Giving Thanks In Adversity by Brett Blair and Staff

Transcription

1 Trinity UMC, Hummelstown Text: Ephesians 5:19, 20 November 23, 2014 / Sunday before Thanksgiving T.A. Maurer Giving Thanks In Adversity by Brett Blair and Staff That special season is again upon us. This Thursday is Thanksgiving, followed by Black Friday and the unofficial onset of the Christmas season. While we naturally take the holiday of Thanksgiving for granted, the history of its evolution may surprise you. It wasn t always a national holiday celebrated every year on the 4 th Thursday of the month. In fact, for most of our nation s history it wasn t even a national holiday. As I m sure you re aware the first Thanksgiving was celebrated by a small band of English Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony in As a gesture of friendship and goodwill the Wampanoag Indians came to the Pilgrims bearing gifts of food. No one knows the exact date of that first Thanksgiving. Whatever it was it s unlikely that it was the 4 th Thursday of November. As the years passed the custom of giving thanks grew in various other colonies as a means of celebrating the harvest. During these years different colonies, then states, celebrated Thanksgiving on different days. There was no declared national holiday as there is now. Then in 1777 the Continental Congress proclaimed for the first time a national day of Thanksgiving after the victory of the Battle of Saratoga during the American Revolution.

2 Giving Thanks in Adversity 2 11/23/2014 Twelve years later President George Washington drafted the first Presidential Proclamation declaring another national day of thanksgiving in honor of the ratification of the Constitution, and requested that Congress make the holiday an annual event. Surprisingly Congress declined. It would be another 76 years in before President Abraham Lincoln would again proclaim a national day of Thanksgiving. The day he selected was the last Thursday of November. The nation was in the midst of a bloody civil war. His Proclamation is printed in the November s issue of our church newsletter, The Herald. It took still another 40 years the early 1900 s - before the tradition really caught on. You see, Lincoln's official Thanksgiving was viewed by many Southerners as an attempt to impose a Northern holiday on the Confederacy. During all these years for more than a century and a half there was no nationally recognized Thanksgiving holiday. While states recognized the day, it wasn t a fixed national holiday. It wasn t until October 6 th, 1941, that Congress finally passed a joint resolution fixing Thanksgiving as an annual national holiday to be celebrated on the 4 th Thursday of November. President Roosevelt signed the bill into law on December 26 6th of that same year. Today Thanksgiving has evolved into a paid holiday for family reunions, watching football, and the unofficial beginning of Christmas. Ironically, as we ve seen, more often than not the holiday of Thanksgiving was born of adversity during difficult times. This was true for the first national declaration made during the Revolutionary War, and the third declaration made during the Civil

3 Giving Thanks in Adversity 3 11/23/2014 War. Often the greatest expressions of thanksgiving have occurred during circumstances so debilitating one wonders why anyone would give thanks. It would seem a more reasonable response would be bitterness and ingratitude. It s a paradox. In times of plenty we tend to become indifferent. The smallest gifts are overlooked and often unappreciated. But, let hard times come and the threat that these gifts will be taken from us and we are jolted into sudden recognition and gratitude. So what are the characteristics of a truly grateful people? Allow me to suggest three observations in answer to that question. The first characteristic of a truly grateful people is remembrance. When we are truly grateful we re slow to forget what made us grateful. Our reading this morning is from the Apostle Paul s Letter to the Ephesians. In it he instructs the Ephesians to give thanks in all circumstances. But that s easier said than done, isn t it. Yet, as I mentioned a moment ago, it s a paradox. Consider Tuesday morning, September 11, In the context of that horrific day Americans from all walks of life and religions flocked to their houses of worship to invoke God s protection. Suddenly our nation realized that the blessings we took for granted were not guaranteed; they could disappear in a blink of an eye. What a difference one day can make. Reflecting upon that fateful day, someone wrote the following poem. It s called "What a Difference a Day Makes. On Monday, September 10 th, life felt routine. On Tuesday, September 12 th, life was anything but routine. On Monday some fussed about prayer in school.

4 Giving Thanks in Adversity 4 11/23/2014 On Tuesday you were hard pressed to find a school where people weren t praying. On Monday our heroes were athletes. On Tuesday we relearned the definition of a hero. On Monday there were those wanting to separate people by race, color, creed, gender and sexual orientation. On Tuesday we all held hands as one. On Monday there were those irritated that their checks hadn t arrived. On Tuesday they gladly donated money to people they had never met. On Monday people were upset that they had to wait 5 minutes in a fast food line. On Tuesday they stood in line for 3 to 5 hours to give blood for the dying. On Monday parents argued with our kids to clean up their rooms. On Tuesday they couldn't get home fast enough to hug them. On Monday people went to work as usual. On Tuesday some went to work and never came home. What a difference a day makes. When we are truly grateful we never forget what made us grateful. Hardships stay with us. They are reminders that though we travel into valleys of death, God enables us to walk through them. The second characteristic of a truly grateful people is humility. When we are truly grateful we humbly confess that we are

5 Giving Thanks in Adversity 5 11/23/2014 indebted to God, that we belong to Him and that we are not our own. It is an undeniable truth that suffering and hardship reminds us that we are mortal. Psalm 100 puts it this way: Never forget that the Lord is God. He made us and we belong to Him; We are God s people and the sheep of His pasture. (v. 3) The third characteristic of truly grateful people is their recognition God s goodness. When we are truly grateful we come to understand that God's mercies endure forever. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German citizen and pastor imprisoned in 1943 for his political and Christian opposition to the Nazi regime. For two years he was imprisoned. On the day of sentencing he conducted a service for other prisoners. One of those prisoners was an English officer who survived. Later he wrote these words about Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer always seemed to spread an atmosphere of happiness and joy over the least incident, and profound gratitude for the mere fact that he was alive...he was one of the very few persons I have ever met for whom God was real and always near...on Sunday, April 8, 1945, Pastor Bonhoeffer conducted a little service of worship and spoke to us in a way that went to the heart of all of us. He found just the right words to express the spirit of our imprisonment, and the thoughts and resolutions it had brought us. He had hardly ended his last prayer when the door opened and two civilians entered. They said, "Prisoner Bonhoeffer, come with us." That had only one meaning for all prisoners - the gallows. We said good-bye to him. He took me aside [and whispered in my ear]: "This is the end; but for me it is the beginning of life." The next day he was hanged in Flossenburg.

6 Giving Thanks in Adversity 6 11/23/2014 The beginning of life. How is it that Bonhoeffer could worship God in a Gestapo prison with the gallows in view? The answer? He understood that even in the worst of circumstances one is able to nurture a heart of gratitude and thanksgiving. The Apostle Paul put it this way: In all things give thanks. Out of great suffering have come the greatest expressions of gratitude and thanksgiving. And so let me suggest that sometime between the feasting and family reunions, the football games and shopping, you pause to count your blessings in whatever your circumstances you may find yourself. Pause to recognize God s goodness and give thanks for His mercies. Amen.