First Reading:
1O give thanks to the Lord, call on his name, make known
his deeds among the peoples.
2Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his
wonderful works.
3Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord
rejoice.
4Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence
continually.
5Remember the wonderful works he has done, his miracles,
and the judgments he uttered,
6O offspring of his servant Abraham, children of Jacob, his
chosen ones.
7He is the Lord our God; his judgments are in all the earth.
8He is mindful of his covenant forever, of the word that he
commanded, for a thousand generations
Second Reading:
12But we appeal to you, brothers and sisters, to respect those who labor among you, and have charge of you in the Lord and admonish you; 13esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. 14And we urge you, beloved, to admonish the idlers, encourage the faint hearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them. 15See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. 16Rejoice always, 17pray without ceasing, 18give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19Do not quench the Spirit. 20Do not despise the words of prophets, 21but test everything; hold fast to what is good; 22abstain from every form of evil. 23May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.
In 1944 as Germany marched through the Netherlands, two Dutch watchmakers were imprisoned by the Germans. They were sisters and their crime was helping Jews survive the holocaust by welcoming them into their home and hiding them from the authorities. Corrie and Betsie ten Boom were their names. After they were captured, they were moved through a few prisons before finally arriving at Ravensbruk in 1945. Corrie wrote a book about her experience in which she said that developing an attitude of thanksgiving transformed her life in prison… being aware of what was around her for which she was able to give thanks was one of the keys to her survival. I'd like to share a bit of her story with you this morning.
As we entered what would be our living quarters, our noses were the first to tell us that the room was filthy: somewhere the plumbing had backed up, and the bedding was soiled and rancid. As our eyes adjusted to the gloom, we saw that there were no individual beds anywhere, but rather square piers stacked three high, packed as tightly as possible with only an occasional aisle between them just wide enough for a single person to walk sideways. The room was nearly empty of people right then; everyone was out on their work crews, but we could see that it would be quite crowded when they returned. As we walked single file deep into the belly of the room, our guide pointed to a second tier in the center of a large block. To reach it we had to stand on the bottom pier, haul ourselves up, and then crawl across three other straw-covered platforms to reach the bed that we would share with – with who knows how many others? The deck above us was too low for us to sit up. So we lay down, struggling to hold back the nausea that swept over us from the smell of rotting straw.
Suddenly I sat up, hitting my head on the cross-slats above. Something had pinched my leg.
Fleas!
I cried. Betsie, the place is swarming with them!
Here! And here another one! Betsie, how can we live in such a
place!
She began to say, Show us how. Show us how.
She said it so
matter-of-factly it took me a moment to recognize she was praying.
It seemed like more and more the distinction between prayer and the
rest of life was vanishing for Betsie.
Corrie!
She said. God's already given us the answer! Before we
asked, just like always! In the Bible this morning, where was it?
Read that part again!
I glanced down the long dim aisle to make sure no guards were in
sight, then drew the bible from its pouch. It was in First
Thessalonians,
I said…In the feeble light I turned the pages.
Here it is: 'Comfort the frightened, help the weak, be patient
with everyone see that none of you repays evil for evil, but always
seek to do good to one another and to all…'
It seemed written
exactly for this place.
Go on,
Said Betsie. That wasn't everything.
I continued Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all
circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus
That's it Corrie! That's the answer. How can we live here? 'Give
thanks in all circumstances!' That's what we can do. We can start
right now to thank God for every single thing about this new
barracks.
I looked at her, then around at the dark, pungent room… Such as?
Such as being here together
I bit my lip. Oh yes, thank you Jesus that we are here together.
Such as what you're holding in your hand
I looked down at the bible, Yes. Thank you Lord that there was no
inspection as we entered here, and thank you for the women who will
meet you in this room through these pages.
Betsie continued Thank you for the crowding here, since we are
packed so close, many more will hear. And thank you for the fleas
and —
At this point I had to stop her. Betsie, there's no way even God
can make me grateful for fleas.
Give thanks in all circumstances
she quoted… It
doesn't say in pleasant circumstances
, Fleas are a part of
this place, and right now so are we. So we laid there and gave
thanks for the fleas, but this time I was sure that Betsie was
wrong.
