Message to Children of All Ages
I brought something with me today for “show and tell.”
Has anyone ever done “show and tell” in school or somewhere else?
I think it might be an old-fashioned thing, so if you’ve never done it, let me explain how it works. A person brings something to show other people that is meaningful to them, and then they tell people why it’s meaningful.
So, today I have brought with me a bucket.
I’m going to read a list of things that people have used buckets for, and I’d like you to raise your hand if you’ve ever used a bucket in this way:
1. To put water in so you can clean something, like a car or a floor.
2. To use at the beach to make sand castles
3. To put cookies in to give to your pastor--i mean, to someone for a present
4. To use when you’re sick--i won’t go into details on that one--and you don’t have to raise your hand
5. To use to pack cleaning supplies to send to people in need
6. To use as a planter for flowers
7. To put Gatorade in to pour over someone’s head
8. To pull water up out of a well.
That last use is what i want to talk about today. For thousands of years--before we had indoor plumbing and people used town water--people used to get their water from a town well or a well in their own yard. The way it worked is that people would dig a hole deep into the ground until they found water, and then, to get the water out, they would use a bucket attached to a rope and someone would drop a bucket down the hole and let it fill up with water, and then, using the rope, lift the bucket full of water up out of the hole.
When the bucket full of water was lifted up out of the hole, people would be happy, because they had water to drink and cook with and clean with.
In the Hebrew language, the language in which the Hebrew Scriptures--the part of the Bible that we call the Old Testament--is written, there is a special word for lifting a bucket of water up from a well--and that word is pronounced “ruum.”**
It is a word that is used twice in verse 1 of our scripture reading today. Verse one reads: “I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up…” In other words, “I will “ruum” you Lord, for you have “ruumed” me..”--“I will lift you up, Lord, for you have lifted me up…”
Like a bucket drawn up from a well, God lifts us up when we are feeling down. God gives us life and hope and strength.
So we lift up our voices to give thanks to God in return for what God has done. And that act of Thanks lifts our spirits even more.
So next time you lift up a bucket to use for anything. Think of the ways that God lifts you up, and give thanks. And speaking of giving thanks, as Steve has explained for the deacons, be thinking of something you are thankful for, and you will have an opportunity to write that one thing down after the sermon. On the sticker in the bulletin--or in comments on line, and we will collect them to put in the church Gratitude Book.
**New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, Vol. IV, p. 796
Scripture Readings:
Psalm 30
Thanksgiving for Recovery from Grave Illness
A Psalm. A Song at the dedication of the temple. Of David.
1 I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up,
and did not let my foes rejoice over me.
2 O Lord my God, I cried to you for help,
and you have healed me.
3 O Lord, you brought up my soul from Sheol,
restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit.
4 Sing praises to the Lord, O you his faithful ones,
and give thanks to his holy name.
5 For his anger is but for a moment;
his favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may linger for the night,
but joy comes with the morning.
6 As for me, I said in my prosperity,
“I shall never be moved.”
7 By your favor, O Lord,
you had established me as a strong mountain;
you hid your face;
I was dismayed.
8 To you, O Lord, I cried,
and to the Lord I made supplication:
9 “What profit is there in my death,
if I go down to the Pit?
Will the dust praise you?
Will it tell of your faithfulness?
10 Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me!
O Lord, be my helper!”
11 You have turned my mourning into dancing;
you have taken off my sackcloth
and clothed me with joy,
12 so that my soul may praise you and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever.
Matthew 6:21
21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Sermon: “The Power of Gratitude”
In the message to Children of all ages, I used the image of a bucket to explain how God lifts us up--or “draws us up” like a bucket from a well--and gives us life and hope and strength.
Today’s reading, Psalm 30, uses that image in the first verse. We extol God--we lift our praise to God--because God has first lifted us up; like water in a bucket, God pulls us up from the bottom of a well, and our response to that lifting is to lift our voices in praise.
