St. Paul Lutheran Church, Minden, Nebraska
Sunday sermon – Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost - August 16, ’09
“Thanksgiving: Anytime, Anywhere!”
Text: Ephesians 5:18-21
Many years ago, when a great preacher named Henry Emerson Fosdick was the senior pastor of the huge Riverside Church, New York City, he went on a tour of Palestine and other countries of the Near & Middle East. He was invited to give an address at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, where the student body was comprised citizens of many countries & representatives from 16 different religions. What could Fosdick say that would be relevant or of interest to such a mixed & varied religious group? This is how he began: “I do not ask anyone here to change your religion; but I do ask all of you to face up to this question: What is your religion doing to your character?
While it can be said all religions have their strengths & weaknesses, what is it about the Christian religion that sets it apart from other religions? What is it about the Christian religion that makes a difference in what people believe & how they act? What is right about your religion? What is your religion doing to your character?
According to the apostle Paul writing to first-century Christians in & around the city of Ephesus, St. Paul acknowledges Christians as baptized members of the body of Christ are far from perfect. Never-the-less, Paul urges all who believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior & Lord to see themselves & conduct themselves as God’s workmanship, created in Jesus Christ for good works, filled with the Spirit that their character might be shaped & developed in positive, Christ-like ways and that their daily living always be filled - with praise & thanksgiving for everything.
That’s the focus this Sunday. On this Sunday before kids head back to school tomorrow, on a Sunday when the news media is filled with the anger & protest & frustration of people over proposed government policies, on a Sunday when some families are grieving the recent loss of friends & loved ones to cancer & accidents and other families are under a lot of financial stress & hurting for help, how ironic, how iron-ic that the focus of this Sunday’s epistle reading is on Christians: “always giving thanks to God for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
First off, isn’t this a bit much? I mean, the real rub of what this text is saying is not that Christians should be given to greater thanksgiving than non-Christians or members of other non-Christian religions. The real rub of this text is that St. Paul urges Christians to give thanks always for everything, for everything. Always, all the time, anywhere, even in situations where things go badly or don’t go as we hoped & prayed. Give thanks always and for everything? Isn’t that a bit much, a bit unrealistic?
Maybe to a lot of people it is. Yet consider this. It is amazing how a change in one’s perspective can bring about an increase in one’s thanksgiving.
The story is told of a man who raised goats living in the hills of West Virginia who went to the preacher of his small church and complained, “Life is unbearable. There are nine of us living in one room. What can I do?”
The preacher answered, “Take one of your goats into the room with you.” The man was incredulous, but the preacher insisted: “Do as I say and come back in a week.” A week later the man came back looking
more distraught than before. “We can’t stand it,” he told the preacher.
The preacher replied, “Go home and let the goat out. And come back in a week.” A radiant man returned a week later, exclaiming, “Life is beautiful. We enjoy every minute of it now that there’s no goat – only nine of us.”
For giving thanks always, anywhere, anytime, all the time, a change in one’s perspective can make a big difference.
When you face a serious, critical, high-risk surgery & comes through it; when thru the miracle of modern medicine you have your life or the life of a loved one given back to you, when you survive a bad accident or a bad storm or a bad year in farming, when you worship together with other Christians filled with the Spirit, you can choose to be consciously, consistently, completely grateful in any & all circumstances. Or you can choose to be critical, doubtful, bitter about every little thing that doesn’t go right.
This leads to my 2nd point. The apostle Paul writes that “giving thanks always and for everything” is not only a matter of perspective; it is a matter of grace, God’s rich & abundant grace in Jesus Christ, God’s riches at Christ’s expense. No other religion on earth teaches the promise & the power of God’s saving, life-transforming, life-sustaining grace thru faith in the life & work Jesus Christ.
Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father, writes St. Paul, comes about in the name of Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Sometimes we forget how we got here, I mean here in the church, members of the body of Christ, redeemed & sanctified in Christ. We don’t any of us come to be brothers & sisters in Christ; sheep of the Good Shepherd, because we are successful at following Jesus. We don’t enter the Kingdom of God by any good behavior or religious achievements on our part. We get here, we belong to the Good Shepherd by the grace of God and by God’s grace alone. That’s why we can sing and it’s good to sing - “Voices Raised to God We Offer voices; tuned to sing His Praise. It’s why I love to sing, “The King of Love my Shepherd Is!” All my days, so many ways, the Good Shepherd is always, always shepherding me.
Wayward, wasteful, stubborn, strong-willed, wanting to have my own way! I’m not alone. We’ve all been there, done that.
Perverse and foolish, oft I strayed, but yet in love He sought me! And on His shoulders gently laid and home rejoicing brought me! (Lutheran Service Book, no. 709, v.3)
That’s how we get to be sheep of the Good Shepherd. God owns us, loves us, searches for us, sends His only begotten Son to find us, and when He does, Jesus the Son of God, the Good Shepherd, cleans us up, brings us home.
To those on the outside, those who think all religions are the same, it may look like Christians are people who work hard to do well, work hard to live good, responsible, upright lives in order to please God, in order to get in good with God. To the world it may look like Christians have got to do their religious thing or they got it in for others who don’t.
But such a grudging, grumbling, controlling attitude is nowhere near what the apostle Paul proclaims in the text before us. Paul’s message of good news is thanks to God for all that God has done for us in Jesus Christ; thanks to God who has acted once & for all in Christ to save us and free us from sin & death; thanks to God who’s Word and Sacraments are genuine means of grace instituted by God in Christ to assure us of forgiveness, life & salvation, Chrisians don’t got to do their religious thing, we get to do Christ’s thing.
We get to honor God in Christ with our whole lives. We get to give thanks to God always and for everything, even when there are valleys to walk through & crosses to bear & government policies hard to sup-port & students hard to teach & homework & housework & farm-work & bills to pay & kids to chauffer around -- or even just one small step to take that turns out to be a giant leap for mankind.
Recently I read where a note with John 15:5 written on it sold for $180,000. John 15:5 is where Jesus says, “I am the Vine you, you are the branches. If you abide in me, and I abide in you, you will bear much fruit. But without me you can do nothing.”
Talk about the difference perspective can make; talk about worshipful moments for singing & making melody to the Lord with all your heart; talk about being filled with the Spirit always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, what made that note with John 15:5 written on it worth so much was that it was the note Lunar Module Commander Buzz Aldrin carried with him when he & Neil Armstrong were the first human beings to set foot on the moon 40 years ago this past July.
On July 20, 1969, 40 years ago a world listening in to an incredible broadcast coming from the moon, heard: “This is the lunar module pilot,” Buzz Aldrin said, “I’d like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and consider the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his or her own way.”
What Aldrin did (unknown to the public at the time) was to quietly take out a tiny cup of wine and a tiny wafer he had taken with him given to him by the pastor of his Webster Presbyterian Church in Houston. So as not to bring about any religious lawsuits against NASA Buzz Aldrin read John 15:5 to himself and eating that little wafer & drinking that tiny sip of wine he did what we’re going to do again right here on earth in this place this morning. Aldrin celebrated the Lord’s love, celebrated God’s goodness & God’s presence on the moon, in that awesome moment, giving thanks for the gifts of science, technology, teamwork, safety, God’s undeserved grace, and the pioneering spirit that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of Tranquility.”
What about us, what you and me? Is there any time, any place, any circumstance in our lives where the Lord’s goodness, the Lord’s saving grace is not a blessing for us that we too might celebrate sing God’s praises & give Him thanks always for everything, for everything?
Martin Luther was right: So much, so very much God does out of goodness & mercy without any merit or worthiness in me for which it is my duty, daily, to thank & praise, serve & obey, this is most certainly true.
Anytime, anywhere, always and for everything, here on this earth, in this short life, every day, every night, plenty, more than enough give thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so do you! This is most certainly true!
This is one more thing that’s right with the Christian religion. Giving thanks always for everything is what it does to my character!
