In Gratitude for the Fullness of Life by The Rev. Donald L. Hamer, Rector
Posted on
Year B – Thanksgiving Eve
November 25, 2015
Grace Lutheran Church, Hartford
Mt 6:25-33
Thanksgiving – the very name signifies gratitude. And on this Thanksgiving 2005, as with every Thanksgiving, there are so many things we have to be grateful for. This year in particular, it occurs to me to be thankful that I was not a victim of any of the several natural disasters that occurred during the past year.
I missed the Tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia; I did not lose my home or livelihood to the ravages of the Gulf Coast hurricanes Katrina and Rita; I was not a victim of the terrible earthquake in India and Pakistan, or the floods and mudslides in Guatemala.
I could focus on being spared those horrors, but I won’t. Because to focus on being thankful for the bad stuff that DID NOT happen to me leads me to an understanding of God that I do not believe, and one which I certainly don’t want the church to teach. Because such a focus springs from an understanding of God that says God deliberately inflicted such natural disasters on those areas, that God willed for those particular people living in those areas to be killed or affected by the disasters. The unspoken piece that flows from that kind of belief is that God decided to spare me.
Then there is the logical but theologically repugnant extension of that type of belief, that God deliberately wrought those natural disasters on those areas and on those people because of some sin that may have been committed by some of the people there – a sin that was deemed so unforgivable by God that God decided to punish them.
I don’t believe in that God, and our church doesn’t teach or preach such a God. And that is not the sort of God whose goodness we celebrate this day.
For if anything, the first English settlers to arrive on this continent gave thanks not to celebrate the absence of adversity in their lives, but to celebrate God’s abundance and faithfulness even in the midst of the adversity which they experienced in those first months and years in a foreign land. They celebrated the overwhelming evidence of God’s goodness and abundance even in the midst of the rugged, cold conditions.
The author of the book of Deuteronomy recalled God’s salvation history with the Israelites, God’s saving acts in history in bringing them out of slavery in Egypt, leading them through the wilderness and sustaining them with food and sustenance, even this strange thing called “manna” which was unknown to their ancestors. And so it was for the early English settlers. They, too, were fleeing persecution and oppression, both religious and economic. They, too, were so desperate to leave that even the prospect of a long and dangerous ocean voyage, followed by an uncertain life in an unknown wilderness seemed like a preferable option. They knew what it means to truly rely on God. They knew what it means to have faith in God’s Providence.
What does it mean to have faith in God’s Providence? What does Jesus mean when he says, “. . . do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear.” Does he mean that such things are not important? Does he mean that we don’t have to take responsibility for our own care? Does he mean literally that if I do nothing, God will give me sustenance, a roof over my head, and clothe me?
I don’t think so. Indeed, even with the tremendous faith exhibited by the author of Deuteronomy, he certainly knew that many Israelites did not survive the flight from Egypt or the time in the desert. With the tremendous faith of the early English settlers, we know that many died of starvation, that entire settlements were wiped out by disease and famine. Clearly, Jesus’ admonition not to worry did not signal the end or the absence of adversity in our lives.
I often quote Mark Twain on the subject of the value of worrying. He wrote that worrying is like paying interest on a debt you may never owe. Think about that – you’re paying interest on the possibility of having a debt. It’s bad enough paying interest on the debts we DO have. Why would we want to pay interest on a debt we don’t even owe?
The context of today’s Gospel passage provides some insight into what Jesus means when he tells us not to worry about material things. Tonight’s passage occurs as part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount which includes, among other sayings, what we know as the Beatitudes, which begin with the admonition, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Tonight’s passage also follows closely the passage in which Jesus has just taught his disciples how to pray what we know as the Lord’s Prayer, with it’s petition to “Give us this day our daily bread.” Jesus is speaking to his disciples, all of whom have left gainful employment in the secular world to join Jesus’ small contingent of faithful followers. They no longer provide for themselves – their livelihood and wellbeing are now at the mercy of sympathizers in the community who will provide them with clothing, with shelter, with food and other basic necessities.
I believe that giving thanks to God is not about God providing us with the things or stuff in our lives. I think that giving thanks to God is an attitude toward our own lives, and a gut understanding of our relationship to the God who created us and all things. And when Jesus advises us “not to worry” he is not saying that bad things won’t happen to us, or that we will have everything we want out of life. Look at one of the examples he uses – “Consider the lilies of the field.” Going out on this frigid night, I don’t think any of us would really want to be one of the lilies of the field.
The key is in Jesus’ question, “Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” Jesus is not saying that such considerations lack importance. He is saying that they are secondary to the ultimate meaning of lives that are created in God’s image, and for whom Jesus walked this earth and died.
Jesus calls us to an attitude of gratitude. Jesus calls us to give thanks for all the possibilities that come with life in God’s Spirit, for all of the aspects of our lives that give them ultimate meaning. In a few moments, in place of the customary “Prayers of the People,” we will together share a Litany of Thanksgiving outlining only some of God’s gifts for which we give thanks this day.
On Thanksgiving Day, we give thanks for our very lives, for being the people God has made us to be. We give thanks for God’s grace to become the people God intends for us to be, understanding that those lives include times of happiness and times of sadness, occasions when God seems near, and occasions when God seems more distant. We give thanks for those opportunities when we can reflect God’s presence to others, and we give thanks for those opportunities when our own powers are not enough, when we seek and find God’s face in the fellowship and support of others. We give thanks when God has blessed us in such a way that we can give back to God abundantly, and we give thanks when, lacking our own resources, God takes care of us through the bounty of others.
We who have been around the block know that every life is a combination of what we perceive as “good” and “bad”, “happy” and “sad.” But all of the events of our lives go into making us the people we are, the people whom God desires for us to become. Some of us have known difficulties and even tragedy in the last year; others have had it easier. Some of us have endured the sudden death of loved ones; others of us have welcomed new life into our homes. Some of us have endured the strains of illness; others of us have celebrated a return to health. Some of us have undergone stress at the workplace or loss of jobs; others among us have come to new jobs and new opportunities in our careers. Some have struggled in relationships; others have entered into new relationships. It is so hard to find God in the midst of some of these events in our lives, and so much easier to find God in others. But the same Jesus who suffered and died for us reminds us that he walks with us through all of the difficult times, just as he is with us in the times of rejoicing.
In his book, Bread for the Journey, the late author Henri Nouwen acknowledges the occasional difficulty of finding God in the events of our lives. In a meditation entitled, “The Spiritual Work of Gratitude,” he writes:
To be grateful for the good things that happen in our lives is easy, but to be grateful for all of our lives – the good as well as the bad, the moments of joy as well as the moments of sorrow, the successes as well as the failures, the rewards as well as the rejections – that requires hard spiritual work. Still, we are only truly grateful people when we can say “thank you” to all that has brought us to the present moment. As long as we keep dividing our lives between events and people we would like to remember and those we would rather forget, we cannot claim the fullness of our beings as a gift of God to be grateful for.
And he concludes, “Let’s not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and trust that we will soon see in it the guiding hand of a loving God.”
My prayer for each of us on this Thanksgiving Day 2015 is that we are able to see God's guiding hand in all of the events of our lives, and to give thanks in all things. AMEN.