Sermon from Thanksgiving Chapel Service

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. ⁵Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. ⁶Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. ⁹Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

The first part of this passage from Philippians chapter 4 contains the quintessential Thanksgiving verse, “don’t worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”  This kind of sounds like the gospel according to Bob Marley… don’t worry be happy.  I don’t think Paul was suggesting that we start living the reggae Jamaican lifestyle, but he does make an interesting point that in EVERYTHING we should turn and pray to God.  I would be a complete hypocrite if I got up here and told you to stop worrying about life and just pray about it instead, because I am a professional worrier.  In times of struggle and trial we are to pray to God with a thankful heart.  In times of prosperity and joy we are to pray as well.  During the school year I feel like most of my prayers are just a laundry list of things I am asking God to do for me to make my life easier, and the only prayers of thanksgiving that happen are whenever a professor moves a test or something. 

          I must also confess that I would be lying to you if I said that I am in a constant mode of thanks and praise during Thanksgiving.  With all of the cooking, cleaning, family interactions, and prepping for finals I am usually more thankful that Thanksgiving is over then when it began! Thanksgiving is such an emotionally charged holiday because it is the first stop on the holiday expressway.  Do not get me wrong, I am very thankful on Thanksgiving Day.  It is a wonderful time to gather with family and friends and to thank God for the wonderful and abundant blessings we have.  However, sometimes the stresses of preparing for Thanksgiving coupled with the looming of the holiday season’s commercialism we become very self oriented.  We become so clued in on ourselves, whether it be our blessings, our crazy family dinners, or our shopping wish list we put blinders up to those who might be around us.

Friends, we often forget that the holidays can be very painful for many people and families.  Since we are on the heels of All Saints Day we need to remember those families who are grieving the death of a loved one.  The holiday nostalgia can evoke wonderful reflections for some folks and horrible memories for others.  I don’t want you to think that this service is going to be a Debby Downer, but I think it is crucial for us to remember those who are going without as we stop to give thanks for our abundance and our blessings.  It is in remembering those who are struggling that we can live out the second part of the Philippians passage.  We are called to do whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, or anything that is worthy of praise.  We are not called to do this because it makes our resumes look good or it will help us land that job after graduation.  We are called to that which is true, honorable and just because it was demonstrated to us by Christ.  Paul says God’s peace will be with us when we go to God in prayer, whether it is in supplication or thanksgiving, and when we do things that are honorable before God.

I feel like Paul’s letter the Philippians could have been CC’ed to Jesus’ disciples in today’s gospel lesson.  Here you have a group of guys who have been roaming around the Holy Land with Jesus for a while and they are met with the situation where there is no practical way to feed five thousand hungry people.  We see the disciple Philip jump into worry mode, and he runs down the list of how there is no earthly way these people can be taken care of.  Now enters a little boy.  This kid has no name, no back story, we just know him as the kid who had five small barley loves and two small fish.  Let us assume this was his picnic lunch his mother made for him when they set off to hear Jesus preach on some lonely hillside on the far shore of the Sea of Galilee.  We do not even know if he ate any of his meal before he offered it to Jesus and his disciples.  We just infer from the text that this was the boy’s offering to Jesus.  This was his way of giving thanks.  This little boy just heard Jesus teach, and instead of saying “good lesson, Jesus” and sitting down to his lunch he offers it to others.  I am not saying you need to take your entire Thanksgiving dinner to the streets so you can feed anyone who might look hungry.  I am saying we need to do what this little boy did.  Instead of us saying, “good job, God, on giving me so many blessings” and eating our fill of turkey and dressing; we need to stop, look around, and see if there is anyone around us who is in need.  We do not need to feed a crowd of five thousand people in order to do what is honorable in God’s eyes; we need to love our neighbors as ourselves, take care of the orphans, widows, and strangers in their distress.

Thanksgiving, it is a time of praising God for the blessings in our lives.  It is also a time for action.  It is not enough that we only offer up prayers to God, we must go out into the world and feed those who physically hunger for food and those who are spiritually hungry and thirsty.  This can be a daunting task, but take heart… our God is with us!  God’s peace and grace go before us and with us on this journey!  And that is something to be truly thankful about! AMEN.