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Thanks Giving by Steve Reid
Matthew 6:25-33
audo missing
Would you pray with me: Dear Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, for you are our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
My title for this morning’s sermon may, at first, seem a little strange and untimely. After all, who talks about Thanks Giving in June, and especially on Pentecost Sunday.
But I believe, Thanksgiving, or giving thanks, is an important and always timely topic if we want to lead lives that are both faithful and joyful. And, on Pentecost Sunday, as we remember the founding of the Church, it is appropriate, to remember all the blessings God has given to us through his Church and, in turn, to strive to be a blessing to others.
While preparing this message on Thanks giving, or giving thanks, I read a read a tongue and cheek story which told about
“An elderly man in Phoenix who called his son in New York and said,
‘I hate to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing; 45 years of misery is enough.’
‘What are you talking about, Dad?’ the son shouted.
‘We can't stand the sight of each other any longer,’ the old man said.
‘We're sick of each other, and I'm sick of talking about this, so you call your sister in Chicago and tell her.’
Then he hung up.
Frantic, the son calls his sister, who explodes on the phone.
‘Like heck they're getting divorced," she shouts, ‘I'll take care of this.’
She calls Phoenix immediately, and scolds her father,
‘You are NOT getting divorced. Don't do a single thing until I get there. I'm calling my brother back, and we'll both be there tomorrow. Until then, don't you or mom do a thing, DO YOU HEAR ME?’
With that, the old man hangs up his phone, smiles and turns to his wife seated next to him.
‘Okay,’ he says, ‘They're both coming for Thanksgiving and they’re paying their own fares.’”
I must confess that Thanksgiving has probably become my favorite holiday. Unlike Christmas, it is not yet totally commercialized. There is not the pre Thanksgiving rush with the crush of long lines at cash registers and strip mall parking lots.
For a day, and often two, time slows down, and people around our nation take the time to stop and to give thanks to God.
We have developed certain Thanksgiving traditions in my family. Each year, we rent an old place called Epworth House at a Methodist Camp Ground on the shores of Lake Geneva.
My mother does the Turkey, and everyone else brings a dish to pass.
When we get together, there is always an intense, but good natured battle of the men verses the women in Pictionary – I think in all the years that we’ve been doing it, the Reid men have won only once.
In the evening, after it gets dark, we sing and tell stories around a campfire.
I think my favorite part of the day is just before the meal.
The sun is always setting over Lake Geneva as we sit down, and we begin the meal by naming people and things that we are grateful for and remembering those who are no longer with us.
Some of the members of my family do not attend Church, and are at various places in their faith journey. But, at this one time of year, we pause and recognize all that God has done for us.
While Thanksgiving may not be your favorite Holiday, it does I think provide a concrete marker for an attitude which we need to cultivate the whole year through.
In the rush of days, in June or January, in our ordinary times, it is so easy to forget the fact that all that we have, and all that we are a gift from God.
And, when we forget, when we feel that what we have is what we’ve earned, we most assuredly will later find ourselves achingly wondering,
“Where is God in my daily life?”
It’s interesting when you think about it – how easy it is to take God and the world that we live in for granted.
How much, we could ask ourselves, did we pay for the oxygen which we’re breathing into our lungs right now?
We paid nothing, and yet with out it, we, in a matter of minutes, would all be dead.
What did we do this morning, we could ask ourselves, to help the sun rise in the Eastern sky?
If you’re like me, you were sound asleep, and yet, each and every day, the sun, the moon and the stars put on an amazing show while doing their awesome work.
In the Gospel lesson which I selected for this morning, Jesus tells his followers
“Consider the birds of the air they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your life span?
And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.”
“Therefore I tell you do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear.
“Seek first” instead, he instructs his followers, “the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be yours as well.”
It is a funny thing about the human condition that when we think we are “taking care of ourselves, looking out for number one” we often discover later that we really are not.
We want so much to feel “I’m in charge”, “I’ve can take care of myself”, Or “I did it my way” (as Frank Sinatra sang) and “On my own”.
But then, we can hit a brick wall – an illness, the sudden death of one we love, or a severe financial set back, and all our striving seems for naught. That which we have built all by ourselves comes crashing down and we are left, we feel, totally alone.
Jesus, I think, is hinting in this morning’s lesson, that daily gratitude to God is the antidote to the worry and haunting aloneness that so many of us can feel.
If we never appreciate and if we fail to acknowledge what God has done and is doing for us each day, how then can we trust that He will, in the future, continue to see us through?
