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THANKSGIVING
Psalm 100:1-5
Ephesians 1:15-23
November 23, 2008

     The Psalm we just read was originally sung as a hymn.  It was a popular favorite, sort of the Hebrew equivalent of Amazing Grace.  It centers on giving thanks to God for establishing His covenant with Israel.  The hymn tells us that joy and gladness are the correct response for living in harmony with God.   Often in music, and especially in hymns, the writer will use the technique of ending each line of music with an improper chord.  As soon as you hear it, you know something is not quite right.  The notes are close, but they’re just not right.  That is, until the last line, when the writer will transition to a chord in perfect harmony.  It’s called ‘resolving’ the chord.  When you hear the notes there is a relief that the music is finally the way it should be. 

     Psalm 100 tells us that living life on our own terms creates discord, and is a source of tension and anxiety – we know things are not quite right.  When we resolve to live according to the will of God our lives come into harmony.  That relief creates joy, and gladness, and thankfulness.  The Apostle Paul was a tremendous student of the Bible, and was well aware of Psalm 100.  So when he writes to the church in Ephesus about his thankfulness he would have understood that to mean living in harmony with God.  Which is ironic, since he wrote that letter from jail (3:1, 4:1, 6:20). 

     How does someone in jail have the gall to write about being thankful?  I guess Paul’s lesson for us is that thankfulness is not an emotion, it is a decision made independently of our circumstances.  Paul is in jail in Rome, and he’s not ever getting out; he’s going to die there.   And yet, around him in the churches he has planted he can see a world coming into harmony with God, and that makes him thankful.  We know he used a man named Tychicus (tĭk ĭ kŭs) to deliver this letter to the church in Ephesus, and at the same time to deliver a letter to the church in Colosse (kǒ lǒs ē) (Ephesians 6:21, 2 Timothy 4:12, and Colossians 4:7).  What’s interesting is that the churches are in very different circumstances.  The church in Ephesus is struggling with racism.  The Jews and the Gentiles are not sure they want to worship together.  The church in Colosse is struggling with false doctrine.  They have allowed a few twisted individuals to pervert the teachings of Jesus.  And yet, Paul tells both of these churches that he is thankful for them (Ephesians 1:16, Colossians 1:3). 

     Paul can hear an improper chord, but he has made his mind up that the Holy Spirit has the power and guidance necessary to resolve the notes.  And, he makes up his mind that he will be thankful for that, whether he ever gets to hear it or not.  We know this because of verse 18.  Paul writes, “With the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you.”  That sounds like an emotional plea – use the eyes of your heart.  Here’s the problem.  We have different ‘body’ references than first century Christians. 

     To us the heart is the center of love and strong emotion.  The brain is the center of reason and logic.  But, in Paul’s day and to Paul’s people, emotion was centered in the pit of your stomach.  And, logic and reason were centered in your heart.   Paul is telling the Ephesians that there is a reasonable and logical choice to be made here.  They should give themselves over to the love of God, and forget their racist tendencies.  And, for his part, he is going to trust that will happen.  He is choosing to be thankful whether he ever sees the issue resolved or not.  He is making a choice. 

     There was a Pastor named Kelly Burk, who started ministry as a Chaplain at a nursing home.   He was young and inexperienced, and quite frankly he didn’t really know what he had to offer these men and women who were entering the final years of their lives.  So, mostly he just listened as they told him their life stories.  One week he decided that he would make it around to every person in the home and spend an hour listening to them.  As an encouragement to himself he would work his way from the least pleasant person to the most pleasant person. 

     He started off with an elderly man who no one liked very well.  This guy told him his life story, and it was filled with unhappy memories.  He talked about his son dyeing as a child, going through a series of bad jobs, fighting constantly with his wife over money and spending, and now he’s going to die poor and alone.  Reverend Burk was happy to get out of that room and move on to the other patients. 

     At the end of the week he made it to the last room, and a little old woman who was a delight to be around.  She began sharing how wonderful her life had been.  How she lost her son at age seven, but those seven years taught her what absolute unconditional love looked like.  She told him of all the wonderful places she had lived each time her husband changed jobs and moved to a new location.  She reminisced that she always had enough food, clothing and shelter, and seemed to live a happier life than their much wealthier neighbors.  Finally, she was grateful that she had lived such a long life.  Here at the end she would have quality medical care, and be surrounded by people in a similar phase of life who could relate to her situation. 

     As Rev. Burk listened he began to recognize parallels and commonalities between the two life stories.  He checked the medical charts and realized the unpleasant man and the delightful woman were married, they were husband and wife.  They had traveled the exact same path to arrive here.  One of them saw his life as a cursed existence, and the other saw it as a joyous gift from God.  The only difference was whether or not they made the decision to be thankful. 

