Community Church Sermons

Year C

November 24, 2013

The Reign of Christ

Thanksgiving Therapy

Philippians 4:4-9

Rev. Martin C. Singley, III

Senior Pastor

The harvest was in.

It was small.

But it was a harvest.

The winter was coming, and there would be hardship ahead. Last year, in their first winter in the New World – the winter of 1620 – the Pilgrim people were wholly unprepared for New England’s cold and snow. There was little shelter. Not much food. And disease ran rampant. More than half their number died that first year. Not a family was left untouched by death.

Now, the winter of 1621 was fast-approaching.

The harvest was in.

It was small.

But the people of Plimoth Plantation gave thanks.

Thanks-giving was a regular part of the Pilgrim’s faith. And interestingly enough, thanks-giving was also a common part of the life of the Pilgrims’ neighbors – the Wampanoag tribe. Both communities knew something about the importance of giving thanks.

And so they came together in the autumn of 1621 for a three-day long celebration – a time for giving thanks to the Creator of all that lives and breathes – the heavenly Father of both native peoples and immigrant settlers. And it was a time to consider the blessing of each other. What became known as the first Thanksgiving was at its heart an exercise of loving God and neighbor. And we Americans have been celebrating Thanksgiving that way ever since. Yesterday, more than 800 Thanksgiving baskets were distributed to families in need in Loudon County. I’m not sure about the number in Monroe County, but I’m sure it’s huge. And a lot of it is because of you and your Thanksgiving generosity. Loving God and loving neighbor. That’s what Thanksgiving is all about!

In our family, Thanksgiving is kind of a sacred tipping point only after which we can start getting ready for Christmas. Singleys do not go Christmas shopping on Thanksgiving. Nor do we put up Christmas trees. In fact, the other day Sandy and I were out in the car and I tuned the XM radio to channel 4 which plays Christmas music. I love listening to Christmas music in the car! But she reached over and turned it off. “Not yet!” she said. “You can put it on AFTER Thanksgiving!” Well, excuse me!

Thanksgiving is a sacred day to us Singleys.

But in the Christian Faith, Thanksgiving is much more than a day – an event – a wonderful feast that gathers families and friends and encourages us to count our blessings. That’s a good thing, mind you, but Thanksgiving is more than that.

Thanksgiving is a discipline – a way of living that gives you power to face life as it comes to you.

Thanksgiving is a spiritual therapy that helps you live well!

“Give thanks to the Lord!” is a frequent call heard in the Psalms of the Old Testament as people faced the challenges of their lives back then.

On the last night of his life – as he faced death - Jesus took bread and wine and GAVE THANKS. We call this the “Eucharist” which is the traditional name given to our communion sacrament. Eucharist means “thanksgiving.” And in the Greek, this thanksgiving is not a noun. It is a VERB. Thanks-giving is something you DO.

And here in Paul’s letter to the Philippians we find an almost humorous example of the power of thanks-giving.

In the verses preceding those just read for us, we hear about a couple of women in the church who are having some kind of fight. Imagine that? People in the church not getting along? We don’t know the details, but we know it must have been pretty serious for the apostle Paul to have been told about it, and for him to write about it in this letter. Now the practice in these early Christian churches was to read Paul’s letters publically – in the church service! There was no Bible in those days and so the text that was read was often the letter most recently received from an apostle.

So imagine yourself sitting in church one Sunday listening to a beautiful letter being read. It is all about love and joy. In fact, some form of the word “joy” is found some 14 times in this very brief letter. And you are so inspired by this lofty speech when – all of a sudden – your NAME is called out! I suppose it’s like that day in Seminary when I was sitting in a Church History lecture. It was a one o’clock class. Right after lunch. ZZZZZZZZ!

And just as I dove deeply into a dreamlike doze I heard my professor’s voice say, “SINGLEY!”

I just about jumped out of my skin and was about ready to say, “WHAT?” when a classmate pulled me down. He whispered, “He said ZWINGli!” – the name of a famous theologian from the Reformation. Phew!

But can you imagine if your name WAS called out in the church service? And the name of the person you’re not getting along with too!

“MYRTLE! GERTRUDE! (their names were actually Euodia and Syntyche)...CUT IT OUT!”

That wouldn’t be a good feeling, would it?

“I plead with you two,” the apostle writes, “to get along with each other in the Lord.” And then, directing his comments to the leader of this church, he says, “Help these two women!”

And then Paul writes his prescription for therapy – for finding ways to get along with each other, for facing life’s challenges, for dealing with the long winters of life like the one the Pilgrim’s faced in 1621 and that you and I face every day.

Paul prescribes thanks-giving. Giving thanks. And then he breaks it apart for us to understand, and learn how to put thanks-giving to work in our own lives.

First, he says, “Rejoice in the Lord.”

Notice that Paul does not simply say, “Rejoice!” That’s probably because there are lots of things that happen in life that you just can’t rejoice over. Like that football game last night. More importantly, like the people of Washington, Indiana who suffered the devastating damage of the tornadoes that ripped their town apart. They certainly cannot rejoice in that. The parents of that little girl who committed suicide after being bullied cannot rejoice. You see, if your thankfulness and joy are tied to the circumstances of life, your well-being will be shaped by those things. And we all know people who’ve given up on life because things didn’t go their way, or misfortune struck, or tragedy came. No, the Bible does not call us to rejoice in things and circumstances.

