Whether you consider
yourself religious or not, taking time to give thanks is what we do
this time of the year. If you open up the newspaper on Thursday
morning, chances are you’ll run across some sort of editorial urging
us all to get in the “spirit of Thanksgiving”. Likewise, watching
television this week, you’ll know for sure that Thanksgiving is upon
us—public interest stories at 6 and 10, not to mention the host of
sitcoms that will in one way or another encourage us to count our
many blessings, name them one by one. And why not, heck, it’s
Thanksgiving.
But, there is a difference
between the kind of culturally sanctioned thanksgiving we’re
supposed to be about this time of the year and the kind that Paul
spoke about with his friends at First Church Philippi. “Rejoice in
the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.” From Paul’s point
of view, thanksgiving is not an occasional affair, not merely a late
November activity, but something, ongoing and continuous!
So, does Paul really mean “always”?
No doubt we can all point to moments of great joy in our lives—when
you witness the birth of a child, graduate from school, fall in
love, stand at the altar on your wedding day, move into a new home,
earn that long sought after promotion, or when at long last, the day
comes when you can say, “I’m retired.” But to “rejoice always”, to
live as though every moment is filled with joy seems a bit
naïve, if not disingenuous and even phony. I mean, we’ve all run
across the person who always seems eternally happy, who doesn’t seem
to have a chink in his or her armor and for whom every day seems
better than the day before in a world of never ending sunshine.
We’re inclined to wonder what kind of deep hurt or pain they’re
really denying. And if that is the kind of life that Paul is
talking about he really must be living in some kind of dream world,
certainly not in the world that you and I call home.
And yet, it seems as though Paul is
talking about joy and thanksgiving in a completely different way
than we tend to. Of all people, Paul can’t be accused of being
naïve to the ways of the world. In the course of his life and
ministry, he saw more of the world than just about anybody alive in
those days. He was beaten, thrown into prison, starved, and
shipwrecked. At one point, he even speaks of a mysterious “thorn in
his flesh” that he had to constantly deal with. Life was hardly one
great big bed of roses and yet, “in everything, by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving Paul let his requests
be made known to God.”
And what was true for Paul and the
good folks of Philippi is certainly true for us. The joy, the
peace, the sense of well-being that God intends for us doesn’t
originate within us at all. It isn’t something that we can achieve
for ourselves by sheer will and determination, by taking life by the
horns or by putting on a happy face no matter what. No, our joy is
in the Lord God, who fashioned and formed us, who breathes life into
us and gives us all that we need from day to day. Our joy is in the
Lord who is near, the Lord who gives us faith to trust in his
gracious providing in any and all circumstances.
The great spiritual writer Henri
Nouwen speaks of joy “that does not separate happy days from sad
days, successful moments from moments of failure. It is a divine
gift that does not leave us during illness, grief, oppression, or
persecution. It does not depend on the circumstances of our lives,
or even our momentary feelings.” My friends, our joy has nothing to
do with the kind of joy that the world would have us buy into, but
is grounded in the Lord who is near to us today, who gives us his
body and blood, the one in whom we have life and peace, “peace” that
literally “will stand watch over our hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus.”
On account of such peace we can
rejoice. We can bear with one another without being overbearing. We
can pray, praise, and give thanks together knowing that we may not
have answers to all of life’s problems, but with the assurance that
never the less God’s love surrounds us in any and all circumstances.
We don’t have to be on guard, because now in Christ, God’s peace is
on duty. Alert, yes, but anxious no.
Up towards the top of my
list this Thanksgiving is our community of faith here at Ascension
Lutheran Church. We are a community blessed with a sense of what it
truly means to give thanks, that it’s more than more than saying the
right words, or having a certain warm feeling in our hearts, or what
we all are supposed to do on the last Thursday in November. Rather
thanksgiving is for us a way of seeing, of hearing, of living
together as joy-filled people year round. I for one rejoice in the
Lord greatly for the concern you have showed for me in the
midst of my own challenges when, quite frankly giving thanks hasn’t
always been easy. But through you I see that God has been with me
and that he most assuredly still is. So, it is to God that I give
praise for you, my joy and crown, the community through which God
has kept and guarded me in the one true faith, and in so doing shown
me peace unlike any I could have ever imagined.
Yes, we all have ample
reason to give thanks this Thanksgiving. Not for anything that
we’ve managed to come by in this world, not for any accident of
birth or luck of the draw but on account of Christ, Christ who is
our joy, our peace and our strength, Christ in whom all things are
done. Amen.
Pastor Brian Peterson
