Biography
The Rev. Linda Loving, from River Falls, Wisconsin, is an actress, a writer and a pastor Linda spent twenty years in parish ministry, most recently as Senior Pastor of the House of Hope Presbyterian Church in Saint Paul, Minnesota. As one of just a few women to serve as senior pastor of a large congregation, Linda helped break the “stained glass ceiling” for women in ministry. Trained in theater, Linda recently returned to that calling and is working on projects for both the stage and television. [Biographical information is correct as of the broadcast date noted above.]

"Whole and Thankful, Holy Thankful" 
A reading from the Gospel of Luke:

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.”
And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan.

Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.

I grew up in a family which emphasized gratitude. Grace before meals, written thank you notes, hostess gifts, “please and thank you.” My mother raised us with the Bible in one hand and Emily Post’s Guide to Etiquette in the other. I have to admit there were days when Emily may have actually been the final authority, which makes one wonder why all four of mother’s kids landed in seminary rather than the diplomatic corps! Yet gratitude is at the heart of both gospel and good manners.

With a family full of clergy I sometimes am asked who gets to say grace at our reunions. Actually there is no jockeying for that role, no sibling-socking-it-out; we simply revert to our childhood blessing which we always said in unison at the family dinner table:

“We thank you God for happy hearts,
For rain and sunny weather;
We thank you God for this our food
And that we are together.”

We thank you God. It’s that simple. Yet for some reason as you and I whirl through busy and complicated lives, it’s not always that simple to get the words out. Our Gospel reading is perhaps an example. Ten lepers healed; we only hear of the gratitude of the one who turned back, praising God with a loud voice, fell to his feet at Jesus’ feet, and gave thanks.

The story is seasoned by the information that the one giving thanks is a Samaritan—dreaded foreigner—an unusual vehicle for teaching disciples the posture of thanksgiving. Yet our most profound lessons often come from unexpected people and places.

As we consider this passage about the lepers, we need to take care not to assume that the other nine were ungrateful wretches. We don’t know that. There are many ways to express gratitude, joy, wholeness; and surely each leper experienced those feelings. Yet we know not the particular circumstances of each one healed. And in general the nine are following Jesus’ directions to be on their way to see a priest at the temple.

Episcopal priest Martin Bell in his story “Where Are the Nine” reflects: “Ten were cleansed and only one returned ... What shall I say now, that the real point is not that one returned but that ten were cleansed? You already know that. That condemnation is easier than investigation, that if we take time to investigate the reasons why people act as they do, we would find that they have to act the way they do and that such action in the light of the circumstances is quite understandable and totally forgivable and even completely reasonable and just as it should be? You already know that.

“What then shall I say?” Bell continues. “That it is good to give thanks? Yes. That it is understandable not to give thanks? Yes. That God does not heal people and then stand around just waiting for us to say thank you and then get angry and have his feelings hurt if we don’t? Yes, that’s true. Which is the same as saying: no, he certainly doesn’t.

“But what of the nine? They are on the way home, hiding in fear, refusing to believe, offended at what they call cheap grace, so happy they forgot, lost without their leprosy, unable to say thank you ever again, publishing the news of the Kingdom. Who knows where they are! The point is this: Jesus does. He knows where they are.”

I would add to Bell’s words: Jesus knows where they are and Jesus knows they are grateful. Or confused. Or preoccupied. Or empty. Or grieving. Or doubtful Jesus always knows these things about us; knows things large and small, dark and light, sure and unsure. Jesus, our healer, knows, and we are profoundly grateful to be so well known by the Holy. Nonetheless, expressing gratitude is often more complicated than it first appears. More complicated than “We thank you God for happy hearts.”

I believe gratitude is not so much a behavior as it is a grounding. Gratitude is not so much an act as an attitude, a frame of mind. Consider the words from First Thessalonians: “Give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.: Give thanks in all circumstances. Not just when the leprosy is healed but also when you discover more chemo is needed. Not just when you exchange wedding vows but also when you exchange the damaging words of your first lovers’ quarrel. Not just when the unexpected promotion comes, but also when the unexpected layoff occurs. All circumstances. Giving thanks in all circumstances because God knows where we are. God knows how we feel. God knows our next breath. How extraordinary to be so known, so loved, so healed. I believe we are most whole when we hold our stance of gratitude in the world knowing we are held by the Holy.

In some ways it may be the small stuff even more than the big stuff that makes us whole. The big stuff is just that, big, obvious, you’d be a fool not to be grateful. Big stuff like being healed of leprosy, like crawling out of a totaled car without a scratch, like finding a home that withstood the hurricane’s fury. Big stuff, very likely to lead us (like the Samaritan) to fall at Jesus’ feet in thanksgiving. And it is interesting that it is often the big stuff that finally awakens us to the small stuff.

Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: “Only they who give thanks for little things receive the big things. We prevent God from giving us the great spiritual gifts he has in store for us because we do not give thanks for daily gifts.”

We thank you God for happy hearts, for rain and sunny weather. It may be our ability to write life’s little thank you notes that keeps us grounded; to write, speak, live and pray life’s little thank you notes, both to God and to one another. And it’s not so much the form of our gratitude as it is the content. One leper spins and throws himself at the feet of Jesus shouting thanks. Others live out their gratitude in other ways no doubt, for we are most certainly changed by the healing mercies of daily life. Gratitude emerges from a deep and holy place within us, there are many expressions which are possible. While Emily Post would dictate an exact format to the thank you note, the Holy already knows where we are and where our hearts are. To be able to express our gratitude contributes to our wholeness, deepens our life, leads us to the Holy. God awaits, ah, not our ritual but our rejoicing.

