November 24, 2024: May God’s words be spoken, may God’s words be heard. Amen.
This Sunday we enter into a week of thanksgiving to God for all of life. We gather with family and friends, and laugh, cry, cheer for our favorite teams, and argue over some thing or another.
Perhaps though, you are wondering, with all the news of the past few weeks, what is there to be thankful for? Maybe it was hard for you to sing that opening hymn, “Now Thank We All Our God.”
Perhaps though, the story of Martin Rinkart, will help.
“German pastor Martin Rinkart served in the walled town of Eilenberg during the horrors of the Thirty Years’ War of 1618-1648. Eilenberg became an overcrowded refuge for the
surrounding area. The fugitives suffered from epidemic and famine. At the beginning of 1637, the year of the Great Pestilence, there were four ministers in Eilenberg. One abandoned his post for healthier areas and could not be persuaded to return. Pastor Rinkart officiated at the funerals of the other two. As the only pastor left, he often conducted funeral services for as many as 40 to 50 persons a day—[nearly 5,000] in all. In May of that year, his own wife died. By the end of the year, the refugees had to be buried in trenches without services.
Yet, [despite] living in a world dominated by [fear and] death, Pastor Rinkart wrote the following prayer for his children to offer to God:
Now thank we all our God, With hearts and hands and voices;
Who wondrous things hath done, In whom this world rejoices.
Who, from our mother’s arms, Hath led us on our way,
With countless gifts of love, And still is ours today.”[1]
And that, you might recall, is the very first verse of the hymn we sung today in our processional, a hymn he wrote, even while service Christ in the most dire of circumstances. Perhaps then we can take this hymn to heart in these difficult days, and remember, as he did, that no matter how dark things may be, the light of Christ is always stronger.
This is not to say we must be all Pollyanna like every single minute of every single day. That is absurd. Even Jesus wept, got angry, had angst, needed time alone and away from everyone, and worried about his followers. We don’t get Easter without Good Friday – they are intertwined like darkness and light, or faith and doubt. In fact, that is our faith – that when we celebrate Christ’s birth, we are hearing also of his impending death. At Easter, Good Friday and the cross is ever present too.
Being thankful is not about everything being good and right in our lives and in the world, but about recognizing that through it all – the good, the bad, and everything in-between – God is with us. Christ strengths us. The Holy Spirit dwells within us and guides us forward to a new day. Pastor Rinkart expressed this very thing, when in the second verse he wrote:
“O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And free us from all ills, in this world and the next!”
“Through all our life be near us, and guide us when perplexed.” Yes, that is a prayer we can all say, and one that is always answered. That God is always near us and guiding us when we are troubled – whether we take that guidance or not. I say that last bit because honestly, sometimes we are like that parody of horror movies when one sign says “Safety This Way!” and the other says “Warning – Danger Ahead!” and we think – what the heck, it doesn’t look all that dangerous to me. This is when God does a face palm.
Yet despite our unwillingness at times to listen to the Holy Spirit guiding us, and despite the troubles we often find ourselves in, if we think about it, if we really give it some prayerful thought, we will find that there is, for most of us, quite a lot to be thankful for at this moment.
If you lay your head down at night and you are warm, with a roof over your head, give thanks.
If you do not leave your home in the day amidst bombs reigning down, air sirens announcing incoming drone strikes, tanks rolling through your street, or machine gun fire piercing the air at all hours, as those who live in war zones do, give thanks.
If you are able to eat when you are hungry, drink when you are thirsty, stop taking any drug or alcohol with ease, or live without the internal demons of mental illness, give thanks.
If you are not facing a first holiday season without someone you love, or are not spending those days in the hospital as a patient or caregiver, give thanks.
If you are not facing deportation to a place you fled out of fear for your life and those of your children, or if your children were not kidnapped by our government at the border, give thanks.
And if we cannot find it in our hearts to be thankful for what we do have, even if it is only a little, then let us remember and give thanks at least for those who labor for the food we eat, who toil to protect and care for others while we sleep, for our friends, for our family – however we define it, and for this place we call our parish home.
That last one, well it isn’t a given you know.
The pandemic and the early years afterward wiped out our endowment as we struggled to get our nursery school going. And like many parishes, our average Sunday attendance – those who come here in person – is half of what it once was in the days before 2020. Yet by God’s grace, and the prayerful efforts of each of you, our parish leadership, and the staff of both the church and the school, we just may finally see a balanced budget sometime in 2025, and begin to rebuild the endowment for future generations.
