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Psalm 100:1-4
Make
a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.
Serve
the Lord with gladness; come before his presence with singing,
Know
ye that the Lord he is God; it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves;
we
are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter
into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise;
be
thankful unto him, and bless his name.
The question I put
before you this morning is, who needs thanksgiving?
Not just as a national holiday but as a way of
being.
If your answer is,
“I don’t,” then you are emotionally and spiritually anemic and sadly,
may not even be aware of it.
Is that possible?
‘Fraid so.
We all at one time or the other pick up bad emotional, spiritual and
physical habits until we are so overwhelmed by them, they exist as a natural
state of affairs.
To admit to being thankful is certainly a
Christian response to a Biblical admonition.
If you can’t or
refuse to find things for which you are thankful then unfortunately you daily
carry around your own little rain cloud.
Giving thanks isn’t
just for preachers to preach about or newspaper columnist to write about, it is
rather a very special shining moment when you manage to capture a grateful
heart and hold on to it with might and main.
I don’t mean the
huff and puff for Thanksgiving Day fluff.
I mean a deep down awareness that makes you want to express thanksgiving
on a regular basis.
It is not only
foolish to do otherwise, it is bad manners.
Indeed, have you
ever stopped to think that to take and take and take without saying thank you
is more than just rude, it is ruthless?
It is actually
destructive to civilization.
Pretty strong talk
about whether to be grateful or not, isn’t it?
But
just in case you don’t understand the power of thanksgiving let me share a
story with you. A true story.
The
man was depressed, and that word does not even begin to describe how low he
felt. A thousand pounds of problems were
pulling his soul apart.
He
had lost faith in himself, in his God and in all the people around him in the
restaurant. The meal he had just ordered
tasted to him like ground-up paper and re-fortified sawdust.
And
to make the moment even worse, a little girl across the restaurant was loudly
complaining to her mother.
He tried to ignore the situation but
could not help overhearing her repeated words.
“But, mamma, why can’t we say a blessing before we eat?”
The waitress who had just served their
breakfast turned back to the table and said, “Why, of course, we can say the
blessing, little one.” Turning to all
the rest of the people she said, “Can we all bow our heads in prayer?”
Surprisingly, or perhaps not so
surprisingly, everyone stopped eating and bowed their heads. The little girl in a voice loud and clear
exclaimed, “God is great, God is good.
Let us thank him for our food.
Amen.”
That simple prayer, that well meant
moment of thanksgiving, changed the entire atmosphere. The customers began to talk to each
other.
There were more smiles. And the waitress, loud enough for everyone to
hear, said, “Maybe we should do this more often.”
The man who had been so depressed didn’t
raise his head after the little girl’s “amen.”
He continued praying and thanking God for all his blessings, rather than
majoring in complaining to himself about all the things he didn’t have and
couldn’t do.
Sometimes
simplicity speaks with such eloquence.
Such as the little fourth grader who,
when asked to write about Thanksgiving Day, wrote, “The Pilgrims came here seeking freedom, of
you know what. When they landed they
gave thanks, to you know who. Because of
them, we can worship each Sunday, you know where.
So this morning I’d like you to let a few
simple words speak with eloquence. In
the bulletins which each of you were given are three blank cards with A Thank You Note printed at the
top. I would like for you to take those
cards, if you haven’t already, and put them in your pocket or pocketbook, and
later today write three short thank you’s.
Fact of the matter, I’m
going to stop right now in the beginning of my sermon to give you time to write
down the names of three people you need to write thank you notes to.
Later today finish the notes - and be sure to
mail them!.
It
need be no more than, “Dear John, thank you for being my friend.” “Dear Joyce, thank you for all the good
things you have done for me in all the many years we have known each
other.” “Dear…. (whoever) This is just a short note to say Thank You
for sharing your faith with me.” “Dear…”
you fill in the blanks, they are your friends. You certainly will mightily
surprise them when you put down in writing how and why you are thankful for
their friendship. But take my word for
it, they will never forget it.
