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Some of the poorest streets in the world are located in the city of Calcutta, in India. In the heart of this city are some of the world’s most poverty stricken communities. Here one finds people living on next to nothing, their very survival often dependent upon the kindness of strangers. Occasionally, those who have a heart for the poor will travel across the globe in order to spend a few weeks or months volunteering there- people who feel their lives have been blessed with abundance and want to give something back. One such volunteer was a young man named Shane. Shane wanted to go to Calcutta to make a difference, he wanted to change the world. But as is so often the case in these kinds of stories, what he ultimately discovered was that his experiences there ended up changing him much more than he was able to change the world. He describes one experience he had in which a poor child approached him on the street, begging for money. He put his hands in his pockets, and found to his dismay that he had nothing to offer the child but a single stick of chewing gum. Thinking it a rather poor offering, he gave it to the child anyway, not wanting to turn her away empty-handed. Perhaps he thought she would turn away with disgust at such an inadequate and hopeless gesture. After all here is someone starving on the streets of Calcutta and he offers her a stick of gum! But to his surprise and amazement, upon handing her the stick of gum, the young girl’s eyes lit up and a huge smile began to spread across her face. Turns out, she had never had chewing gum before, and so in her eyes, this was actually a great gift. But then something even more unexpected and extraordinary happened. The child tore the stick of gum in half-- keeping one half for herself and giving the other half back to the young man. The girl was so excited to get such an extravagant gift, that she couldn’t help but want to share. She couldn’t help but want to give it away— such was the extent of her joy. The young man describes similar experiences, in which he would purchase an ice cream cone for one of the street children, and they would be so excited by the gift that they would run around the entire neighborhood with it, making sure all of their friends could have some, before taking a single bite for themselves. These experiences changed this young volunteer forever, because what he saw in Calcutta was that even though these were some of the poorest people in the world, they were also among the most generous and the most joyful that he had ever met.
How is it, one may wonder upon hearing these kinds of stories, that these people, living in such deep poverty and need-- not knowing from one moment to the next where their next meal is coming from (or if there would even be a next meal)-- how is it that they are so happy?? What do they know that we don’t?
I will come back to this question. But first, I want to contrast the picture that these stories paint with a snapshot of our own culture, and put them both into dialogue with our gospel text this morning.
We live in a much more affluent society here in America. And yet, for all our affluence, we are also a culture riddled with anxiety and worry. We live in a world in which we are constantly anxious about something. Maybe we are anxious about our jobs— if we are lucky enough to have one. Maybe we are anxious about our kids-- their safety, their education, and their futures. Many of us are anxious about the economy— the most current crisis being the so-called fiscal cliff that we are approaching as a nation. For these, and perhaps for many other reasons, we live in a culture filled with anxiety and worry. So much so, that upon hearing Jesus’ words to his disciples in this morning’s gospel— “do not worry about your life”-- one may be tempted to want to argue with Jesus a little bit. After all, the lilies of the field and the birds of the air may not worry, as Jesus says, but they’re not the ones who have to send their kids to college, or pay the hospital bills when a family member gets sick, or put food on the table. We may be inclined to want to argue, or, we may even be inclined to discount Jesus’ words entirely, seeing them as hopefully naïve at best, and at worst, simply irrelevant for the times we live in. After all, the world is far more complicated these days, and there is far more to be worried about. Jesus lived in much simpler times. Who is he to tell us not to be anxious??
Putting aside for the moment that Jesus actually carries some pretty serious clout, and maybe we shouldn’t try to argue with him, I think we also have to make sure we understand what he’s really saying here. I think there is a very important distinction to be made between not being anxious, as Jesus says here, and simply not caring. Jesus is not telling us that we don’t need to care about providing basic necessities for ourselves and our loved ones. He’s not telling us that we shouldn’t care that there are some in this world who truly don’t have enough— like the young beggar in Calcutta, or even the homeless and poor in our own city. He’s not telling us not to care. But he is telling us that even in the face of great need, there is a better way to live than to be constantly anxious about the things we lack.
