In all Things Give Thanks

Thanksgiving Weekend November 22, 2020 Deuteronomy 8:7-18 Year A Opening Song Welcome Opening Prayer O Holy God, maker of every thought and thing, open our hearts this day, that we may know your presence in this time and place. Restore us now, so we may see the special gift and calling that you have for each of us. Masterful potter of life, mold us into the vessels you would have us be. Help us be ready for your promised return, when you will be among us and within us with new, creative, healing energy. Amen. Stewardship Moment Invitation to the Offering (Isaiah 64, Mark 13) During this late harvest time, when fruit and grain are gathered in and many are preparing for the cold of winter, God invites us to share what we have gathered so others may have enough. The Holy One, the gracious, giving source of comfort, shapes us into vessels of compassion and invites us to give of our bounty so that others may be fed and clothed and healed and loved. Let us be generous and joyful in our giving. Offering Prayer (Mark 13) Holy God, triumphant liberating savior of all, receive these gifts and the hopeful hearts that offer them as part of your bountiful harvest. Strengthen and sustain us through our hungers and our fears until your unexpected advent. Help us as we wait to know each day that we are a part of your generous, expectant household, the body of Christ. Amen. Scripture Deuteronomy 8:7-18 Common English Bible 7 because the LORD your God is bringing you to a wonderful land, a land with streams of water, springs, and wells that gush up in the valleys and on the hills; 8 a land of wheat and barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey; 9 a land where you will eat food without any shortage—you won’t lack a thing there—a land where stone is hard as iron and where you will mine copper from the hills. 10 You will eat, you will be satisfied, and you will bless the LORD your God in the wonderful land that he’s given you. Against wealth and overconfidence 11 But watch yourself! Don’t forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commands or his case laws or his regulations that I am commanding you right now. 12 When you eat, get full, build nice houses, and settle down, 13 and when your herds and your flocks are growing large, your silver and gold are multiplying, and everything you have is thriving, 14 don’t become arrogant, forgetting the LORD your God: the one who rescued you from Egypt, from the house of slavery; 15 the one who led you through this vast and terrifying desert of poisonous snakes and scorpions, of cracked ground with no water; the one who made water flow for you out of a hard rock; 16 the one who fed you manna in the wilderness, which your ancestors had never experienced, in order to humble and test you, but in order to do good to you in the end. 17 Don’t think to yourself, My own strength and abilities have produced all this prosperity for me. 18 Remember the LORD your God! He’s the one who gives you the strength to be prosperous in order to establish the covenant he made with your ancestors—and that’s how things stand right now. Sermon In All Things Give Thanks For those who are not Facebook friends with me, this is my inspiration piece for my dining room table. Every month I decorate the table with a different theme. Instances where attention is a dangerous thing, because lately they have gotten pretty elaborate – because people from all over the country look forward to the table. But you may not have noticed that at the center of every setting is this sign – In Everything give thanks. I started decorating my table in 2001 – I was a campus minister at UIC, since I wasn’t in a church I couldn’t light an advent candle, so I created an advent wreath at home. Then it grew from there, to where I set the table every month. I happened to notice this sign in a Christian store – and decided that this would be my centerpiece to decorate around no matter what. This sign spoke to me – because of an incident a few years before. I gave my first sermon in Aurora. And I met a little girl about 12 who was excited for me to be her pastor, she sat in the front row with her parents. And after the sermon, she laughed at me and told me that was the dumbest sermon she ever heard. You preached about it being Thanksgiving – who celebrates Thanksgiving in July. My feeling were hurt, I felt obviously she didn’t get the point of my sermon – to be thankful all of the time, in every season. But today – we are approaching the Thanksgiving holiday – and it is a timely message to remind us to count our blessings. It has been a tough year – but still it is a time to be thankful. Have You Taken Inventory Lately? The renown teacher and author Dr. David McLennon tells a story of his very first job in a small town general store. This was the day before mails and supermarket chains at least it was in his community. At age thirteen he was hired as a handy boy. He would sweep the flour, bag items for customers, put up stock. On one particular Saturday, he recalled., he heard the owner say to one of the clerks "It’s that time of the year again, it’s time to take inventory." Dr. McLennon Wrote that this was a word that had not yet entered into his vocabulary. When an opportune moment arrived, he