Recently I attended a music recital at West Chester University.  Two students performed, and their performance was stunning from beginning to end.  It was such a joy to be in that space, hearing these senior music majors show up what they’ve learned at West Chester.  Amazing!

Surprisingly, though, what moved me that night wasn’t the music, but the thank you given by one of the students afterwards.  This young woman took great care to name all the reasons she is thankful for her parents—for their presence, support, love, and care—and at that, I started to cry!  She was tearing up, too.  As a parent myself, there is something so special to me about her thank you.

It reminded me of the experience I had in Rwanda, which I already told you about, when our Zoe Empowerment group member Jean Claude gave me a huge, tight hug.  He was so thankful for Lima’s support.  Our giving changed his life!  He was not going to let the opportunity to say thank you pass him by.

In our gospel lesson today, Jesus heals a leper.  There is no “thank you” explicitly in the text.  But is there any doubt that healed man is thankful?  Jesus sternly warned the man not to tell anyone who healed him, just go to the priest and get blessed and reinstated in the community.  But Jesus had changed the man’s life.  How could he keep silent?  From the very start of Jesus’ ministry, people whose lives have been changed because of Christ have become evangelists—they can’t help but tell the story of God’s goodness.  This man was such an enthusiastic storyteller that Jesus had to stay out in the country to avoid being mobbed by the crowds in town.  But even at that, people from all directions flocked to Jesus to see and hopefully experience for themselves the healing and transformation Jesus offered the man with leprosy.

I’d like to think that if I ever had something really dramatic like that happen to me, I would be an enthusiastic storyteller, too!  I’d like to think that if I ever had a life-changing intervention from God, I would make it VERY clear to everyone I met that I am super thankful.   For most of us, the transformation we experience with God is gradual.  The gifts we receive from God are more subtle, little foretastes of the transformation we will experience in the future.  Our challenge becomes learning to notice all the little gifts as they happen, so we can give God the joy of being truly thankful day in and day out.  As much as that music students’ parents loved hearing their daughter say thank you to them, God loves that, too.  We honor God when we take time to stop and say thank you for all the gifts God gives.

That’s one reason we teach our children to say grace, which we touched upon during the puppet show.  But we are to be constantly growing in our faith.  As Peter wrote, make every effort to add to your faith goodness, and to goodness, add knowledge, and to knowledge add self-control, and to self-control add perseverance…Peter was encouraging people in the early church to never stop growing and maturing.  Strengthening the Christian witness was a top priority at that time, as it should be now.  Working on our spiritual development, so we possess qualities like perseverance and godliness and love in increasing measure, this will keep us from being ineffective and unproductive.

The Methodist tradition upholds that there are many different ways to grow and develop in our faith.  John Wesley called them the “means of grace”—that is, ordinary ways God uses to help us grow.  Attending worship, reading the Bible, taking time for prayer, serving others, celebrating communion, giving of our finances—these are the ordinary means God uses to change us.  Sure, it is always wonderful when someone has a dramatic encounter with God and is changed instantly, like the leper in our gospel lesson.  But most of the time, people change gradually.  Most of the time, we learn and grow little by little.  But if we keep at it, this little by little can add up to a lot!

That’s why I’d like to talk today about the Gratitude Two-Step.  No, it’s not a new element of competition on Dancing With the Stars!  But it is a type of movement that is guaranteed to be uplifting.  I don’t think there’s any better sound than that of an unprompted “Thank you” coming from our kids.  Or from anybody, really!  But none of us expresses gratitude every time we could, or should.  We need some practice.  And the first step to saying thank you is NOTICING what we might be thankful for!  The second step is, of course, to then actually say thank you!  But first we have to notice what it is we have to be thankful for.  This is the theory behind saying grace—taking a minute to NOTICE that we have food to eat, and giving thanks to God for the food, the people who prepared it, and the people who we share it with.

This NOTICING what we have to be grateful for is also part of the reason we take time in worship every week to praise God.  Whether it’s through music, or reading scripture, or our liturgy, we come together every week to be reminded, to NOTICE, what God has, is and will do for us.  God companions us.  God comforts us.  God leads and guides us.  God forgives us.  God spurs us on.  God has a glorious future for us.  God longs to equip us to live in that glorious future even now!

