Giving Thanks in All This? Seriously, Why?
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Let me begin with a confession. I am so glad we had last week’s lunch series planned out ahead of time, because Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards announced that our statewide stay-at-home order was being extended two weeks. I was not mad about it - and not just because after having to make a couple of runs to the store and seeing 80%+ of people in a store not wearing masks means we have no one to blame but ourselves for our area being a hotspot. I was not/am not mad at our governor because while he may have the ability to issue various orders during this time, he cannot under any circumstances rescind my ability to be thankful for all God has so graciously given me.
I want to say now that I understand this is not an easy time for us all. However, we must be diligent in being people of hope and joy because we bask in the glory of the resurrection. We must choose to allow ourselves, when we take stock of things in our lives, to focus on the good we have.
Well…before I get too far down this road, let’s take a look at a word from one of the Psalmists.
Hear Psalm 100, as written in the Common English Bible:
Shout triumphantly to the Lord, all the earth!
Serve the Lord with celebration! Come before him with shouts of joy!
Know that the Lord is God — he made us; we belong to him.
We are his people, the sheep of his own pasture.
Enter his gates with thanks; enter his courtyards with praise!
Thank him! Bless his name!
Because the Lord is good, his loyal love lasts forever;
his faithfulness lasts generation after generation.
The Psalmist reminds us in these words - the church’s first hymnbook - that we are to be people who give thanks!
Yeah, that’s easy Lamar. Be people of thanks. Don’t you get it - we’re in the middle of a pandemic. We’re in the middle of an economic crisis that is causing people to lose their jobs. We’re in the middle of a stay-at-home order that keeps us from being with one another in our homes, churches, schools, restaurants, movie theaters, and a whole host of other things. We’ve been trying to work from home and take care of our kids going on at least six weeks now. We’ve got people saying that when we are able to open up it is in our best interest, and the interest of others, to wear masks, not shake hands, not hug one another. How, exactly, Reverend Oliver, do you expect us to be people of thanks with all this going on?
Well, let me say I’m not going to try and patronize you by saying that I understand. No two people in this world - even in the same house - are experiencing the exact same thing because no two people are alike.
What I DO want to invite you to consider, though, is not the Psalmist’s words about thanksgiving. Those are easy. The WHY of the thanksgiving is so important.
From verse five, above - Because the Lord is good, his loyal love lasts forever; his faithfulness lasts generation after generation.
Notice very carefully - the Psalmist’s call to be people of thanks comes NOT from our circumstance. The Psalmist’s call for the faithful to be people of thanks comes from who GOD is - God’s goodness, God’s loyalty, God’s love, God’s faithfulness.
In no way am I trying to minimize someone’s struggle during these days. However, let us counter those feelings of despair by looking instead to be people who are thankful that we have a God who is good, loyal, loving, and faithful. And rather than focus on those attributes of God to ask where are they since we find ourselves in a time of trouble, let us instead flip it to where we know that because of God’s goodness, because of God’s loyalty, because of God’s Love, because of God’s faithfulness we know that we will get through these days. After all, did not Jesus himself say, “And I will be with you always, even to the end of the age?”