went up to the kindly older man and asked, Sir, what is an inventory? Patiently the owner explained that it was a time when you made a list of everything that you had--from groceries on the shelves to wrapping paper and string. Still somewhat puzzled, the young McLennon then asked, Why? "Well, responded the owner, its easy to forget exactly how much you have each year. Every now and then you have to take an inventory just to see what all you have." That little story, to me, pretty well sums up what Thanksgiving is all about. It is a time when each of us needs to ask ourselves the question: Have I taken inventory of my life lately? Have I made an effort to count all the things that I do have in life instead of complaining about the things that I don’t have. It is a good exercise especially when we are of a mind to brood or whine in self pity. Have you taken inventory lately? What I am suggesting here is not some shallow "count your blessings" platitude. But from time to time, in a genuine kind of a way, we need to sit down and do some talking to ourselves about all of the gifts and opportunities and challenges that God has given each one of us. Perhaps there is a deep underlying wisdom in the children's poem that says: "Count your blessings one by one, and you might be surprised what the Lord has done." Staff, www.eSermons.com An Inventory of Blessings Perhaps Daniel Defoe gave us some good advice through his fictitious character Robinson Crusoe. The first thing that Crusoe did when he found himself on a deserted island was to make out a list. On one side of the list he wrote down all his problems. On the other side of the list he wrote down all of his blessings. On one side he wrote: I do not have any clothes. On the other side he wrote: But it's warm and I don't really need any. On one side he wrote: All of the provisions were lost. On the other side he wrote: But there's plenty of fresh fruit and water on the island. And on down the list he went. In this fashion he discovered that for every negative aspect about his situation, there was a positive aspect, something to be thankful for. It is easy to find ourselves on an island of despair. Perhaps it is time that we sit down and take an inventory of our blessings. I well imagine that there are some of us here this morning that are long, long overdue in expressing our thanks to God. Sermons.com Staff, ChristianGlobe Illustrations So speaking of counting out blessings, Deuteronomy is the perfect story for us this morning. We have been following the story of the Hebrews and how moses led them out of slavery into the wilderness in search of the promisedland. We have been following their struggles as a people. This by the way is the last story that we will hear in that journey. This is the last Sunday of the lectionary year. Next week is the first Sunday of advent and we start reading the book of Isaiah. In this passage, Moses calls the community together for a lesson on remembering God. Deuteronomy was actually written much later than Moses, but it is written in the voice of Moses. In this passage the people have arrived to the land of milk and honey, the promise has been fulfilled, and they are living in peace and happiness. Usually when things are going well, that is the time that we forget about God. We forget to be faithful. We start to rely on our own power to do everything. There was a man who noticed that a bus of young people was stranded on the side of the road. They were on their way to a mission trip and the bus broke down. Being a Christian himself, the man offered to take them to his church, let them sleep for the night, he ordered pizza for them and made sure they slept and got another church member to come and fix the bus. As they were ready to continue their journey – one of the leaders said – I sure thank God for all that God did for us last night. The man thought to himself – God didn’t do anything – I did all of the work. You should thank me. When you are salt of the earth people – you learn to rely on yourself. You work hard, you do what you can, you move forward in life and you stay faithful. The temptation in that is not so much forgetting about God, but in being self reliant – thinking that you are responsible for your own destiny. It was your hard work that got you where you are – not God. And sometimes it takes something, or some event or somebody to remind us that it is time to count our blessings. Moses calls the community together to remind them to count their blessings. He reminds them of all that God has brought them through. He tells them not to forget God, not to forget their history, not to forget that we did anything to be God’s chosen people, and not to forget that everything that we have is a gift from God – even our self reliance. Moses says – don’t think to yourself, my own strength and abilities have produced all this prosperity for me. Remember the lord your God! He is the one who gives you the strength to be prosperous. We can give thanks to God in all things at anytime – whether it is July or November. Everyday is Thanksgiving. It has taken me this long in life to realize Thanksgiving is an American holiday. Canada has thanksgiving – their harvest time is a little earlier, so it is in October. But no other country celebrates. And