October 9, 2022
Indianola Presbyterian Church, Columbus
"Thanks"
Sermon by Rev. Trip Porch
October 9, 2022
AJ Jacobs is a New York times bestselling author, who has found a niche for himself by writing books where he runs experiments for himself for the purpose of self-improvement.
Like for instance, the year he decided to follow every single rule in the bible. Leading him to never shave his beard, or the month he calls the worst month of his life… where, following research on the benefits of being honest, he decided to take on a practice of radical honesty where you are supposed to say whatever is on your mind without any filter… the title of the article from that experiment was … “I think you’re fat”
But neither of these are what I want to talk about today.
After hearing about the mental health benefits of practicing gratitude, and how gratitude makes you happier overall. AJ Jacobs, who is an agnostic, decided to adopt a new family tradition of giving thanks before sharing a meal. So, every night as his family gathered around a table to eat, they gave thanks. But because he's agnostic, he didn't thank God, he decided to think about and give thanks for all the people who had a hand in that meal. He would say: "I'd like to thank the farmer who grew these tomatoes, and the trucker who drove these tomatoes to the store, and the cashier who rang these tomatoes up.”
This new tradition was going pretty well for him, until one day his ten year old son said: "You know, Dad, those people aren't in our apartment. They can't hear you. If you really cared, you would go and thank them in person." And he thought, "Hmm. That's an interesting idea." And his new experiment was born.
To make his task simpler, He decided to focus in on just one item, something he had daily, and was essential to him. His morning cup of coffee. His task would be to thank every single person who was involved in making his morning cup of coffee. He’d meet them in person… look them in the eye and say "thank you."
In the end, the quest took him months. It took him around the world. Because, as he would quickly discover the coffee he drinks would not be possible without hundreds of people, doing their work unnoticed, people that he had taken for granted.
He wound up thanking the person who brewed it, and the cashier he ordered it from. But of course he didn’t stop there… he would wind up flying to Columbia to thank the farmers who grew his coffee in person, and the workers who fermented and dried it.
Not only that, he would find the warehouse workers who stored the beans and thank them, and the coffee buyer who selected the beans for his favorite blend, and the roaster who roasted them, and the graphic designer who made the packaging, and the truckers who transported the beans, but they couldn't have done their job without the road they drove on. So he thanked the people who paved the road. And then he would thank the people who made the asphalt for the pavement.
Coffee, like so much else in a globalized world, requires the combined work of a shocking number of people from all walks of life and almost all of it is unseen. And in the end, all the people who had a hand in making AJ's morning cup of coffee, this long chain of gratitude, was over one thousand people long.
He says the experiment was transformative. When he took on a practice of gratitude, of choosing being grateful instead of negative, he felt like the way he engaged with his world changed. He says: “I would wake up every morning in my default mood, which is grumpiness, but I would force myself to write a thank-you note and then another and then another. What I found was that if you act as if you're grateful, you eventually become grateful for real. The power of our actions to change our mind is astounding. So often we think that thought changes behavior, but behavior very often changes our thoughts. And more than anything it's more about a mindset, being aware of the thousands of people involved in every little thing we do, remembering that there's someone in a factory who made the fabric for the chairs you're sitting in right now, that someone went into a mine and dug up the copper for this microphone to work. We are always connected to a much greater story.
Jacobs says that Gratitude opened his eyes to things he never noticed before. Like just how many people there are behind doing anything in a modern society, and just how many of those people do their work unnoticed and unthanked. Not only the anonymous truck drivers and coffee roasters further down the chain of gratitude. Even as early as the regular barista who prepared his morning cup of coffee at the coffee shop he frequents.
Her name is Chung, and according to AJ, Chung is one of the most upbeat people you will ever meet. Big smiler, enthusiastic hugger. But even for Chung, being a barista is hard. And that's because you are encountering people in a very dangerous state: Pre-caffeination. Chung has had people yell at her until she cried, including a nine-year-old girl, who didn't like the whipped cream design that Chung did on her hot chocolate.
AJ thanked Chung, and she thanked him for thanking her. Chung said that the hardest part of her job is when people don't even treat her like a human being. They treat her like a vending machine. So, they'll hand her their credit card without even looking up from their phone. While she's saying this, AJ realizes that he's been guilty of that. And at that moment, he pledged: when dealing with people, he'd take those two seconds and look at them and be present with them, make eye contact. Because it reminds you, you're dealing with a human being who has family and aspirations and embarrassing high school memories. And that little moment of connection is so important to both people's humanity and happiness.”
Being grateful almost immediately helped AJ recognize the humanity of his neighbor.
AJ also says that being grateful has helped him do more than that, it has also been a call to action for him.
He says: "Some people worry that gratitude has a downside. That somehow we'll be so grateful, that we'll become complacent. We'll be so, "Oh, everything's wonderful, I'm so grateful… That nothing will ever change"
It turns out, the opposite is true. The research shows that the more grateful you are, the more likely you are to help others. When you're in a bad state, you're often more focused on your own needs. But gratitude makes you want to pay it forward. AJ says he experienced this personally in his gratitude experiment. He says “I mean, I'm not Mother Teresa, I'm still a selfish jerk a huge amount of the time. But I'm better than I was before this project. And that's because it made me aware others and my privilege and the exploitation that exists down the chain. It reminded me that what I take for granted is not available to millions of people around the world.
AJ goes on…
"Like water for instance. Coffee it turns out is 98.8 percent water. So, I figured, continuing my experiment that I should go and thank the people at the New York reservoir, hundreds of them, who provide me water, and provide me this miracle that I can turn a lever in my house and get safe water on command.
