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Paul Tellstrom Irvine United Congregational Church, UCC With Hearts and Hands and Voices November 19, 2006
2 Corinthians 9: 6 - 15 Matthew 6: 25 - 33 word count: 1,985
In November of 1929, immediately following the stock market crash that started the depression, a group of ministers gathered to discuss how they should conduct their Thanksgiving Sunday services. Things were bad, and promised to get worse. Bread lines were long, and the term “Great Depression” seemed an apt description for the mood of the country. The ministers thought they should only lightly touch upon the subject of Thanksgiving in deference to the human misery all about them. What, after all, was there to be thankful for? But Dr. William Stiger, a pastor of a large congregation in the city, rallied them. He did not think that this was the time to give any small mention to what Thanksgiving means when it arrives in our midst—he felt it should be just the opposite. This was the time for the nation to get matters in perspective and thank God for blessings always present, but perhaps suppressed due to hardship. As I read this story, I wondered—what did I write about for Thanksgiving Sunday just after 9/11? I am a New Yorker who had just returned from Manhattan only weeks after the attacks. This is part of what I found there: “The eerie thing was that it was the most beautiful autumn in New York that anyone could remember. I wondered if it was my imagination, or were the faces of these people looking around in awe as much as I was—stopping to look up at trees full of bright yellows and reds, pointing at the sights from atop Belvedere Castle, gazing across the boat pond, almost, but not entirely empty of its small sailing ships. Was it just me, or was Central Park being explored with new eyes and a sense of wonder in rebirth; people nearly crying out to capture the beauty around them in each precious day; palpable thankfulness in the fall air? “Is that what was different on a weekend day in Central Park in autumn? Faces were alive with expectation. ‘Aren’t the leaves beautiful?’ Each child that passed in a stroller or skipped behind a parent…wasn’t that the most beautiful, or interesting, or funny child you ever saw? People didn’t amble—they walked with expectation, and displayed a friendly awareness of those around them. Quick! Go to the statue of the King of Poland! Don’t miss the folk dancing! You must see the newest performance artist under the 72nd Street colonnade! Meanwhile, turn around and Korean couples in bridal costume line up to have their pictures taken in front of the angel with outstretched arms over the Bethesda Fountain. Don’t miss it—don’t miss any of it.”1 Perhaps the most intense moments of thankfulness are not found in times of social quiet or plenty, but when difficulties abound. Every year, someone can be expected to write the now-traditional and ubiquitous pilgrim-bashing article and it will cause me to think of how we continue to kill the metaphors around us in favor of our factual fundamentalism in all things. I am reading Nathaniel Philbrick’s new book, “Mayflower”.2 He describes a thanksgiving much different than the one we have memorialized. Instead of starched white linens over a table with equally starched and civil pilgrims eating an organized meal with fascinated Indians looking on, it was actually a Native-American feast with native foods, no table, no silverware and little formality save prayer. The pilgrims had quickly figured out how to make beer, which they brought with them, somewhat altering our perception of their puritanicalism. Despite anything else, the pilgrims of that first Thanksgiving arrived with half their number dead, without a country, but still desirous of giving thanks to God. Their gratitude was not for something but in something. It was that same sense of gratitude that lead Abraham Lincoln to formally establish the first Thanksgiving Day in the midst of national civil war, when the list of casualties seemed to have no end and the very nation struggled for survival. Our country is in another struggle today, involving casualties and destruction in a war that has now lasted longer than our involvement in World War II, and we are so polarized at home that it has become difficult for us to speak to each other. We need to find something to give thanks for this week, in order to have strength for the ongoing journey of being responsible citizens of the world at this particular time. On Wednesday night, we will gather at University Synagogue for our annual Thanksgiving service. Our choirs will sing, and the word of what thanksgiving will be delivered by Dennis Fritz, author of “Journey Toward Justice”.3 In 1982, high school science teacher Dennis Fritz was living in Oklahoma, raising his 8-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, whose mother had been murdered by a deranged neighbor when Elizabeth was 2 years old. Fritz made friends with Ron Williamson,4 a local man who suffered from mental disorders. The two would often play guitar together and then go out to local places such as the Coachlight Club. On Dec. 8, 1982, Debra Sue Carter, a waitress at the Coachlight Club, was found raped and murdered in her apartment. A witness came forward to say that Williamson was at the bar bothering Carter on the night of the murder. Fritz, due to his association with Williamson, also came under suspicion. Fritz will tell us the story about how he was jailed for life in 1988, and how Williamson was put on death row for crimes they did not commit. In 1999, DNA testing revealed that neither Fritz nor Williamson had raped the victim nor did any of the physical evidence connecting them to the murder match up. When this sermon is posted online, you will be able to follow links that will tell the story and provide videoclips from an episode of “Frontline” on PBS that will make you want to come and meet Mr. Fritz on Wednesday.5 He may sound like an odd choice for a Thanksgiving speaker, but his is a story of great thanks-giving born out of a terrible trial, which has caused him to work for The Innocence Project,6 helping to make sure that others who are innocent of crimes are not robbed of their lives and families. There is illness and hardship right now in this congregation. Perhaps in your own life, right now, things are very difficult. Maybe you are experiencing your own personal “Great Depression,” making the idea of setting aside a day to be thankful this Thursday somewhat impossible. First, as in all of the examples I have given, If we do not find a way to be thankful, we may certainly find a way to become bitter. A bitter person is one who is constantly unsatisfied with their life. Nothing makes them happy and they purposely make life miserable not only for themselves, but also for those who have the misfortune of being around them. The bitter person becomes absorbed with the question of “why me.” He or she feels short-changed. We know people all around us whose lives display courage and cheer despite circumstances that might hobble any of us. The ability to get up and move on after a great setback requires a certain kind of character—a character that understands the metaphor of sowing sparingly vs. sowing with an expectation that bounty liberally given, even when it is not apparent at the time, will be received back later in how one lives life. Ralph Sockman, a Methodist minister of a generation ago used to express it this way. He said, “A grief is a sorrow we carry in our heart. A grievance is a chip we carry on our shoulder.” All of us must face trouble and grief. None are immune. I can stand here this morning and say that I know that I have not been spared. At one time or another trouble will come up to all of us and place its hand on our shoulder, speak our name, and say to us: “Come and walk with me a while.” The second thing is to learn to be thankful—without the ability to find thankfulness we will become discouraged. Hardship will come. In today’s readings, Jesus said, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink”. Paul encouraged the Corinthians: “God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work”. As you reflect upon some of the events of your life this Thanksgiving, I challenge you to ask yourself this question “Where would you be right now, if it were not for that sense of the Spirit that is at work within you?” Would you be: Isolated? Mentally broken? Financially ruined? Physically destroyed? Unable to lift yourself up and continue on? You are here—you have not been let down. As you sit down with family or friends, look around at them and ask yourself, where would I be without her? Where would I be without him? The Apostle Paul wrote: “In everything give thanks.” It is not the test of faith to give thanks when the sun is shining. It is not the test of character when everything you touch turns to gold and everyone thinks you are the best thing that happened to them since Tuesday. The test comes when we have been knocked down. Many of us have felt knocked down. So—here is the test: What are we going to do about it? That leads me to the third and last thing—We must learn to become thankful so that we do not become discouraged. We must learn to be thankful or we
shall surely grow angry, or arrogant or even hopeless. There are many things that confound me in life, but the one anchor of my soul has always been that there is a God, and the God I believe in must be good. Martin Rinkert was a minister in the little town of Eilenburg in Germany some 350 years ago. He was the son of a poor coppersmith, but he managed to work his way through an education. Finally, in the year 1617, he was offered the post of Archdeacon in his hometown parish. A year later, what has come to be known as the Thirty-Years-War broke out. His town was caught right in the middle. In 1637, the massive plague that swept across the continent hit Eilenburg... people died at the rate of fifty a day and the man called upon to bury most of them was Martin Rinkert. In all, over 8,000 people died, including Martin’s own wife. His labors finally came to an end about 11 years later, just one year after the conclusion of the war. His ministry spanned 32 years, all but the first and the last overwhelmed by the great conflict that came over his town. It must have been difficult for him to find ways in which to be thankful, but he managed. And he wrote these words:
“Now thank we all our God With heart and hands and voices; Who wondrous things hath done, In whom this world rejoices.” It takes a magnificent spirit to come through such hardship and express gratitude. Is it still possible to believe in a world that most surely appears to have cranked up the speed and volume in the practice of its basest instincts that we can find ourselves surrounded by great adversity, and yet thanksgiving delivers us...with heart and hand and voices? Amen
Sermon Resources:
n All Things Be Thankful In All Things Be Thankful Scripture for Sunday, November 21, 2004 Thanksgiving Sunday, Year C
Epistle Reading 2 Corinthians 9: 6 - 15
The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. As it is written, “He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.” He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God. Through the testing of this ministry you glorify God by your obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ and by the generosity of your sharing with them and with all others, while they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God that he has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
Gospel Reading Matthew 6: 25 - 33
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you-you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. |