the year, because it is simple. We just gather for a meal, and give thanks.

Because every other day of the year--especially this Friday--is focused on what we don’t have and really want or need, it is a blessed relief to have one official day focused on the abundance and goodness in our lives. Even if we live very modestly in America, we are very, very wealthy by the standards of the world.

I’m not sure one day of gratitude is enough. In the last church I served, I took liberty with the liturgical calendar and declared the month of November the Season of Gratitude. We have plenty to be thankful for. Don’t get me started.

The Christian theologian Karl Barth called gratitude the best expression of God’s grace on earth. Whether you believe in God or not, this is a wonderful statement, because grace means that your life has meaning whether or not you think it does. And that itself is something to be grateful for.

As a logical concept, grace is very hard to pin down, and so is gratitude. Both of them are really about the great gifts we have been given, which are way beyond any “deserving,” and therefore also beyond any understanding. Thus gratitude is the best reaction to grace, and its best expression.