Enough
Sermon given at the Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church
November 24, 2019
by The Rev. Craig M. Nowak
Quid pro quo.
A Latin phrase, which until recently, didn’t come up much in most ordinary private conversations, let alone public ones between press, pundits and politicians.
But thanks to a certain someone, it has experienced something of a resurgence of late.
Literally, quid pro quo translates as, “This for that” or “something for something.” In other words, an exchange. Typically it describes a situation where a favor or advantage is granted or expected in return for something. And it generally carries a negative connotation.
We seem, at times, to have a problem with certain things being subject to what appear to be self-serving conditions.
Things like the release of military aide to a vulnerable ally conditioned upon an investigation of a political opponent.
Or a promotion conditioned upon acceptance of unwanted or inappropriate attention.
But what about gratitude conditioned upon having or getting things we like or want?
Wait.
What?
Let me repeat that.
Gratitude conditioned upon having or getting things we like or want.
Now surely most of us here, at one time or another, has been advised or have advised another to, “count your blessings.” We may even, like the author of our first reading, “Some nights lie awake counting gifts instead of counting sheep.” Indeed many of us, were we to pause and count our blessings right here and now, would likely name some of the same blessings the author mentions, a roof over our heads, a warm place to sleep, a family of friends.
And certainly some of us would recognize as a blessing, a heart that can love and a mind that can think, and give thanks for those too.
Last week, Laurel Burdon, (our Director of Children’s Religious Education) talked with children and youth about the things they are grateful for.
David shared he’s grateful for getting his front teeth, legos and his parents.
Zoey expressed gratitude for good things that happened in the past and will happen in the future. For being able to think and learn and for her school and rainbows.
Jack said he’s grateful for having a place to sleep, Italian food and the hand of the spirit. A man after my own heart. Oh, and Jack also said, “I need to remember to be grateful for having one candy bar and not think about the hundreds more I could have.”
Brigid shared she’s grateful for growing, new shoes… size 2, her pet mice Fuzzy and Dinosaur. And….backwards rainbows.
And Jefferson offered, home, his school and his cat as things he’s grateful for.
I love the balance of diversity and commonality in what the children and youth count as blessings or things they are grateful for. A balance we too might find were we to name and share what each of us here is grateful for.
That most of us can quickly generate a list of blessings perhaps explains the appeal of Meister Echkart’s oft quoted observation, “If the only prayer you ever say in your whole life is “thank you,” that would suffice.” Great! Thank you; that’s it; that’s enough.
When blessings are obvious or seemingly abundant, when they can be reliably counted upon day after day or have been present for as long as we can remember, “thank you” may not always feel sufficient perhaps, but it is an easy prayer nonetheless.
And so we, some of us, say or think a few words of thanksgiving before a meal.
We express appreciation in words or deeds, send thank you cards, hold and attend public ceremonies recognizing people’s efforts or sacrifice.
Some of us may keep a journal or maintain a daily list of blessings for which we are grateful.
This is the transactional nature typical of gratitude as we commonly understand and practice it. We get or recognize something we have that we like or want and in return we give thanks. For most of us, the ability to easily name things, many things, we are grateful for, is the low hanging fruit of gratitude.
And just as some of us might begin to feel like just maybe “thank you” isn’t enough, that perhaps our response to all our “easy” blessings requires a little more of us than, “thank you”, along comes this important sounding guy from the middle ages telling us…no, no…trust me, “thank you” is enough, just “thank you.” Well, that’s a relief. Nothing else to do except express gratitude for our blessings.
But is that what Meister Eckhart is really saying?
What about people for whom that list if blessings is not so easy to come up with? Who don’t have a roof over their head, a warm bed or a family of friends? Or people who are sick and lack adequate care or people living in war torn countries, people dealing with daily BS and trauma of racism trans or homophobia, domestic violence or any number of other injustices which can make transactional gratitude…count your blessings…ring hollow. Because for a lot of people gratitude can’t be and isn’t a quid pro quo. It cannot always be simply something given FOR something.
