Thanks to God Always

First Congregational Church of Evanston, IL

August 20, 2006, 11^thSunday after Pentecost

Psalm 111; Ephesians 5:15-20

Rev. Dr James E. Roghair

Psalm 111: 11 Praise the Lord!

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart,

in the company of the upright, in the congregation.

Ephesians 5:18-20 ...be filled with the Spirit, 19as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, 20giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now Thank We all Our God

Between 1618 and 1648, the Thirty Years War was a series of conflicts, fought mostly in what we now know as Germany, by the various powers of Europe. It was a devastating experience. The number of people who died in Germany as the result of these conflicts is estimated variously between 15% and 30% of the population.

People were killed or maimed in the fighting. There was displacement of people. There was disease and famine. It was awful. (It sounds like some of what people have to go through in wars even in our own time (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Years'_War). )

But in the middle of this war, in 1636, Martin Rinkart, a German Lutheran Pastor wrote Nun Danket Alle Gott. We will sing it a little later in the service:

Now thank we all our God,

With heart and hand and voices,

Who wondrous things hath done,

In whom this world rejoices;

Who from our mothers’ arms,

Hath kept us on our way

With countless gifts of love.

And still is ours today. (Presbyterian Hymnal, #555)

We might wonder, what did Martin Rinkart have to be so thankful about? Things were only going to get worse. The following year disease ravaged the community and he was responsible for the burial of 4000 of the 8000 who died (Presbyterian Hymnal Companion).

And yet through it all I imagine Rinkart living in thankfulness. And we have this wonderful hymn as a testimony to his thankful life. The glorious tune was composed by Johann Crüger about the time the Thirty Year War finally came to an end. Together hymn and tune express an indomitable thankful human spirit! “Now thank we all our God.”

Precious Lord

There is another hymn – actually it is a gospel song – we’ll not sing it today, although we surely could. It is found as number 404 in your Hymnal,

Precious Lord, Take my Hand

Lead me on, help me stand;

I am tired, I am weak, I am worn;

Through the storm, through the night,

Lead me on to the light;

Take my hand, precious Lord,

Lead me home. (Presbyterian Hymnal #404)

“Precious Lord” was written by Chicago’s own Thomas Dorsey in 1932 just after the death of his wife and their small daughter. It might have been a time for smashing his fist against the wall, or for at least turning away from God to ask “why?” But Dorsey wrote the song which then became the ‘most popular black gospel song ever written (Presbyterian Hymnal Companion).’ Dorsey’s living thanks-giving that is reflected in the song that has brought meaning and help to so many other people.

Gratitude or Revenge

A few years ago, John Weborg, who was at the time teaching at North Park Seminary (though he has now retired) wrote a little article (in an obscure book on stewardship). In the article he quotes Hans Selye, who devoted his medical career to studying stress on human tissues. Selye argues that life is lived “either in gratitude or in revenge and that one or the other of these poles will determine in a large measure the health, the length of life, and the capacity of the human being.” Weborg says, “Gratitude is the sine qua non of life. (“God and Mammon” in Teaching and Preaching Stewardship, Nordan C.Murphy, editor)”

Gratitude or revenge. It is a polarity. Where do we find ourselves on that polarity?

Two Approaches

We can see around us two approaches to life: It has been most obvious to me this year for I have seen it with my own eyes. Recently my wife and I were involved with a family who had just lost their father. The man had not practiced his faith, and so when illness came and death approached he had no resources on which to rely. First it was his wife’s illness. He was never able to accept that his wife was going to die, and some who observed it said that his response was cruel to her. He demanded more of her than she had to give.

And then a few years later when it was time to face his own death, he continued to fight it – he fought against hospice – against the possibility that he would not live forever. It was a tragedy that what he faced, he had to fight.

But I have experienced the opposite as well. In January of this year, my own father was diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer. And his response was a testimony to his faith: “I’m ready. I’ve lived longer than I expected to, anyway,” he said. He began taking each day as a gift – above and beyond. And he was thankful.

Do you and I live in thanksgiving? Do you feel that gratitude is the sine qua non of your life – that without which, there is nothing? How can we learn to live more fully in thanksgiving? How can we teach others the joy of gratitude?

