Homilies
Rejoice in the Lord Always
Holy Spirit take my words and speak to each of us according to our needs.
There’s something deeply moving about the way today’s Psalm (84) begins:
“How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord.”
It’s a psalm full of yearning, not just for a physical place, but for the very presence of God. It’s a reminder that gratitude often begins with longing; with a heart that recognises both its need and its blessings.
Sometimes, when life is hard, which it often is, gratitude doesn’t come easily. When we’re struggling with illness, loss, uncertainty, instability, change or disappointment, it can feel almost impossible to be thankful. And yet, in those very moments, gratitude can be one of the most powerful gifts God gives us.
The writer of the psalm speaks of passing through “the valley of Baca,” the valley of tears. But even there, they make it “a place of springs.” In other words, through faith and trust, sorrow can be transformed into something life-giving. Gratitude doesn’t erase hardship, but it changes how we look at it and sit with it. For me, I think that the words gratitude and faith are synonymous. In having faith, we have trust and in relying on that trust we show gratitude.
This year on the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorism attack, I came across this piece of writing which illustrates more eloquently the point I am trying to make. Its called…..
… NOTHING HAPPENS BY CHANCE
After the September 11 attacks, a company that had its offices in the World Trade Centre invited its executives and employees who for some reason had survived the attack, to share their experiences.
People were alive for the smallest reasons and they were small details like these:
A company director was late because it was his son's first day of kindergarten;
A woman was late because her alarm clock didn't go off on time;
One was late because he was stuck on the road where there was an accident;
Another survivor missed the bus;
Someone had thrown food on himself and needed time to change;
One had a problem with his car that wouldn't start;
Another came back to answer the phone;
Another had a baby!
Another didn't take a taxi.
But the story that struck me the most was that of a man who put on a new pair of shoes that morning, and before he went to work he got a blister. He stopped at the pharmacy for a band-aid and that is why he is alive today.
Now please, don’t misunderstand what I am trying to convey. It is not a fatalistic approach to life that I am talking about. The terror attacks were horrendous and can never be condoned for any reason. But in looking at those small details of that day, the events that at the time were inconveniences to the people who were then late for work, it becomes easier to see, in light of the events that unfolded that day, why they could now find reasons to be thankful for being held up or having their usual routine disrupted…..small events that seem irritating or inconsequential can have the biggest impact on our lives. And so it is the same with our faith.
And here in the beautiful Welsh valleys (yes, I am still finding the scenery breath-taking), it is easy to understand that imagery of the valley. We are surrounded by hills and mountains that draw our eyes upward. That brings to mind another psalm: “I lift my eyes to the hills — from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121)
When we lift our eyes to the hills, we lift ourselves out of the valley. Not by escaping it, but by changing our perspective. Gratitude helps us do just that. It gives us a new horizon, a different viewpoint from which to see our situation.
When we are in the midst of things, it can be so hard to gain perspective. Everything can feel heavy and close and overwhelming. But as the saying goes, “When you think you have been buried, you may in fact have been planted.”
And in time, perhaps with faith, hope, trust and a thankful heart, we may discover that God has been preparing us to flourish from that very place in which we found ourselves.
St. Paul, in his letter to Timothy, writes as someone near the end of his journey: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” There’s a beautiful humility in those words. Paul isn’t boasting. He’s grateful. Grateful that through everything, all through his trials, abandonment and imprisonment, God stood by him and strengthened him.
He doesn’t speak of an easy life. He speaks of a faithful God. And there’s the lesson for us: that faith and gratitude aren’t reserved for the moments when everything is going right, but for the moments when everything feels uncertain. Sometimes God’s blessings don’t look the way we expect. Sometimes we pray for rescue and instead receive endurance. We pray for success and instead are taught humility. We pray for clarity and instead receive trust.
There is an anecdote in a book called Ruthless Trust, by Brennon Manning that says a famous ethicist, John Kavanaugh went to Calcutta, he was seeking Mother Teresa … and more. He went for three months to work at “the house of the dying” to find out how best he could spend the rest of his life.
When he met Mother Teresa, he asked her to pray for him. “What do you want me to pray for?” she replied. He then uttered the request he had carried with him for thousands of miles: “Clarity. Pray that I have clarity.”
“No,” Mother Teresa answered, “I will not do that.” When he asked her why, she said, “Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of.” When Kavanaugh replied that she always seemed to have clarity, the very kind of clarity he was looking for, Mother Teresa laughed and said: “I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust. So I will pray that you trust God.”
You see these are the gifts that shape us most deeply. Sometimes we get not what we want, but what we need. And in time, we discover that it was better for us than we could ever have planned.
In the Gospel today, Jesus tells the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee prays proudly, listing all his good deeds, while the tax collector simply bows his head and says, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” And Jesus says, “This man went down to his home justified rather than the other.”
True gratitude is born out of humility, of knowing who we are before God, and of recognising His mercy as a pure gift. Gratitude isn’t about comparing ourselves to others, or pretending that everything is fine. It’s about recognising that everything we have, even life itself, is ours by the grace of God; His gift..
Today, when so much of life feels uncertain, when the news is full of anxiety, when finances are tight, when illness and loneliness touch so many, gratitude can seem like a small thing. So small in fact that it may seem impossible or even pointless. But to have it, is to have faith.
And perhaps it is precisely what our world needs most. To pause. To notice. To give thanks. To say, “Lord, even in this moment, You are good. Even here, You are with me.” That kind of gratitude doesn’t deny pain or hardship. It simply refuses to let them have the last word.
A Christian musician, Jason Gray was once reported as saying “I used to think the opposite of faith was disbelief, but I’ve come to understand the opposite of faith is something all together different. The opposite of faith is certainty.” Faith isn’t necessary when certainty, or as we said earlier, clarity is present. It’s only in uncertainty that faith can manifest and grow. As I said, last week, the disciples left behind everything to follow Jesus, without knowing their destination at all.
So, as we continue our journey together through whatever valleys or mountaintops lie ahead may we learn to walk with hearts of gratitude.
May we keep the faith, as Paul did.
May we come humbly before God, as the tax collector did.
May we lift our eyes to the hills, and find a new perspective in the presence of the Lord.
And may we find, like the psalmist, that even in the valley of tears, there are springs of blessing waiting to be found. And sometimes, the best blessings come from not knowing the destination but having faith that there is a destination.
For gratitude doesn’t change God; it changes us.
It opens our eyes to see that even when life doesn’t go the way we wanted or expected it to, God’s grace is still at work, quietly shaping us to fulfil His purpose for us.
And in that, we can always give thanks. Amen.