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"BEING THANKFUL AND GIVING THANKS"
I Thessalonians 5:12-18
November 20 & 21, 1999
Thanksgiving memories! Do you remember how it used to be? My own memories of Thanksgiving go back to the days of my boyhood where Thanksgiving meant a special day at Grandma and Grandpa's house. When we would arrive Grandpa would always have a blazing fire in his fireplace and there were the usual hugs and kisses from Grandma. I remember standing around tables as we prepared to eat a delicious dinner of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, vegetables, hot rolls, cranberry sauce, and apple pie. We all joined hands as Grandpa "returned thanks." Grandpa would always get a little choked up as he talked with the Lord about his goodness and our family.
It was a special moment for all of us.
After dinner we all would settle down in front of the fire. The men watched football while the women talked with each other. About an hour later all of us kids would walk to a nearby vacant lot near the country church and play our annual Turkey Bowl football game. It didn't matter if there was 10" of snow or if the temperature plunged to zero degrees! We always played our Turkey Bowl football game. After we wore ourselves out playing football we returned to the house to play family games and more eating. It was a holiday we enjoyed more than Christmas. It was a time of sharing and loving and giving thanks to God.
Perhaps you have similar memories of Thanksgiving. It is indeed a special holiday. But today we will think of Thanksgiving as a warm, sentimental glow which comes upon us once a year in late November when we are reminded of pilgrims who invited new-found friends to dinner. We won't be thinking of Thanksgiving as a national holiday when one can overeat without feeling guilty. Instead we will look at Thanksgiving as Paul looked at it..."giving thanks to God in all of life."
Do you ever find it hard to be thankful in all aspects of your everyday life? Have you known persons so filled with bitterness and grumpiness that the words "thank you" are rarely in their vocabulary? A story is told of just such a person. This particular individual was so grumpy that he had gained the reputation of being the official town grouch. It was Thanksgiving Day when his neighbor asked him, "Don't you have anything to be thankful for?" The town grouch replied, "Nope!" The neighbor had just about all the grouchiness he could take from this guy and said to him, "Have you considered thanking God for turning your nose right side up?" "What do you mean?" the grouch said. "Well, he could have put it on you upside down. Then when it rained you would have drowned and when you sneezed, you would have blown your thankless head off!"
Grouchiness is a reality and certainly all of us have our grouchy moments. But how grouchy are you? What is the "grouch factor" in your life? What percent of your daily life are you a grumbling, complaining, no-fun-to-live-with grouch? Why is that some folks seem to be able to keep their "grouch factor" in control? Why is it that some people are able to live their lives in constant gratitude for even the minute details of life. Perhaps the reason is caused by a widely circulated misconception. Somehow we feel that in order to GIVE THANKS, you have to FEEL THANKFUL. But the truth of the matter and the point of this message is this: THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GIVING THANKS AND BEING THANKFUL. Let's take a look at what it means to be thankful.
Being thankful means to be full of thanks. Being thankful involves a feeling of thanks. Being thankful has to do with our emotions. Let me illustrate.
I remember feeling extremely thankful following a rather unusual experience during my college days. The year was 1972. If you will recall, these were the days of many airplane skyjackings. I had finished two years of college and spent the summer living in northern California working at a plywood factory. It was Friday evening as I took the 5 hr. bus trip to San Francisco to catch a plane home. It was midnight and my plane did not leave until 8:00 am. I was too excited to sleep and passed the night just staring at all the interesting people walking through the airport. Eventually it was time to board my plane. We had already passed through a metal detector. Now as we boarded the plane, officials were hand searching everyone's carry-on baggage. All I had was a beat up old knapsack packed with some of the things I used in my apartment. I watched as they rummaged through my knapsack. At the bottom of the sack, they pulled out my thermos bottle. They opened the cup...unscrewed the cap...and what do you suppose they found inside the thermos? A paring knife! I had stuck it there to save space. I think they needed some time to check me out, so they confiscated my knife and let me board the plane.
When we landed at Kansas City, a short stop on our way to Cincinnati, a voice came over the plane's intercom, "Would passenger Beckett please report to Gate 45." I swallowed hard as I rememberd the incident with the paring knife at San Francisco. As I approached Gate 45 there were 3 airline officials standing there holding my knife. They did not look like they had just come from the friendly skies. From their perspective, here was this 20 yr. old young man with long hair, unshaven, wearing old boots, dirty jeans, and a flannel shirt. I was a prime candidate for a skyjacker! Somehow I was going to commandeer a 707 jet with nothing but a paring knife! They questioned me about the knife and I tried to explain to them that I was really an all-American, red-blooded kid, and not a militant skyjacker. They accepted my story, kept the knife, and let me go on my way.
