Thanksgiving, 2013

Why Give Thanks?

Lessons:

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

Psalm 100

Philippians 4:4-9

John 6: 25-35

“If the only prayer you ever say in your life is thank you, it will be enough.”

13^th century mystic Meister Eckhart is the source of that quotation.   Is his sentiment really true?  Why should we give thanks above all else?

Today’s lessons, the ones selected for Thanksgiving Day, certainly point in that direction. In Deuteronomy, offering a sacrifice of Thanksgiving to God is the thing the people are told to do first.  Deuteronomy was a book collecting the words of Moses to the people, with his explanations of the laws handed down by God and his own words of instruction. If Moses says give thanks, then maybe we ought to listen.

As the psalm says, we give thanks because “The Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting and his faithfulness endures from age to age.”  I’m pretty sure most of us can offer plenty of evidence of God’s faithfulness in our lives: of all the ways we have been blessed by God. But how often do we count our blessings?

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul offers clues about the importance of Thanksgiving when he writes, “Do not worry about anything, but in everything [in every situation] by prayer and supplication WITH THANKSGIVING let your requests be made known to God.” 

I’m pretty sure most of the prayers I make are prayers of supplication—when I make requests of God. I’m also sure that I don’t give equal time to saying thanks.

In the words from the Gospel of John, Jesus tells us directly why we should thank God:  “The bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

The basic fact that we are alive and breathing, that we have the most essential necessities of life—food and water, shelter, someone who loves us—all are gifts from God. Many of the things we ask for in our prayers are not things we need, but things we want.  We know by the evidence of our own lives and the words of the Lord that God grants us everything we need before we ever even think to ask.

It stands to reason, then, that prayers of Thanksgiving are not just what we ought to say, but that words of thanks should simply rise to our lips spontaneously at any moment. When we thank the Lord for his provision of all we need, we acknowledge that we have received our blessings with a full awareness of their source.  We simply remind ourselves how very blessed we are when we give thanks to that Source of all we are and all we possess.  We very much need such a reminder when we get caught up in worries about our problems.

Right now I’m thankful that the epistle lesson appointed for this day is Philippians 4:4-9.  These most beautiful words are some of my very favorite ones in all the bible, and they always remind me of my sweet mother and her siblings, of how blessed I was to be born into their family. In these words, Paul lists some of the intangible blessings that we too often take for granted:  “Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

Something about the way giving thanks can bring us to an internal state of balance, “set us to rights,” so to speak, must have been what President Lincoln had in mind when he began the annual tradition of this holiday by proclaiming a national day of “Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens” to be celebrated on Thursday, November 26^th, 1863—right at the height of the Civil War.  Lincoln, whom many consider to be our greatest and wisest President, understood well the healing nature of giving thanks.

I am thankful for you, for this lovely old chapel, for all of our many blessings, and for the holiday we are about to celebrate.  May the Lord continue to bless us and keep us in his care.   AMEN.