Friends,
This Sunday I will celebrate Cinco de Mayo by preaching a sermon on gratitude.[1] And while I don’t yet know what I’m going to say in that sermon, it seems important to lay the groundwork for the sermon by distinguishing between two different kinds of gratitude.
The first kind of gratitude is designed to stifle aspiration and liberation. It is gratitude imposed on those who suffer a lack of resources, power and freedom. “Be grateful you have a minimum wage job” is what a worker hears when she asks to be paid a living wage. “Be grateful we don’t throw you in jail for using the wrong bathroom” is what a gender non-binary person hears when they ask churches, schools, businesses and workplaces for safe accommodations. “Be grateful that you live in America and that people have died so you can have your opinions” is what an African American man hears when he protests police brutality. This is a dismissive form of gratitude that is but a cheap forgery[2] of the genuine and deeply spiritual gratitude that is a gift of our faith tradition and of every spiritual path I’ve encountered.
Genuine spiritual gratitude is transformational. While doing background reading for Sunday’s sermon I’ve found that every spiritual luminary I’ve read—from John Calvin to Anne Lamott—says the same thing about gratitude: true gratitude changes us.
When we are truly and faithfully grateful, our desires conform to God’s will such that gratitude for financial security inspires us to change society so that everyone experiences reasons to be grateful for a release from poverty. Gratitude for societal privilege makes us want to use power in ways that empower others. Gratitude for freedom inspires us to lend our support for those who seek freedom from violence and oppression.
Whatever happens in my sermon on Sunday, my prayer for you is that you live lives filled with genuine spiritual gratitude.
God’s Peace,
Ben
[1] For the record, the two have nothing to do with one another, but it sounded cool to say it that way.
[2] Kind of like how the American appropriation of Cinco de Mayo with it’s emphasis on margaritas and guacamole is a poorly-rendered imitation of the commemoration of the battle of Puebla, when Mexican insurgents defeated Napoleon’s forces, thus beginning the restoration of the Mexican republic.