Giving Thanks

Scripture:

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

Philippians 4:4-13      

 

Preached 11/24/2013

 

Something to think about as you sit down for your Thanksgiving meal later this week- If you had been among the pilgrims at what we now call the first Thanksgiving, would you have been giving thanks?  Think about what those men and women had been through.  The voyage from England was no vacation cruise.  It was so hazardous that the published guides advised travelers to the “New World” to make their will before they started the journey.  The crossing was rough, and the Mayflower was blown off course.  Instead of reaching Virginia, where a settlement had been made 13 years earlier, these Pilgrims ended up in the middle of nowhere—Massachusetts.  By the time they found a place to make their home—what they called Plymouth—winter had set in.

The storms were fierce.  Shelter was rudimentary.  There was very little food.  And, within weeks, nearly every settler was sick.  Within three months, almost half of the Pilgrims had died.  Of the 102 original passengers, only 53 were left at that first Thanksgiving meal.  They were poor, cold, and exhausted, having to work themselves to the bone to survive.  They were probably afraid, and grieving the loss of loved ones, and the life they had back in England.  Life wasn’t exactly what we would call good.  And yet, they had this three day long meal of fellowship and thanks that we still remember today.  Would you give thanks?

Back it way up to Deuteronomy, that first scripture Linda read for us this morning.  Though it was written quite a bit later, Deuteronomy is written as if it’s addressed to the Hebrew people, freed from Egypt and wandering in the desert.  The part we read this morning is still from their wandering days, as they are on the cusp of the Promised Land, but still not quite there.  As the story goes, they’ve been wandering in the desert for 40 years, a lifetime for many people back then.  They’ve been hot and they’ve been cold, they’ve been hungry and thirsty, they’ve been over run by snakes. . . it’s not been a vacation for them either.  And yet, what is the text focused on this morning?  How to give thanks to God.  Would you give thanks?

Fast forward from Deuteronomy to Philippians, as we did with our scripture readings.  Philippians is one of Paul’s letters, and one he wrote from prison.  Roman prisons were not pleasant places to be.  They were often cave-like, damp, cold, and hard.  Treatment was bad and food and drink were limited.  Paul didn’t know whether or not he was going to make it out alive.  And yet, he writes to the Philippians, yet again, about giving thanks to God.  The Philippians to whom Paul was writing didn’t have an easy situation either.  Any early Jesus followers would face suspicion and some level of pressure and persecution because of their faith.  Would you give thanks?

I’ll admit that my answer is no.  When I’m exhausted, scared, sad, uncomfortable, hungry or thirsty, God-forbid damp, which is the worst feeling in the world, I’m not too prone to have thanksgiving spilling off my lips.  Should I be afraid for my own life, I’m pretty confident that I wouldn’t be full of thanksgiving then, either.  I’m pretty sure it’s not just me.  Thanksgiving just isn’t a natural instinct.  This year, for the first time, we had trick or treaters come to our door.  And, over and over again, parents with their children reminded the kids to say “thank you.”  If you’re a parent, or you’ve been around children very much, I’m sure you’ve noticed a very similar happening.  Over and over, we remind children to say “thank you” when they receive something.  And we do this because giving thanks doesn’t come naturally, to any of us. 

If you notice, we tend to remind children to say “thank you” only in response to being given something pretty easily tangible—a piece of candy, a birthday present, even a compliment.  That’s when we realize that thanksgiving is in order.  That’s when we maybe hear some significant person from our childhood’s voice in our heads, reminding us that a thank you is in order. 

But the rest of the time—the times when we aren’t being handed something—thanksgiving gets harder.  We don’t have the natural instinct, and we don’t have the training-- who teaches a child to say thank you when they’ve scraped their knee?  Or when they’ve accidentally let go of their prized balloon outside and will never hold it again?  Or when they’re hungry, or thirsty, or tired?  I can’t say that no one does, but no one I’ve ever met teaches thankfulness in those kinds of situations.

Except, of course, for God.  We have the people of Israel wandering in the desert, and God, through human words, tells them to give thanks.  And this isn’t just thanks for the coming Promised Land, but for God’s presence and action their whole faith history, even the awful part of being slaves in Egypt.  Even though it goes against the kind of thankfulness we’ve been taught—that thankfulness is the appropriate response for getting something nice—the instructions we get here are to give thanks even when we look around and aren’t particularly thrilled with what we see.

Paul models this well.  Sitting in that jail cell, not knowing if he would make it out of prison alive, what are his words to the Philippians?  Rejoice always.  He even repeats himself, just in case they didn’t catch it the first time. Rejoice, don’t worry, pray and give thanks to God in all situations. And why do we do this?  Not just because someone told us to, not even just because God told us so.  But because, as Paul writes, the Lord is near. 

No matter what situation we find ourselves in, Jesus is with us and we are not facing the trouble alone.  Right here, at Calvary church, in this time and this place, with the strengths, resources, and even the problems we have, the Lord is near.  When our air conditioner is stolen, perhaps, and we’re worried about security and paying for replacements, the Lord is near.  When we sat down and filled out our pledge cards and our time and talent sheets, maybe we worried that we weren’t able to give enough, or that we just didn’t feel like we could part with as much money as we wanted to, and the Lord was near.  Maybe you forgot about the pledge card and time and talent sheet and are wondering if you can still fill one out, and the Lord is near, and yes, there are more cards and sheets.  Maybe you’re just bogged down by responsibilities, worried about health problems, or stressed out about the coming holidays.  And yep, the Lord is near.  The point is this—whatever situation we are in, the Lord is near, the Lord is with us, and that alone is more thank enough reason to give God our thanks.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that the only emotion we’re allowed to have is happy and the only words out of our mouth can be gratitude.  Trust me, I’ve been a counselor and I’ve seen what this kind of artificial happiness can do to people after some time, and it isn’t pretty.  We can still be mad, angry, hurt, sad, afraid—we can still feel whatever we feel.  The point is just not to get stuck in those, or any feelings.  To feel them, maybe to do something about them, and to realize that they aren’t the end of the world.  They are they, they are real and deserve to be felt and expressed.  But, right along with them, so does thanksgiving.

Even as thanksgiving is something that God asks us to do, thanksgiving isn’t just about benefitting God.  Paul knew this—thanksgiving helps us, too.  It helps us see Christ right with us, even in the difficult times.  And, as Paul writes, being able to see Christ with us has great benefits.  Paraphrasing Paul a bit, seeing Christ and giving thanks helps us to receive “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guarding our hearts and our minds.”  And that is certainly a precious gift.  God’s peace is how we can make it through hard times without unnecessary alarm.  It’s how we can look at something like a church budget with a deficit and see possibility and opportunity instead of just problem.  It’s how we take a chunk of our money and our time and give it to the church, rather than keeping it all for ourselves.  I’m sure the God’s peace is what’s helping all of you doing New Beginnings take an honest look at this church and this neighborhood and be unafraid, knowing that God has a future planned for us, even if that future looks pretty different from our past.

Look around you.  Really—look around you, not up at me.  Look at the people sitting here, and this building we’re in.  Think about the neighborhood around us, and the people who live and work and go to school as our neighbors.  Think about everything that makes this church what it is and who it is.  We have a choice to make.  Will we give thanks?  Will you give thanks?  Thanks be to God.  Amen.