They laid there assigned to their new living quarters, which most of us can't even begin to comprehend, and they gave thanks. In fact, an attitude of thanksgiving was the only way they could imagine to go on living in that place. As they lived their gratitude, it transformed life in their barracks. They searched to give thanks, even thanking God for the fleas. Because they knew that if they could give thanks, they would see the ways God was present and active even in that place.
Giving thanks for fleas and for crowding wouldn't be easy for me and I'm sure it wasn't easy for them. The story of Corie Ten Boom highlights for me the fact that Paul's words on thanksgiving in today's scripture reading seem a little out of touch with real life. How can we give thanks in all circumstances? I'm not in a situation nearly as bad as Ravensbruk and yet I find that I want to qualify Paul's words... give thanks in most circumstances. On really good days, I could even go so far as give thanks in almost everything. But to give thanks in all circumstances, that's hard: especially in our culture where we get so many messages to the contrary.
Various types of advertising have done a great job convincing us that we, and our lives, aren't quite good enough just as we are, and if we only had this one more thing, our lives would be better. In our consumer culture we are trained to reach out, grab on and hold tight to the things we want, and the images we aspire to. And it's pretty easy to fall into that line of thinking because there is always more to be gotten. The appetite for stuff and for status is insatiable and if we let it, it'll dominate our existence, turning our attention toward precisely what is scarce instead of what we have in abundance. That kind of attitude, which is the attitude that our culture tries to force on us, elbows out any sense of grateful thanksgiving. And without thanksgiving, it's awfully tough to recognize where God is in the world.
Thomas Merton said that Gratitude is at the heart of Christian
Life.
And I agree with him. Because gratitude isn't only a
response to what God has done but an attitude of thanksgiving also
predisposes us to see what God is doing-- right now, in our
mundane, every-day lives. An attitude of thanksgiving enables us
to see the multitude and the magnitude of gifts that we have before
us at any given moment, and perhaps even more importantly, it
directs our attention to the giver.
An attitude of thanksgiving is counter-cultural, it requires an openness of ears, eyes and hands to perceive the gifts that are here, right in front of us. It requires an openness of mind and heart so that we can receive with humility those gifts as gifts. And it requires perseverance to look for ways to be thankful even when all we can see are the crowds and the fleas.
A grateful person knows that God is good not only by words but also
by the experience of their own lives. So, this morning, I want to
invite us all into an exercise to practice cultivating this
attitude of thanksgiving. I'm going to stop talking for the span
of about a minute and I would invite you to reflect back on your
week, asking God to go with you… remember the different
interactions you had with people: friends, spouses, children,
parents, siblings, co-workers; remember the different activities of
your days; whatever your week held, up until this very moment. And
as you remember, keep in mind the simple question, for what were
you most grateful this week?
When we are done with this little
exercise, we'll have an opportunity to celebrate what we're
thankful for by sharing it with someone else.
Go ahead and get comfortable, close your eyes if that's helpful, notice your breathing, slow down and invite God to go with you over your week mindful of that for which you were grateful.
As you are drawn to it, close this prayer time by giving thanks to God for whatever you noticed.
Let's take another minute or two now and have our own thanksgiving celebration right here in the sanctuary by turning to a person in the pew near you and sharing as much or as little as you feel comfortable about what you were grateful for, what you noticed about yourself or what you noticed about God through this prayer practice. I'll let you know when half the time is up so that you can switch who's sharing if you haven't done it already.
So in the children's sermon, I gave the kiddos a bit of homework. The goal of it was to foster an attitude of thanksgiving that isn't limited by the time of year… and I give you this practice with the same goal in mind. Way back in the spring we decided that one of our focus points as a church is to be a community of believers that's growing together spiritually and part of that is to develop an attitude of thanksgiving. As we become aware of the presence, the grace, and the love of God in our lives, our lives become holy because we meet God there. As we respond in thanks to the grace of God, whether it's by celebration, by service, or some other manifestation of thanks, it's a reinforcing cycle… we become more aware of the activity of God and in turn we become more thankful… It's the cycle of the Christian life, and it's the joy of giving thanks in all circumstances. Thanks be to God! Amen
The foregoing sermon was given by Rev. Dan Holland at the United Parish of Bowie on Thanksgiving Sunday, November 22, 2009.
© 2009 Daniel Holland