God is with us and for us in countless and everyday ways, if we only we train our eyes to see. In that way, we can think of an attitude of thanksgiving as a cataract surgery for the soul.
Last year I received a wise email which told about,
“A man who whispered,
"God, speak to me" And a meadowlark sang. But the man did not hear.
So the man yelled "God, speak to me". And thunder & lightning rolled across the sky. But the man did not listen.
The man looked around and said, "God, let me see you." And a star shined brightly. But the man did not see.
And, the man shouted, "God, show me a miracle" And a life was born. But the man did not notice.
So, the man cried out in despair, "Touch me, God, and let me know you are here"
Whereupon, God reached down and touched the man. But the man brushed the butterfly away and walked on.”
And it is true, there are so many blessings, evidence of God’s loving hand all around us day, if only we have the eyes to see. There is wisdom in the simple children’s poem which says,
"Count your blessings one by one, and you might be surprised what the Lord has done."
It could, from one point of view be said, that the young people whom Uhlich Children’s Home serves, have very few blessings to count and very little to be thankful for.
Most of the young people who I work with in our residential center have been through numerous foster placements. They are separated from their families, and many have suffered severe emotional, physical, or sexual abuse.
Given the way the world has met them at a young age you might expect that these young people have given up on life, on hope, or on ever trusting someone again.
But, I’m grateful to say, that this is not the case. Not to minimize the anger and struggles that they do go through, and there are many, still it never ceases to amaze me how much they still want to trust, to love, and when given proper guidance, to reach out in kindness to others. I think it is a testament to the strength of the human spirit, and the undying spark of love which God has placed with in each of our hearts.
Each week, I take a group of our young people to feed the homeless at the Epiphany United Church of Christ. I can bring about eight kids each week, and the hardest part of my evening is trying to choose 8 of fifteen or twenty who are clamoring to go.
Our youth help in the preparation, and serve, restarant style, the salad, main course, and desert to homeless adults and children whom Epiphany Church reaches out to each week. The kids love going, and it is so touching to see the sweetness and kindness in their faces as they serve strangers sitting at table on folding chairs in a Fellowship Hall.
“I had to thank God tonight, pastor”, one of the young said to me recently as we drove home.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because”, she said, “I realized that I could have easily been the one sitting at the table instead of the one serving the food.”
Each Thursday night, I take some of our kids to a place called the Tree House Animal Shelter. There, our kids feed, play with, and cuddle, cats in order to help ready them for adoption.
One of our young men developed a particular affection for a black cat, brought in for abuse, and blind in one eye. Often, the young man would lay down on the floor, and, after tenativeily approaching, the little cat would lay on the his chest, and purr up a storm.
When, after some weeks, we learned that the little cat had been adopted, the young man, who was himself a victim of abuse, said to me,
“I learned something from that cat, even though you’ve been hurt, I learned you can still have love in your heart.”
“Consider the birds of the air” Jesus said, “they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your life span?
And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.”
“Therefore I tell you do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear.
“Seek first” instead, he encourages us, “the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be yours as well.”
I’m grateful to be learning from the young people I serve that God can visit us in all our circumstances. And, that even when times are difficult and dark, now is always the right time to give thanks to God.
Some years ago, I came across a poem by Courtland Sayers which I love. He expresses well, I think, the attitude of daily Thanks giving which I have been speaking of this morning.
He writes:
“5,000 breathless dawns all new; 5,000 flowers fresh in dew.
5,000 sunsets wrapped in gold; 1 million snowflakes served ice cold.
5 quiet friends, 1 baby's love;
1 white sea with clouds above.
1 June night in a fragrant wood, 1 heart that loved and understood.
I wondered when I waked that day, in God's name--how could I ever pay”.
The poem, I think, follows the natural progression of the human heart – gratitude begets generosity
“How” he wonders, “in God's name--could I ever pay?”
And, by God’s strange arithmetic, I have seen in my own life and through the kids that I work with that we are really investing in ourselves when we gratefully reach out in love to those around us. In giving, we are the ones who truly receive.
“Seek first” Jesus said, “the Kingdom of God and his righteousness all these things shall be yours as well.”
Again, on behalf of the staff and residents of Uhlich Children’s Advantage Network I want to thank you for the “Kingdom of God” moments which your support has made possible – for purring cats on hurting kids, and for meals served to hungry strangers in a Fellowship Hall.
My prayer is that for all of you, every season will be a season of Thanksgiving, and that you will continue to find your lives as you reach out in name of the One who first loved you. With Christ’s daily help, may it be so. Amen.
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