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Thanksgiving
Sunday Yr B, 12/10/2003 |
Joel
2:21-27;Ps126;I Tim 2:1-7;Mt 6:25-33 |
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Grace
Lutheran Church, Medicine Hat, AB |
By
Pastor Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson |
Little four-year-old Sammy had an appendectomy
and was obligated to take his meals intravenously for a while. After the nurse
had explained the situation to him and started to administer the glucose, Sammy
asked her: “Aren’t you going to say grace?”
Little Sammy is a living parable to us all, reminding us of what
it means to live our lives with thankful hearts. We Canadians have so much to
give God thanks for. Some of us have never really wanted for any of the basic
necessities of life. Unfortunately, the downside of not wanting for the basics
of life and living in such a wealthy society often results in us taking
everything too much for granted and failing to give thanks to God.
It was former head of the World Bank, Robert McNamara, who,
several years ago now, said that our world today is like four apples and four
people. Only one person possesses three of the apples and is also biting into
the fourth apple. What about the other three people? In other words,
ours is a world of imbalance—the rich continue to grow richer at the high price
of the poor growing poorer. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund
always set up the rules to favour the rich of the world at the expense of the
world’s poor. In far too many of the poor and developing countries, the people
are forced by the World Bank and IMF to grow cash crops to sell to us rich
nations so that they can pay off their debts. However, that means the poor
people remain poor because the land they use to grow the cash crops on prevents
them from growing staple food crops to feed their own people. So, consequently,
the overall cycle of poverty repeating itself only magnifies the problem of
imbalance. How do we get off of this treadmill of perpetual injustice?
Does it do us here in Canada any good if we feel guilty about
celebrating Thanksgiving with Turkey, pumpkin pie and all the other trimmings,
while two-thirds of the world’s population go to bed hungry? Will our guilt
about our life of plenty do anything to help out the abandoned children
condemned to live on the streets of New Delhi? Or, for that matter, will our
guilt do anything for the single parent mother with three children waiting in
line at the food bank right here in Medicine Hat? I don’t think so.
Rather than filling ourselves with guilt as we enjoy our Thanksgiving
dinners of plenty, hopefully the LORD would give us a thankful heart. That is
where everything begins; that is the best place to start. For it is a thankful
heart that will motivate us not to be content with feeling guilty. A thankful
heart will motivate us to be Christ’s presence in our city, province, nation
and world. A thankful heart will motivate us to try to better understand the
root, systemic causes of injustices separating the rich from the poor. With
that understanding, hopefully we will be able to take our time, energy,
resources and creativity to work by doing our bit to change these root,
systemic causes of injustice. Whether that is writing letters to our MLAs and
MPs or CEOs of corporations; or whether it is prayer; whether it is financially
contributing to benevolent organizations such as Canadian Lutheran World Relief
and world missions to support people like Pastor Brian Rude in El Salvador;
whether it is actually going out onto the streets and helping the poor and
homeless in practical ways; whatever it is according to our gifts and
abilities; we can all do our part. A thankful heart is one of the most powerful
gifts the LORD has given us; it can change us, our city, province, nation and
world—maybe not in large or impressive ways, that we can see immediately, but
in small ways, one person at a time.
I think that is one of the central themes running through all of
our scripture passages today. Let’s take a closer look. For example, in our
first lesson from Joel, the prophet provides his people with an oracle of
encouragement and hope. The prophet tells even the natural world not to fear
because it along with God’s people will soon have their fortunes reversed. They
can look forward to the day with thanksgiving when the LORD will bless the
natural world of plants and animals, the land and God’s people with abundant
fertility and prosperity. God will put an end to the grasshopper plague and
there shall be plenty of food and drink for everyone. God shall be present
among God’s people and he shall remove their shame. Such a blessing involves
economic, social, political, and spiritual health and well-being.
In our psalm today, we are given a picture of God’s people
returning to their Promised Land after a time of exile. God reverses their
captivity and poverty—giving them a new-found freedom and prosperity, blessing
them with a plentiful harvest. This psalm quite likely could have been part of
the liturgy of thanksgiving; when the ancient Israelites celebrated their
autumn harvest festival during the feast of the Booths (Sukkoth). To this very
day, devout Jews still celebrate Sukkoth by making simple shelters outside,
sleeping in them, and giving thanks to God for his provision and safely leading
them through the wilderness into the Promised Land; as well as for giving them
abundant crops during the fall harvest.
