A
Grateful, Courageous heart
Psalm 66
Thanksgiving Day is coming. There
are some who will complain that we have nothing to be thankful for this year.
+The
Stock Market is down.
+Groceries
are high.
+Folks
are out of jobs.
+There
is no end in sight!
How
can we give thanks on Thanksgiving when this year has been harder than the last
year, and recent years have been harder than years in the not-so-recent past?
If giving thanks requires that every
year be bigger and richer than the year before, then the complainers are right.
We should only give thanks when every THIS year is bigger than every LAST year.
But if giving thanks has a different source, then you’d better get to the store
to buy food for a feast. Thanksgiving Day is almost upon us.
[Illus: Have You
Taken Inventory Lately?]
Author David McLennon tells a story
of his very first job in a small town general store. This was in the day before
mails and supermarket chains. At age thirteen he was hired as a handy boy. He would sweep the floor, bag
items for customers, and put up stock.
On one particular Saturday, he heard
the owner say to one of the clerks: “It’s that time of the year again: Inventory
Season." Dr. McLennon confessed that this was a word that had not yet
entered into his vocabulary. When an opportune moment arrived, he went to the store
owner and asked, “Sir, what is Inventory
Season?” Patiently the owner explained that it was a time when you made a
list of everything that you had -- from groceries on the shelves to wrapping
paper and string.”
Still somewhat puzzled, the young
McLennon then asked, “Why?”
“Well,” responded the owner, “We
need to count the stock we have at the end of the year. Every now and then we have
to take inventory just to see what we have.”
That little story, to me, provides
an important aspect of what Thanksgiving is about. It is a time when each of us
needs to ask ourselves the question: “Have
I taken inventory of my life lately? Have I made an effort to count all the
things that I do have in life instead
of complaining about the things that I
don’t have? It is a good exercise especially when we are of a mind to brood
or worry. Have you taken inventory lately?
What I am suggesting here is that from
time to time, we should sit down and do some talking to ourselves about all of
the gifts and opportunities and challenges that God has given each one of us. This
is a simple and gracious attitude toward life.
Now, one step further: Is this
attitude of taking inventory of our blessings harder this year than it was in
years past? After all, if we have suffered losses and setbacks in this year,
should we be expected to give thanks? In good years, “Yes;” in bad years, is
our answer, “No”? The core of the matter is this: What is the source of our gratitude? Is the source of our
thanksgiving spirit an ever-growing abundance of blessings and upward mobility?
Or does a thanksgiving spirit have a different source?
[ILLUS: EXPRESS PRAYER]
A young boy had only heard his Grandfather
offer the blessing before the meal at Thanksgiving, Easter, and other special
occasions; when he, typically, said a long prayer over the food.
One night, after a fun campout and
fishing trip, the Grandfather (to the boy’s surprise) asked a very brief
blessing on the food. With a gleam in his eye, the boy grinned at his
Grandfather and said, "You don't pray so long when you're hungry, do you
Grandpa?"
The
young boy caught the question that I am raising this Sunday before
Thanksgiving. Are we more grateful when we are well-fed and life is filled with
promise than when we are not-so-well fed and maybe even worried about our
future?
I contend that the source of our gratitude
is not the measure of the blessings we pile around us on Thanksgiving or any
other day. Instead, the source of our gratitude is our confidence in the
goodness and constancy of God. You see, if our gratitude depends on the
measured pile of our blessings, then that measure can vary from day to day and
year to year. Some years are better than others. Some days are better than
others. Some days I just feel more able
to take on the challenges than I do on other days.
As a nation, we measure our readiness
to take on the challenges with something called “The Consumer Confidence
Index.” I’m not sure how they come up with it, but we hear it reported from
time to time on the news. But, what does it measure? Is it only focused on our
readiness to buy things? Or does it measure other areas of confidence and
worry?
Certainly, our confidence that the
future looks bright enough to make a major purchase is a kind of measure.
Still, I contend that it is not a worthy basis for deciding our thankfulness on
this Thanksgiving Day.
[ILLUS: Grinch
who stole Christmas]
"Why?" he asks. It is
because, he learns, Christmas resides not in things but in the heart
which is thankful. He could not steal their gratitude (3).
While
the movie does teach us that gratitude is in the heart, not in presents and
things, it does not explore the deeper source of that gratitude. I want to
explore that well-spring of gratitude now with you.
II.
The source of our gratitude is plain to see in our scripture this morning from
the Psalms. The source is our confidence in the goodness and constancy of God.
TEXT: The Psalm we read this morning
reaches back into Israel’s past to tell the story of God’s faithfulness. It
reaches back to tell the defining story of God’s love for his people:
5 Come and see what God has done,
His wonderful acts among people.
6 He changed
the sea into dry land;
our
ancestors crossed the river on foot.
There we
rejoiced because of what he did.
7 He rules
forever by his might
and
keeps his eyes on the nations.
