The Language of Gratitude

I was in Chicago with several colleagues this month to visit with Bishop Hanson and ELCA staff to say thanks for their investment in our mutual ministry. They have supported our shared mission, as we talk with and walk with and work with communities experiencing the most painful forms of poverty on the planet. We are profoundly grateful for the partnership we share with the ELCA (and also with the LCMS, but that’s another blog post for another day). I’d like to share with you some of my thoughts from this “thank you” day.

In the midst of these crazy economic times, it is easy to forget to say thank you. We Americans are so focused on putting our own economic house in order that we are tempted to be overly turned in on ourselves. That’s the temptation of tough times, to forsake our mission of ending hunger, to focus so much on our own situation that we forget the excluded and the marginalized, and forget to say thank-you.

Money talks especially loudly these days. But money, or a lack of money, is not the language of our faith. The ELCA knows, as LWR knows, that we need to remember the impact of the economic crisis on people in poor countries. As New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof recently wrote (28 March 2009), “It’s worth remembering that the consequence of a deep recession in a poor country isn’t just a lost job but also a lost child.”

Money talks, but it can never say enough. Instead, we are called to speak the language of faith, a language of prayer, worship, and praise. It is with such language that we express our gratitude for our partnership with the ELCA. With a fullness of heart, flowing from God’s love-language to us, the crucifixion, and rooted in our hope in the resurrection of Jesus, LWR says thank you. Praise God for those who courageously do justice, for those who patiently call forth human dignity, for those who strive to live as peacemakers.