Thanks be to God!

Thursday, November 24, 2005 (Thanksgiving Day)

by The Rev. Bryan England, Deacon

• Deuteronomy 8:1-3,6-10(17-20)
• Psalm 65 or 65:9-14
• James 1:17-18,21-27
• Matthew 6:25-33

(From The Lectionary Page)

It might surprise you to know, but I have a bit of the cynic within my soul, really. And nothing brings out that cynic like today’s gospel lesson. “I tell you,” Jesus says, “do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear . . . For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things . . .”

Well, the overwhelming majority of us here this morning are Gentiles, and I for one, worry about these things quite a lot. I have a vision of the Civil Service Retirement System going bankrupt two days before my long-awaited retirement, and in my old age having to develop a taste for the piquant flavor of Alpo.

It is our nature to worry, and the Twenty-first Century feeds that worry like a bellows feeds a forge. We go to public places with lingering images of innocent people who went to work on a quiet September morning and ended up leaping from the upper floors of the World Trade Center to avoid burning to death. We have memories of people who drowned in New Orleans because they were too poor to evacuate. We listen to a weekly litany of our sons and daughters who have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, all the while being badgered to “stay the course,” and knowing that only a stupid runner starts a race without knowing how long the course is. We watch those approaching retirement worry about what will be left of Social Security by the time they become dependent upon it. We worry about our children’s safety in our schools, and in their playgrounds.

In light of the world in which we live, Jesus’ words almost sound like a hit song from 1988 by Bobby McFerrin. To a Calypso beat, my favorite verse goes:

The landlord say your rent is late
He may have to litigate
Don't worry, be happy

But Jesus is right (surprise). Can any of us by worrying add a single hour to our spans of life? For in spite of all our successes, all of our wealth, all of our possessions, in reality we do not own even the breath within our lungs. Everything we have and are is a gift of God, even to the next beating of our hearts.

And lest we think that even our material possessions are the results of our own brilliance and efforts, we are reminded of Moses’ words to the children of Israel, “Do not say to yourself, 'My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.' But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth . . . ”

Which gives rise to the concept of thankfulness; if we are dependent upon God for the next breath we take, for the next beat of our heart, for everything that we have, shouldn’t we be thankful for all those things which make our lives livable? Shouldn’t we live up to that offertory phrase, “All things come of thee, Oh Lord, and of thine own have we given thee?”

What are your thankful for this Thanksgiving Day? The pilgrims celebrating the original Thanksgiving Day were celebrating their survival through a harsh winter and a deprived spring and summer. The Indians invited to join them were celebrating a severely flawed immigration policy, although they didn’t know it at the time. What are you celebrating this Thanksgiving Day?

The Kansas City Star asked that question of its readers, and the most touching response I read was from a mother who said she was thankful that her son did not die alone. She was merely thankful that someone was there to hold her son’s hand as he bled out his life on our city’s streets. His candle is burning behind you at the crossing.

What am I thankful for? When my wife, Linda, was informed that the lump in her left breast was not just a water-filled cyst, that she needed to see a surgeon, and she left me a tearful message on my office voice mail, my response was a sarcastic prayer of, “Thanks a lot.” Today, I thank God for every additional day we have together.

For what are you thankful for on this Thanksgiving Day? And, since we have brought it up, how do you express your thankfulness to God? How can we truly express thanks to the Lord of the universe for the many ways God has blessed us?

Of course, there is only one way. The only way we can offer real thanks to God is to share the bounty God has given us with those that have less. In last Sunday’s gospel lesson, the triumphant King tells the righteous at the end of all things, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”

Simply put, Jesus wants us to share the abundance God has given to us with those who have less.

As a government official, I have occasionally have access to information restricted to most people, and one of those avenues of information is the tax returns of certain Hollywood personalities seeking to live and work in the United States. One of them, who shall ever remain nameless less I endanger that retirement income previously alluded to, filed a tax return for 1990 which reported a net income of $9 million dollars. On his Schedule A, he reported charitable gifts of $98. I don’t know whether I was more outraged by the fact that he had only given $98 to charity, or by the fact that he made sure he deducted the amount.

How thankful was he for the gifts God had given him? It is part of my fundamentalist upbringing that I firmly believe that one day, he will be asked about that tax return. The Episcopalian in me says he will be forgiven for it.

So what does all this amount to? On this Thanksgiving Day, how can we express our love and thankfulness to a God who has given us everything worth receiving, from the breath in our lungs to the bread on our tables? What do we owe the King of Glory for God’s graciousness?

Perhaps the answer is best summarized in the words of the prophet Micah, “. . . what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”