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Thanksgiving:  A Day to Remember by Rev. Carol M. Simpson, Associate Pastor 23 November 2000 - Preached at the American Cathedral on the occasion of the Paris Community Thanksgiving Service TEXT: Deuteronomy 8:1-3, 6-10, 17-20; Matthew 6:25-33 © 2000 C. M. Simpson

Thanksgiving is a day to remember. It is a day to remember loved ones and family with whom we have so often shared this special holiday. It is a day to remember with gratitude the many blessings we have, and it is a day to remember God’s generosity and faithfulness. On this Thanksgiving Day, as we sit comfortably here in a splendid sanctuary in Paris, it is a day to remember just how blessed we are. In Uganda, people are dying of the Ebola virus. In the Middle East, Jerusalem has become a pawn in a political chess game. In Chechnya, in Bosnia, in Ivory Coast, and in so many other places, the horrors of war continue to take their toll. The poorest person in this sanctuary today probably numbers among the world’s richest.

But Thanksgiving isn’t about material wealth. Thanksgiving is a day to remember God’s goodness, God’s faithfulness, and God’s steadfast love. In our lesson from Deuteronomy, we are told, "Remember the long way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord." God is with us over the long haul. God knows that we don’t always catch on quickly. God knows that we need lesson after lesson, illustration after illustration, and occasionally even tangible proof.

God heard the groaning of the Israelites and chose to lead them out of slavery in Egypt. God parted the waters of the Red Sea so that they could escape their pursuers. In the wilderness, when they found only bitter water to drink, God turned the water sweet so that their thirst could be satisfied. When they complained about hunger God sent quail and manna from heaven so that they would hunger no more. What does all this tell us? Simply that God is with us at all times and knows our every need. Our Gospel lesson for this morning, says clearly, "Therefore 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." Easier said than done, isn’t it? So much of life seems to be focused on finding a good job, earning an adequate salary, being able to live in a nice home, wearing stylish clothes, eating what we enjoy, etc. etc. etc. We can’t seem to get out of the rat race of material acquisition. Yet scripture clearly tells us that those things have little long-term value and that worrying about them does no good at all. Listen as the scripture passage continues: "Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, 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?" Of course not! In fact, worry often causes health problems and can actually shorten our life span. "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. 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 -- you of little faith?" Matthew hammers his point home by adding, "Therefore do not worry, saying ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will be drink?’ Or What will we wear?’ .....your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

The message is an incredibly simple one. When we follow God’s will and walk in God’s way, God will satisfy all our needs. Of course, needs are not to be confused with wants. God does not promise us a mansion, or a five course meal, or designer clothes. Instead, God promises to be faithful to us, to meet our needs, and to lead us in paths of righteousness. The promise goes even further. If we live faithfully and abide by God’s commandments, we need not worry about life’s basic needs. God will care for us because God loves us.

Thanksgiving offers us the opportunity to take stock of our blessings, to look back over our life and discover all those places where God has lifted us up, comforted us, sustained us, fed us, guided us, led us. We have a tendency at Thanksgiving to focus on our material blessings, on the bounty that graces our table, on all the "things" that give us a sense of well-being. But think for a moment about some of God’s other blessings. Think about your loved ones. Take time to name, to lift them up to God one by one..... Think about your mentors, those who have guided you at work or in your Christian walk. Name them also...... Think about the stressful times in your life, and about the solutions which have ultimately been found to worrisome problems. Thank God for each one..... Now think about a wilderness time in your life. Can you see where God led and how God fed you during that time? Thank God for all these blessings.

Our God is a faithful God. Our God is a loving God. Our God weeps with us, laughs with us, yearns for us and seeks to meet our needs. Our God is a personal God, a God who calls us by name and knows our needs both great and small. God yearns for us to come into relationship, to communicate regularly through prayer, to walk with confidence along the path which God sets before us. God gives us the freedom to make choices and gives us guidelines for making good choices. God gives us blessings too numerous to count. Thanksgiving is a day to remember God’s grace and God’s goodness. Thanksgiving is a day to remember and to count our blessings, many of which we tend to take for granted. Consider these statistics, shared during a recent stewardship campaign:

C If you woke up this morning with more health than illness...you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.

C If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation ... you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

C If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death...you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.

C If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep...you are richer than 75% of this world.

C If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace...you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

C If you are over thirty and either of your parents is still alive you are very rare. Over a billion people are orphans by then.

C If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful...you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.

C If you can hold someone's hand, hug them or even touch them on the shoulder...you are blessed because you can offer God's healing touch.

C If you could read this message, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.

The Thanksgiving holiday began as a feast celebrated among the early pilgrims who sought to give God thanks for survival and for their new country. Today it can be much more. Thanksgiving offers us the opportunity to pause in the midst of our busyness, to refocus our lives, to shift our priorities, to stop worrying, to choose to live with an attitude of gratitude every day. True thanksgiving and worry are incompatible. We tend to worry when we focus on our fears rather than on our faith. We worry when we focus on the irrelevant and ignore the important. We worry when we focus on our wants rather than on our abundance. When we focus on our faith in God rather than on our fears, we find that worry automatically dissipates. God's resources are far greater than our own. We need only trust God to handle any situation, and then relax in the peace of God’s presence. If we discover how to live our lives in perpetual praise to God for God's goodness and abundant blessings, fear and worry will melt away. George Mueller, the famed nineteenth century founder of orphanages that cared for thousands of children and handled millions of dollars donated on faith, once said, "The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith. The beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety."

Another part of freedom from worry comes from that calm assurance which is ours through Christ. We know of Christ's birth, celebrated in the season which begins next Sunday. We know of Christ's life and teachings, and we know also about His death and resurrection. We need not worry because even death itself has lost its sting through our conviction that salvation and life everlasting were made possible for us by Jesus' death on the cross. How often do we remember to give thanks for God’s gift of Jesus Christ, and for God’s promise of salvation?

It is important to note, however, that nowhere does Jesus say to the disciples: "Do not be anxious about anything." He merely exhorts them not to waste their energy being anxious about insignificant things. It is a question not only of priorities, but also of faith. If we believe in God, then surely we can be confident that God will take care of our basic needs. Far from telling them not to worry, Jesus exhorts the disciples, in story after story, to be concerned with the plight of one's neighbor, to be sensitive to the needs of others, to stand up for justice, and to resist oppression. The call to discipleship is a call to responsibility and to responsible action. Don't worry about things like what to eat or what to drink or what to wear, but do let us worry about preaching justice and love, and about the need for reconciliation in all segments of our society. Let us not worry about our own material needs, but instead, let us worry about how to ensure that all people's basic needs are met. Do let us translate Jesus' message into a call to action and to Christian responsibility.

We each have much to be thankful for as we gather together this Thanksgiving Day. For starters, we can each give thanks for the privilege of waking up this morning, for the gift of life itself. We have all named family members and friends who love us. We can give thanks for the church family to which we belong, for its nurture, for its fellowship, for its love. We can give thanks for a roof over our head and running water in our houses, for food on our tables and clothes on our backs. We can give thanks for those who planted in us the seeds of faith and for those who nurtured those seeds and brought them to full fruit. And we can give thanks to God for calling us to mission and ministry in the name of Jesus Christ.

Today is a day for remembering, a day for thanksgiving, for giving abundant thanks for all God's blessings. Let us remember to give thanks not only today, but every day. Let us seek to make our lives a reflection of the thanks which we feel in our hearts. Amen

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