Each night as you lie in bed, imagine that you, like the Samaritan, have fallen in thanksgiving at the feet of the Holy. Simply list five things for which you are grateful. And in the morning, before arising, in the same spirit and by the same Spirit list five more things. Cultivating a life of gratitude can be that simple, as simple as “we thank you God for happy hearts, and unhappy hearts, and beating hearts.” In all circumstances, thanks be to God.

Interview with Linda Loving

Daniel Pawlus: Linda, that was a great message. I wonder what you think about gratitude as it relates to attitude. We live in a negative world with lots of things to deal with. How does gratitude lead us to a more positive attitude and a life of abundance?

Linda Loving: Oh, exactly. Coming from the abundant place. I love that you used that word because I get alarmed with how many people come at life from a scarcity perspective. You know, it makes us fearful, anxious, greedy. A long list. And that’s why in the reflection I gave that little “what to do” list at the end. Just simply lying in bed and thinking of what you’re grateful for and over time, I think, does help shape how we’re looking at the world. Just that subtle tweaking. It’s like a little bit of exercise, if you will. Which I’m not so good at! Leave me with the theological things.

Lydia Talbot: We all need those handles, Linda.

Loving: We do.

Talbot: And you say giving thanks in all circumstances, but what are the times you yourself would have rather said to God: take back your gifts?

Loving: It’s a very challenging question. I don’t know if I can actually point to such a time. Maybe it’s because I grew up in a family where gratitude was constantly emphasized. But I’ve also found in my ministry that often when things are at their worst, people do find that holy place deep within that is grateful and they’re amazed. I’m thinking of funerals. So often there is such a gut-wrenching response to the loss, but in the midst of that what rises up with family and friends is the gratitude that people ever even were and the gifts that they brought.

Talbot: The people who have lost loved ones. Or I have a friend who just told me that her cancer has come back. What are the words, Linda? You as a pastor in your long, wonderful journey, what are the words that work?

Loving: Well, I rely on our woman mystic, my soul-sister, Julian of Norwich from the 14th century, who in the midst of plague, economic turmoil, peasants’ revolt, disaster, even hurricanes, spoke the healing powerful words of gratitude: “All shall be well and all will be well, and thou shalt see thyself that all manner of things shall be well.” And I think part of why that speaks to people in crisis and loss and turmoil is you want the big picture again. Give me the big picture. Tell me I’m known by God, that God has numbered the hairs on my head.

Pawlus: You started to talk about Julian and that takes us down a road, of your path personally, of where you’ve come now. Talk to us a little bit about how you started with your acting and it segued into your ministry. And now you’re back to acting and writing.

Loving: I know. You kind of need a Dramamine to follow my life right now!

Pawlus: It’s very interesting.

Loving: I did start with the theater but while I was in ministry I wasn’t able to do group productions because of the schedule. So when I discovered this one woman drama by J. Janda, “Julian of Norwich” and started performing that, I realized how these ancient words so speak to our times. Julian also shaped me because she slowed me down, gave me focus, taught the need for meditation and quiet, something also lost in our culture right now. And it comes out of that scarcity thinking in a way, don’t you think?

Pawlus: It’s really making time to be grateful, as you say, at the end of the evening or the beginning of the morning. Just putting that little time aside and the rewards are so great.

Loving: Not only that, life passes you by otherwise.

Talbot: I have to know what’s on your list at night and first thing in the morning.

Loving: Oh, usually food is right at the top! And then friends, the seasons. I’m so taken with God’s creation. What a magnificent artist!

Pawlus: It’s very similar to the Jesuit practice of daily examination.

Loving: Absolutely.

Pawlus: Where we stop and we take inventory and we give gratitude and thanks. And then it helps us connect more into our relationship with God.

Loving: And what the Jesuits also add in is where were the points of conflict in the day, where did it not go so well. But that’s a whole other reflection. You’ll have to ask me back for that!

Talbot: Now, how did gratitude play a part in your amazing transition, Linda, from pulpit to stage and television?

Loving: You know, I am so grateful that that transition is behind me because it was really grueling. It was very hard to leave my congregation and hard to give up the pulpit, as they say. But I wrestled, wrestled, wrestled, like Jacob by the river with God at night. I don’t know. That’s either Shakespeare or the Bible, I’m not sure which! But with all this wrestling, my gratitude was when that was over. One morning I just got up and I knew that this was God’s hand in my life saying go back to the theater, reach people who might not currently be coming to church, through TV and drama.

Talbot: And this is how people get into the tent, the dialogue between the church and the arts.

Pawlus: I bet you look at your acting as a form of ministry obviously, as well. A continuation of it.

Loving: Absolutely. But the Calvinist in me had to make peace with that first. Is this really working, to act?

Talbot: In the final moment we have, Linda, can you give us just a scoop on your current television script writing.

Loving: Well, my attorney will be after me! The pilot is geared toward a drama about parish ministry, to help the broader culture understand how fascinating this work is, how complex it is. It’s been really stereotyped and oversimplified in entertainment and in the media. So I’m eager to turn that around and get people in their living rooms asking questions of faith.

Pawlus: We wish you the best of luck with that.

Loving: Oh, you’re so gracious. Thank you.

Talbot: Linda, wonderful to have you here.