It was our annual fall health walk from our church. A few of us braved the weather and started our walk through the beautiful Blue Hill reservation. The foliage was gorgeous. Our guide chose a rather difficult terrain for our walk. We climbed the hilly slopes carefully; I almost slipped on a couple of occasions. But when we finally reached the top of the hill, the scenery was simply breath taking. The various hues of fall foliage made for a fabulous view. The city of Boston was standing in a far distance like a small block of concrete surrounded by vast trees and undeveloped land. By looking at that I realized what a huge and beautiful country America is, in comparison to some dusty and crowded cities in India.
What a blessed country are we living in! Few nations in the history of mankind have had over 200 years unbroken absence of foreign invasion, poverty and plague. Never have any people enjoyed such freedom, peace and prosperity. Yet how often we take those very things for granted. K.P Yohanan the founder of Gospel for Asia, in his book “The Road to Reality” takes his western readers on a reality check trip lest they forget their blessings and become oblivious of the needs of many poorer nations around the world. Yohanan notes, “North Americans don’t know what an unbelievable privilege it is to be born or to live in the United States or Canada. There’s nothing a person needs here that isn’t inexpensive and plentiful. While much of the Asian world works from dawn to dusk for a few handfuls of rice, many Americans are more concerned with how to loose weight. While many people in the world can’t read or write, Americans worry about choosing the “right” school for their children. While much of the world barely has two changes of clothes, many Americans are concerned primarily with the latest fashion and color.” What a contrast! While many in this world are suffering and struggling to make ends meet aren’t we blessed beyond belief? Yet how often do we and our children complain about the things we don’t have and fail to be grateful for the blessings already received?
Every year on the 4th Thursday of November the nation celebrates “Thanksgiving Day”. While we enjoy our carved turkeys, Pumpkin Pie, Corns, Cranberry Sauce and shop the following day let’s pause and think, is Thanksgiving Day all about eating and shopping? By the way Thanksgiving for us didn’t start with Puritans or by J.C Penny, incase you are wondering who started this, it goes way back to Jewish roots. As God’s people our roots too are connected with the Jewish people. What does Thanksgiving really mean for us Christians? Is it a holiday that we celebrate once a year or is it an attitude that each of us need to develop? Are we really required to give thanks in all circumstances? As we learn about Thanksgiving from scriptures my prayer is that we will also cultivate the attitude of gratitude towards God, life and one another.
I. IS THANKSGIVING A COMMANDMENT?
The Jewish community in the OT was required by God to offer several offerings and celebrate festivals. One of such offerings is called the fellowship offering of thanksgiving. Unlike the other offerings it is offered as an expression of thankfulness. It is rather an extravagant offering. The list includes, “cakes of bread, wafers, cakes of fine flour well-kneaded and mixed with oil, and meat.”(Lev 7:12-15) King Hezekiah after purifying the temple gave a call to the people to bring sacrifices and thank offerings. The assembly responded willingly. On that day seventy bulls, a hundred rams and two hundred male lambs were offered to the LORD.(2 Ch 29:32). People didn’t shy away when it came to bring thank offerings.
God doesn’t require of us to offer bulls and goats any more, nevertheless he still expects us to be grateful. Thanksgiving is not just limited to offering materials to God but it can also be expressed in a Song of Praise. David wrote many Psalms expressing his gratitude to God. Thanksgiving was not a good suggestion but was a command from God. “Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles and the judgments he pronounced.” I Ch 16: 8-12
Paul in his letter to the Hebrews chapter 12 :28 Therefore since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire. Marva Dawn in her book “ A royal waste of time” says that the Jews were so worried about blaspheming God’s name YHWH, that they never spoke it, but said the name Adonai or LORD instead. Don’t you wish such respect still existed today? In fact, among Orthodox Jews it still does. They will not say the name of God because they do not want to mis-speak it. This morning as we think about Thanksgiving we could benefit from a bit more of their awe and reverence, their concern that we not mis-speak what God is like.
The Jewish community has a practice of saying 100 B’rakhot a day which means saying blessed are you God for 100 things. One of such blessing goes like this, “Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu, Melech Ha-Olam, it means, “Blessed art thou, O LORD our God, King of the universe” In general we think we are grateful to God, at least when it comes to thank at three meal times a day, but 100 times? That would be pretty hard isn’t it? But there is indeed a blessing in Blessing the LORD. Marva Dawn notes, “Can you imagine what it would be like if you tried at least 100 times a day to say sentences like Blessed are you O Lord our God, King of the universe, that you created men and women with intelligent minds who have invented alarm clocks so that I woke up on time this morning.” Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, that you have caused the sun to shine and rain to fall so that the fruits of the harvest could be made unto this breakfast cereal,”? How might this change our attitudes?
