GIVING THANKS

Psalm 100; Philippians 4:4-9; John 6:23-35

Sunday before Thanksgiving, November 20, 2022

The Rev. Dr. Ritva H. Williams

Today is the last Sunday of the liturgical year. For the vast majority of Christians it is Christ the King Sunday with its focus on Jesus’ crucifixion. Preaching the last day of the liturgical year is complicated by two factors. (1) Often it is Commitment Sunday, when we make our pledges of financial support for the new year. (2) Here in the America, the last Sunday of the liturgical year always falls just before the Thanksgiving holiday. I have chosen today to reflect on the scriptures appointed for the Day of Thanksgiving.

Psalm 100 calls for celebration: making a joyful noise, serving with gladness, singing songs, giving thanks and praise, giving thanks and blessing God’s holy name. Why? Because the Lord is God, our maker, the source of our lives and of all life. Because we are God’s people and the sheep of God’s pasture. Because God is good, loves us with an everlasting love, and is faithful from generation to generation. 

Notice that the invitation to celebrate is made to “all you lands.” And that should give us pause. As Americans we celebrate Thanksgiving as a national holiday with has roots in tragic and often violent confrontations between European colonists and indigenous peoples. How can we give thanks for how that played out? President Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving proclamation celebrated the end of the civil war. Yet even as we give thanks for the end of slavery, we must acknowledge that the legacy of slavery stills haunt this nation. 

We should confess that we don’t think often about those things at our Thanksgiving gatherings. We give thanks to God for all that we have, for what is important in our lives. We give thanks for the bountiful feasts on our tables, our warm and brightly lit homes, our health and our wealth: our careers and jobs, the income that buys new cars and clothes, that pays the bills. Most of all, we give thanks for the people around the table: family, friends, and pets, for their love and support us.

But what about people who are not sitting down to bountiful feasts in warm and brightly lit homes, who are chronically ill, actively dying, whose income does not even begin to cover their basic needs, who have no family, friends, or pets to turn to for love and support? How do we give thanks when we might well be and/or know people in these situations?

How do we hear the apostle Paul’s urging us to rejoice always? Not to worry about anything? Do we make our requests known to God in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving? Do we expect God to respond like the manager of an Amazon fulfillment center? Notice Paul what does promise: God will fill us with the peace that surpasses all understanding, and guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. God will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus by giving us peace in the midst of whatever we encounter in life. Our task is to focus what is true, honorable, just, and commendable.   

In our gospel lesson we meet Jesus the day after the multiplication of loaves and fishes. Jesus fed a  huge crowd of 5000-ish people and there were leftovers. It was like a miracle! Folks were celebrating, wanting to keep the party going, until Jesus vanished, leaving everyone confused and disappointed. When the crowd followed and found Jesus on the other side of the lake, he was not impressed and accused them of just wanting another free meal: “… you are looking for me … because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life…” (John 6:26-27).

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life. 

How often do we give thanks for “food that perishes”? When we examine how we use our gifts and strengths, where we put our time and energies, how much of it is about working for things that don’t last? How much of it is about working for things that endure for eternal life? How can we tell the difference?

The “food that endures” comes to us through believing in, having faith in, putting our trust in, and yes, even pledging our allegiance to Jesus, the One sent by God. We are not only to follow Jesus, but to consume Jesus as the Bread of Life. I know that sounds weird — maybe even creepy. It’s a metaphor that means God in Christ wants to be part of us, to nourish us, to energize all we do.  God wants to fill us up with Christ’s love and faithfulness. 

We receive God’s love as the living Christ comes to us in the spoken and written words of the gospel, and in the sacraments. Holy Baptism and Holy Communion are as Professor Lose insists, God’s external and objective words of love and forgiveness, given in a form that we can receive … physical and visible words and actions for physical and visible people.

The meal we celebrate every Sunday at the Lord’s table is called the eucharist — the great thanksgiving. It is here that Christ nourishes us ritually and symbolically with God’s love so that we too become bread that gives life to our neighbors and to the world. God’s purpose is to convert us from living for ourselves to live for others, so that:

• As we give thanks for the food on our tables, we make provision for the food-insecure.

• As we give thanks for closets full of clothes, we make sure children in this neighborhood have warm coats, boots, hats and mittens.

• As we give thanks for a good home, we work to end homelessness.

• As we give thanks for satisfying careers, well-paying jobs and secure pensions, we work for economic justice for all.

• As we give thanks for family, friends and pets, we reach out to strangers, to the lost and the lonely inviting them to join our families of choice.

• As we give thanks for the unearned privileges we enjoy, we advocate for truth and justice, reparations and reconciliation among all God’s children.

This is how we give thanks that God in Christ really does love each one of us, is present with and in each one of us, blesses each one of us with gifts and strengths we can use to bless each other, this community of faith, and the neighborhood where we live.

Please pray with me:

God of abundance, you have poured out a large measure of earthly blessings: our table is richly furnished, our cup overflows, and we live in safety and security. Teach us to set our hearts on you and not on these material blessings. Keep us from becoming captivated by prosperity, and help us to wisely use your blessings in the service of humanity, and so bring glory to your holy name through Jesus the Christ our Lord. Amen.