Sermon - The Rev. Leah D. Schade

Thanksgiving Eve, 2007

Several weeks ago I watched a movie called, What the Bleep Do We Know. It is part documentary, part story, and part elaborate and inspiring visual effects and animations. The protagonist, Amanda, played by Marlee Matlin, finds herself in a fantastic Alice in Wonderland experience when her daily, uninspired life literally begins to unravel, revealing the uncertain world of the quantum field hidden behind what we consider to be our normal, waking reality. In the course of her trip down the rabbit hole, so to speak, the distinction between science and religion becomes increasingly blurred, and we come to realize that, in essence, both science and religion describe the same phenomena.

At one point in the film Amanda encounters the work of a Japanese scientist named Masaru Emoto, who captured ice water crystals on film. He began doing experiments on the water to see how different stimuli affected the crystals, including music, images, and words. I have here pictures of some of his crystals. Aren’t they beautiful?  Dr. Emoto claims that even thoughts can affect the crystallization of water. The crystals were different depending on the words spoken or shown. Notice the difference between the thoughts that say, “Thank you” and “You fool”.

Now these experiments aren’t exactly scientific - they’ve not been reproduced or done in a double-blind study. But they are intriguing nevertheless. Because our bodies are 70% water. If this is what thoughts can do to pure water, what might our thoughts do to us? That’s one of the central questions of the movie. And I’ve been pondering that question myself recently.

As I look at this crystal with the Japanese word for “Thank you”, and see the beauty which it forms, and then I look at the sort of shattered effect of the words, “You fool”, it makes me wonder what my internal words do to my own body and mind.  And I begin to think differently about what I might be thankful for on this Thanksgiving Eve. Of course, it’s easy to be grateful for the bounty that is described in our reading from Job and in Psalm 100. When things go well, giving thanks comes naturally. But what about when things are not going so well?

St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians says to give thanks to God at all times and for all things in the name of Jesus Christ. Nice idea. Difficult to live out. How can I be a more grateful person? How can I begin to reshape my thinking about circumstances in my life and in my world so that they begin to reflect a different “crystallization”, if you will?

So I began looking for examples of unusual reasons to give thanks.  And I came across a piece written by a Native American looking at this holiday from their perspective.  You see, for Native Americans, this is a bittersweet holiday.  Jacqueline Keeler writes:  “When the Pilgrims came to Plymouth Rock, they were poor and hungry – half of them died within a few months from disease and hunger.  When Squanto, a Wampanoag man, found them, they were in a pitiful state.  He spoke English, having traveled to Europe, and took pity on them.  Their English crops had failed.  The native people fed them through the winter and taught them how to grow their food.  These were not merely ‘friendly Indians.’  They had already experienced European slave traders raiding their villages for a hundred years or so, and they were wary – but it was their way to give freely to those who had nothing.  Among many of our peoples, showing that you can give without holding back is the way to earn respect . . . It was believed that by giving there would be enough for all – the exact opposite of the system we live in now, which is based on selling, not giving . . . At ‘the first Thanksgiving’, the Wampanoags provided most of the food – and signed a treaty granting the right to the land at Plymouth, the real reason for the first Thanksgiving.  What did the Europeans give in return?  Within twenty years European disease and treachery had decimated the Wampanoags.” (Keeler, pp. 48-49).

And in the 350 years since then, we’ve seen Native American tribes subjected to genocide, environmental devastation, poverty, racism, and the loss and desecration of their land.  But, says the writer, she still chooses to celebrate the holiday of Thanksgiving.  Why?  “Because if we can survive, with our ability to share and to give intact, then the evil and the good will that met that Thanksgiving day in the land of the Wampanoag will have come full circle.  And the healing can begin.”  (Keeler, pp. 48-49).

What a fascinating idea, I thought, when I read this.  Choosing to be thankful, even when it appears that there is nothing to be thankful for.  And how this type of thanksgiving can bring about healing.  Even when you are being subjected to life situations and people’s actions that do not deserve your gratitude.  Even when being thankful is the exact opposite of how you feel.

That, I think, is the real crux of the matter.  Thanksgiving is not just supposed to be a feeling.  It’s about our actions.  If you act as though you have something to give thanks about, you may, in fact, be helping to create something that evokes the feeling of thankfulness.  Now what do I mean by that?  Well, let’s start with something simple.

Let’s say you’re in a restaurant having a meal, and your waitress is just in a foul mood.  No smile when she shoves the menu into your hand.  She slams the glasses of water on the table.  She taps her pencil impatiently when you can’t make up your mind about what you want.  She’s downright rude when you ask for a bottle of ketchup.  After the food is delivered, she doesn’t check back to see if there’s anything else you need.  And, worst of all, she doesn’t keep your coffee cup filled. 

Now – would you leave her a tip? 

Of course not.  Tipping is a way that we say thanks to our server for a job well done.  The better they take care of us, the more change we leave them.  If they’re like this waitress, you don’t leave anything.  Or you leave a nickel – as a sign of your disgust with her behavior.  Then she gets the nickel, curses you under her breath as you leave, and is in an even fouler mood for the next patrons of the restaurant.  Right?

Now, let’s just take a radically thankful approach to the situation.  What if, instead of leaving her a paltry sum, what if . . . you left her a $20 tip?  I see your eyes get wide.  You can’t even imagine doing that, can you?  Well, let me tell you, I saw it done once when I was in college working at Friendly’s.  I was on the breakfast shift with a woman who was like a word that rhymes with witch.  We all steered cleared of her, and woe to the patrons who got her that morning.

But then about halfway through the breakfast rush, she came back to the kitchen holding a $20 bill between her fingers, her eyes glazed in disbelief.  “That couple just left me a $20 tip!” she said.  The cook and I looked at each other sideways, and then looked at her with smiles plastered on our faces.  She smiled back.  And she walked back out to the dining room with that smile still on her face.  Her mood completely turned around.  The rest of the shift went smoothly, and her tips were great all morning.  In fact, all of our tips were good.  And we had one of the nicest morning shifts I ever worked.  All because someone decided to demonstrate their thankfulness in a totally radical way.  They didn’t have a good reason to be thankful.  But by leaving that $20 tip, they created an reaction of thanksgiving that rippled from that waitress through the whole restaurant.

And it got me thinking again about these water crystals.  That couple said thank you to that waitress when she didn’t deserve it, when she should have gotten just the opposite.  But it created a change in her that affected the whole restaurant after that.  Who knew $20 could have that kind of effect?

I think I need to challenge myself to find more creative ways to show my thankfulness.  In fact, I think my prayer this Thanksgiving is going to be for God to create in me a crystallization that reflects this kind of radical thankfulness.  Care to join me?  Who knows what kind of ripple of gratitude we may create in our own little corner of the world.  Yeah.  Bring on the witchy waitress.  Amen.

Source:  Keeler, Jacqueline, “Thanksgiving:  From a Native Point of View”, Parabola Magazine: Tradition, Myth and the Search for Meaning; Winter 2007