OUR SACRIFICE OF PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING

Dear Friends in Christ,

I have been thinking a great deal recently about the many things for which I am thankful. Probably what started me thinking about this was the fact that neither the Rectory nor the Church lost power or heat during the October snowstorm. The two wedding rehearsals of October 13 and the two weddings the following day took place with no serious problems, although one of the rehearsal dinners and one of the receptions had to be moved to new locations at the last minute.

As I watched the news coverage of the storm, as I drove through other parts of western New York, and as I spoke with parishioners who had lost power, I was thankful that Jan and I didn’t lose power or heat. I was also aware that there was nothing that we did to deserve the blessing of electricity and heat. It, like so many other blessings, came to us as a gift.

There are, of course, things in life that we work for, things that we earn. But even those things that we earn we earn by using the talents and the privileges that have come to us as gifts.  Whatever intelligence I have I inherited from my parents. Certainly I have worked to develop that gift, and others, but I did nothing to earn any of these gifts in the first place. 

Even being an Episcopalian is a gift. I am an Episcopalian, not because I went “church shopping” one day and decided to join the Episcopal Church, but largely because my mother and her parents brought me to Church when I was so young that I cannot recall a time in my childhood when I wasn’t an active member of an Episcopal parish. Becoming part of this parish in 2001 was certainly a gift and during these past five years I have had a growing awareness of the way in which our life together here has been one of the ways that God is working to move me inch by inch towards the goal of “maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:13)

I believe that the awareness of life as a gift is an important part of Christian maturity. Rather than taking all these gifts for granted, we are to receive them with thanksgiving.  During this month in which celebrate All Saints Sunday and Thanksgiving Day, I hope that each of us will find time during the busy-ness of our lives to think about the blessings that we have received and to offer to God, the giver of all good gifts, our sacrifice or praise and thanksgiving.

Your brother and priest,

Daniel