When my daughter Molly was in college, she attended a campus ministry event that left a lasting impression upon her. There was a guest speaker at this event, a man who had grown up in Sierra Leone during that country’s civil war. This man’s story was a story of intense experiences of pain, suffering, terror, and instability yet he came to Molly’s college to share his deep faith in God and told his story through the theme of gratitude. Molly told me that during the question/answer period, someone in the audience raised his hand and said, “All the experiences you described are bone chilling, what do you have to be grateful for?” The man’s answer was simple and succinct, he replied with joy and enthusiasm,
Life!
This same expression of gratitude for life was discovered by M. Craig Barnes when in one month’s time, he conversed with two experienced pastors who were dying. Barnes writes,
As I listened to these two pastors, the most striking thing to me wasn’t their fearlessness at dying. Nor was I in awe primarily of their amazingly sturdy faith, which was why they had so little fear. The thing I keep thinking about is what both of them kept talking about at the end of their lives: gratitude.
Gratitude at the End
M. Craig Barnes
This gratitude was for their families, the love they received, and all the experiences they were invited to share with the parishioners they served. Some of these experiences were joyful, some ordinary, and some painful or even tragic.
What the experience of the man from Sierra Leone has in common with the experiences of these two pastors at the end of their lives is that their gratitude is whole. It is not gratitude that is divided and apportioned according to the quality or tone of the experience, a lot of gratitude for the good, less for the bad, and so forth. It is gratitude for all of life, the good and the painful parts. It is one movement accepting all of life as gift and allowing that acceptance to anchor their hearts in a profound faith expressed in praise and adoration of God, the creator and giver of the gift.
The story that closes chapter seven of Luke’s gospel depicts two people responding to Jesus in two different ways. The Pharisee, Simon, invites Jesus to dine with him in his home. He respectfully offers Jesus hospitality in the form of food and a place at the table with him, but his offer of hospitality is outdone by an uninvited sinful woman. Her actions of washing Jesus’s feet with her tears, wiping his feet dry with her loosened hair, kissing and anointing his feet with perfumed oil is praised by Jesus who points out the surpassing hospitality of her actions to Simon. It is interesting that Jesus interprets her actions as hospitality. Jesus is not in her home, but in Simon’s. She was uninvited and her actions are not traditional forms of hospitality. Water and a towel are customary for washing and drying feet, and anointing feet with oil is quite unusual. Why then, does Jesus interpret her actions as hospitality?
I think the answer to that question is that Jesus sees in her actions a grateful open heart and her grateful, open heart is the home of her hospitality. In humility, she knows that she is a sinner in need of God’s mercy, and she allows that knowledge to connect her more deeply to the mystery of God. While her actions of hospitality may seem unusual to those who watch from the outside, Jesus recognizes her welcome in these actions. Furthermore, her grateful actions of hospitality lead to a deepening relationship between Jesus and the woman. She welcomes him and in welcoming him, receives God’s gift of forgiveness and the removal of the oppression sin has brought into her life. Jesus recognizes how she welcomes him, praises her actions to Simon and tells her that her sins are forgiven, and her faith has saved her (7:48-50). Her grateful love for Jesus, moves her to deepen her relationship with Jesus, and their deepened relationship leads to her wholeness. Jesus declares her saved, whole, healed, and at peace.
Gratitude recognizes that the life that has been given is not earned but is sheer, spontaneous gift. When life is received as gift, all of life, everything that happens becomes a home of gratitude that welcomes the stranger. The stranger includes the mystery of God, the mystery of our neighbor, and the mystery of our own selves. When we fully receive the gift of God’s mercy, our grateful hearts become homes with open doors welcoming all who come our way, greeting them with mercy and wonder at the mystery of life.
