OCTOBER SERIES: THANKS-LIVING — A FAITH-FILLED FOUNDATION
Throughout October, we are exploring Thanks-living — the practice of living gratefully each day. Together, we’ll reflect on gratitude as God’s provision, a source of strength in difficult times, an action we embody, a sacred trust we hold, and a pathway toward God’s Kin-dom of peace.
Interestingly, modern research across psychology, neuroscience, and health sciences is now confirming what people of faith have known for centuries — that a grateful heart transforms how we experience life. Each week this month, you’ll find a posting on a specific gratitude practice, along with some fascinating research insights that connect faith and science. We hope you will enjoy this interesting research.
Research in the area of brain-science shows gratitude isn’t just nice. In fact, it is transformative: it correlates with moral and social brain networks, changes with practice, and links to cognitive health. Science is increasingly supporting that the more we live in gratitude, the more our brain becomes wired for trust, generosity, and well-being.
This 2022 study demonstrated how older adults with higher gratitude scores were also associated with better cognitive function. Association between gratitude, the brain and cognitive function in older adults: Results from the NEIGE study - PubMed
This 2015 study This suggests gratitude is more than a feeling. In fact, it taps brain regions involved in moral cognition. In this study participants imagined real-life scenarios (from Holocaust survivor testimonies) in which they received lifesaving gifts. Neural correlates of gratitude - PubMed
May our Thanks-living help us remember that gratitude is not just a feeling—it’s a healthy way of seeing and being in the world.
SERMON
A tightrope walker set up over Niagara Falls and asked the crowd, “Who believes I can push this all the wheelbarrow across the falls?” Everyone cheers and raised their hand, “We believe you can!” “Wonderful!” he says. “Now… who will get in the wheelbarrow as I push it to the other side?” (Pause) The crowd suddenly got a lot quieter, hands were lowered, and trust suddenly got a lot more real?
This morning’s topic is trust. Have you ever noticed how difficult it can be to trust? We might say we trust God, but then we worry. We worry about the bills, the diagnosis, the uncertainty of tomorrow. Trust is a difficult thing in life. Trust is easy in theory, but a different thing in practice. And yet, the life of faith calls us not just to be thankful for God’s blessings, but to trust that God will continue to provide, even when the path ahead is uncertain.
That’s what I want to explore with this morning’s topic: “Thanks-Living as Sacred Trust.” It’s gratitude not as a momentary feeling, but as a way of life. It is rooted in the deep conviction that God is trustworthy….that God is good and will provide. It is a call to live gratefully as though everything we have: every breath, every meal, every opportunity…is a sacred gift. This is Thanks-living as Sacred Trust that we explore.
In our first reading, Israel is newly freed from Egypt. We are only 16 chapters into the Exodus narrative and they’ve seen miracle upon miracle! They have witnessed miracles in Egypt that allowed for their freedom. They saw the parting of the Red Sea and walked through on dry ground. There have been miracles stacked upon miracles that have brought forth freedom…brought forth life. And yet, here we are, and they are grumbling…and they are lacking in trust. The wilderness is dry, the food is scarce, and they’re wondering if God has brought them out here to die. It’s easy to sympathize with them, isn’t it? We’ve all known those wilderness seasons. Perhaps you might recall yours? Those times when faith feels fragile, when tomorrow feels uncertain. We walked in the wilderness and had our lack of trust.
But here’s what’s remarkable. In the text, God doesn’t scold them for their lack of trust. Instead, quite the opposite. God responds. God responds with provision and an opportunity to further learn this sacred trust. God says, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you.” Can we begin to imagine how amazing that would have been to hear? In the wilderness, each night…the raining down of bread. That is provision. And God didn’t just provide, there was also the development of this sacred trust. Did you notice the detail in verse 4: “Each day the people shall go out and gather just enough for that day.” Just enough. Not a month’s supply, not a Costco-sized freezer full of manna, but enough for today. Why? Because God is teaching them sacred trust. Daily bread. Daily grace. Daily gratitude. God first provides to lessen their fear: bread from heaven. And God provides the way for them to learn a sacred trust: daily bread from heaven.
