Humble Thanks

 Humble Thanks

Psalm 123-124[1]

It’s easy to be thankful when all is right with the world. At least, it seems easy. We can see God’s mercies that are “new every morning” (Lam 3:23) all around us. Our families and friends, our homes, our jobs, all the countless gifts that God has poured so generously into our lives constantly lead us to sincere gratitude. In those times, it seems like the light of sunshine blesses everything and everyone in our lives. Hopefully, seeing all the good things God has brought into our lives helps us humbly recognize that they all come from his hand. And that humble acknowledgement leads us to give thanks to God. Not just at this time of year, but every day.

It's harder to be thankful when all is not right with your world. Whether it’s a health crisis, a family crisis, or a financial crisis, hard times seem to overshadow everything else. The fear of “the worst” can crowd out even the hint of gratitude from our lives. It’s hard to be thankful when it seems like there’s nothing to be thankful for. Hard times have a way of distorting our perspective like that. We can focus all our attention on what’s wrong with our lives. We can doubt ourselves, wondering what we’ve done wrong to “deserve” what’s happening. And when get caught in that kind of thinking, it’s hard to be thankful. But that’s precisely the time when we need to practice giving thanks!

Our lesson from the Psalms for today helps us learn how to give thanks in hard times as well as good times. The reading comes from a whole series of Psalms, Psalm 120-134. They’re called “Psalms of Ascent,” because they were written to be used by pilgrims on the way to Jerusalem for the great festivals at the temple. It seems pretty clear, however, that these Psalms come from a time in Israel’s history when all was not right with their world. The original temple had been destroyed by the Babylonians. The people of Israel were scattered all over the Middle East. As they made their way to Jerusalem to worship, some of them lamented the fact that they were not able to live among their own people, but rather had to live “in far-off Meshech” and “in distant Kedar” (Ps 120:5, NLT). We don’t know exactly where those places were, but from what the Psalmist said, they were lands where they did not know “peace” (Ps 120:6-7).

To be sure, some of them had been allowed to return to their own land, but even there, their lives there were far from prosperous. Even those who returned still cried out to God to “restore our fortunes, … as streams renew the desert” (Ps 126:4, NLT). They longed for the time when “those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy” (Ps. 126:5, NLT). Even the temple was merely a shadow of the one that had been there before. The pilgrimage to Jerusalem was as much a reminder of how much they had lost as it was an occasion for joyful worship.

And so their observance of their festivals became a time to cry out to the Lord to have mercy on them. As we heard in our lesson from Psalm 123, they said, “Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy, for we have had our fill of contempt” (Ps. 123:3, NLT). We know that even the people who had returned to their own land were constantly harassed by powerful warlords who controlled part of the territory. That seems to be the point of the cry, “We have had more than our fill of the scoffing of the proud and the contempt of the arrogant” (Ps 123:4, NLT). They were living in hard times, but they were trying to be faithful to give thanks to God for all the ways he had blessed them.

We see that effort to remain thankful in the fact that, despite all they were going through, there is a refrain that echoes throughout these pilgrimage Psalms. It begins with the question that opens Psalm 121: “I look up to the mountains—does my help come from there?” And the answer comes back, “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth!” (Ps 121:1-2, NLT). We hear it again in our reading for today from Psalm 124. The people praised God for being on their side and protecting them from being “swallowed alive” by those who were attacking them, because they knew that “Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth” (Ps. 124:8, NLT). And the final verse of these pilgrimage Psalms concludes with the prayer, “May the Lord, who made heaven and earth, bless you from Jerusalem” (Ps. 134:3, NLT). It was a prayer that, despite the hard times they were going through, God would continue to bless them. And remember, the God they were praying to was the one who made heaven and earth, so they expressed their confidence that he had the power to overcome everything they were dealing with.

Based on the conviction that “Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth,” the Psalmist calls the pilgrims, despite their disappointments and fears, despite the attacks they had to endure, despite all that would call in question their faith, to “hope in the Lord” (Ps. 130:7, NLT). “Hope” may not seem to be a very powerful word these days, and perhaps there were some in that day who wondered what good it did to keep hoping for better days. But “hope” is a word of faith in the Bible. And the reason for calling the people to “hope in the Lord” was because “with the Lord there is unfailing love” and “His redemption overflows” (Ps. 130:7, NLT). The Psalmist repeats the call in Psalm 131: “O Israel, put your hope in the Lord—now and always” (Ps. 131:3, NLT). And that call rings out to us today, to put our hope in the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

Hoping in the Lord, putting our trust in God, looking to the one who made all the heavens and the earth to care for us—these seem just natural when times are good. But when we’re facing a serious crisis, it can feel like a stretch that is out of our reach. Those are the times when we need to fall back on the basics. We can do what the psalmists did repeatedly: remember all the ways that God has been faithful in the past. We may need to make a list that we can keep as a handy reminder. When it’s hard to give thanks, we can stand in the truth that we are all, each and every one of us, God’s beloved child. We always have been and we always will be. And nothing will ever change that. We can also make a list of what we’re thankful for in our lives right now. We all have many gifts to be thankful for, and in hard times it helps to have a list we can look at. More than that, taking time each day writing out several specific things for which we are grateful today becomes a way to shift our attention from hardship and fear to gratitude.