I realized that millions of people around the world don't have this luxury and have to walk hours to get safe water to drink. My Gratitude journey inspired me to see what I could do to help people get more access, and I did research and found a nonprofit that helps people have access to safe drinking water and started getting involved with them.
I'm not expecting the Nobel Prize committee to knock down my door for this, but it's a baby step, it's a little something. It's all because of gratitude. It's why I encourage people, friends, family, to follow gratitude trails of their own even if it’s only a few steps. Because Gratitude can transform your life”
Ten people with skin diseases in a village on the border between Samaria and Galilee. Isolated from their community because they are contagious. Isolated from their faith, because they are declared unclean and unworthy. Jesus and his disciples come through town and they approach him, but because they have a communicable disease, and they know the routine and the rules they keep their distance. They shout out to him "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us"
Jesus tells them to do what they are not supposed to do, go and see the priests in the synagogue. They walk away with their heads hung low at first, but as they leave, their skin clears, their disease vanishes. Ten people go away fully healed, their burden lifted, their life forever changed. Only one turns around to look Jesus in the eye and say "thank you."
To the uninformed bystander this may seem like a small gesture. But to those of us who know the power of gratitude, it’s a sign that this person’s transformation and healing is more than skin deep.
May we know that journey of gratitude ourselves.
Thank… you.
Amen.
This sermon borrows most of its story from two sources: “A.J. Jacobs: The Gratitude Chain” TED Radio Hour: https://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/969146349/the-gratitude-chain-a-j-jacobs; and “My Journey to thank all the People Responsible for my Morning Coffee” TED talk by A.J. Jacobs ted.com/talks/a_j_jacobs_my_journey_to_thank_all_the_people_responsible_for_my_morning_coffee?language=en
We welcome all who worship here this morning!
WE GATHER IN AWE AND PRAISE
PRELUDE
INTROIT “Sing and Rejoice” Emma Lou Diemer
WELCOME Rev. Trip Porch
*CALL TO WORSHIP
One: Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth; sing the glory of God’s name.
All: How awesome are your deeds, O God! We sing praises to your name.
One: Come and see what God has done: turning the sea into dry land; bringing us
across the river Jordan.
All: How awesome are your deeds, O God! We sing praises to your name.
One: Even when God has tested us; even when we have gone through fire and water:
All: God has brought us out to a spacious place. Our God is an awesome God!
*HYMN No. 681 “This is the Day the Lord Hath Made” NUN DANKET ALL’UND BRINGET EHR’
*PRAYER OF CONFESSION Rebekah Gayley
Compassionate Christ, you send us to cure the sick, but we blame the sick for their choices. You ask us to restore the unclean, but we separate them into high-risk pools. You compel us to raise the dead, but we insist some are beyond help. In your patient and persistent mercy, forgive us, O Lord. Teach us to heal without condition and help without limitation. Enable us to love one another as you love us, that as recipients of unmerited grace, we may freely shower care upon all people. Silent prayers of confession are offered.
*ASSURANCE OF PARDON
*RESPONSE OF PRAISE # 695 “Change My Heart, O God” CHANGE MY HEART
*PASSING OF THE PEACE
One: The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all,
All: And also with you.
WE LISTEN FOR GOD’S WORD
ANTHEM “We Shall Walk Through the Valley in Peace” arr. William Appling
CHILDREN’S MESSAGE Annabelle Brown
PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION
SCRIPTURE: Luke 17:11–19 CEB
On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten men with skin diseases approached him. Keeping their distance from him, they raised their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, show us mercy!”
When Jesus saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” As they left, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw that he had been healed, returned and praised God with a loud voice. He fell on his face at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. He was a Samaritan. Jesus replied, “Weren’t ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? No one returned to praise God except this foreigner?” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up and go. Your faith has healed you.”
Holy Wisdom, Holy Word
Thanks be to God
SERMON Rev. Trip Porch
*HYMN NO. 795 “Healer of our Every Ill” HEALER OF OUR EVERY ILL
PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH
THE LORD’S PRAYER
TIME OF OFFERING “Beach Spring” arr. Kevin McChesney
On Sundays where African American Spirituals are sung, Any loose offering will go to support the Columbus Cultural Orchestra, whose mission is to advance a collective of multi-generational musicians of color by performing high-quality jazz, classical, and hip-hop music.
*OFFERTORY RESPONSE #596 “You Are Holy” DU ÄR HELIG
*PRAYER OF DEDICATION
Like the leper healed who returned to Jesus, we praise and glorify your name, O God. You have given us more than we could have imagined! For wholeness received, for the gift of belonging, we thank you. Make of us, as well as these gifts, offerings of good news to the poor, hope to the hopeless, and signs of your power to reconcile and redeem. We ask all things in the name of Christ. Amen.
*HYMN NO. 643 “Now Thank We All Our God” NUN DANKET ALLE GOTT
TIME OF COMMUNITY SHARING
CHARGE AND BENEDICTION
BENEDICTION RESPONSE “We Shall Walk Through the Valley in Peace”
POSTLUDE
Acknowledgments: Unless otherwise indicated, all texts and music are printed and broadcast under OneLicense.net license #A-702452
WORSHIP LEADERS
Pastor – Rev. Trip Porch
Liturgist – Rebekah Gayley
Children’s Message – Annabelle Brown
MUSIC LEADERS
Chancel Choir & Sanctuary Bells
Organist – Orlay Alonso
Director of Music – Christopher Dent
Assoc. Director of Music – Ariel Alvarado