What the Jews sought and still seek to accomplish by saying 100 Barkhots a day was to find Joy in every aspect of life because they realized that God is behind it all. You might be saying well it is good for the Jews, but does God really require me to be grateful for what?
II. WHAT ARE WE TO THANK GOD FOR ANY WAY?
Our forefathers saw the hand of God in every aspect of life and were grateful. Listen to the words of a popular Hymn written in 1897, “Count your blessings, name them one by one, Count your blessings, see what God hath done! Count your blessings, name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.” When was the last time you saw the hand of God in your life? Is God still involved in the lives of his people? If he does then why are we failing to see his works in our lives? The answer lies in our modern lifestyle. We eat packaged food, live in packaged homes, drive luxury cars, and rely upon plenty of gadgets for our convenience as a result we don’t see the need to rely upon God. We think we can do it ourselves.
When everything is going well we think we don’t need God? But when things aren’t going great that is when we become all worried and anxious. I can’t tell you how many times we had to cry out to God for his intervention in the last five years. In his mercy he kept us depending on him for our needs. When we look back we have many reasons to be grateful to God for. In case you are wondering what you are to be grateful for, the scriptures do give us some reasons for thanksgiving. Scripture tells us that “Every good and perfect gift is from above coming down fro the father of lights.”James 1:17
The following scriptures give us reasons to be thankful to God for: We are thankful to God because he delivers us from sickness. Psalm 116:16-17 “O Lord, truly I am your servant; you have freed me from my chains. I will sacrifice a thank offering to you.” Think about how many times God has healed you from sickness? When you are sick, if you have money you’ll pay to be treated but if you don’t what will you do? You pray! On numerous occasions God heard our prayers and healed our bodies by doing so he kept our doctors visits to a minimum.
We thank God because he delivers us from our troubles. Have you witnessed the amazing rescue of 33 Chilean workers who were trapped for 69 days? Some attribute this to nothing less than a miracle, but the skeptics attribute it to the ingenuity of human brains. I believe that it was God who heard the cries of the miners and the prayers of the families and the world at large and rescued them by using the human skills and the modern technology. The Washington Post reported, “Prayers and well wishes from around the world reached the miners. Pope Benedict prayed for them after a mass in August. The Baptist Press reported that two miners "accepted Christ" during their ordeal. Florencio Avalos was the first man taken up from the mine. His wife, Monica, said "This rescue was so difficult, it's a grand miracle." The second miner to emerge, Mario Sepúlveda , told the press in Spanish: "I've been near God, but I've also been near the devil. God won."
Your trouble may be different; nevertheless when you cry out to God He will deliver you. In Ps 107:19, 21, 22 we read “Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble and he saved them from their distress. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men. Let them sacrifice thank offerings and tell of his works with songs of Joy.”
Three major areas where we must be thankful. Firstly, we thank God for the victory over sin and for his gift of salvation. Romans 6:17-18, “But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” I thank God for his saving grace and his great gift of salvation. Secondly, for his deliverance from the punishment of sin which is eternal death? Psalm 56:12 “I am under vows to you, O God; I will present my thank offerings to you. For you have delivered me from death.” Here the Psalmist was recollecting the times that God spared him from death, but was he totally delivered from death? Not yet! But thank God! a day is coming and is not too far from us that is the day when Christ returns to earth. I Cor 15:24, “Then the end will come, when he hands over the Kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”
Oh how I love this, I wish that day is today. One day there will be no more tears, no more pain, no more agony, no more good byes and no more death, all is over. God’s children will live with him in his heavenly Kingdom for ever and ever what a glorious day that would be. So thirdly, we thank God for allowing us to be part of his kingdom: Hebrews 12:28 “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.” There is no eminent threat to God’s Kingdom, no terrorist attacks or dirty bomb will destroy his Kingdom they won’t even get there in the first place. His Kingdom is eternal. Aren’t you grateful? In fact God wants us to excel in thankfulness Col 2:7.
III. HOW TO DEVELOP THE ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE?
If we dare to admit we all have a tendency to grumble and complain for the things that we don’t have and others seem to have. We tend to believe the lie of the enemy that “the more things you posses the more happy you will be.” That is not necessarily so. You can have all you ever want yet if you don’t have gratitude you feel miserable. Paul exhorts young Timothy about the “Get rich trap” In 1st Timothy 6:6-10 “6 But godliness actually is a means of great gain, when accompanied by contentment. 7 For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. 8 And if we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. 9 But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang.
We read in the book of Proverbs “Two things I ask of you, O Lord; don’t refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches; but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise I may have too much and disown you, and say “Who is the
Lord or I may become poor and steal and so dishonor the name of my God.” During these economic hardships it is wise to pray the prayer our Lord taught us. “Give us this day our daily bread.” The secret is the art of contentment, through which we can develop an attitude of gratitude. May the Lord help all of us to say like Paul did, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation?” Phi 4: 12 Amen