Indeed, Unitarian Universalist minister Peter Fleck, in his book The Mask of Religion, asks, “... do we have a right to be thankful as long as others are excluded from sharing in the blessings we enjoy?” “The answer to this question”, he writes, “lies in the realization that thankfulness, while it may relate to specifics, has an absolute character. To give thanks is a basic human need, an essential element in our relationship to the universe. Thankfulness is independent of specifics.”
And here we get closer to what Meister Eckhart is pointing us toward. That there is an aspect of gratitude that transcends the habitual, transactional way in which understand and approach it. Few people understand this better than those for whom, on the surface, gratitude, as we typically understand and approach it, would seem nearly impossible to muster.
In her book, Grateful, noted historian and scholar Diana Butler Bass, offers the example of holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. She writes, “Understand, Elie Wiesel is not thankful for the Holocaust. He would have rather had the Holocaust not happen. But at the same time, he talks of how, when they were in the camps, it was the people who could wake up in the morning and see the sunshine and say, “Thank God I’m alive one more day” or, “Look at how lovely that cloud is” [who were more able to carry on].”
“It was those people”, Bass, says, “who could see through the evil and find that there was a moment of grace or the presence of wonder or a token of love even in the midst of the most horrible situations. She adds, “We should never be grateful for suffering, but the truth is we can be grateful through suffering, and that little prepositional switch -- that’s where the empowerment comes.”
Again, with Bass’ observation, we’re moved closer still to what Meister Eckart is getting at. Gratitude as a means of empowerment.
Thanksgiving is just a few days a way and if is taught or talked about in school the way it was when I was growing up, then most us likely still have a sentimental, romanticized image of that feast that would become a national holiday. But if we delve a little deeper into what life was like in the 17th century, let alone in the wilderness that was 17th century New England, a different image emerges.
A plump golden brown turkey with stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes and corn followed by coffee and pumpkin pie. Um, no. try venison, probably duck, maybe wild turkey and some seafood including shellfish. No bread stuffing, but probably nuts and herbs. No potatoes, white, sweet, mashed or otherwise and no corn, but probably wild onions, leeks and beans. And pumpkin pie with a dollop of whipped cream? Not so much. More like native fruits to satisfy your sweet tooth.
Even knowing that life, let alone the first Thanksgiving meal, was quite different and undoubtedly harder and harsher in the absence of modern conveniences we enjoy today, many people, writes, Peter Fleck, “assume that the Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving feasts because they were so grateful for having survived their first winter in the New World, when so many of the others who came over with them died.” But Fleck suggests otherwise, “It seems to me”, he writes, “that they were able to survive because they were thankful.”
And is this not the same sentiment expressed in our first reading when the author shifts from naming things he’s grateful for to proclaiming, “In a world that can bring pain, I will still take each chance…For I believe that whatever the terrain our feet can learn to dance. Whatever stone life may sling, we can moan…or we can sing!”
We can almost hear that last line in the background of our second reading as we imagine Jane Rzepka, reading those old church minutes in her kitchen, noting, with a hint of suspicion any but the most naive minister would harbor, “In the entire history of our church…we have never had a murky dilemma, been a little short of cash, or even stumbled upon an intriguing situation. Except twice (.….when the organist lost a couple fingers and some pews that tipped backward). On the surface it would appear, Rzepka writes, “We look on the sunny side.”
But she knows that’s not the whole story.
Congregations, like people don’t survive by counting their blessings alone. For as she later observes, “One has to conclude that when the sun stopped shining, the organ stirred our singing nonetheless, and most feet stayed firmly on the ground.” Such gratitude is not something given only for something you get. It is a radically different way of living. Living detached from any notion or need for a quid pro quo, gratitude that does not deny difficulty, even tragedy, but can see through it and anything else that attempts to obscure abundance in our lives. This is the thank you to which Meister Eckhart is referring. A thank you that liberates and empowers us to live abundantly, always. A thank you that must be cultivated patiently through practice in good times and bad, “independent of specifics.”
And so, this Thanksgiving, count your blessings, but remember it is the thank you we live as a way of life, not that we give only for what we get, that is truly, should it be our only prayer, enough.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Amen and Blessed Be
Sermon given at the Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church
November 24, 2019
by The Rev. Craig M. Nowak
Quid pro quo.