Never.
Are you are perhaps
sitting there thinking to yourself, Well, that’s a great idea preacher and I
really ought to do it, but I probably won’t.
And if I were to ask you why, your only reason might well be something
like, “ah…because.”
Well,
maybe I should tell you the following story in hopes it will lift you out of
your lethargy. Lead you to write the
three notes and perhaps three more.
In 1860, a young ministerial student, Edward
Spencer, in Evanston, Illinois watched a ship go aground on the shore of Lake
Michigan. It was the dead of winter and
ice floated all around. Nevertheless, time and time again he waded
into the frigid waters to rescue 17 passengers.
In the process, his health was permanently and
irreparably damaged. Some years later at
his funeral, it was noted that not one of the people he rescued ever thanked
him.
Will you one day stand beside the grave
of a friend or family member and speak of all the things you are thankful for
that came from them, or for who they were?
Will you
stand around their grave and be thankful but not do so now before it is too
late? Now is when they can know
and appreciate and be warmed by your love and thanksgiving. So get busy and write.
Hopefully,
all of you had no trouble thinking of three people and why you are thankful for
their friendship, but if you did have trouble, why?
Is it
because you can’t think of anyone or anything to be thankful for?
Or,
is it perhaps because the very thought of putting such words in writing is
embarrassing? Or, do you feel it might
embarrass them to receive your note?
What a sad state of affairs if any or all of
this is true. Truly sad.
Remember in the book of Luke the ten
lepers that Jesus healed and how afterwards only one came back with
thanksgiving?
Have you ever stopped to wonder why the
other nine didn’t give thanks?
“Well,
hey, I’m rushed right now…I’ll get around to it.”
“Hey,
I did what I was told. Doesn’t that
show I am obedient
and therefore thankful?”
“He’s
God, he knows I’m grateful - why do I have to say it out loud.”
It
is, indeed, the Thanksgiving season and how have your thanksgiving-times been
going? Or have you been practicing
creative thanksgiving abstinence?
Do
you complain at the alarm clock when it goes off all week long? Think of all those who cannot hear.
When
grumpily you arose each morning, did you stop to think of those who are
bedridden?
Do you fuss at all
the drivers who cut you off in traffic?
Think of those who cannot drive because they cannot see.
Are
you unhappy because you feel your job is boring? Your television tells you all the time about
those who have no jobs and the many who fear they may lose the jobs they
have.
(rewrite of a newsletter by Charles L. Brown)
In the year 1883, it
was inaccurately reported that the sun did not rise. However, on that day in August the people
opened their eyes to an eerie darkness.
No roosters crowed, no birds chirped, none of
the usual sounds of a new day took place.
Around the world, people gathered in small groups to discuss what was
happening.
Slowly the churches began to fill and by noon
every church was overflowing. There were
cries for mercy. Cries of
bewilderment.
Prayers that lasted into the night.
Prayers that the next morning the sun would
return.
When time for the
next new day grew near, great crowds began to gather on the highest hilltops,
atop the highest buildings.
People stared at the eastern horizon; every
eye fixed on that point where the sun should appear.
And then it
came. Came with its usual
exuberance. Came with its rays painting
patterns across the sky. Warm and
comforting as it had always been. At
first there was only silence and then as one mighty voice, shouts of
thanksgiving. Thank you, Lord echoed all around.
No one yet knew that a sleeping, giant
volcano in Indonesia, called Krakatoa, had come to life. When it exploded, it had sent streaming 6
miles into the atmosphere tons of ash and lava rock, a black cloud so thick the
sun’s rays could not penetrate it.
On the wings of the wind it rapidly traveled
around the world, covering whole regions from horizon to horizon with its
debris.
It was the first time such a gigantic
eruption had ever happened.
It was also the first time many in the gathered
masses had thanked God for the sun.