that first thanksgiving was actually 1942 – not during the time of the pilgrims. I think it was Roosevelt who declared that thanksgiving would be the third Thursday of November. George Washington declared a national thanksgiving, and then abraham Lincoln made a proclamation that we could have a national holiday in November giving thanks. And finally Roosevelt declared the exact time and stopped the presidential proclamations. And the rest his history. Of course this is a very strange time in history for our country and for the world. This thanksgiving, instead of telling us to gather together and be family, told to stay apart and be safe. And yet even in these circumstances, we can take the time to count our blessings and to give glory to God for what we have. The concept of thanksgiving is timeless. It is a good time to remember gratitude, grace and generosity. IT is a good time to remember God as the source of everything good in our lives. A little later, we will sing the song now thank we all our God. It is a staple of the thanksgiving season. The song was written in the 1600’s by a Lutheran pastor in Germany. The country was at war and he lived in small walled village. The village become a safe haven for many who came for safety and security. Soon the town because crowded with people. We all know what happens when you walk into a crowd. – there is the potential that if one get sick, everyone does. That is what happened, there was a plague and famine that killed many people. Soon he was the only pastor in town. He buried over 4000 people that year, including his wife and family. Instead of falling into despair – he wrote the words to this song. It was a perfect time to stop and to count his blessings – and to thank God for all things in life. In everything give thanks to God – God is the source of all good things. Let us pray….. Thanksgiving Prayer Prayer for Pandemic Gratitude Inspired by Deuteronomy 8:7-18 and 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 O God, bring us to that good land full of your living water and the abundance of good things. Bring us to that place where we might be full and satisfied because this nagging feeling is exhausting. This constant agonizing feeling that nothing will get better and nobody cares because we can't agree on what love looks like now just needs to stop. We are not cheerful. Don't ask that of us, O God, because we don't have that in us. Sorry. It's true. Skip ahead to the part where we give to the poor and multiply the seeds for the farmers and bread bakers except that we've confused what we can do in this great and terrible pandemic wilderness with what you can do. Remind us that gratitude doesn't have to turn over every table but only had to turn our hearts to notice the indescribable wonder of living in your love. O God, with every breath in our bodies, help us to live in our love enough to praise you with thanksgiving. Amen. Song for Reflection Now Thank We all Our God UMH 102 Announcements Last Sunday of the year. Next week is advent – start reading the book of Mark. Advent discipline is to read a chapter of Mark a day. Receiving worship bags to help with advent and Christmas. More details about that in days to come. Next week our reading is Mark 13:24-37 song People Look East UMH 202 Happy Thanksgiving – be happy, be safe, be grateful Benediction 1 Community Time Benediction 2 As we go out to meet a hungry world, know that God will give us what we need. We go forth to make ready as we wait. The Holy One, whose love turns fear aside, will show us what to do. Keep watch! The risen Christ is on the way! Amen. Children’s Sermon Object: A dictionary Good morning, boys and girls. The gift of speech is one of the most precious gifts in the world. Once upon a time, a few years ago, all you could say was, "Da-da" and "Ma-ma." But most of you now speak about 18,000 words a day. Can you believe that? 18,000 words--and you still won't use most of the words in this dictionary. Eighteen thousand words a day. Have you ever thought how many of those words are good words, and how many are not so good? I hope most of your words are good words. I want to point out the most important word in this dictionary. It's over on page ( ). It is spelled, T-H-A-N-K-S. What did I just spell? That's right, thanks. One of the best things you can do in life is to learn to say thanks. It helps people like you better. And it shows that you do appreciate the nice things other people do for you. I don't know a more important word. And I don't know anybody who deserves our thanks more than God. Why? Because God gave us everything we have. Sunshine, air, rain, food to eat, people who love us, and much, much more. So let's not forget, especially when we are saying our prayers, to say the most important word in the dictionary. What is it? That's right, Thanks! And thank you for being here this morning. Dynamic Preaching, Collected Sermons, by King Duncan Additional Illustrations The Gratitude Attitude In A Second Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul, Rev. John R. Ramsey tells how in one church a certain person provided him with a rose boutonniere for the lapel of his suit every Sunday. At first he really appreciated it but then it sort of became routine. Then one Sunday