Thanksgiving
Eve THANKS
FOR THE LITTLE THINGS!
The
scene is a Thaksgiving Eve during the Depression of
the 1930’s. Dr. William L. Stidger and some friends are talking about banks closing,
people out of work, and salaries plummeting.
It was, we might imagine, a pretty gloomy conversation. “There sure isn’t much to be thankful for,”
said one friend. Finally, Bill Stidger had enough.
He looked around the group, then said: “Well, I, for one, am grateful for Mrs.
Wendt.” He went on to explain that Mrs.
Wendt was an old school teacher who had gone far out of her way to introduce
him to the poetry of Alfred Lord Tennyson.
“Did you ever thank her?” someone asked him. Dr. Stidger
admitted he never had. That evening he
sat down and wrote a letter to Mrs. Wendt.
A few weeks later came a reply written in the uncertain scrawl of an
aged person: “My Dear Willie…I wanted
you to know what your note meant to me.
I am an old lady in my late 80’s, living alone in a small room, cooking
my own meals, lonely and seeming like the last leaf on the tree…You will be
interested to know, Willie, that I taught school for 50 years and in all that
time yours is the first letter of appreciation I have ever received. It came on a blue, cold morning, and it cheered my lonely heart as nothing has cheered me in many,
many years.”
This evening each of us gathers in
this place of worship, the product of countless investments people have made in
our lives. We have upon us the
invisible, yet formative, fingerprints of thousands of people who have shaped
and molded, instructed and scolded, protected and provided us into the people
we are tonight. My life, now in its 53rd
year, is the compilation of the best efforts of the people who love me enough
to invest their very lives in mine. In
the midst of a world and time plagued by hurt and heartache…a time of terrorism
and tears…a time of uncertainty and rampant, disgusting behavior…we have come
this evening to give thanks! Are we the
only people of our two congregations, or in this community, who have cause to
gather and give thanks? Certainly
not! But, we are the very people whose
depth of thanksgiving has surfaced to “the top” and caused us to gather
together! Thanks be
to God!
The prophet Joel, about whom we know very little,
lived in a time when a plague of locust had ravaged the country and Joel
addressed the people about its significance.
In typical prophetic fashion, Joel identifies the infestation of insects
as God’s judgment upon a sinful people, revealing the need for national
repentance. Perhaps such a swarm of insects is what it
will require for our own nation to repent…but, that sermon is for another time
and place! Our
Old Testament prophet also affirms God’s continuing care, promising recovery
and restoration. The prophet extols the
land: “Be not afraid, O land; be glad
and rejoice.” Joel extols the animals:
“Be not afraid, O wild animals.”
And Joel calls upon God’s people to a personal level of trust and
thanks-giving: “Be glad, O People of
Thanksgiving Eve, for me, is a preciuos opportunity to ponder how richly blessed I am...an
evening to recall, to my oft’ too busy mind, what God has done for me, all that God is doing with me, and all that God accomplishes through me and in spite of me! Tonight is a
time to bring to mind all the times God has protected us from what “could” have
happened, to give thanks for what has not occurred! Such a joy it is to celebrate what we have
been given. In Life Together,
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: “Only he who gives thanks for little things
receives big things. We prevent God from
giving to us the great spiritual gifts he has in store for us, because we do
not give thanks for daily gifts.”
Gratitude accepts each moment as a
gift. But, graced with the gift of free
will, we are prone to act as though we are Creator and Giver and God. As Luther humbly comprehended: “It may take death to acknowledge I can do
nothing but accept that we are beggars…this is true.” Holy living, that to which we are called and
that for which we are created, does not depend upon “how much” but upon “how
well.” In his book In Praise of
Gratitude, Robert Raynolds insists: “Our time of life is now and our place of
life is here. When we are not grateful
we have no home in time or in place.”
Tonight is a moment to consider the significance of being grateful for,
and using, what we do have, rather than longing for what we don’t have. “Seek ye first the
Copyright
© 2006 Pastor Daniel M. Powell Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church
All Rights Reserved.