A call to become a blessing to others - SERMON

Happy Thanksgiving to you! As we gather on Thanksgiving Sunday, let us pause and ask. What are the gifts we give thanks for? Gifts from God, and blessings from others? Family, health, the beauty of nature, our talents, there are so many things that make our ordinary days extraordinary, yet so often they pass by unnoticed and unappreciated.

In that regard, professionals in mental health service often highlight the power of gratitude, encouraging practices such as keeping a “gratitude journal”. As it says, it is an intentional effort to remind ourselves of the blessings that we are already living in. If you have tried, how does it work for you?

To some degree, it will help us to feel better with what we have. Placing gratitude at the center of our hearts can bring us peace, shift our focus, and help us cherish what we have. Yet, sometimes, I feel like my list of thankfulness can become so shallow and hollow and they fail to truly stir and spark something in my heart. Even worse, sometimes we are so fixated on what we lack, and we do not have any room for generating gratitude.

Modern society, so obsessed with idols of success, wealth, and power, often seems haunted by a restless hunger that never finds satisfaction.   In Korean culture, the concept of ghosts is not necessarily evil spirit, but often, ghosts are souls who have lost their humanity because they died being deprived of something essential. One who died of hunger becomes a ghost always looking for something to eat. One who died alone might haunt the living longing for companionship. So traditionally, shamans in Korea rather than hunting or banishing these ghosts, served as mediators while helping them to reconcile. By recognizing their pain, empathizing their unresolved grief, touching their unborn dreams, these shamans treat them as a human person who needs to be seen, heard, and understood. And often, it involves reconciliation between the living and the dead.

True healing and liberation for these troubled spirits comes not by fulfilling their every desire, but by recognizing and embracing their personhood once again. Either we are so complacent with what we have, or we are so obsessed with a hunger rooted in our unhealed wounds, it is true that being grateful is not as easy as it sounds although we all agree it is deeply tied to our happiness. Then how can we become more grateful?

Let us turn to the words of Jesus “I am the bread of life”, interestingly the passages before we heard today in John’s Gospel Jesus fed five thousand people with his miracle multiplying five barley loaves and two fish. Then the next day, Jesus and disciples were staying on the other side of the sea, the people amazed and hungry for more, sought Jesus out again.  Perhaps out of genuine hunger, perhaps out of hope for more miracles.

But he said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life.”

What is this food that endures for eternal life? Of course, Jesus is not denying or undermining our bodily needs. He healed the sick and fed the hungry. But he came for something greater. Jesus did not come to fix the world’s problems; he came to give us a way to new life.

As the world was groaning as some were haunted by power, wealth, and others were suffering from not their needs being met to be a human, Jesus came among us bearing good news.

Yet, this was more than removing all the problems of each person or changing the social structure. Rather, he came to us to renew our hearts, rekindle our dreams, and restoring our humanity as children of God.  Jesus’ life-giving bread does more than our needs being satisfied, but our being renewed and restored from being broken and distorted. And we find the sign not in his power to multiplying bread, but in his lowering himself to be a human person to receive us in his heart, in his giving himself to be broken and shattered to be received in our hearts. In this way, Jesus brings us blessing of God’s love and mercy. Furthermore, he invites us to follow his path. He assures us that we can go beyond seeking physical survival and material satisfaction.

We are spiritual beings, made to love and be loved by God, called not only to receive blessings, but to become blessings ourselves to someone. From the blessing of last Sunday, you will remember the well-known Christian blessings.

May God who clothes the lilies and feeds the birds of the sky, who leads the lambs to pasture and the deer to water, who multiplied loaves and fishes and changed water into wine, lead us, feed us, multiply us, and change us to reflect the glory of our Creator now and through all eternity; Yes, God leads us, feeds us, multiplies us. But God’s blessing is not only in receiving. As we receive, we are called to change ourselves, so that we will guide others, feed others, heal others, and further change others. True blessing is not all about what we receive and own. But it is found in our relationship with others and measured by what is there in our relationships.

Probably you are all familiar with Henry Owen’s short story, “the Gift of the Magi”. In this story, the main character Jim and Della are young couple who are deeply in love but poor. Christmas was near, each sacrifice their most precious possession to buy a gift for the other. Jim sells his watch to buy combs for Della’s hair; Della sells her hair to buy a chain for Jim’s watch. Ironically, these gifts, though practically useless, became signs of the most priceless offering -- their love for each other.  

Like the Magi who offered their treasures to newborn Jesus, Jim and Della exchanged selfless love for each other. This kind of love must be the most precious offering to God, Who is glorified and delighted in His children growing in love. Even if we have received the greatest blessings, if hoarded and kept for only ourselves, becomes lifeless.

Just as bread that isn’t shared grows stale and moldy, so is God’s blessing. Giving thanks is important but it’s only half step of how we should receive blessing. We do not have to be rich, we don’t have to have surplus to help others, to feed others. Jesus’ way of becoming a blessing for others was simple. He took the bread and gave things to God and broke it gave it to his disciples

Same as what we received today no matter what, we take it and give thanks to God while recognizing the Creator, the source of all good, and break it so that it can be shared with others who are also hungry as we are. In these simple actions, what we received brings us to life. So let our hearts be open toward God as we trust him and be open toward our brothers and sisters who are in needs, so that the hymns of giving thanks will continue to grow in us and through us.

From Fr. James