Which brings me back to our question this morning-- what did those street children in Calcutta know that we don’t?
In so many ways, we are much better off in life than that young girl begging for scraps on the streets of Calcutta. Compared to her, every single person in this room is rich beyond measure. Compared to her, we have everything we could ever want or need. So why do we worry so much? Why are we so anxious? Perhaps, for all our advances and affluence in this country, for all our education, and our unlimited access to information, we might actually still have a lot to learn from stories like hers. Or maybe it’s that we have a lot to remember—things we’ve forgotten about what it means to be truly thankful, and therefore what it means to find true joy and fulfillment.
Earlier this week I participated in an interfaith Thanksgiving service. And it was very interesting because it was an incredibly diverse gathering of faith communities. There were people there representing the Christian and Jewish faiths, as well as the Islamic community, Sikhism, and even Baha’i spirituality. And certainly, there are many differences between all of these religions in terms of how we think about God, how we worship, and what we believe. But what was interesting to me was that when it came to the subject of giving thanks, all of those differences began to melt away. Universally, everyone who was there spoke of the profound importance to be found in the act of giving thanks. Because in doing so, we are able to shift our perspective from anxiety about the things we lack, to a joyful appreciation of the blessings we already have. In remembering to give thanks to God for our blessings, we maintain the proper perspective on our lives and our place in the world. Pausing to give thanks for the extraordinary gifts we already have, helps us remember that while we can’t always control everything that happens to us, or everything that’s happening in the world around us, we can control to some extent how we react to those things, and we can always find things to be thankful for, if we are willing to see them.
Perhaps that’s what Jesus is really getting at here in this passage. Times may have been simpler then in a lot of ways, but I suspect human nature was still very much the same as it is now. We constantly turn away from God because we wrongly believe that somehow we can control and manipulate our environment in order to force certain kinds of blessings— the ones we think we need— to come our way. And the more affluent we become, the more vulnerable we are to this line of thinking. But I believe that it may just be that desire to control everything-- including how we want to be blessed—that is what causes so much of our anxiety. Because a great deal of what actually happens in life is completely outside of our control. And so Jesus is asking us to approach life differently. To seek God, rather than seeking control. And in doing so, we may just be opening ourselves up to unexpected blessings and small miracles that are already happening all around us.
Now I realize I still haven’t answered the question— what did that young girl in Calcutta know and understand that we don’t? Well I can’t pretend to have all the answers, but here’s one possibility: oftentimes, it’s the folks with the very least who are the very best at giving thanks, precisely because they have no illusions that they can control what sort of blessings they might receive. And so they are more open to every gift and blessing that may come their way, no matter how small an insignificant it may seem. Like a stick of chewing gum, or an ice cream cone.
And perhaps there is a deeper truth here for us as well. The young man went to Calcutta wanting to change the world, but in the process, found himself deeply changed as well. Imagine how different our lives would be— imagine how different our world would be-- if we could all learn and somehow internalize what he learned about the importance of giving thanks for small blessings. Imagine how different our culture would be if we focused more on giving thanks for the gifts we already have rather than constantly worrying about the things we lack? Imagine how this might change our attitudes towards our lives, towards others, and towards how we use and share our resources? What if the act of joyfully and recklessly giving thanks is actually the best way to change the world?
If we believed that, would we do it more often? Not just once a year on a holiday that is admittedly rather limited in scope, but rather every moment of every day? If we truly believed in the power of giving thanks, could it actually change us? Well you know there’s only one way to find out, and that’s to give it a try. So this Thanksgiving season, our challenge--and our gift-- is to wake up every single day and ask: what blessings might come my way today? And then, to rejoice in each and every one of them— small and insignificant though they may seem. This Thanksgiving season, find a reason to say “thanks be to God” every single day. I know it might seem cliché, or trite, but it just might also have the power to change your life. Amen, and let it be so.
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