This Psalm is a very old Psalm. It is categorized as an individual Psalm of Praise or Thanksgiving, and tradition has it that it was written by King David, who ruled Israel around 3000 years ago. But, back when our Scriptures were written, it was common practice to write under the name of someone famous if you were writing something that fit with their school of thought, so all that to say it’s impossible to know for certain whether or not David actually wrote this. However, what we can know is that it was written by a person of faith, someone who had an experience similar to David’s. It was written by someone who knew what it was like to be prosperous and successful, happy and healthy, and then have everything come crashing down around them, dragging them down into the pit of despair. It was written by someone who knew what it was like to have enemies and to be sick to the point of almost dying.
This Psalm describes the writer’s experience of crying out to God in the midst of their despair--and then the experience of having their cries heard and their prayers answered: the person was healed and restored to life. But rather than just cracking open a bottle of champaign, throwing a party, and getting on with life--the person not only remembers to say “thank you” to God--but also writes down his “thank you” as lyrics to a hymn of praise, which is why we have it today in the book of psalms
In fact, this Psalm is being read in churches all over the world today as they celebrate the Easter Season--and it is read in synagogues throughout the world in December when they celebrate Hanukkah.
This Psalm was preserved and became part of our cherished Scriptures because it celebrates something very important: that God is always present with us, even in difficult times of sickness or struggle. And God’s presence with us lifts us up--like water from a well--when we open ourselves to God’s presence.
And that’s where gratitude comes in. Gratitude--the theme of today’s worship service--is a primary means by which we can open ourselves to God’s presence and power.
Being grateful for the good things in our lives--even in the midst of pain--makes it possible for God to lift our spirits and fill us withw strength to live through whatever we are facing. Or in the words of Psalm 30, verse 11, to “turn” our “mourning into dancing” and “clothe” us “with joy.”
Not surprisingly, medical science backs up this spiritual truth. Walt Larrimore, M.D., author of the book 10 Essentials of Highly Healthy People* writes about the power of gratitude and its positive effects on our physical and emotional health. He looks at research done by behavioral psychologists who have concluded that the act of being grateful and giving thanks can actually change our attitude from negative to positive and ease our emotional burdens and stress. He writes about QUOTE
“a growing understanding among professionals and laypeople that it's not life events that make a person happy or unhappy; it's how a person copes with those events that makes the difference.”
“Or, as [his] granddad used to say, 'Walt, if you're not content with what you have, you'll never be content with what you want!'”
It’s gratitude for what we have that lifts us up and determines our well-being!
Dr. Walt Larrimore points out that gratitude isn’t just a feeling that comes over us from time to time when good things happen; gratitude is a practice, a discipline, a response that we need to cultivate. And one way we can do that is through keeping a gratitude journal.
In his book, Dr. Larrimore invites his readers to conduct an experiment on themselves by keeping a gratitude journal, something he referred to as taking an “emotional aspirin.” His simple instructions are this: take 5 minutes every night before you go to bed to list 5 things you are grateful for and then to give thanks to God for those things. At the end of the week, see how you feel.
The deacons thought it would be good to do a version of this, as a church, as we move out of the pandemic and into the future. They are inviting all of us to take part in a church “gratitude book.” We are starting it today--and in future, you are invited to contribute to it often as you wish.
Take a moment now and write down one thing you are thankful for--church, family, friends, healing, restoration--just to name some possibilities. Write them on the sticker in the bulletin--or, if you are worshipping with us on line, write them in the comment section, and someone will copy them down later in the week--and all of the gratitudes will be collected and put in our book.
Going forward, you are invited to contribute any time, and some entries to the book will be read out loud on communion Sundays, so we can share in each other’s gratitude, inspire each other, give thanks to God as One Body, and allow God to lift us up not only as individuals but also collectively as a church.
So, take a moment now, while Julie plays some music, and then, when the basket is passed, those of you who are here can put your entry into the basket. And those who are on-line can type in something you are grateful for into the comments. Thanks be to God!
*Quotes from and summaries of Walt Larrimore’s teaching are taken from his book 10 Essentials of Highly Healthy People, pages 125-128.
Rev. Dr. Marlayna Schmidt
Franklin Federated Church
Franklin, MA