A Latin phrase, which until recently, didn’t come up much in most ordinary private conversations, let alone public ones between press, pundits and politicians.
But thanks to a certain someone, it has experienced something of a resurgence of late.
Literally, quid pro quo translates as, “This for that” or “something for something.” In other words, an exchange. Typically it describes a situation where a favor or advantage is granted or expected in return for something. And it generally carries a negative connotation.
We seem, at times, to have a problem with certain things being subject to what appear to be self-serving conditions.
Things like the release of military aide to a vulnerable ally conditioned upon an investigation of a political opponent.
Or a promotion conditioned upon acceptance of unwanted or inappropriate attention.
But what about gratitude conditioned upon having or getting things we like or want?
Wait.
What?
Let me repeat that.
Gratitude conditioned upon having or getting things we like or want.
Now surely most of us here, at one time or another, has been advised or have advised another to, “count your blessings.” We may even, like the author of our first reading, “Some nights lie awake counting gifts instead of counting sheep.” Indeed many of us, were we to pause and count our blessings right here and now, would likely name some of the same blessings the author mentions, a roof over our heads, a warm place to sleep, a family of friends.
And certainly some of us would recognize as a blessing, a heart that can love and a mind that can think, and give thanks for those too.
Last week, Laurel Burdon, (our Director of Children’s Religious Education) talked with children and youth about the things they are grateful for.
David shared he’s grateful for getting his front teeth, legos and his parents.
Zoey expressed gratitude for good things that happened in the past and will happen in the future. For being able to think and learn and for her school and rainbows.
Jack said he’s grateful for having a place to sleep, Italian food and the hand of the spirit. A man after my own heart. Oh, and Jack also said, “I need to remember to be grateful for having one candy bar and not think about the hundreds more I could have.”
Brigid shared she’s grateful for growing, new shoes… size 2, her pet mice Fuzzy and Dinosaur. And….backwards rainbows.
And Jefferson offered, home, his school and his cat as things he’s grateful for.
I love the balance of diversity and commonality in what the children and youth count as blessings or things they are grateful for. A balance we too might find were we to name and share what each of us here is grateful for.
That most of us can quickly generate a list of blessings perhaps explains the appeal of Meister Echkart’s oft quoted observation, “If the only prayer you ever say in your whole life is “thank you,” that would suffice.” Great! Thank you; that’s it; that’s enough.
When blessings are obvious or seemingly abundant, when they can be reliably counted upon day after day or have been present for as long as we can remember, “thank you” may not always feel sufficient perhaps, but it is an easy prayer nonetheless.
And so we, some of us, say or think a few words of thanksgiving before a meal.
We express appreciation in words or deeds, send thank you cards, hold and attend public ceremonies recognizing people’s efforts or sacrifice.
Some of us may keep a journal or maintain a daily list of blessings for which we are grateful.
This is the transactional nature typical of gratitude as we commonly understand and practice it. We get or recognize something we have that we like or want and in return we give thanks. For most of us, the ability to easily name things, many things, we are grateful for, is the low hanging fruit of gratitude.
And just as some of us might begin to feel like just maybe “thank you” isn’t enough, that perhaps our response to all our “easy” blessings requires a little more of us than, “thank you”, along comes this important sounding guy from the middle ages telling us…no, no…trust me, “thank you” is enough, just “thank you.” Well, that’s a relief. Nothing else to do except express gratitude for our blessings.
But is that what Meister Eckhart is really saying?
What about people for whom that list if blessings is not so easy to come up with? Who don’t have a roof over their head, a warm bed or a family of friends? Or people who are sick and lack adequate care or people living in war torn countries, people dealing with daily BS and trauma of racism trans or homophobia, domestic violence or any number of other injustices which can make transactional gratitude…count your blessings…ring hollow. Because for a lot of people gratitude can’t be and isn’t a quid pro quo. It cannot always be simply something given FOR something.
