Atlantic District Publications

Letters from the President - How Can I Say Thanks?

October 30, 2008 at 10:39 AM

The altitude of your attitude is equal to the latitude of your gratitude.  Somebody famous came up with that equation – I just can’t remember who it was!  But it’s true, isn’t it? 

 

Listen to these words from Paul’s first letter to the fledgling Christians in Thessalonica.  First Thessalonians is the initial written document in the New Testament dating back to around 55 A.D.  “We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers.”  Now his first words to the Philippians:  “I thank my God every time I remember you.”  Now his first words to the Christians in Corinth:  “I always thank God for you because of His grace given you in Christ Jesus.”  Now his first words to the Christians in Rome:  “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you.”  Now his first words to the Christians in Colossae:  “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you.” 

 

Paul is incredibly grateful to God for his friends in Christ, the family of God who is bound to him through the blood of the Lamb forever.  And it shows.  And it’s the first thing out of his mouth.  Always.  OK, always except for the Galatians!  There he ENDS with “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers.”

 

Through all the course of your life, are you grateful to God for your Christian family?  Is there a wideness in your gratitude for others that parallels the wideness of God’s grace, a breadth that intersects with the depth of the riches of his mercy, that points to the height of his love in Christ from which you can never be separated?

 

Think now of your pastor and his leadership in your church.  Pastors, think of the flock you serve.  Grateful hearts will produce an attitude of durable joy.  Which the world will see, and walk toward.  Just as it’s always been in the Christian Church.

 

We receive the bounty of God’s Thanksgiving, His Eucharist, His Meal as One Body at the altar.  In the Gift of Christ, God demonstrates to us that we are His cherished people, for whom He has sacrificed His one and only Son. 

 

When you approach the altar in the holiday season, your family and all the bounty God has provided for you on your mind, remember to give thanks always for the family of God around you there.  And know this.  I give my God thanks in prayer every time I think of you.  You are each and all, pastors and parishioners, congregations and schools, my pride and joy in Christ.