Noticing goodness is at the heart of discipleship.  When we notice goodness, gratitude flows.  When we feel more gratitude, we express more gratitude.  That’s the Gratitude Two-Step.  It’s a powerful set of movements that over time change us.  Gratitude helps us be healthier, happier, and more resilient.

And the best part about all of this is, there is always something to be grateful for!  Back in 2017, my husband Phil and I went to a retirement workshop for United Methodist clergy, and there we learned about the Three Good Things practice.  I know I have mentioned it to you before, but it’s been such a helpful practice to us, I want to share it again.  All you need is a little notebook, or you an even use your phone, and every night before bed, write down three good things that happened that day, what your role was in bringing those good things about, and how you feel.  Phil and I have done this practice every night for six years, and there has never been a day when we couldn’t find three things to be thankful for!  Even during the pandemic.  Even during hard times at work.  There is always something to be thankful for!

Taking time to NOTICE the good things, and give thanks to God for them, helps us grow stronger and trust God more and more.  But what about the bad things?  Should we name them, too?

St. Ignatius of Loyola says yes.  St. Ignatius was a successful military general in the 1500’s, but he was unfulfilled. So he switched gears and became a priest, and he loved helping people grow spiritually.  He developed and taught a prayer technique called the Daily Examen that generations of people have been blessed by.

The Examen technique is similar to the Three Good Things practice: every night before bed, sit with your phone or journal for a few minutes and review your day.  Only with the Examen, instead of just asking what moments are you thankful for, you also think about what you’re NOT grateful for.  Also, with the Examen, the idea is to call to mind Jesus’ presence, so you are very intentionally reviewing your day in the company of your best friend.  With Jesus’ unconditional love surrounding you, review your day and ask yourself, “For what am I most grateful?”  and “For what am I least grateful?”

The moments we are most grateful for are called Consolations.  The moments we are least grateful for are called Desolations.   Naming our consolations and desolations is another way of telling the truth—and we know that the truth will set us free.  It helps us remember the good.  And it helps us face the bad.  As we sit with Jesus’ loving presence within and around us, we are strengthened as we notice and tell the truth about our lives.

But doing the Daily Examen over time doesn’t just give us strength for the day.  It can help guide our days so they are more fruitful and joy-filled.  Generally, God’s will is for us do more of whatever we are grateful for!  Makes sense, right?  Move toward your consolations, get more of that good stuff in your life, and you’ll have more happiness, hope, and peace.  By NOTICING what we’re thankful for—even if it feels fairly insignificant in the moment—we can start to see patterns that often point the way to how God wants to give us more life.

This is basically how Lima Church got started in Zoe Empowers.  You can’t help but notice that this congregation loves missions!  We noticed also that this congregation wants to connect with more children.  And we noticed that people are really grateful when they can do something that makes a lasting difference.  Sponsoring a Zoe Empowerment Group just “felt right” to us, so we did it!  But if we were to Monday morning quarterback this, we can look back and say, oh, we were really just moving toward those things that give us joy.  We were moving toward those things that we are thankful for.  We were moving toward our CONSOLATIONS!

NOTICING what we’re thankful for each day, and taking time to SAY thank you—that is the Gratitude Two Step!  Upping our gratitude game doesn’t just lead to better health.  It leads to better discipleship.  Noticing and taking time to say thank you are key steps in what we call discernment—which is a fancy spiritual word for being able to perceive God’s unseen hand at work in our lives.  God is always at work for good, guiding and leading us.  But there is mystery to God’s work and it’s not always easy to know God’s will for us.  The Daily Examen is a great tool for getting quiet, connecting with God’s presence, and seeing the truth in ourselves.  And it’s that truth that will set us free to live in hope and joy.

This week, I hope you will enjoy a happy Thanksgiving holiday, and bring something new to the table. Teach your family and friends the Gratitude Two-Step!  NOTICE what you are thankful for.  And then TELL someone!  Amen.