Indeed, Unitarian Universalist minister Peter Fleck, in his book The Mask of Religion, asks, “... do we have a right to be thankful as long as others are excluded from sharing in the blessings we enjoy?” “The answer to this question”, he writes, “lies in the realization that thankfulness, while it may relate to specifics, has an absolute character. To give thanks is a basic human need, an essential element in our relationship to the universe. Thankfulness is independent of specifics.”
And here we get closer to what Meister Eckhart is pointing us toward. That there is an aspect of gratitude that transcends the habitual, transactional way in which understand and approach it. Few people understand this better than those for whom, on the surface, gratitude, as we typically understand and approach it, would seem nearly impossible to muster.
In her book, Grateful, noted historian and scholar Diana Butler Bass, offers the example of holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. She writes, “Understand, Elie Wiesel is not thankful for the Holocaust. He would have rather had the Holocaust not happen. But at the same time, he talks of how, when they were in the camps, it was the people who could wake up in the morning and see the sunshine and say, “Thank God I’m alive one more day” or, “Look at how lovely that cloud is” [who were more able to carry on].”
“It was those people”, Bass, says, “who could see through the evil and find that there was a moment of grace or the presence of wonder or a token of love even in the midst of the most horrible situations. She adds, “We should never be grateful for suffering, but the truth is we can be grateful through suffering, and that little prepositional switch -- that’s where the empowerment comes.”
Again, with Bass’ observation, we’re moved closer still to what Meister Eckart is getting at. Gratitude as a means of empowerment.
Thanksgiving is just a few days a way and if is taught or talked about in school the way it was when I was growing up, then most us likely still have a sentimental, romanticized image of that feast that would become a national holiday. But if we delve a little deeper into what life was like in the 17th century, let alone in the wilderness that was 17th century New England, a different image emerges.
A plump golden brown turkey with stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes and corn followed by coffee and pumpkin pie. Um, no. try venison, probably duck, maybe wild turkey and some seafood including shellfish. No bread stuffing, but probably nuts and herbs. No potatoes, white, sweet, mashed or otherwise and no corn, but probably wild onions, leeks and beans. And pumpkin pie with a dollop of whipped cream? Not so much. More like native fruits to satisfy your sweet tooth.
Even knowing that life, let alone the first Thanksgiving meal, was quite different and undoubtedly harder and harsher in the absence of modern conveniences we enjoy today, many people, writes, Peter Fleck, “assume that the Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving feasts because they were so grateful for having survived their first winter in the New World, when so many of the others who came over with them died.” But Fleck suggests otherwise, “It seems to me”, he writes, “that they were able to survive because they were thankful.”
And is this not the same sentiment expressed in our first reading when the author shifts from naming things he’s grateful for to proclaiming, “In a world that can bring pain, I will still take each chance…For I believe that whatever the terrain our feet can learn to dance. Whatever stone life may sling, we can moan…or we can sing!”
We can almost hear that last line in the background of our second reading as we imagine Jane Rzepka, reading those old church minutes in her kitchen, noting, with a hint of suspicion any but the most naive minister would harbor, “In the entire history of our church…we have never had a murky dilemma, been a little short of cash, or even stumbled upon an intriguing situation. Except twice (.….when the organist lost a couple fingers and some pews that tipped backward). On the surface it would appear, Rzepka writes, “We look on the sunny side.”
But she knows that’s not the whole story.
Congregations, like people don’t survive by counting their blessings alone. For as she later observes, “One has to conclude that when the sun stopped shining, the organ stirred our singing nonetheless, and most feet stayed firmly on the ground.” Such gratitude is not something given only for something you get. It is a radically different way of living. Living detached from any notion or need for a quid pro quo, gratitude that does not deny difficulty, even tragedy, but can see through it and anything else that attempts to obscure abundance in our lives. This is the thank you to which Meister Eckhart is referring. A thank you that liberates and empowers us to live abundantly, always. A thank you that must be cultivated patiently through practice in good times and bad, “independent of specifics.”
And so, this Thanksgiving, count your blessings, but remember it is the thank you we live as a way of life, not that we give only for what we get, that is truly, should it be our only prayer, enough.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Amen and Blessed Be