Generosity Grows out of Thanksgiving

I wish I could introduce you to an IZupiaq Eskimo, I remember. He was old, perhaps, beyond his years. On a summer day each year, I remember seeing him trudging across the dusty gravel street of Barrow, Alaska, a younger person helping him with several bags of groceries from the Stuaqpak (literally "big store" in the local language).

An IZupiaq elder – a hunter – he was responding to his church's request for help with the vacation Bible school. Every year he brought food, lots of it, to UtqiaŸvik Presbyterian Church. It was a token of love for Christ and the church.

He was always a food provider. But even in a land of plenty, hunters sometimes experience hard times, and in his early days he had known starvation. So, now, to have food was wealth. To have a store was a luxury. To have food to share was a blessing. So share he must. Nashanik was living a life of thanksgiving.

He grew up in a nomadic hunting and gathering culture, but his last days would be in a permanent village with cable television and modern plumbing. He has seen unbelievable changes in his time. Then, they survived by sharing – giving and receiving as needed. Now, necessities are bought at the store with money. He has traveled through time – from the stone age to the computer age. And he has traveled with faith and silent dignity. When asked if he liked the old days better, he remembers some good times, but he says, "I don't want to be hungry again." He is thankful.

His people always understood food to be a very precious gift. They were thankful to the animals. Early Eskimo spirituality revolved around food, and an early concept of God visualized a Great Meat Dish.

The missionaries taught them that the gifts come from God. But ancient native traditions had already taught them to share. Thankfulness and sharing are hallmarks of the IZupiaq community. Those who remember the old ways are always thankful and respectful of the whales for giving themselves to the community. Now the community offers prayers to God before and after the hunt. They are thankful – deeply and reverently thankful for the food they have to eat and to share (this section adapted from James Roghair’s sermon in Stewardship Magazine, PCUSA, 2006).

Thanks to God at all Times

The Psalm says, “Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart (Psalm 111:1).” But we have such high expectations. We want so much – we expect so much. How would we ever thank God with our whole hearts? What would that be like?

The Apostle Paul was trying to teach the Ephesians how they should conduct their lives. Paul reminds them of a number of things that they should not to do, and then he says to “be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:18-20).”

How would we give thanks to God at all times? We tend to think of thanksgiving as a time of year rather than a state of being. And it is hard enough for us to even concentrate on giving thanks for that one day – let alone remembering to be thankful all day and every day.

Give thanks to God at all times and with your whole heart! The challenge of the scripture.

Thanksgiving and its opposites

The doctor suggests that the opposite gratitude is revenge, which grows out of a distortion of the natural wish to teach others not to harm us. But living in revenge is a threat to human security. On the other hand gratitude is that which is awakened by wishing well to others. Living in gratitude offers human security (Weborg, op cit p. 9). Thanksgiving or revenge – which will it be?

We might ask such a question of the nations of the world – and of our leaders: Gratitude or revenge, which will direct us?

I would suggest yet another way of looking at thanksgiving. I wonder if thanksgiving might also be opposite of grasping. The one who holds onto life too tightly – especially at its end – cannot be thankful for the days that are given. The one who grasps life’s things always wants to have more – must have more. That one will in the end be disappointed.

But the one who is thankful will be at peace. Jesus warns against grasping. He said that the one who seeks to save his/her life will lose it, but the one who gives his/her life for Jesus sake will find it (Matthew 16:25)

A Thankful Church?

The pattern of thankfulness , which we might recognize as advantageous and hopeful in individuals – that pattern which leads to human security, perhaps even at the national level – that pattern which adopts thanksgiving over revenge – which adopts gratitude over grasping – Could it also apply to a congregation? How can the church show that it is giving thanks to God at all times and with its whole heart?

Thankfulness will have something to do with the way the mission of the church is lived out. Gratitude will have something to do with the way people give of their time and money. It will have something to do with whether it is a higher priority to hang onto what we like and what we want, no matter what, or a higher priority to give of your own life for the needs of the world around you. A truly thankful church is a giving and caring church.

First Congregational Church, the scripture challenges you to give thanks to God at all times and with your whole heart?

Amen.