I told a story to the Vestry at the last meeting
about an airplane pilot who described his experience while he was flying
of an engine falling off the wing.
He said, “You can’t pull over to the side of the road to fix it!
“You have to fly with what is left!”
Then, when you land, you realize how thankful you are for what is left.
Certainly we might think about this for this parish family,
as we think back to days past or remember those who have died,
but today let’s think about what we are thankful for
despite personal disasters and losses
or whatever else might trouble the soul.
For instance, as we age the body is no longer in prime shape.
Powers weaken.
Sometimes it’s like an engine falling of the wing.
Or our experiences of life bring us to times of crisis
in our work or family or relationships,
and the ride gets rough.
It may seem like an engine falling of the wing.
Or we may wonder if the events in the news, locally, nationally and globally,
the environmental crisis,
political ideologies clashing,
racial and economic injustices all around us.
Has an engine fallen off a wing of our civic and governmental institutions?
And yet we get up out of bed each day
because there must be some bit of optimism,
something to keep us going.
something we are actually thankful for,
even if it is just the fact that we can keep flying with what is left.
Through it all we are carried along,
not by our own strength,
but by the grace of our Lord Jesus.
So here’s something a little different –
sort of a prayer of thanksgiving for flying with what’s left
)with thanks to Edward Hays for inspiration).
Blessed are you, Lord our God,
who in the richness of your Divine Love
blesses us with good things.
Your blessings come in times of joy,
in success and in times of honor,
and they come as well in times of pain and sorrow,
in sickness and defeat.
Your blessings, however, always come as life.
We give thanks for your blessings
that come to us through your mighty acts of creation
for your radiant light, your majesty and glory
shining out from within all of creation
as well as from sun, moon and stars
We walk by their light,
and we walk by your Light, the One who is the Light of the world.
Blessed are you for the light of your creation
light that all the myriad varieties of green creation
take as nourishment
and convert into food, light as nourishment to feed upon.
As all those green, growing creatures bend toward the light with their leaves,
as they grow upwards,
so may we also bend toward the Light, your Divine Light
that penetrates the murkiness of our hearts.
Creator God,
we thank you for all of our so often unnoticed natural gifts,
for the special gifts of our bodies, and especially for
our eyes and our ears, and our ability to maneuver and move.
And let us give thanks for them even as they fade in their vitality.
Blessed are you, Lord our God,
for the wondrous gift of sight.
We rejoice especially, now, in our eyes,
these two tiny but marvelous gifts
that add so much to the fullness of our lives.
This gift of sight enlarges the world of our enjoyment
and magnifies our appreciation of nature,
of great works of art, of the gifts of books and words to read,
of those persons we love,
and for this we are grateful.
Even as the eyes dim, and it takes more light to see by,
and thicker lenses on the glasses,
we give thanks for what we have,
and for the memories of what we have seen
that have both delighted us and enriched us.
We thank you also for the gift of insight
by which our spirit sees and understands.
For the gift of the third eye,
the eye of the heart,
by which we may understand the meaning of life.
We are especially thankful for your Son Jesus,
whose very coming was a healing light to the world,
who opened the eyes of the blind
and gave to a weary world new sight.
Blessed be all those who have taught us to see:
prophets, poets, writers and movie-makers,
friends and lovers, all teachers of vision.
May our eyes bless you this day;
may they be opened-prayers of gratitude,
as we attempt to overcome today any blindness of heart
and any dullness of appreciation of the wonder of sight.
Blessed are you, Lord our God,
for the wondrous gift of sight.
And blessed are you, Lord our God,
for the gift of hearing.
We are grateful for the marvel of hearing
by which we can know the songs of creation,
your unending melody of beauty,
expressed in words, wind and whispers.
With open ears,
we take in the joy of music,
the delight of poetry
and the simple songs of daily life,
the voices of loved ones,
the marvels of communication.
For all of these blessings, we are filled with gratitude.
And even as the sounds become fainter and more muffled,
we give thanks for all we have heard,
especially the occasions when we have heard
the precious word of love.
We rejoice that you have given us a third ear,
the ear of the heart, the ear of the soul,
with which we may listen to silent sound,
to the silent music of your Divine Heart,
where we hear most profoundly that expression of Love.
Help us, Lord, by quiet prayer and times of silence,
to open that third ear
and to heal the other two of all noise.
We are also thankful for those persons who have taught us how to listen:
for poets, musicians,
parents, prophets and teachers.
Grateful are we, for that long line of holy people
from East and West and North and South
who teach us to listen
for the echo of your divine voice
in all words of truth.
For your powerful yet gentle Word, Jesus,
whose Good News cleanses our ears,
we are especially thankful.
With listening hearts and grateful prayers
blessed are you, Lord our God,
for the gift of hearing.
And likewise, blessed are you for the gifts of our limbs, our arms and legs.
for feet that propel us about
so that we are distinguished from the green, growing creatures
whose roots hold them firm in one place.
Thank you for the gift of being able to travel about
even if now those legs don’t move as swiftly
or are as sure-footed
or can yet just barely maintain balance.
Thank you for all we have experienced of freedom of movement
and where that has taken us
and what we have learned there,
for the fullness of life,
even the fullness of life that is there when we are more like
the green, growing things, rooted in one place.
And thank you for our souls, our psyches,
and their capacity, the capacity of these human organisms
to make use of nourishment and to live in this environment.
What a total marvel this is!
And even as we give thanks for all these aspects of ourselves
which for some of us are fading in strength and vitality,
help us, Word Made Flesh, to realize that we are more than our bodies,
that even when the flesh fails and gives out and drops away
we continue stronger than ever in You.
And so let us give thanks and bless you, O Lord our God,
most of all for your great Love
which sustains us
and in which we live and move and have our being.
May we therefore not be anxious
what to eat or drink, what or how to take nourishment,
or what to put on the body
so that it may be harmonious with this environment.
And may all our gratitude lead us ever more
to seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness.
Blessed are you, O Lord of Life,
for all your gracious gifts. Amen.
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