Hope Unitarian Church's Podcast

 Resting in an Interdependent Web: A Sermon About Gratitude BY REV. JUSTIN MCCREARY NOVEMBER 12TH, 2023 - 11:00 AM       When I heard the phrase, “Let’s give thanks,” as a child I knew we were about to pray. Giving thanks was a holy practice, it was a sacrament, it was the moment when we communed with the almighty before something else happened. Thankfulness was a precursor to eating, asking for help, going into surgery, begging for intersession, and as the one who was often asked to give thanks, it became a box to be checked before I could do the thing I wanted to do. When I became a Unitarian Universalist, I wondered if I had any room left for prayer, especially since my faith in the almighty was and still is often in flux. I found a lot of excuses not to pray, because I realized I didn’t know how to anymore. It was easier to just simply, not check that box. But I also felt like I was missing something, so I began to listen when the UUs I looked up to would pray, and something bloomed inside me because pray