We close the church’s program year with a day to recognize and thank the many volunteers who contributed throughout the year.  And we ritually celebrate our community with the Unitarian Universalist ritual of flower communion.  Please bring a flower to church today that represents your unique spirit and help us create a beautiful, communal bouquet.

Although we are nearly, today, at the end of a year of sermons exploring the basic issues of spirituality, the theme for today:  gratitude, is really the beginning of spirituality

Spirituality begins when we admit that the universe is about something bigger than just my own ego and then say “thank you” to whatever it is that allows us to participate in it.  And then, when we can also say, that though my place in creation is small, my small place is still a crucial part of a single interdependent web that depends to some degree on my contribution and care the same way that I depend on everything else, then your spiritual journey really starts to take off.

It starts with gratitude.  It starts with getting outside of your ego enough to acknowledge that there is an important “other” in the universe.  And once we see that we are not everything, but we are just one piece of a something so much greater than us, but which also includes us, then every other spiritual concept unfolds.

And, sadly, when we forget that basic truth, the spiritual truth that tells us that the universe is about something bigger than just my own ego, when we forget the proper relationship between small ego and vast expanse of important “other” that’s when spiritual trouble begins.

When we think that the universe is primarily about us, then we start to act selfishly.  Then we’re willing to ruin the earth for our own comfort.  Then we’re willing to trample on the rights of other people.  Then starting a war becomes an acceptable means to achieve our goals.  Then it doesn’t matter if other people don’t have food and clothing so long as I have my mansion and private plane.  Then it’s OK to close the borders once my ancestors have immigrated but before the next people can.  Then it becomes easy to believe the lie that I don’t ever need anybody else to help me so I don’t have a responsibility to ever help anybody else either.

Or, when we think the universe is primarily about us, then we start to think that my little troubles are worth more than the stars and the moon and the sun and the rain, which is the same spiritual mistake from the depressive side instead of the grandiose.  Our self-obsession deceives us into start taking life for granted.  Then we forget the simple miracles of having food on the table, and clean water from a tap.  When I’m the only person who counts in the world, then my bad day matters more than art and music, and friendship, and the discoveries of science, and all the books in the library.  

The solution is gratitude.  The antidote to ego-driven living is to notice that other people and things exist in the world who are equally as important as you.  The antidote to self-pity is to stop looking inside and start looking out.  Other people and things are constantly supplying you with stuff you need but can’t get on your own.  Free stuff like sunshine, and sunsets, and mountain views and fruit that grows on trees, and beautiful smells, and sounds, and cute kids, and all the stuff that previous generations created before you got here, and then left behind for your enjoyment.  You should be grateful.

A sense of gratitude puts my relationship with the divine center of the universe in proper order and leads to my spiritual health.  A sense of gratitude encourages me to give to others what has been so generously gifted to me.

If you’re slipping into depression.  If you’re starting to feel mean.  If you feel yourself sinking down into that black hole of negativity we all slip into from time to time, the way to get out is to start feeling grateful.  Find something to feel grateful for.  Remember you’re surrounded by a universe full of amazing things that you didn’t earn and cannot buy.  Name one free gift of the universe you feel grateful for and you’ll instantly feel better.  Then name another.  Then name another.

Soon, you’ll have to name every existing thing in the universe as something to be deeply, ecstatically, grateful for.

There is no payment you could ever give that would ever balance the books on what you’ve already been freely, generously, given.  All you can do is say thank you.

So say thank you.