When we remember all the ways that God has been faithful to us in the past, when we stand in the truth that we are all, each and every one of us, God’s beloved child, and when we list the things in our lives for which we are truly thankful, it can be a humbling experience. It helps us remember that God has been good to us in so many ways, far beyond anything we could ever deserve, far beyond anything we have to earn. And that reinforces the conviction that, despite whatever we may have to endure in this life, we always have reasons to give thanks to God. These basic disciplines of faith help us keep on trusting God through the hardest of times. They help us to keep on hoping in the God who made all the heavens and the earth. They help us continue to give God our humble thanks.

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[1] ©2023 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 11/19/2023 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

Gifts

Gifts

Matthew 6:25-35[1]

Thanksgiving is probably one of my favorite holidays. That may be due in large part to the fact that I don’t usually have to work very hard for it! For me, Thanksgiving has all the benefits of being together with those I love without the stress of gift-giving associated with Christmas. More than that, Thanksgiving doesn’t really require much from us in a spiritual sense. We don’t have to engage in the self-reflection of Advent leading up to Christmas or the discipline of sacrifice for Lent leading up to Easter. Thanksgiving is more of a time to simply enjoy the blessings we have received.

As good as that may sound, there may be a twist here. Being “thankful” for blessings we have “received” means we have to acknowledge that our lives are not entirely in our own hands. We have to recognize, perhaps to an extent that makes us feel a bit uneasy, that we really don’t have that much control over our lives. We have to take the risk of trusting that we are in God’s hands, and that all that we are and all that we have comes from him as a gift. In a culture that prizes self-reliance, independence, and “pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps,” this can be somewhat unsettling.

In our Gospel lesson, contrary to our faith in our own efforts to build a life for ourselves, we find Jesus saying not to worry about the necessities of life. Of course, that doesn’t mean we’re not to pay attention to them. But there’s a difference between being responsible and worrying. Worrying comes from that notion that we can control our own lives if we try hard enough. And when our lives don’t go the way we want, we worry. We worry because we’re afraid we won’t get what we want out of life.

Instead, Jesus points us to the birds and the lilies as prime witnesses to a different approach to life. He says that God provides them with all they need. In fact, he says that “even Solomon in all his glory” didn’t look as beautiful as a field of lilies. Now, birds and lilies don’t typically rank very high on our list of the most important things in life. And yet Jesus says that the God who created the heavens and the earth cares enough for them to provide for their needs. Of course the implication is clear: how much more does God care for us and how much more can we rely on him to provide for our needs!

Jesus was fully aware that there were people in his day who had a very different outlook on life. He says that “the Gentiles” were those who “strive” for the things they believed they needed. There may have been many then, as there are now, who would have been quick to point out that the promise of a God who cares for us and provides for us has been around for a long time. And yet, there have been many people of faith who have been left wanting. From that point of view, it would seem foolish to go on believing in a God who provides for all our needs. The only appropriate action would be to go out there and “strive” for what we want.

I can just imagine Jesus, perhaps gently shaking his head, asking, “Who’s the fool?” Is it more foolish to believe that we belong to a God of grace and mercy and love, even though sometimes those who believe in God may suffer? Or is it more foolish to believe that we can somehow take our lives into our own hands mold them to suit our desires? Jesus would say you might as well try to add a foot to your height (Matt. 6:27)—it makes about as much sense as trying to control your life! Jesus makes it clear all our efforts to control our lives are the real folly!

Instead, Jesus calls us to a different path. He calls us to “seek first the Kingdom of God.” At the most basic level, “seeking first the Kingdom of God” means aligning our lives with what God is doing in this world. It means promoting God’s justice by sharing with those in need, putting into practice God’s unconditional love for all persons, and extending God’s grace and mercy freely to those around us. It’s a way of life that stems from the faith that all of life is ultimately in God’s hands.

Jesus says that when we cease striving for the things that we think make our lives secure and instead “seek first the Kingdom of God,” we find that “all these things will be given to you as well.” The truth of our lives is that all we need comes to us as a gift from God’s hand. For some of us, that might not sound so good. It can be unnerving. We much prefer to think that our lives are in our own hands. We much prefer to believe that we deserve what we have because we worked hard to get it. But Jesus says that makes about as much sense as believing we can make ourselves taller just by wanting it to be so.

We have the choice:  we can choose to approach life based on the creed that says you’re on your own and your life depends entirely on you. It is a creed that ultimately rests on the fear and worry that Jesus warns against. It is a creed that is defined by striving—striving to control our lives. Or we can choose to approach our lives based on the faith that entrusts all of life into God’s hands, regardless of our specific circumstances. It is a faith that leads us to be thankful for the blessings we have received. It is a faith that humbly recognizes that all that we are and all that we have come to us as gifts from God’s generous grace. As hard as it may be for us, I think that may be the true basis for the celebration of Thanksgiving.

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[1] ©2018 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 11/18/2018 at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, Hickman NE.