Thanksgiving Eve, November22,2006 “Series B”
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Dear Heavenly Father, we come before you this night to give thanks for your many blessings upon us – for the gift of life, for all that sustains us from day to day, and especially for the gift of redemption which we receive through our baptism and faith in Christ’s death and resurrection. Through the power of your Holy Spirit, inspire us to show our thankfulness in the way that we care for those among us, especially those in need. This we ask in Christ’s holy name. Amen.
Tonight, we, as Christians, have come together on the eve of our national holiday of Thanksgiving, to worship God – to listen to his word, to receive his redeeming grace through the sacrament of communion, and to lift our voices in praise for all that God has given us. It just seems like a natural thing for people of faith to do, in observance of the significance of this holiday.
But is it such a natural a thing for us human beings to do – to listen to and truly hear the word of God for our lives? Throughout my life-long study of God’s word, especially the teachings of Jesus, I have discovered it to be anything but natural for me to absorb. And our Gospel lesson that has been appointed for this day, is no exception. Listen to what Jesus says: “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?”
Now, let’s be honest. I would really be surprised if those who are responsible for the task of preparing tomorrow’s Thanksgiving dinner, haven’t worried, just a little bit, about what you will eat, and what you will drink, and how it will turn out. It would only seem natural to me, if I were responsible for hosting such a feast, to worry a little about the meal, and prepare in advance for the celebration.
Of course, I may not worry about what clothes I will wear tomorrow. When I emerge from the bedroom, and my dress doesn’t suit Josie, I’ll hear something to the effect, “You’re not going to wear that, are you?” And she will send me back to the bedroom to change. But then, I am leaving for camp Friday for a few days of hunting, and I have already spent some time making sure that I take the proper clothing for that venture. That only seems natural to me.
And on a deeper level, does it not seem natural, especially as we enter the last ten or so years of our careers, to begin to worry a little about our retirement, and plan more earnestly about how we will be able to eat and drink and clothe our bodies – as well as cover the rising cost of health care and utilities.
It is only natural to worry about these things – to plan and prepare for the future. But listen again to the words of Jesus: “Do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ …Indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Here again, if we take these words of Jesus to heart, we might be led to the natural conclusion that if we become a Christian, if we are baptized and devote our lives to studying God’s word and striving to live in faith, we won’t have to worry about food and drink and clothing and shelter, or anything else we need to sustain our lives. We’ll have everything we need, God will protect us, and our lives will be free of problems.
But you know, and I know, that this is not true. The rain falls on the just and the unjust, the faithful and the not so faithful. As Job’s friend points out to him, “Just as surely as sparks fly upward from a fire, so human beings will face troubles.” [Job 5:7] And I don’t know of a person in all of the Old Testament who remained faithful to God and strove for God’s righteousness, and yet experienced more troubles in life, than Job.
Thus, I would like to share with you a few thoughts that I have gleaned from a homily by Bass Mitchell, whom I believe points us in the direction of understanding these words of Jesus, especially as they relate to our celebration of Thanksgiving. [1]
“Who can dispute the fact that all human beings will face troubles. We know it’s true. Some of us know it better than others, for some people have troubles flying up like sparks, not from a tiny campfire, but more like a bonfire at a pep-rally. Whether we like it or not, whether we understand it or not, part of what it means to be human is to face troubles, suffering, and problems.
These are the ‘Why me, Lord?’ times of our lives. A trouble comes along or some disruptive event which causes us to struggle between paying the gas bill and putting food on the table, and we find ourselves asking ‘Why me, Lord?’”
In fact, I must admit that I had one of those moments in my own life, just a week ago this evening. I had stopped to meet with some friends at the VFW, and when I went to leave, I couldn’t help but notice that someone had scraped the side of my truck, putting a dent in the fender behind the rear wheel. I only have 27,000 miles on this truck, and now both sides have been dented while it sat in a parking lot. And I found myself saying, “Why me, Lord.”
But Mitchell gave me an insight into how we might come to understand this rather unnatural teaching of our Lord, and put it into a perspective that really makes sense. He said, “I want us to consider something a little different this Thanksgiving. If we are going to ask, ‘Why me, Lord,?’ about our burdens or when things go wrong, then should we not also ask, ‘Why me, Lord?’ about our blessings?
Some undeserved hardship comes our way and we complain. That’s okay. The Psalms teach us that God is willing to listen to our laments, to our “Why me, Lord?” when trouble strikes. But should we not also rejoice when some undeserved blessing comes our way? Should we not also say, “Why me, Lord? What have I done to deserve such a blessing?
But that’s not such a natural thing to do. It is much easier to complain, to gripe about all the things that go wrong instead of giving thanks for all the things that go right. We take for granted one hundred days of perfect health and then grumble about one day of aches and pains. We return home safely from dozens of trips without a song of gratitude on our lips, but on the one occasion when we encounter delays and disappointments, we cry out in despair.
John Witherspoon was a president of Princeton University and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He lived at a place called ‘Rocky Hill,’ some distance from the university. One day, Witherspoon’s study door was suddenly opened by a neighbor of his, who rushed in and told him how he was riding in his buggy from Rocky Hill, when his horse had bolted, the buggy was smashed, and how he had escaped serious injury.
The neighbor asked Witherspoon to give thanks with him, that God, in his providence, had enabled him to escape death. Witherspoon replied, “I can tell you a far more remarkable providence of God than that, for which I need to give thanks. I have driven over that same road hundreds of times. My horse never bolted and ran, my buggy never was smashed, and I was never hurt.” [2]
No, it is not natural for us to recognize and give God thanks for all the many blessings which we experience every day of our lives. But this teaching of our Lord calls us to stop and consider how God has blessed our lives, even as we consider the birds of the air, and the lilies of the field, which, in themselves, enrich our lives.
And are we not of more value than these examples of God’s blessings? I certainly believe so. For the true reason that we as Christians, gather together this eve of Thanksgiving, is to recall what our Lord has done for us through his death and resurrection. For in spite of the problems and worries that may confront us as we live out our life here on earth, Jesus teaches us to view it all from the perspective of God’s kingdom, of God’s ultimate victory over sin and death.
And so, even though it is natural for us to worry a bit over what we shall eat and drink and how we might clothe ourselves, it is also, by God’s grace, and through the power of God’s Spirit at work through the life of the church, possible, even natural, to lift our voices in thanksgiving. For God has truly blessed us with his redeeming grace, and promises us ultimate freedom from all worries and problems, in the life to come.
Amen.
[1] Bass Mitchell www.homiliesbyemail.com/Special/Thanksgiving/sermon1.html
[2] Ibid.