This is not a guarantee, of course, but I believe all of you will step forward out of gratitude for what this place means to you, and what it means to all who search for a church that will truly welcome them – just as they are – no exceptions.
And so today, in that spirit of thanksgiving, we bring forward our pledges to this church – in support of the important work we do here and from here to love and serve Christ in all people.
We also bring forward our gifts of groceries for those who are in need, and for animals and the shelters that care for them, our way of loving our neighbor, as we are commanded by God.
We do this because we understand something about what Jesus was saying in the gospel we just heard this morning. In it, Jesus said, “I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you…? Therefore do not worry, saying, `What will we eat?’ or `What will we drink?’ or `What will we wear?’ …But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
It may seem that Jesus is a bit off his savior rocker with this – I mean, we do have real world concerns, do we not? How to keep that roof over our heads, how to care for those we love, how to take a step forward in these impending dark days of our nation and the world? But Jesus isn’t saying these hardships or concerns are not real, nor is he dismissing them out of hand, though the author would have it seem that way. What he is saying is that worrying will not help (or in his words, “not add one single hour to your span of life”). Doctors would tell you it will actually do the opposite – reduce your life span. Instead, Jesus tells us we should strive for the kingdom of God, and God’s righteousness, and all the other things will fall into place.
Well, what the heck does that mean?
Jesus was always telling his followers, that the kingdom of God is here, now – and to strive for righteousness is to strive to align our hearts, minds, and actions with the command of God to love – love one another, love ourselves, and love our God. If we seek and serve Christ here in our lives, we will be striving for that same righteousness.
And how do we seek and serve Christ – by finding him where he said he would be: in the sick, the immigrant (called stranger in scripture), the imprisoned, the poor and the outcast, the hungry and the thirsty. When we care for these, we care for Jesus himself. And we will come to find that it is true – that when we strive to do these things, all other concerns seem smaller.
That is why we bring food for those in need – both human and animals – for all are part of God’s creation – and in helping them, we are helping Christ himself.
That is why we pledge to the church – to ensure that our mission and ministry in his name continues for generations to come.
And so, as you go forward into this week of Thanksgiving,
If the traffic is insane or your flight is canceled, while it may seem like it – it truly is not the end of the world. Breathe and know that you will be where you need to be when you need to be there – and safely too.
If Uncle Billy drinks too much and starts on a political rant or spouts conspiracy theories he saw on the internet, put in your earbuds and just smile and nod. Then quickly find a way to extract yourself and go for a walk – anywhere – and look for signs of God’s grace – they are all around.
If the turkey is dry, or you burnt the casserole – find a restaurant that’s open, or order a pizza, and know that you will laugh about this for years to come.
If you get all the dishes in the dishwasher, but your mother-in-law comes in and re-arranges them, let it go. Despite what some may claim – there is no “right” way to load a dishwasher, and no “wrong” way either. It isn’t worth losing sleep over.
In other words, as the saying goes, “don’t sweat the small stuff” – and truly, unless it is life or death, it is small stuff.
Instead, go into each day with a small prayer of thanks to God for the ability to breathe in the air, to have something to eat and to sleep, and for a place where you can come each week to be nourished in Christ’s love and grace, and the fellowship of people who care for you, and the knowledge of God who loves you just-as-you-are.
And most of all, know that I give thanks for you each and every single day – your faith inspires me, your generosity encourages me, and your love for one another fills my heart with joy. You are the gift of God’s grace for which I am truly thankful.
So, on this Sunday, I will close with this litany of Thanksgiving from our own Book of Common Prayer, page 836:
“Accept, O God, our thanks and praise for all that you have
done for us.
We thank you for the splendor of the whole
creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life,
and for the mystery of love.
We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for
the loving care which surrounds us on every side.
We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best
efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy
and delight us.
We thank you also for those disappointments and failures
that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.
Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the
truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast
obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying,
through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life
again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom.
Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know Christ and
make him known; and through him, at all times and in all
places, may give thanks to you in all things.”
Amen.
For the audio, click below, or subscribe to our iTunes Sermon Podcast by clicking here (also available on Audible):
The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
November 24, 2024
Advent 3
1st Reading – Joel 2:21-27
2nd Reading – 1 Timothy 2:1-7
Gospel – Matthew 6:25-33
[1] Wikipedia.
