Where has gratitude Gone?

Matthew 6:25-34

November 19, 2006         (Click the date to see the bulletin)

Rev. J. Rodgers Spencer

Pastor Ann told me a number of weeks ago that she would be on vacation this weekend and that I was to cover for her; I had more than ample time to consider a text for today. I first looked at her list of "Hard Texts" which she had scheduled and asked her if she wanted me to do the one schedule for the 19^th? "Well, you could, but if you don’t want to I would like to do that text the following week." "Fine," I said, "I may just follow the lectionary then." But then I changed my mind and told her last Sunday that I would probably pick the text for next Sunday which is Christ the King. "Oh," she said, "I had planned to do that."  "Oh," I said, "what happened to the 'hard text' you were going to use?"  "I used that last week."  "OK. I’ll find something else – have a good time while you’re away."

So Monday, I started over, and realizing that Thanksgiving was this week I thought text for Thanksgiving Day might be appropriate. Looking at the program calendar which lists the texts for appropriate days, I discovered that there was no text listed for Thanksgiving Day. Okay, so it is a national or civil holiday but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t an appropriate text for the day. I guess I’m just looking at the wrong place. So in the Worship Book on page 1095, out of 1097 pages, I discovered the listing for Thanksgiving Day. While I understand the purpose and format of the book, I also found it somewhat symbolic that this listing occurs on the next to last page. And I thought "where has gratitude gone?"

I then looked in the Book of Occasional Services and found on page 285 out of 296 pages a short section entitled "Guide lines for Interfaith Celebration of Thanksgiving." It goes on to say "A national holiday, such as Thanksgiving Day in the United States of America, offers an occasion which may be celebrated with those from a variety of faiths."

It then offers guidelines as to how to hold on the Reformed tradition and not offend others. Are we more concerned about being inclusive than being grateful? Where has all the gratitude gone?

That started me recalling earlier years of my ministry (this is either a sin or prerogative of age- for me it is a sinful prerogative). For the decade we were in Washington, Pa. Thanksgiving Day began at 8 o’clock at the church with a men’s pancake breakfast followed by a communion service for the men. And then following that service a number of us walked two blocks to join in the community Thanksgiving Day service. So by 11 o’clock on Thanksgiving Day a number of us had attended or participated in two services. Maybe now it was safe to return home and say, "Do you need any help, dear?" It’s good to be helpful, but not too soon.

So how many community thanksgiving services did you hear about this year? I only saw one in yesterday’s paper. Did the Y31 Presbyterian churches consider holding a service? And even if they did who would attend? Where has gratitude gone? I understand that a number of years ago, we here at St. Andrews used to have a Thanksgiving service and/or participate in a community service. So where has all the gratitude gone?

Well, I still asked this question when I first read the Gospel reading for thanksgiving. It’s about not being anxious, about seeking first God’s kingdom. Not a word about thankfulness. Then it dawn on me, Jesus is not giving us a check list of things for which we can be thankful, rather he is telling us how to live thankfully.

A check list would only make us more anxious. Your list is longer than my list and we would be in a competitive and comparative game and our stress level would rise. This is not what Jesus wants. This is not inductive to gratitude. It has been said:

"Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its trials ––
     it simply empties today of its joy. 
     Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow ––
     it empties today of its strength."

Gratitude, a life that is grateful, is a life freed from needless anxiety and worry. We might well say that what easy for Jesus to say in his day, he didn’t have kids to send away to college, he didn’t have rising medical cost, he didn’t face corporate down sizing, and the list could go on and on. And every statement would be true. And every statement would miss the mark. So we have to boil it down to what would be true in any and every age. Which is what Jesus did here in the Sermon on the Mount?

When we learn to trust God completely, when we stop asking is 10 percent, tithing, to be figured on gross or net income, when we are willing to live as care free as the flower, knowing that some years the rain fall will be more than adequate and we will blossom beautifully, and some years will be dry, and our blossoms will be small and we struggle to survive, yet God’s care continues over us.

"Do not be anxious about your life…" Jesus said. What would he say to those who camped out for days to be the first the buy the new Playstation 3? We seem to need things right now, the first on the block so we can turn around and sell it on e-bay and make money.

Jesus calls us to live a life in the confidence knowledge that God is with us at all times, in sickness and in health, rain or shine, joy and in sorrow. We do need to plan, to be prepared.
While planning and preparing, we can be sure that God is for us, so we have no need to be anxious (Romans 8:31).  This does not constitute a guarantee that God will endorse all our plans or open all the doors that we want opened, but it is a guarantee that God will open the right doors at the right times.  Nor is it a guarantee that we will not suffer.  Christ calls us to cross-bearing discipleship (8:34), and many Christians have suffered and even died for their faith.  However, it is a promise that, in life and death, we belong to God and, in life and death, God provides for our needs.

Paul, I believe understood this when in Romans he wrote: "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Roman 14:17). Righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit are God’s gracious gifts to us that this world cannot provide.

In an age and society of worry and anxiety Christians are called to display bold, confident and grateful lives. In a society of worldliness we are to reveal lives of contentment because our future is secure as members of his kingdom. We have a peace and joy which the world neither can give nor take away. Then we can sing and pray:

O may this bounteous God

Through all our life be near us,

With ever joyful hearts

And blessed peace to cheer us;

And keep us in God’s grace,

And guide us when perplexed,

And free us from all ills

In this world and the next.