     When the Apostle Paul writes that he is thankful, the Greek word he uses is Eucharisteō.  In that you will recognize the word Eucharist.  If you come from a liturgical church background you know the Eucharist as the formal name for the Lord’s Supper, or Communion.  So, when we celebrate Communion on the first Sunday of each month we are quite literally practicing a thankfulness. 

     Now, the idea behind that comes from the Catholic belief in transubstantiation, which we do not buy into as Methodist’s.   The Catholic priests believe that when they place the host, or the wafer, or the bread in your mouth it literally becomes the actual body of Jesus.  And, when the wine enters your mouth it truly becomes the blood of Christ.  And so, at the moment you receive Communion Jesus is being torn apart and re-sacrificed again.  At that moment your sins are vanquished and there is no punishment for you.  Hence, you should experience the height of thankfulness.  This should be the source of all your thankfulness. 

     Now, here’s the down side of that theology.  The Catholic Church is running out of priests.  They have been losing priests for the last forty years.   Lay Leaders have assumed the responsibilities for leading Sunday worship at many small churches.  But, without a priest the congregation cannot celebrate the Eucharist, there is no Communion.  A guide was developed to help these small congregations practice church.  It’s called SWAP, or Sunday Worship in the Absence of a Priest.  In the SWAP service was a prayer of thankfulness to God for his goodness, which was similar to the prayer the priest would pray over the Eucharist.  The priests took a long look at that prayer and asked how can they be thankful if they don’t receive Communion?  In 2005 the prayer of thankfulness was removed from the SWAP service.  The church made a deliberate decision not to be thankful. 

     The Catholic’s don’t have a monopoly on foolishness.  In the early 1970’s Evangelical Pastor William Phillips was a Chaplain at the Georgia Regional Hospital in Atlanta.  He worked primarily with those who were emotionally disturbed, psychotic, or mentally retarded.   For Thanksgiving one year he developed a ‘Litany of Thankfulness’ for these patients.  However, he started with the premise that you can’t know what you’re thankful for if you don’t know what you’re not thankful for.  It is written as a Call to Worship; with a call from the leader and a response from the people: 

Leader:  I am not thankful for war, killing and death.
People:  We wish there was a simple way to end the national war and all our private wars.
Leader:  I am not thankful for racial hatred and separateness.
People:  We wish that black, white, red and yellow could really learn to love and live with each other.  We want blacks, red necks, hippies and blue bloods to have a homecoming party.
Leader:  I am not thankful for disease and sickness.  I don’t understand and I don’t like to see a human being crippled and sick. 
People:  We wish that people cared as much about healing as they care about making bombs and guns. 
Leader:  I am not thankful that life is so complex and heavy for me and my family.
People:  We wish that we would all be able to live free and easy, we want to enjoy ourselves.
Leader:  I am not thankful for contaminated air and water; I don’t like the idea of wearing a gas mask to a football game.
People:  We want fresh air and fresh water.  We want trees to be green and fish to live in rivers and birds that sing songs.
Leader:  I am not thankful that I have become a number everywhere I go.
People:  Social security number, please!  Driver’s license and credit card, computer number, house number, draft number, chart number.  God, I forgot my church number!
Leader:  I am not thankful for God or family or church or apple pie.
People:  God is too quiet and indifferent; family always mixes me up; churches seem cold, have you noticed?  Apple pies are really artificial fruit soaked in artificial flavoring and artificial coloring.  We want real apples, real community and to trust that whatever is out there is friendly. 
Leader:  I am thankful for you and me and now.
People:  We are too, well most of the time.

     He totally reversed Paul’s instructions.  He made thankfulness an emotional response and focused it internally on the individual.  Instead of making the deliberate, logical decision to be thankful and come into harmony with God he chose to focus solely on me; what makes me happy; what benefits me; what isn’t God doing for me? 

When one partner in a marriage begins to focus exclusively on themselves, worrying constantly about me and what I want; the marriage is doomed.  When our relationship with God becomes one sided it is doomed.  Happiness is an emotion, it is fleeting and fickle.  What brings us happiness one day can be a source of disappointment the very next.  Thankfulness is a decision.  Thankfulness is the choice, whatever our circumstances, to embrace God’s will and our place in His plan.  Happiness is ‘me’ focused, thankfulness is God centered.  Thankfulness looks away from ourselves and embraces a long term goal.  Which is why Paul wrote to the church at Colosse:
“May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. (1:11-12)”