it became very special. As he was leaving the Sunday Service a young boy walked up to him and said, "Sir, what are you going to do with your flower?" At first the preacher didn't know what the boy was talking about. When it sank in, he pointed to the rose on his lapel and asked the boy, "Do you mean this?" The boy said, "Yes, sir. If you're just going to throw it away, I would like it." The preacher smiled and told him he could have the flower and then casually asked what he was going to do with it. The boy, who was probably no more than 10 years old, looked up at the preacher and said, "Sir, I'm going to give it to my granny. My mother and father divorced last year. I was living with my mother, but she married again, and wanted me to live with my father. I lived with him for a while, but he said I couldn't stay, so he sent me to live with my grandmother. She is so good to me. She cooks for me and takes care of me. She has been so good to me that I wanted to give her that pretty flower for loving me." When the little boy finished, the preacher could hardly speak. His eyes filled with tears and he knew he had been touched by God. He reached up and unpinned the rose. With the flower in his hand, he looked at the boy and said, "Son, that is the nicest thing that I've ever heard but you can't have this flower because it's not enough. If you'll look in front of the pulpit, you'll see a big bouquet of flowers. Different families buy them for the Church each week. Please take those flowers to your granny because she deserves the very best." Then the boy made one last statement which Rev. Ramsey said he will always treasure. The boy said, "What a wonderful day! I asked for one flower but got a beautiful bouquet." That's the thankful spirit. That's the gratitude attitude. And it's that attitude that should guide our giving and our lives. Like that boy's granny, God has blessed us so much. God has been so good to us that giving shouldn't even be a question. It should just flow from us naturally. John R. Ramsey, Second Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul. Adapted by Billy D. Strayhorn, “The Gratitude Attitude" Better Not Bitter If we are not thankful then we can become bitter. If we are not thankful, then it becomes too easy to sit around and ponder the question: why me? Dr. Jim Moore, retired pastor of St. Luke’s UMC in Houston wrote a book entitled "You Can Grow Bitter or You Can Grow Better". He writes that he got the idea for the title from a young woman who once came to him in a most tragic moment in her life. She had tears in her eyes and her knuckles were white as she twisted a handkerchief. She had just received word that her twenty-six year old husband had been killed in a farming accident, leaving her alone with three pre-school age children. One moment he was alive and vibrant, the next moment gone. "I don't know how I am going to be able to get along without him," she sobbed. "But I do know one thing. I can either get bitter or I can get better." One way that we can get better rather than bitter is to develop a thankful heart. We must learn to be grateful to the Lord with whom we shall spend eternity. Our morning prayer should always begin: O Thou who has given me so much, I pray that you give me yet one more thing--a grateful heart. Staff, www.eSermons.com God’s Provision The words "harvest" and "thanksgiving" are linked together in many cultures. Most who till the soil know that our feeble human efforts do not produce crops; crops require sun and rain and other variables that are beyond our control. The early settlers and the indigenous people they found here also recognized the importance of God's provision for survival. Hundreds of years later, a commemorative meal serves as a reminder for us to thank God for those things necessary for our survival. Safiyah Fosua Thankful In All Things Our forefathers were not so much thankful for something as they were thankful in something. In bounty or in want they were thankful. In feast or in famine they were thankful. In joy or in misery they were thankful. There is a big difference between being thankful for things and being thankful in all things. Our closing hymn this morning was carefully selected. It was written in 1607 by a German by the name of Martin Reinkardht. The name of the hymn is "Now Thank We All Our God." In the year that Rinkardht wrote that hymn it is interesting to note that over 6000 persons in his German village, including his wife and his children, died of pestilence. Yet, in the midst of that catastrophic social and personal loss Reinkardht set down to pen this great hymn of praise: Now thank we all our God, with hearts and hands and voices.' The Christian faith affirms that in the midst of everything--in death, in loss, in hardship--we are to turn to God in praise. Brett Blair, www.eSermons.com First National Thanksgiving Proclamation Whereas, it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; Whereas, both the houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness!" Now therefore, I do recommend next, to be devoted by the people of the states to the service of that great and glorious being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be, that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country. George