Look at the World (Thanksgiving Sermon)

So much to be thankful for… the 125th anniversary celebration, new carpeting and a new look to the front of our already-beautiful sanctuary, young families involved in new and renewed ministries. Like you, sometimes I don’t feel thankful. But when I slow down long enough to be aware of everything and aware—once again—that it all comes from God, then my heart leaps. We hosted the community-wide Thanksgiving Service in our sanctuary on the Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving. Some have requested copies of the sermon—particularly the story about the turkeys from Ann Kansfield… So here you are...

Look at the World (excerpts)

By Rev. Randal K. Lubbers

With notes on 3x5 cards and scribbles on legal pads accumulated over the last few weeks, I sat down to actually type this sermon out. Where to begin? Staring at the blank screen I typed:  Ferguson, Missouri.

And you may wonder what that might have to do with your Thanksgiving or mine, but I couldn't help but think:  I wonder what Thanksgiving will be like for people in Ferguson-- for Michael Brown's family and friends, for police officers families, for the families of shopkeepers and business owners and school teachers and children--black and white but especially black who feel oppressed and overlooked and voice-less and, perhaps, not feeling very thankful. And if you think this has nothing to do with us or if you just "want it all to go away" then I think you need to re-look at the world and those who are the last and least in it....  

You see, I don't think we can be truly grateful people unless we “give a hoot” about those who are in need. Jesus did not teach you or me to pray, “Give us this day my daily bread”—rather, Jesus taught us to pray for “our daily bread.” So I pray not just my own family, not just my own church, not just my own community, not just my own nation, not just people who look like me… But we pray for OUR daily bread—that all of God’s
children will have food to eat and homes and freedom from oppression….

The reading we heard from James tonight reminds us: Caring for orphans and widows, offering a heart of compassion and the tangible too—a cup of cold water given in Christ’s name—this is what pure gratitude looks like—this is what it means to truly give thanks. Too often those of us blessed with advantages and privileges pray, “Thank you, God, for all these many blessing you have given us” with the unspoken assumption that “God helps those who help themselves.” But God contradicts this truism in Deuteronomy, saying: “Do not say to yourself, ‘My power and the might of my own hand have gained me this wealth.’” God’s giving is always prior to any of our acts of gratitude.

I don’t know about you, but for me, it’s only after I figure that out—that it was all God’s doing, not mine—only then can I grasp how amazing God’s benefits truly are. When our hearts are humble (because “it wasn’t by my power or the strength of my own work”) then we can, as the anthem says,

Look at the world, everything all around us
Look at the world and marvel every day.
Look at the world: so many joys and wonders,
So many miracles along our way

A pastor and colleague of mine had one of those miracle experiences this last week. Rev. Ann Kansfield is pastor of a church in the Greenpoint neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. She tells the story this way:

Each year a business in Greenpoint donates a bunch of turkeys to us in honor of the local police precinct.  Here's how it works: the cops call, ask how many birds we need. Usually they insist that we need more. Then the business calls and schedules a drop off. This year it was 30 turkeys. Yesterday they dropped of 80 turkeys. I figured they upped our number, no big deal. I had just gotten a call from a colleague that they needed more turkeys for their community meal, so I say come by and get them; we got extra. I give him 40 (and the other 10 were given to an organization that works with immigrants). When he picks them up, he says that the 50 turkeys he planned on getting somehow went missing. Today I get a call from turkey delivery guy that they made a horrible mistake and dropped off too many birds. I'm freaking out because I've already given away the extras to folks who needed them. Delivery guy is freaking out because he's missing 50 birds. Then I asked him which organization was supposed to receive the missing turkeys...turns out, it was my colleague's church. I explained to the delivery guy that we had already pretty much solved his problem by sharing the excess with an organization in need.

The miracle of the feeding of the 5000 was really about distribution and not just multiplication. Living into the vision of the day when sharing by all means scarcity for none.

To say that in a different way, when I take the first bite of turkey my heart should not only thank those
who roasted and carved the bird and prepared the meal…. But my heart MUST go out to those who are hungry. 

Give us this day… our daily bread.

Paraphrasing John Calvin (of all people) from a quotation in Space for God by Don Postema...

Sometimes I am almost overwhelmed with such great and bountiful outpourings of God’s kindness and generosity… Sometimes I feel almost surrounded because, wherever I turn my eyes, there and there and there again—such numerous and amazing miracles of God’s hand. How can I ever say, oh, I can’t think of anything? I am never without items for what often turns into a long, long list of things for which I must give God praise and thanksgiving.

So... Let's make space in our busy lives for God... let's pause long enough... To...

Look at the world... everything and everyone all around us.
Look long enough to be overwhelmed.
And then, in your own way, give thanks and praise to God!