It’s a profound spiritual lesson: when we hoard, we harden. When we trust, we are fed. You might recall the fear we all experienced during Covid when we went to the grocery stores and found empty shelves. It began first when our favourite brands were out of stock. Soon entire sections were bare. We were warned not to hoard. If we just took ‘enough’, we would make it through. Some listened, some didn’t. We all learned during that time. Thanks-living as sacred trust becomes a sacred rhythm. Each day we receive, each day we give thanks, each day we trust again. Thanks-living is a sacred trust in God’s ongoing provision; ongoing love; ongoing grace.
Fast forward centuries later, and Jesus teaches that same lesson on a Galilean hillside: “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink...Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” It’s a continuation of that wilderness teaching…Live day by day, not consumed by anxiety over tomorrow. Live thankfully…live in gratitude…live in trust. Jesus isn’t telling us to be careless or naïve. He’s inviting us into freedom. It is the kind of freedom that comes when we trust the Giver more than the gift. God is teaching Thanks-Living: a posture of sacred trust…moment by moment. When we worry about tomorrow, we carry a weight we were never meant to bear. When we live gratefully in the present, we open ourselves to joy, to generosity, to peace.
“Thanks-Living as Sacred Trust” means recognizing that everything belongs to God. Our time, our talents, our treasure…even our breath. We are stewards, not owners. And stewardship begins not with a budget, but with gratitude. When we see our resources as sacred trust, generosity becomes natural. We stop asking, “How much must I give?” We shift and begin asking, “How much can I share?” We stop living out of scarcity and start living out of sufficiency because we trust that there will be enough.
This is the conversation that sometimes occurs with new members when they ask the genuine question: ‘how much should I give to the church?’ When speaking with our finance ministry or myself, the answer is always about the conversation including God. There is the conversation about a consistent commitment towards the church…and…that opportunity to consider how much you can share with God’s work through the church.
When understood and lived, this posture of sacred trust changes how we live. The applications are vast and profound and you might find your story in them:
· Sacred Trust shapes how we treat the planet…as sacred creation entrusted to our care.
· Sacred Trust shapes how we treat one another…as people made in the image of God.
· Sacred Trust shapes how we face uncertainty…with faith instead of fear.
As the wonderful theologian / poet Wendell Berry writes, “What we need is here.” That’s the heart of sacred trust. It is knowing that God’s provision meets us in the present moment. “What we need is here.”
So, how does this look like in real life? Here are a few ways you might be practicing “Thanks-Living as Sacred Trust”:
1. Keep a Daily Gratitude Prayer. During your prayer time, name one thing from the day that was manna for you. Name something that reminded you of God’s faithfulness. Where was the sacred trust that day?
2. Simplify and Share. The Israelites learned that hoarding manna caused it to rot. In the same way, gratitude grows when we share what we have. Practice giving: giving our time, our talents, our treasure…give as an act of gratitude.
3. Trust the Daily Bread. When worry rises, return to Jesus’ words: “Your heavenly Father knows what you need.” Gratitude is not denial of need; it’s confidence in God’s care. It is sacred trust.
4. Live Generously. Gratitude is contagious. When you live from thankfulness, you awaken others to the same joy. Your presence becomes a reminder that grace still flows.
When we live gratefully, we live freely. We move from fear to faith, from scarcity to sufficiency, from grasping to giving. The Israelites learned that manna was enough. Jesus taught that lilies and birds are enough. And we are invited to discover that God’s grace is enough…always enough…for this day, for this moment, for this breath. So may we live our thanks. As a sacred trust, a daily prayer, a way of life. And may the peace of Christ guard our hearts as we learn to say (and to pray), with confidence and gratitude, “Give us this day our daily bread.”
Amen.