“Rejoice in the Lord always.” And to emphasize the distinction, Paul adds, “And again, I will say, “Rejoice!”

Barbara Brown Taylor writes:

“The only condition for joy is the presence of God. Joy happens when God is present and people know it, which means that it can erupt in a depressed economy, in the middle of a war, in an intensive care waiting room. Joy doesn’t happen when we get what we want. It is much more likely to happen when we do not get what we want and we find ourselves laughing instead of crying because God’s ideas are so much better than ours, only we have a hard time seeing that until our own wishes have crashed and burned. It is there, in the wilderness, in that empty-handed, I-give-up surrender that joy is most likely to occur. Don’t ask me why, it just does. And that is how you know God is present—because no one else knows how to make life out of death. No one else knows how to come into a dark room and turn on all the lights, surprising everyone inside with the last thing any of them ever expected: pure, unkillable joy.”

Facing what you face, turn to the Lord. Give thanks that God is with you, even when everyone else has given up on you. Anchor your life not in your circumstances, but in the God who loves you and is with you. Come to think of it, that’s what those Pilgrim people were doing as the winter of 1621 drew near. They turned to the God who loved them and was with them.

A second part of thanks-giving: “Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.”

I’d paraphrase this by saying, “Handle others with care. God is at work in them, too, you know.”

Funny thing about relationships with people we don’t get along with: our attention becomes so focused on what’s wrong with them, that we lose sight of what’s right with them – and what’s always right with others is that God is at work in their lives just like God is at work in our lives.

I sometimes wonder how it was that Jesus could love and accept the people he did. Tax collectors. Sinners. Adulterers. People with really screwy religious ideas. Think of the person or group of people you dislike the most. They pale in comparison to what Jesus had to deal with. But Jesus opened his arms to all manner of messed up human beings, including those who put him to death on the cross. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

How could Jesus do that?

Well, by seeing God-at-work in the life of every person. He saw God’s love surrounding them. He saw God’s hope embracing them. He saw them not as hopeless failures, but as works-in-progress under the sculpting hand of God.

And so he treated them gently. He handled people with care so as not to get in the way of God’s salvation. Isn’t that what happened at the first Thanksgiving when Wampanoags and Pilgrims alike sat together to eat?

That’s something to give-thanks for. And handling others with care is a part of giving thanks.

And then a third part of Paul’s thanksgiving therapy: “Don’t be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

I don’t believe in the “don’t worry, be happy” Gospel. In fact, whenever I hear a sermon on Matthew 6 where Jesus says, “Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or drink…consider the lilies of the field…” how God clothes them with beauty and all that stuff that follows, I think of my grandmother – Dagny Johnson. My grandmother loved to worry. Some people love to travel, others to eat fine food, or drink exquisite wines. My grandmother loved WORRYING! If you were to take worry away from my grandmother, it would be like taking away her life! And so when I hear Jesus say, “Don’t worry!” I think to myself, “Hold on there, Jesus! You obviously haven’t met my Grandma Johnson!” Worrying is not a bad thing to her – it’s a sport!

But like with so many things in the Bible, preachers latch onto a verse here, and ignore a verse there. Jesus never told us to not worry – period. What he said was, “Don’t worry about all those things that are going to be taken care of anyways – what you’ll eat, what you’ll drink, what you’ll wear. But seek first God and God’s kingdom and all these other things will come along just fine.” In other words, if you’re going to worry about anything, worry about the big stuff – worry about how you’re going to love that unlovable neighbor – worry about how you and God are going to bring justice to the oppressed – worry about how to solve the problem of poverty and make sure everyone has enough to eat – the stuff of the kingdom of God. In other words, worry about the things that really matter!

And here’s what to do with these worries according to St. Paul: PRAY! “By prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

You see, you can do two things with your worries. You can internalize them and let them cause you health-damaging anxiety, or you can share them with God in prayer. You can talk to God about them. You can ask God for help. And you can thank God that he is there to help you face the very thing you’re worrying about.

So let’s get back to Euodia and Syntyche, the two feuding women in the Philippian church. What’s Paul’s prescription for overcoming their dispute?

First, rejoice in the Lord. God is with you both. And God loves you.

Second, handle each other with care. God is at work not only in you, but also in her. Don’t get in the way of what God is doing with each other.

And third, don’t internalize your dispute and the bad feelings you have for each other. Instead, pray for each other. And give thanks.

Thanksgiving therapy! And this discipline of thanks-giving – whether facing a personal dispute, or an illness, or a family problem, or a long hard winter like the winter of 1621 – will bring this gift to you:

Philippians 4:7: “And the peace of God which passes all human understanding will guard your hearts – and your minds – in Christ Jesus.”

Thanks-giving produces peace.

And may the peace of God that passes all human understanding be yours this Thanksgiving – and always.