(The pastor holds a bag of rice throughout the service, and when he goes to the pulpit, very obviously carries the rice, and a pot, with measuring cup, to the pulpit with him (make the measuring cup 1/8th cup)
I bet you think I’m going to explain this pot of rice on the pulpit. Well, maybe later.
You ever do that?
Put something off until “Later?”
I bet you have. God is calling you to do something and your response is to say, “I’ll be glad to do that, Lord. Later.”
We must learn to do that as children.
Mom or Dad told us to clean our room, “Later.”
Mom told us to brush our teeth. “Later.”
Dad told us to cut the grass. “Later.”
The teacher told us to do our term paper. “Later.”
God tells us to love others. “Later.”
How many things has God told us to do that we keep putting off?
Well, here it is – Thanksgiving! And many of us probably put off thanking God for all of His wonderful gifts, thinking we’ll do that “later.”
What are the things we like to do at Thanksgiving?
Football?
It seems to me that almost every year there is at least one football game on television sometime around Thanksgiving.
I’m not sure if any of you watch football or not.
How many of you plan to watch a football game this Thanksgiving holiday? Let me see a show of hands.
It may come as a surprise, but that’s not all there is to Thanksgiving. It’s a nice bonus activity, but that’s not how we show thankfulness.
Football is not all there is to Thanksgiving.
There is something more.
What else do we do?
Eat!
We have big dinners and huge meals. Turkey and ham and home made bread and pies and sweet potatoes and rice!
How many of you plan to have a big family meal or a big meal with friends? Raise your hands.
The big meal is an important part of thanksgiving.
It has always been that way.
There is nothing wrong with feasting as a part of thanksgiving.
In the Old Testament book of Nehemiah, the people are ordered to celebrate, and to give thanks. Nehemiah tells the people, “Go and enjoy the choice food and sweet drinks. This is a sacred day to the Lord.” (Nehemiah 8:9-11).
Sounds like our Thanksgiving, doesn’t it?
But – that’s not all there is to Thanksgiving.
What else do we do at Thanksgiving?
Worship!
How many of you – let me see your hands – how many of you plan to go to church on Thanksgiving Week?
Amazing – three people did not raise their hands!
They apparently were drugged and brought here without their knowledge by their spouses or parents.
I’m just very disappointed that one of the three who didn’t raise a hand was one of the ministers for the evening.
But kidding aside, worship is an act of thanksgiving.
In Psalm 100, it says in verse 4, “Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him.”
So naturally, ALL of us here tonight include worship as part of our thanksgiving.
But that is not all there is to thanksgiving.
There is something more.
(Minister quietly opens the bag of rice. The pastor takes a bag of rice, and carefully counts out ten measures of the rice placing each measure into a pot. Then taking back a single measure from the pot of rice, places that single measure on the Lord’s Table.
OK, are you wondering what this pot of rice is all about?
I brought it to illustrate a story about one of my experiences in India.
I traveled there about a year or two ago.
One of the churches I went to was in a slum. India is a beautiful country and there are a lot of people there who are well off, but a lot of the ones I met were the poorest people I have ever encountered.
The neighborhood was built of tents. The tents were made of moldy, rotting cloth. Everything was jammed together. There was hardly any room to walk between the tents. There was no water system, no well. People drank water that was running along the gutters of the streets.
And in the midst of this slum was a little church.
It was nothing more than a concrete block building. Four walls with a doorway. The roof was nothing more than some metal sheeting laid on the top of the building.
It measured about 10 feet wide and 20 feet long. Inside there were 30 people. They were all crammed together, sitting on the floor and they gave me a chair to sit in at the front of the church. If I had crossed my legs I would have knocked out three people on the front row.
We did everything Christians do in worship.
We sang.
We prayed.
I preached with an interpreter.
And there was an offering.
These were the poorest people I’d ever met.
Here in America, poverty is defined for a family of two as having less than $12,120 per year.
In this country, 60% of those living in poverty have a VCR.
You know how they define poverty in India? I was told that the definition of poverty is to have less than a full meal per day.
And there are these people gathered in this tiny little church – our narthex is three times the size of that church.
And when it was time for the offering, every single person gave.
They gave eagerly.
They reached and strained to put their single coin into the offering.
One lady had no money.
She gave a single, tiny bag of rice.
After the service, I asked what they used the offering for.
Part of it was to pay the pastor’s salary, which was not much.
Part of it was to buy Bibles for the church.
Part of it was to go to Missions. Imagine that!
Missions!
They can’t feed themselves, but they are giving to missions.
And then part of it goes to feed the poor.
Feed the poor? I can’t imagine that there are people more impoverished than these folks!
And then I asked about the lady who gave the bag of rice.
I was told she had no money to give. But IF she had food to eat during the day, she would carefully measure out the food and set some of it aside.
Every day – IF she had food to eat, part of it was set aside for the offering. A tenth of it. A tithe.
And on Sunday, when she came to church. She would bring her bag of rice as an offering – so it could be used to feed the poor.
Imagine doing that on Monday, and Tuesday, and Wednesday, and Thursday, and Friday.
And imagine not having any food at all on Saturday.
Church is tomorrow, but there on the table is the rice you’ve set aside every day. It would be tempting to reach into the bag and cook that rice. Skip church. Or go to church and skip the offering.
But no, she never did that.
The pastor told me she always brought the bag of rice.
And here we are – we keep saying “later.” When our expenses are down. When we make more money. Then we will give to the poor.
We will spend time watching football, and eating, and even at worship giving thanks for the things WE have.
You know how we best express Thanksgiving?
It is not in the football or the eating, nor is it even completely expressed in worship – it is best expressed in generosity. In the offering. In sacrifice.
You know, I kept wondering when we, here in America, will be as wealthy as that woman. When will we have enough so that we can be as generous as she? When we will be so full of gratitude for what God has given to us, that we will become as generous as that woman in India.
It is time.
It is time for us to become so thankful that we begin to share our abundance with others.
It is time.
Copyright 2006, The Rev. Dr. Maynard Pittendreigh
All rights reserved.
Sermons are available online and can be found by visiting www.Pittendreigh.com