In today’s second lesson, the writer urges Timothy and his
community of faith to offer God prayers of thanksgiving “FOR EVERYONE—including
kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and
peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. This is right and is acceptable in
the sight of God our Saviour.” This exhortation to give thanks even for
political leaders; including, at that time, the Roman emperor must have been a
challenge, since he was a tyrant who persecuted, tortured and had Christians
put to death for practicing their Christianity. However, this instruction to
pray for everyone, including one’s enemies, is consistent with the teaching and
practice of Jesus himself. To be able to GIVE THANKS FOR EVERYONE is perhaps
still a challenge to us today. Yet it does help us to see that God has created
us all; loves us all, and therefore wants what is best for us all—including our
enemies. Moreover, maybe our prayers of thanks even for political leaders whom
we adamantly disagree with and have trouble respecting—maybe such prayers will
somehow touch their hearts and lives and change them by the grace of God, so
that all of society will benefit from the decisions they make. Maybe too, if we
truly can give thanks for them we will have a greater appreciation for the
extremely complex nature of the decisions they make on behalf of the public as
a whole, and the consequences of those decisions for themselves and everyone
else. Yes, we do need to be prophetic and constructively critique governments.
If we can give thanks for our politicians, maybe we can offer our constructive
critiques, in the spirit of Christ himself, with compassion so that governments
will have a better understanding of our motives and hence be more inclined to
accept and act on our critiques.
In our gospel today, Jesus also speaks of an all-encompassing
thanksgiving. He speaks of God’s abundant provision and providence towards the
natural world of birds and flowers. He then instructs his disciples and us that
God will MUCH MORE PROVIDE FOR OUR NEEDS BECAUSE WE ARE GOD’S OWN CHILDREN.
Worry about our food, drink, clothing and shelter will not give us a longer
life. Yet, how much more time, energy and resources do we spend on these things
than we do on seeking first God’s kingdom and righteousness? Do not most of us
place the cart in front of the horse? Do not most of us preoccupy ourselves
with food, drink, clothing and shelter? Wrongfully thinking that once we can
establish enough of these things, then our lives will fall into place and we
can pursue God’s kingdom and righteousness. In our society today, only a
minority of the population regularly attends worship and becomes involved in a
faith community. What place do we give God in our lives? Is God’s kingdom and
righteousness number one priority? Once again, if we have the gift of thankful
hearts I believe that the answer will be YES, GOD, GOD’S KINGDOM AND
RIGHTEOUSNESS ARE NUMBER ONE.
To focus on God’s kingdom and righteousness means that we will
be able to offer the LORD our gratitude in our thoughts, words and actions. To
live a life—not merely a weekend!—of thanksgiving means to see Christ’s
presence, power, love and grace at work EVERYWHERE WITH EVERYONE, IN ALL TIMES
AND PLACES. We are free to offer thanks in the little, ordinary things as well
as in the big and extraordinary things. Where a heart of bitterness dwells on
what is wrong with the world and is full of complaints; a heart of thankfulness
dwells on what is right with the world and is full of appreciation.
As we gather around our thanksgiving tables today, each one of
us might want to take turns offering a prayer to the LORD for a particular
blessing given to us.
Let us pray: God our Loving
Parent, we remember and think upon all in our lives that is good and lovely,
pure, honest and just; and we give you thanks. For this earth you have made;
for giving us dominion over it and inviting us to share in the work of your
almighty hands as your stewards of it; and for your promise of a new earth,
free of pain and death, we give you thanks. We thank you for the gift of life;
for power and freedom to love, laugh, learn, work, play, dance and sing; for
family life in which to grow; for life in others and fellowship with them; and
for your promise of abundant and eternal life, we thank you. LORD, there is so
much to thank you for, things and people that we forget and take too much for
granted; yet we know that our lives would be empty without you. We thank you,
especially then, that you came into our world and stayed to live among us;
offering us your friendship and love. For everything and everyone, we give you
thanks. We pray this in the name of our One and Holy God, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. Amen.