Soul Force

From Gratitude to Entitlement

Rev. Paul Sprecher

Second Parish in Hingham, www.secondparish.org

November 23, 2008

This is a story from Korea about a Tiger and a Toad – oh, and a Man, too.

One day a tiger was trapped in a pit, and asked a passing traveler to rescue it, promising to reward him. So the traveler poked a long branch down into the pit, and the tiger crawled out. But when it was safe again it turned on the traveler and roared with its mouth wide open, "I am deeply grateful to you, sir, for helping me out of my trouble. Nevertheless, as I am very hungry, I must eat you up."

The traveler protested and chided the tiger. "You are most ungrateful," he said. "You must not do that." But the tiger ignored his protests, and so the traveler appealed to a toad which lived under a nearby rock.

The traveler told the toad of the tiger's ingratitude, but the tiger insisted that it was hungry and meant to eat the traveler.

"I must look into this more closely," said the toad. "Will you show me the place where it happened?" So they took it along to the pit. Then the toad asked the tiger, "How did it happen? Let me see just where you were."

So the tiger jumped down into the pit and said, "I was down here at the bottom, see."

But the traveler took the branch out of the pit and said, "Of course, this wasn't there then."

The toad turned to the traveler and said with a smile. "You had better go now, and in future don't help such ungrateful creatures." And looking down at the tiger in the pit it said, "You ungrateful wretch! You can stay down there now."

The traveler thanked the toad and went on his way. The tiger trapped in the pit roared in fury, but the toad went back to its home under the rock and refused to help it.[1]

I don’t know if you’ve ever been a tiger like that, but I would have to say that I have been. Of course, I’ve never considered eating someone who helped me out, but it’s not very hard to forget to be grateful. In fact, it sometimes seems that the more we have, the less grateful we are and the more entitled we feel. Like the lady who received the pies in our children’s story, it sometimes seems like the more we get, the more we expect. Our standard changes from “enough” to “more than:” more than we got last year for Christmas, more than the other person in our classroom, more than the other person at our job. The standard of “more than” as a way to live our lives is ultimately frustrating, because it is just impossible for everyone to have more than everyone else!

For some of us here and many of us in this country and around the world, this will be a harder season to give thanks. Jobs are being lost, homes are being lost, investments are being lost. People are worried about the future, and there’s good reason for worry. Expectations of endless prosperity have been undermined; no longer do we believe that the stock market has nowhere to go but up; that the value of our homes will always increase; that every Christmas we can have more and bigger presents than the last one. It would be easy to get caught up in a tide of feeling sorry for ourselves for what we’ve lost or might lose or might not get; a better way to live our lives is to give thanks for what we have and above all for what we can give to others.

The good news is that we have an opportunity to gather here and with our families and friends this Thursday to consider the splendors of each day, of each life, of each breath. At this time of year we often think back to the First Thanksgiving held in Plymouth in 1621, less than a year after the Pilgrims arrived there on the Mayflower. The more we study the history of that event, the more we find that our stereotypes of Pilgrims and Indians are ill-founded. When I was growing up, we were taught that the Pilgrims were piously grateful to God and decided to have a feast and invite a few of their Indian friends to share their bounteous harvest. As we explore more deeply, though, we discover that it was the Pilgrims who were outnumbered by the Natives, who supplied the bulk of the food in the form of newly-killed venison. The food was also mostly from Native sources.

The Pilgrims had suffered horrible losses during their first year since arriving in the New World in December of 1620; almost half of those who came over died that first winter and life in the Plymouth was very different than they had hoped or expected. Nevertheless, there was much to give thanks for, not the least that they had found natives like Squanto who were able to help them begin to make a living and remain at peace with the native occupants of the land. The Puritans wisely pursued a policy of peace with the Natives over many years and avoided battles and provocations for almost fifty years. It was during that time of peace between the Indians and the newcomers that Hingham was founded and received a formal deed of gift for the land. We give thanks for this place we are given to live; we give thanks for those who cared for the land for millennia before our ancestors arrived; we give thanks for those who have preserved it to this day.

Not only did the Indians share their food, they also shared their practice of giving thanks for the food with those first wayfarers to Plymouth. The Indians recognized their dependence on the earth, the sky and the sea for their sustenance and practiced giving thanks when they gathered. Here’s part of a prayer from the Hotinonsionne tradition:

I ask everyone to bring their minds together as one and to give thanks and acknowledgement to the Creator for Mother Earth that she continue to support all life forms.
As we look around the Creation, we see different things. We see the waters. We acknowledge their gift to us, from the smallest streams to the oceans.
We turn our minds to the plants, the creatures who walk or crawl on the Earth, who live in the water, who fly in the sky.
Now we turn our minds to the Creator. We give thanks to the Creator for providing all these different things that help and sustain our lives. We bring all our minds together as one and give thanks.
Now we return to the Earth, and we look at all the people who are gathered here and we give thanks that we have all come together with good thoughts and good minds, to share and learn from one another. We bring all our minds together as one and give thanks.[2]

If you ever find yourself feeling bad about what you don’t have instead of grateful for what you do have, one of the best remedies is to share. Kids, you’ve probably had the experience of not having someone to sit with at lunch or play with at recess – I know I have. The best way to avoid feeling ungrateful is to find someone to invite to sit with you or play with you. Grownups, when was the last time you thought to invite some folks over for a simple dinner and some time together – or to share lunchtime with someone in your office? Make sure to include someone who might be lonely or grateful for a good meal in company. Jesus was famous for inviting lots of folks over for dinner, and they were all lively because many of them didn’t expect to be invited. We have a cornucopia down front so that we remember that abundance is to be shared. We each have a guest at your table box as a reminder during this season that we have enough to share with others, and that in sharing we learn gratitude.

We’re going through some rough times out there in the world right now. I hope that we as a community can continue to be a beacon of hope to those in distress both in our congregation and outside. The food we share in the Interfaith Food Pantry is one important piece, the space we provide for Alcoholics Anonymous is another, but the companionship of gratitude we share and the hope we bring as a community is even more important.

For whatever we have, whether little or great, we give thanks. The Apostle Paul reminds us that [1 Timothy 6:7-8] “we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.” He also said [Phil. 4:11] “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” In difficult times, it’s useful to remember an ancient tale told of King Solomon which has been retold around the world in many different traditions. Here’s how Abraham Lincoln told it:

It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: "And this, too, shall pass away." How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction![3]

Don’t be like that ungrateful tiger! Give thanks always, especially at this season. Give thanks and share.

Amen.