Thanksgiving Sunday 2001
Steve Simala Grant
I saw a commercial on TV last week - you are in an opera house, looking at the
stage The soprano is hovering over a dead body, singing in some foreign language, then
she takes out a knife and plunges it into her body and collapses. The camera switches to
the audience, who are sitting there, polite but obviously completely confused about what
has just happened. Switch back to the stage. A man in a normal business suit walks out,
looks at the scene, then says to the audience, "they were cousins. They could never
marry." At this 7 word explanation, everything became clear to the audience who erupt
in applause.
I had a couple of experiences the past two weeks that brought life into sharper
clarity for me. They brought me to a point of stepping back and looking at life and truly
appreciating all that God has done.
The first you might be familiar with if you received the thanksgiving letter from
the church I picked Joanne up from work last Friday, and she noticed that Thomas (our
lyr old) was laboring quite hard in his breathing. He’d had a cold all week, and we
decided that this wheezing was bad enough that maybe we should take him to a doctor
just to be on the safe side. After waiting a couple hours in a medicenter, we finally saw a
doctor who told us to take him to Emergency - she diagnosed a viral infection in
Thomas’ lungs and said we should get him to the hospital immediately. I don’t recall
much of the trip or those first few minutes in the ER - the thoughts and worries and fears
raced through my mind. I felt helpless and guilty and overwhelmed. I was managing
alright until Joanne voiced our greatest fear to the doctor: "Is he going to be ok?" The
doctor’s reply was quick and positive, but I know my heart stopped and time stood still
for the brief moment between the question and assurance us that yes, he would be fine.
They were able to treat him and get his oxygen stabilized, they sent us home, and he is
doing better today.
The second experience happened this week. Alan Vail is a member of our
congregation who has been ill for quite some time. He was taken to hospital this past
week with a reoccurance of pnemonia. The doctors were unsure whether Alan would
recover this time. I visited him Wednesday morning, and though communication was
hard I was able to ask him a couple of questions. The first was "are you scared?" His
eyes popped open and he shook his head from side to side - "no." The second was
whether he was ready if God should decide that now is the time for him to die. Again his
eyes popped open, and this time he nodded - "yes." And I sensed a great deal of peace in
Alan.
Both of those experiences led me to take a big step back. To pause. To look at
life from a different perspective. To see the things that are important in life, the many
things that God has blessed us with, and to be thankful for them. There is something
about being in the ER with your son and at the bedside of a man who may be dying that
makes the crashed computer, the slow traffic, the annoying neighbor or coworker, that
makes all those things suddenly less important.
So what is it that we have to be thankful for? I want to pause here and give us the
chance together to rehearse some of God’s goodness to us - it is kind of a corporate
prayer time. Let’s focus on thanksgiving, but also if there are items of concern let’s pray
about those also.
It is incredibly appropriate that we celebrate the Lord’s supper together on a
thanksgiving Sunday, for by far the greatest gift we have is the gift of our salvation,
which Christ earned for us on the cross. Perhaps as you come here this morning you
wonder what there is in life to be thankful for - perhaps as you look around you the
things you see are hard and not joyful; perhaps you are at a low point in life, struggling,
fighting. Let me say this as clearly as possible - there is always Christ. There is always
the cross. And thus there is always hope. And since there is always hope in Christ, for
this life and also for the life to come, there is always at least that one thing to be thankful
for.
So we gather around God’s table, just like many of us will gather around a family
table sometime this weekend, and we thank God for all He has done and is doing. And as
we approach the table, I want to take us to Scripture.
First to the simple statements recording Jesus’ death and resurrection: Luke
23:44-46; 24:l-3,36-39a.
Second to 1 Thess. 5:16-18.
Third, and I’m not sure entirely why but I’ve felt tugged to Mal. 3:10.
Finally, to Job 2:4-10.
I also want to rehearse together some of the blessings of God for which we can be
thankful, as we find them in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. This is the book we have been
studying over the past three months, and as I read it again this week I was once again
struck by how much God has done for us. It’s kind of "review," so I won’t talk about
each thing in depth, but rather just remind us of the truth that is there.
1:4 -chosen
1:7 -redeemed
1:13 -sealed
1:17 - given the Spirit of wisdom and revelation
1:18 - opened the eyes of our hearts
1:19 - his incomparably great power for us
2:1-10 - we were dead in our sins, but Christ made us alive.
2:8 - saved by grace
2:14 - we have ALL been united into God’s family as one
2:22 - we are a dwelling that God Himself lives in by his Spirit
I share that list with the hope that it will help us realize how much God has done
for us through His Son, and bring us to a place of sincere thankfulness.
Communion is about focusing us on Jesus and what He has done for us through
His death and resurrection. As we eat and drink, we "proclaim the Lord’s death, until he
comes." It is a time of remembering, of re-enacting, Jesus sacrifice, and of taking part -
of identifying with Christ.
As we receive the elements today, I ask you to spend some time in quite prayer,
focusing on God and all He has done for you. And I ask you to ask God to show you
what you are to be thankful for - allow Him to lead.
We began the service with a time of confession, so won’t formally repeat that
here though I want to encourage you to prepare yourself fully to meet God in this
celebration.
Return thanks for bread.
This focuses us on Christ’s body, and all He has done for us. Eat with a thankful
heart!
Return thanks for cup.
This focuses us on Christ’s blood, which He willingly shed for us, so that we
could know all the many blessings God has for us. Drink with a thankful heart!
Hymn - "When I survey"
Benediction:
PRAYER OF ST. BASIL THE GREAT
0 Lord my God, I give thanks to You; for You have not rejected me, a
sinner, but have deemed me worthy to be a partaker of Your holy Mysteries. I
thank You for having granted that I, unworthy as I am, be a partaker of Your most
pure and heavenly Gifts. 0 Lord Who loves mankind, You died and rose again
for our sake; and You have given us these awesome and life-giving Mysteries for
the good of our body and for the sanctification of our soul. Grant that they serve
me for the healing of my body and soul, and that they may set to flight every foe.
Enlighten the eyes of my heart; give peace to the powers of my mind;
inspire me with a faith in which there is no shame, with a sincere love and a deep
wisdom, and with obedience to Your commandments.
May these Mysteries increase Your divine grace in me and make me dwell
in Your kingdom. Being preserved in Your holiness by them, I will remember
Your love at all times. From now on I will not live for myself, but for You, my
Lord and Benefactor. Thus, having spent my earthly life in the hope of life
without end, I will, one day reach eternal rest where the sound of rejoicing never
ceases, where the delight of those who look upon the beauty of Your face has no
bounds.
For You, Christ our God, are truly the object of our desire, and the
inexpressible joy of those who love You; and all creatures glorify You forever
and ever. Amen.