Washington, 1779. The attitude of gratitude is important for several reasons: Thankfulness acknowledges that God is our provider. Thankfulness prevents a complaining spirit. Thankfulness creates a positive outlook on life Thankfulness invites joy to dwell in our hearts. Kent Crockett, Making Today Count for Eternity, pp. 161. Thanksgiving Sermon Opener This morning I would like to hold up for you three different scenes. The strange thing about these scenarios is that when you first hear them you will be hard pressed to understand why I selected these stories to exemplify Thanksgiving. On the surface they will seem to be the antithesis of Thanksgiving. Yet, I am convinced that at the heart of these stories is the real Biblical understanding of what it means to be thankful. The first scene comes from the Old Testament. It is the familiar story of Job. Job has come to represent for us the epitome of suffering. Near the end of the story we see that all of his children have been killed in an accident; he is facing financial ruin; he has been stricken with illness. In fact, it seems that if any person is justified in saying: Let's just skip Thanksgiving this year it would be Job. Yet, in the midst of all of this immeasurable suffering the voice of God comes to Job and says to him a very interesting statement. We read it in the 37th chapter the 14th verse. God says to Job: "Hear this O Job. Stop and consider the wondrous works of God." From all outward circumstances it seems as though Job has nothing at all to be thankful for yet here is God coming to him in the midst of it all and saying in effect, Job, it's time to count your blessings. Let's leave that story for a moment and take a look at a second. This one comes from the New Testament, the book of Ephesians. The Apostle Paul now finds himself squarely in the midst of a dingy Roman prison and facing serious charges. Things seem very bad indeed for Paul. But this is only one of a series of mishaps that has occurred during his stormy ministry. He has been shipwrecked, beaten nearly to death, imprisoned, and even many of his fellow Christians are now openly opposing him. Now he faces what surely seems to be a death sentence. In the midst of this situation Paul writes the Christians in Ephesus. Listen to what he has to say, "Thanks be to God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every blessing." Strange words from a man facing execution. Like Job, we are forced to ask the question What has he to be thankful for? Staff, www.eSermons.com Now Thank We All Our God You can even be thankful during the most difficult of circumstances in life. It's true! We see an especially inspiring example of a brave and thankful heart in the story behind one of the church's most popular hymns, "Now Thank We All Our God." This particularly hymn was written during the Thirty Years War in Germany, in the early 1600s. Its author was Martin Rinkart, a Lutheran pastor in the town of Eilenburg in Saxony. Now, Eilenburg was a walled city, so it became a haven for refugees seeking safety from the fighting. But soon, the city became too crowded and food was in short supply. Then, a famine hit and a terrible plague and Eilenburg became a giant morgue. In one year alone, Pastor Rinkart conducted funerals for 4,500 people, including his own wife. The war dragged on; the suffering continued. Yet through it all, he never lost courage or faith and even during the darkest days of Eilenburg's agony, he was able to write this hymn: Now thank we all our God, with hearts and hands and voices, Who wondrous things hath done, In whom the world rejoices ...[So] keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed, and free us from all ills, in this world and the next. Even when he was waist deep in destruction, Pastor Rinkart was able to lift his sights to a higher plane. He kept his mind on God's love when the world was filled with hate. He kept his mind on God's promises of heaven when the earth was a living hell. Can we not do the same - we whose lives are almost trouble-free, compared with the man who wrote that hymn? Whom can you say "thank you" to? Erskine White, Together in Christ __________________________________ An Inventory of Blessings Perhaps Daniel Defoe gave us some good advice through his fictitious character Robinson Crusoe. The first thing that Crusoe did when he found himself on a deserted island was to make out a list. On one side of the list he wrote down all his problems. On the other side of the list he wrote down all of his blessings. On one side he wrote: I do not have any clothes. On the other side he wrote: But it's warm and I don't really need any. On one side he wrote: All of the provisions were lost. On the other side he wrote: But there's plenty of fresh fruit and water on the island. And on down the list he went. In this fashion he discovered that for every negative aspect about his situation, there was a positive aspect, something to be thankful for. It is easy to find ourselves on an island of despair. Perhaps it is time that we sit down and take an inventory of our blessings. I well imagine that there are some of us here this morning that are long, long overdue in expressing our thanks to God. Sermons.com Staff, ChristianGlobe Illustrations Deuteronomy 8:7-18