Of course, few people thank God for the sun,
it’s always there. And perhaps that’s the point. We need to constantly thank God for the always there’s He daily gives us.
Two
men were walking without a care in the world through a beautiful meadow.
Suddenly,
nothing was beautiful at all - an enraged bull, seeing them, began to paw the
ground and then headed in their direction.
As
they ran for their lives, one man shouted at the other, “Pray, John. Pray.”
The
other man shouted back, “I’ve never made a public prayer in my life.”
“Well, now is the time,” puffed back his
companion, “the bull is about to catch us.”
“All
right,” panted John, “I’ll pray the only prayer I know, one my father used to
repeat at the table, ‘O Lord, make us truly thankful for what we are about to
receive.”
A
good thanksgiving prayer is improved and better aimed with practice.
A
good thanksgiving prayer is an extension of many thanksgiving prayers just
sitting and waiting to be used again.
A good thanksgiving prayer doesn’t become a
joke because it is the only one you know, and haven’t even used that one very
often.
When Tucky and I
eat out I always ask for a table by a window or in the corner. Both offer a great view. And I guess that is what having a thankful
heart is all about. Having an attitude
toward life with a great view. And more
importantly, the ability to appreciate the view.
Have you ever dared to complain that you have not been getting
what you deserve?
Perhaps
you had better offer up a prayer of gratitude that you have not been getting
what you deserve.
Gratitude
– thanksgiving…these are gifts, but you have to recognize them as such. Be excited by them. Unwrap them with joy and apply them with
enthusiasm.
Were
your taxes higher than you would have liked them to be? The streets of Miami are filled with those
who pay no taxes. During the last
election campaigns did you get sick and tired of the attack ads?
Bad as they were, and I agree we would have
been better off without them, would you prefer to live where such freedom of
speech did not exist to then be abused?
Do you complain that the bathroom scales must
be broken when you look down at a new high?
There are millions in Africa who haven’t over-eaten in years.
Why be
thankful? Because there is
transformation in gratitude. There is
energy in gratitude. There is the smell
and touch of eternity in gratitude. One
thing is for sure, if you cannot find gratitude for what you have, it is quite
likely you will never get enough to make you grateful.
Remember
the Peanuts cartoon where Lucy says to Charlie Brown, “I have everything, I
hate everybody. I hate the whole wide
world.” Charlie Brown replies, “But I
thought you had inner peace.” Lucy
retorts, “I do have inner peace. But I
still have outer obnoxiousness.”
People who are
without gratitude are often obnoxious.
How could they be otherwise? How
can one smile when there is a scowl on their soul? How can anyone do anything else but fight
the world when they believe the world is dedicated to fighting them? A grateful heart just looks at the world
differently. A man or woman who says
“Thank you” a dozen times a day does not complain a dozen times a day.
Did
you ever stop to think that gratitude creates environmental protection? It is thanksgiving in action. Yes, bringing to the table of life an
appreciative spirit improves the environment for you and those who live around
you. When you enter a room what do you
do to the emotional atmosphere and climate?
When you leave, what have you done?
What
I have been trying to suggest, in all the ways I can think of, is that you
become a prisoner of the spirit of thanksgiving, not a prisoner to pessimism
and all its woes.
To be
held captive by a thankful spirit so you don’t become a modern day Ebenezer
Scrooge. Would you be happy and content?
Then grow so comfortable with being thankful you wear that attitude like
an old suit that fits well and feels good.
There is such beauty in thanksgiving and when
it is lacking, there is such empty ugliness.
The story is told of a man who found the barn where Satan stores
the seeds he sows in the human heart: envy, greed, anger, hatred, lust, and so
on. The man soon noticed that Satan had more seeds of despair and discouragement
than of any other kind. He learned that
those seeds could be made to grow almost anywhere. When Satan was questioned, he reluctantly
admitted that there was one place in which he could not get them to grow.
"And where is that?" asked the man.
Satan sadly replied with defeat in his voice, "In the heart of a
thankful man.”
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