WHY DON’T WE GIVE THANKS?
Joel 2: 21-27
1 Timothy 2: 1-7
NOVEMBER 24, 2024 – THANKSGIVING GATHERING
Last night in the car I thought that my grandson sneezed so I said, “God bless you.” He immediately responded, “Babu, I did not sneeze I coughed.” I then asked him, what do we say when someone coughs and he said he didn’t know.
It’s interesting how children can inspire us to consider our realities as adults. Art Linkletter who a few of you might still remember once said “kids say the darndest things” and perhaps they do.
We live in a time of instant messaging. There are graphics for almost any occasion. Heck, thanks to the BITMOJI APP … I have literally hundreds of cartoon images of me … wearing Buffalo Bills’ gear of course that can respond to almost any circumstance going on in someone’s life including God bless you; God speed; Amen; and several prayer images of me with my hands carefully folded in that classic prayer image.
Do you wonder why we don’t have a faith-focused response to someone having a coughing fit? I think our basic response is … are you ok?
We are gathered here today not knowing if each of us is ok but we are here because we find a value in pausing in our day to actually celebrate the concept of being thankful to God. That in itself can be a confusing concept to some and a challenging one to others.
Just how in the world do we give thanks? Perhaps the deeper question four days before the official Thanksgiving holiday that has sadly been squashed … no pun intended … into a day with added football and shopping opportunities … the question that persists is, why don’t we give thanks more than we do? Are we programmed to be hesitant in our thanksgiving? … in my message this morning I wondered whether the powers that be knew that we didn’t have enough thankfulness in our hearts to designate more than one day a year as our Thanksgiving Day.
The prophet Joel was focused on reminding God’s people to be thankful even in the midst of challenges that go beyond any we could ever imagine here in the 21st century. But, he sensed God’s call to “rejoice and be glad for the Lord is about to do great things! Rejoice and be glad in the LORD your God.”
Paul reflects that “thanksgiving should be made for ALL people. And, that there is one God and one mediator between God and humanity, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a payment to set ALL people free.”
So we can weave the Scriptures together but that does not relieve us from what I believe is an essential challenge and that is to be the ones in this world that demonstrate and exhibit thankfulness for all that we can discover.
It’s like a treasure hunt that 5-year-olds like my grandson are frequently undertaking. What can we discover … who can we discover … what is there in the world to celebrate with all of the enthusiasm and joy that we have inside of ourselves?
For far too long, we have almost diminished all that we should be thankful for, and perhaps I could argue we have relegated thankfulness to a void in our lives that has only resulted in an increase in the stress and angst in our society. I think we as people of faith have an obligation to bring about change … to create a spirit of thankfulness that overwhelms our neighborhoods and our social media with an intense energy that gets people wanting to discover God and Jesus Christ because as the faithful we need to be the ones as Paul declares REJOICE in the LORD ALWAYS!
We need to be the ones singing JOY TO THE WORLD the LORD HAS COME and we need to be the building blocks allowing earth to receive her king.
The building blocks I want to suggest begin with a willingness of the faithful to celebrate God and Jesus Christ in worship. To have conversations about the happiness and joy we should be finding in coming to church… rather than doing all we can to diminish worship we need to lift up worship. Yes, we are busy people but if we want the spirit of thankfulness to be established in the world we need to showcase that we are most thankful to God … perhaps actually demonstrating our love for God through worship.
My church family perhaps is worn down by my constant reminder that Psalm 23 matters in our lives as people of faith. I think that God provides this lesson that all too often is left for services for the departed. David’s words are for us because frankly to be energized in worship … to experience joy in connection with faith … to be thankful to God we should have our souls restored with frequency… so find the still waters … search out the green pastures and let God lead.
And then be deliberate in your thankfulness. My grandson has had some eating issues and his food therapist has said that the family needs to demonstrate verbally our thankfulness to our food. We need to celebrate our food. And friends, you and I need to be deliberate in expressing thanks rather than being embarrassed by being thankful.
Yes, some might think you are crazy if you are walking down the street proclaiming ‘thank you God for that bird’s song’ or thank you God for the sunset or the breeze. I know I definitely shout THANK YOU GOD for the snow even though most of you might not be as thankful.
I truly think we as the faithful have an opportunity to bring others to discover God’s love through Jesus by taking these small steps.
And, before I finish I want to celebrate our connection for which I am very thankful. Pastor Rob … Pastor Walt … our churches coming together as community. Carla and Kathy singing as Evelyn plays … imagine how our communities would celebrate if every church came together to worship, to sing, and to serve the poor and broken together in our community.
It is time … to become focused on giving thanks … to rejoice in the Lord always … to recognize with thanks God’s love to us through Jesus Christ. And, so I want to thank all of you for being here … we are about to enter the Advent Season but let us not focus on our trees, nor the manger but instead the challenge God gives people of faith to worship, to rejoice, to serve, to care for those who need, and to be thankful for all the little things in this world that God puts before us and that all too often we miss out on.
We might not have a phrase for when we hear someone cough but we certainly can say THANK YOU to GOD for all that God has given to us. AMEN