Let no
rebels rise against him. (Psalm 66.5-7).
[A.] This Psalm reminds Israel that
God led Israel out of Egypt and slavery, to form them as a distinct people and
then brought them to the Land of Promise. Every time Israel told this story,
they were reminded of that defining moment in their history. Even though we do not
cherish this story as ancient Israel did, this story reminds Christians of
God’s mighty deeds, too. And this story prepares us to hear how God acted again
in the person of Jesus Christ to call the world out of sin and into righteousness.
You see it in our Christian story, the Gospel, too.
[B.]
There is something more about the Exodus story that hits us who are
Americans in a distinct way. The Exodus story is not just about geography – as
if moving from Egypt to Israel was the whole story. This story tells us that
God’s great defining act was leading Israel out of slavery into freedom. Some
might claim that this is the power of liberation over the power of oppression.
But, I read this as more personal than the triumph of one concept over another.
This is God, who moved by love, called Israel out of slavery in Egypt into
freedom in the Land of Promise. Not finished, God, in that same love, would
extend such freedom to all the peoples of the earth. This is the God, who fully
revealed to us in the face of Jesus Christ, would extend such grace and hope
and freedom to whosoever would believe in Him. It is not just about geography;
it also about God’s gift of freedom from oppression.
[C.]
So, the Psalmist called Israel, in every year following that defining
moment of freedom and love, to give thanks to God, knowing that this is the
constant character of God. Now, as Christians, we freely add to that story of Israel’s
liberation, the Christian story of the gracious gift of the Christ.
[D.]
And one further step: as Americans on Thanksgiving Day, we now add to this
faith story our nation’s story which has been a blessing to each and every one of
us. Almost from our nation’s beginnings, we have heard the call for a day of
national Thanksgiving for God’s gift of this good land, its people, and its
vision of freedom with opportunity.
So regardless of the current
economic indicators, we reach back for the great stories of our history to find
evidence of God’s goodness and God’s love. In the conviction that God’s love
and goodness do not waver, we rise up to give thanks for God and God’s many
blessings.
Last year, the Thanksgiving Proclamation
from the President of the United States included this thought when he said:
Thanksgiving Day is a time each year, dating
back to our founding, when we lay aside the troubles and disagreements of the
day and bow our heads in humble recognition of the Providence bestowed upon our
Nation. Amidst the uncertainty of a
fledgling experiment in democracy, President George Washington declared the
first Thanksgiving in America, recounting the blessings of tranquility, union,
and plenty that shined upon our young country.
In the dark days of the Civil War when the fate of our Union was in
doubt, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a Thanksgiving Day, calling for
"the Almighty hand" to heal and restore our Nation.
In confronting the challenges of our day,
we must draw strength from the resolve of previous generations who faced their
own struggles and take comfort in knowing a brighter day has always dawned on
our great land. As we stand at the close
of one year and look to the promise of the next, we lift up our hearts in
gratitude to God for our many blessings, for one another, and for our Nation
(1).
Thankfulness
comes, not from our piled up trophies; instead, it rises out of a grateful,
courageous heart. It comes from the great story of God’s faithfulness which
does not waver and our confidence in God’s loving-kindness. The fortunes of
each passing year will vary; some years are better than others. But, each time
we recall the great story of God’s mighty acts by which we have been brought to
freedom, we return to our foundation of gratitude.
III.
Take this thought one step further. Thankful is not merely our response to our
God who is good and constant in love. I believe that thankfulness shapes us
into the people we become.
Do you remember the poem by Dorothy Nolte,
“Children Learn What they Live”? While is focuses on children, it actually
speaks about the way our environment shapes the people we become.
The poem begins
with words of caution:
If children live
with criticism, they learn to condemn.
If children live
with hostility, they learn to fight.
If children live
with fear, they learn to be apprehensive.
It ends with
more positive thoughts:
If children live
with kindness and consideration, they learn respect.
If children live
with security, they learn to have faith in themselves and in those about them.
If children live
with friendliness, they learn the world is a nice place in which to live (2).
If
I could add one more line to the poem, it would say: “If people live with
thankfulness, then they learn to receive the world with gratitude.” Of course,
the opposite is true, too. We are shaped by what we live with. On Thanksgiving
Day, we are learning to receive the world with gratitude by gathering with
family and friends to share the feast of Thanksgiving.
On Thursday, all across this nation,
we share a feast. Let it be a feast of gratitude, a feast of retelling the
great story of this nation with its freedom and its opportunity, a feast of
remembering the goodness and faithfulness of God.
Notes:
1. President
Barak Obama, The Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamation, 2010
2. Nolte, Dorothy
Law. “Children Learn What They Live,” Copyright 1972.
3. “How the
Grinch Stole Christmas.” written by Dr. Seuss, published as a book by Random
House in 1957. Chuck Jones adapted the story as an animated special for TV in
1966. (Source Wikopedia.)
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