Thursday, November 23, 2006

Thanksgiving (BCP / RCL lectionary mix) sermon

Joel 2:21-27, Matthew 6:25-33

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

1. On Thanksgiving Day, I sometimes call to mind a list of things I’m thankful for...
- friends, relationships, family, etc...
- for plenty of food & drink...
- for a warm home to live in...
- for a measure of health enough to enjoy my days...
- for a nation that is, in many ways, stable and secure...

2. But sometimes it can make one a little uneasy to contemplate such a list...
- troubles that seem to encroach on our list of blessings
- our neighbors who may not have the same things
- contingency of what we do have...

Hubert Beck, Lutheran Theologian QUOTE




“I thank you, Lord, that I am NOT one of the homeless or the hungry or the
people who cannot find work or who are estranged from their family. I thank you,
Lord, that I do NOT live in ______________ (fill in the nation you do NOT want
to live in) etc., etc., etc.”

My thanksgiving is so frequently centered on what I have that it becomes
troubling when confronted with how many other people have little or nothing. My
health is to be treasured, to be sure . . . but not with a secret thankfulness
that it is not as troubled as somebody else whose health is in jeopardy. My
relative security in terms of money or home or family or diet is to be
treasured, without question . . . but not as though it placed me over against
those who are not blessed in the same way that I am.”


3. This kind of “catalogue” or “inventory” of what we are thankful for can make us uneasy or fearful...
- these ARE “goods”
- but we are paying more attention to what we are thankful FOR
- than what WHO we are thankful TO.
- all blessings, all goods flow from God
- and first and foremost, we should esteem God, then other goods,
not place other things above God in our hearts

The verse just before our Gospel lesson is:


‘No one can serve two masters; for a servant will either hate the one and love
the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God
and wealth.


4. The verse before today’s Gospel makes it clear that we are to value our relationship with God first and foremost, more than what we have. Thankful first for God and our relationship with God, not love our “things” more than God.
- When we are more concerned with what we have, we are thinking about ourselves
- places us in an untrusting stance towards God
- a competitive stance towards neighbors
- an idolatrous stance towards “stuff” / “wealth” / “Mammon.”
- This makes us anxious and fearful
- we see around us only lack and poverty, or the threat of loss
- instead of seeing the riches that God is raining upon all creation continually

5. It is just this sort of anxiousness and fear that Christ comforts in the Gospel
- “do not worry about your life... what will we eat or drink... what you will wear”
- instead, draws our attention to the richness and splendor of creation
- and our own relationship with God: “Are you not of more value than they?”
- In fact, in the Joel reading, God tells the creatures of nature themselves not to worry:
- Do not fear, O soil; Do not fear, you animals of the field...
- It is b/c they will also be blessed that the people of Israel will be blessed

6. When we concentrate on God, TO WHOM we are thankful, firstly, we are freed to be less anxious for WHAT we are thankful for
- to see how the rich the gifts of God are in all creation
- to see how the blessings and gifts given to all the earth
—to the fields, to birds of the air, to wild animals,
- these are ALSO things we should be thankful for
—how their blessings are also our blessings
- and especially to see how the blessings and gifts of our neighbors are as important as those which we ourselves have
- Just as God pours gifts of rain and food upon the wild fields and animals in an almost spendthrift generosity, we are enabled to ask not “What do I lack?” but “What can I do for my neighbor’s lack?” It even allows us to give thanks to the blessings that our neighbors have that we do not, so long as they did not gain it by injustice.



Let us praise the God who gives the rain in its season, and provides the
richness of fruits of the earth to sustain both the wild animals and humankind.
Let us pray that we may be faithful stewards of the earth’s bounty, not only on
our own behalf, but with an eye towards all who are in need, and an eye towards
the inherent goodness, in God’s eyes, of the earth itself; through Jesus Christ
our Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, the
fount of all life and source of all blessings. AMEN.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

Blogging Episcopalians
Join | List | Previous | Next | Random | Powered by RingSurf