After such an experience I remember feeling very thankful...thankful I was not thrown in jail...thankful that everything had turned out alright. The thankfulness was a feeling...a good feeling.
Remember, there is a difference between being thankful and giving thanks. Being thankful involves our feelings. Giving thanks does not. Giving thanks is something we do as an act of our will. Giving thanks is something we do with or without emotions. Many of you may remember the story of Corrie Ten Boom in her book, "The Hiding Place." During WW II Corrie and her sister, Betsy, were imprisoned in a concentration camp. After processing they were assigned to the women's barracks with beds stacked on top of each other. When Corrie and Betsy climbed into their beds, they discovered to their horror that the beds were infested with fleas! Corrie became enraged and lashed out in anger at the Naziis, at God, at everyone. It was Betsy who calmed her. She said, "Corrie, let us give thanks to the Lord." Corrie shot back, "What? Give thanks to the Lord for fleas?" "Yes, Corrie, give thanks to the Lord." Later it was learned that the fleas kept the guards out of the barracks, which allowed Betsy and Corrie to hold prayer meetings and share God's love with the women prisoners.
The apostle Paul, writing to the Christians at Thessalonika, said, "Give thanks in ALL circumstances." This means the bad as well as the good. Think about it. This means we are to give thanks in the midst of death and grief. This means we are to give thanks while surrounded by the pressures of our jobs. This means we are to give thanks as we are confronted with the minor irritations of life. The question is: Can we do it? It is possible for the people of God to live with a little less grouchiness? Can we give thanks to God IN all things? The God who gave God's self for you is saying YES you can. Jesus Christ can make a real difference in your life. He can also make a difference in your Thanksgiving.
Let me share with you a story about an 11 yr. old girl and her mother who discovered the real spirit of Thanksgiving. During WW II Marilyn's father was overseas working on a Navy ship as a doctor. Marilyn and her mother had not heard from him for weeks and this was to be the first Thanksgiving spent without their husband and father. For Marilyn there was nothing to be thankful for with her Daddy gone.
On the Sunday before Thanksgiving their pastor made a plea for families to invite soldiers from a nearby air base to share Thanksgiving dinner. Marilyn's mother volunteered to have a soldier over for dinner. Thanksgiving Day came and Marilyn was depressed. "What kind of Thanksgiving is this gonna be?" she grumbled to her Mom, "I wish we could just skip it this year." "I feel the same way," admitted Mom, "but we've invited this soldier now, so we've just got to go through with it. Remember, he'll be sad and lonely, too. We'll have to try and cheer him up."
Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Standing on the porch was a tall, young soldier with buck teeth and a bad case of acne. "Hi, my name is George. How's my family today?" he said as he gave both of them a big hug. Marilyn and her mom looked at each other, "What kind of strange character is this, anyway?" George was made comfortable in the living room while the two worked in the kitchen. Marilyn was cutting lettuce when she heard George playing a hymn on her little pump organ her father had given her as a child. They left the food in the kitchen to see and hear this sight and sound. What they say made a chuckle bubble up right through their gloom. Here was this gangly, long-legged soldier sitting on a little organ stool...his knees scrunched up almost to his chest...his big feet pumping away...and his hands gliding over those keys as if it were a cathedral organ. He was singing, "Come, ye thankful people, come."
Suddenly Marilyn and her mother couldn't help singing along with him. They left all the food cooking in the kitchen as the three of them sang hymn after hymn of praise and thanksgiving. Later as they salvaged what was left of their meal, the mother asked George, "Are you always this cheerful?" "Well, sometimes I do get kind of down," George admitted, "but then I apply my father's formula, and it always brings me up. Dad taught me that the way to make Romans 8:28 work is to practice I Thess. 5:18. In other words, the way to make all things work together for good is by giving thanks in all things."
George went on. "That means all things, both good and bad. For example, I was so lonely last week, until I remembered Dad's formula and gave thanks in my loneliness. And see? The Lord turned it to good. He gave me you folks." Marilyn noticed tears in Mother's eyes as she gave George a quick hug. For the first time he looked beautful to Marilyn.
Later that night after George had gone the phone rang. It was Western Union with a cable from Marilyn's father. It read: HAPPY THANKSGIVING. WILL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS. I LOVE YOU ALWAYS. DAD.
Thanksgiving. Will it simply be turkey and football for us? Or will it be more? Thanksgiving is really a prayer...a prayer that says, "Thank you God. Thank you for life. Thank you for love. Thank you for being my Savior and my Lord. It is a prayer...and a way of life...for those who commit their lives to Jesus Christ.
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November 20 & 21, 1999
