November 21, 2021: May God’s words be spoken, may God’s words be heard. Amen.
Okay, whenever I hear Psalm 126, I am immediately transported back to my Baptist childhood, when we would sing “Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves, we will come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.” And as a kid, I just wondered – why are we bringing in the sheets? When I was corrected and told it was sheaves, not sheets, I thought – what the heck is a sheave? Well… it’s from this verse in the psalm we heard today “Those who go out weeping, carrying the seed, will come again with joy, shouldering their sheaves.” So, in case anyone cares, sheaves are simply tall bales of the harvest wheat. Now you all can win the trivia night, should it ever come up.
And the whole reason this would be something we would consider – bringing in the sheaves with joy – is because we are grateful for the harvest – not just of wheat, but of life itself. This Sunday we enter into a week of thanksgiving to God for all of life. After a long pandemic absence, we may even be gathering with family and friends, to laugh, cry, and re-arrange the dishwasher the “right way,” after someone else has loaded it.
Yet there is much that troubles our hearts individually and collectively, and many may be finding it hard to be thankful. For some, this will be another year of isolation to protect themselves and others. There are some empty seats around tables across the world, with the pandemic taking the lives of over 769,000 people in the US alone – and still some people won’t get vaccinated or wear masks, so case numbers are rising once more. There was the news this week reminding us that racism is king in our country, where white, straight, men can openly wield weapons in our streets, killing people, and still be alive to stand trial – even getting acquitted – while unarmed people of color are murdered for the crime of being black or brown.
This year there has also been a lot for which to be thankful – for our health, if we have it. For the strength to have moved day by day through this difficult year and a half. For a return here in-person. For an economy that is robust and a job market that is finally rewarding laborers better. For COVID vaccines and children being able to get them. For our loved ones who are still with us.
So, in this time of thanksgiving, how then do we truly give thanks amidst the reality that there is despair, as well as joy, in our lives? Jesus gives us guidance in the gospel we heard today. Jesus says to his followers “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… But strive first for the kingdom of God and […] righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” And he uses the birds of the air, and the lilies of the field as examples of other parts of God’s creation that do not worry, but live simply by God’s grace.
It seems a bit odd to tell us not to worry about what we will eat for one who teaches us to pray by saying “give us this day our daily bread.” It also may seem really out of touch with the realities of life today. There are just so many demands on us – on our time, our attention, our focus. But to be clear – Jesus is not telling people not to work, or to join a nudist colony so you don’t have to wear clothes. Remember, he said that God “…knows that you need all these things.” Jesus is getting at something fundamental to our ability to live with gratitude, something we really need to understand if we are to get at the heart of what thanksgiving is…really, if we are to truly live as children of God.
I am reminded of a story from Zen Buddhism. “A man went to a Buddhist monastery for a silent retreat. After he finished, he felt better, calmer, stronger, but something was missing. The teacher said he could talk to one of the monks before he left.
The man thought for a while, then asked of the monk: “How do you find peace?” The monk replied: “I say yes. To everything that happens, I say yes.” When the man returned home, he was enlightened.”
Jesus, is teaching us now how to live an enlightened life. He is telling us that life will be filled with joy and sorrow, good and bad – for surely he knows that birds of the air will sometimes be caught by predators, and that lilies of the field will sometimes wilt from the heat of the sun, or be trampled on by passersby. Yet he reminds us that fear; anxiety, worry – they do not change what is or what may be. Fear is the enemy, the thing that will consume us, the thing that will destroy us from within.
This is not to say that awareness of our present circumstances has no place in our lives. It can be healthy when it alerts us to dangers that are present. But to dwell there is to be imprisoned. To stress about things that are out of our control is not only pointless, it can drain us of life. We are free when we are able to say “Yes” to everything that happens, good or bad, because in that moment, we stop being anxious, which is a form of pointless resistance.
Back when I was a kid, I trained and competed in Judo, and one of the lessons I never forgot is taught to every novice. It is not a particular move or hold. It is to yield. If an opponent is charging you, do not stand directly against them – rather step aside, and use their own force to your advantage. Yielding to what is coming at you isn’t a sign of weakness, but of strength. The same is true of a rip tide. I have been caught in them, and they are extremely dangerous and terrifying. Each year, many people on our own NJ shore die in rip tides. The way out of them is not to panic, and not to fight the current – you can’t – no matter how strong a swimmer you are. If you panic and fight, you will drown. The way out of them is to remain calm and yield to it – allowing it to carry you out, or to swim parallel to it – until you have broken free. It is to say Yes, to the rip tide.
Now, you might be wondering (and warning – geeky Star Trek reference coming) if that means that The Borg were right… resistance is futile. Well, yes…and no. Nobody, least of all Jesus, would tell you to just let a rip tide take you under, or stand there and allow an opponent to flip you from here to, well, Sunday, in a Judo match. There are things worth fighting for, worth resisting, even worth dying for – Jesus certainly made that clear.
So what then?
Like the monk in the story, Jesus is telling us to say “Yes!”
Say “Yes” to being alive, to seeing the world as a child of God, to resisting where it can make a difference, and yielding to the flow of life. Because there are serious things we need to be concerned about – racism, sexism, heterosexism, poverty, addiction, the destruction of our planet – these are what we can and must change. Resistance here is not futile – it is our call. For in all those who suffer, we see the face of Christ. We must never rest from our labors to serve others, most especially the oppressed, the forgotten, the marginalized, and the lost.
Jesus is calling us to say “Yes!” to whatever is our present circumstance. This is not to say that we don’t have real concerns that trouble us. Perhaps it is a struggle to pay the bills. Our parish itself has suffered financially in this pandemic. There may be loved ones we know who are ill, or perhaps we have heard a difficult diagnosis ourselves. These are the things that naturally lead us to be anxious about what may be. But remember that Jesus said “…can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?” He isn’t mocking the very difficult times we face in our human life, but is warning us not to allow it to consume us – because we can’t solve it by worrying about it. We can’t block an opponent who comes at us with great force – we will be defeated. We can’t fight a rip tide by panicking and fighting it – we will drown.
In twelve step programs, the very familiar serenity prayer is a companion to all who walk the recovery journey.
“God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and Wisdom to know the difference.”
It is that last part that Jesus is telling his disciples and now us today –that God has already given us this wisdom – it is there in our hearts waiting for us to know it deeply within. For the key that unlocks that wisdom is in the knowledge of God’s unconditional love and grace. That is what it means to strive for the kingdom of God – it is to yield our lives to God – to free ourselves from the clutter of our human fear and embrace what it means to be God’s beloved children.
Then we can indeed be filled with gratitude – for then our gratitude will not be based on what we have, or do not have, what has, or has not happened. It will be based on the only thing that is absolutely sure in this life of ours – that we are deeply loved – just as we are.
And when we come to know that, we will come to live that life of “Yes.” We will be able to open our arms wide, take to the skies like a bird in the warmth of God’s love! We will feel the beautiful clothing of God’s grace that shines radiantly through us. We will be able to take up whatever sheaves that come our way – even if it is a mere strand of wheat – and offer it rejoicingly to God.
And we will truly know the meaning of thanksgiving, and be able to offer up to God these words of gratefulness by the Swedish diplomat, and former Secretary General of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjöld,
“For all that has been, thank you. For all that shall be, yes!”
Amen.
For the audio, click below, or subscribe to our iTunes Sermon Podcast by clicking here:
The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
November 21, 2021
Advent 3 – Thanksgiving Day Lections
1st Reading – Joel 2:21-27
Psalm 126
2nd Reading – 1 Timothy 2:1-7
Gospel – Matthew 6:25-33
