Sermon Library
“Being Thankful in Tough Times”
Rev. Dr. Gregg R. Anderson
November 30, 2008
Service Theme: Advent I - 2008
Advent I – 2008 November 30, 2008
Being Thankful in Tough Times
By Gregg Anderson
The Parrot and the Turkey
A young named John agreed to take care of a friend’s parrot when the friend was going out of town over thanksgiving. The friend dropped the parrot off at John’s home and from the moment he left the parrot had a bad attitude, cursing vocabulary and complained about everything. He had a foul mouth, but that may be because he was, after all, a fowl. (Get it? But that’s not the joke.) John tried to change the parrots attitude, but to no avail. He finally yelled at the parrot to stop complaining and using such language, but that only made the parrot yell back with even worse language. John needed to get ready for his own guests coming over for thanksgiving so in desperation John shoved the parrot in the refrigerator to shut him up. For a few minutes John could still hear the parrot squawking and screaming. Then suddenly there was total quiet – not a peep. Fearing that he had hurt the parrot, John opened the refrigerator door. The parrot calmly stepped out onto John’s outstretched arms and said, “I believe I may have offended thee with my rude language and constant complaining. I am sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior. Let us pray and give thanks.” John was stunned at the change in the bird’s attitude. As he was about to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in his attitude, the bird continued, “May I also inquire as to what the turkey did?”
Being Thankful Is A Choice
Being thankful is a deliberate choice. We have different motivations to be thankful, but essentially it is a conscious perspective of how we look at life and our day to day challenges. The title this morning is “Being Thankful in Tough Times.” Being thankful in tough times could sound like a paradox or even an oxymoron. We typically give thanks when we have experienced something good. We give thanks when we have been given something or have earned something. Thank you for the gift. Thank you for all you have done. “I would like to thank the Academy.”
Yet, the most important time to be thankful is the exact opposite – when we have not received something, lost something, failed at something or when times are simply tough. There are two sides of thankfulness. One side is to be thankful for all that we have been given, earned, or accomplished. The other side is to be thankful for all that is left for us even after not receiving, losing or failing. In essence, thankfulness has very little to do with what we have or do not have. It has everything to do with how we approach what we have or do not have.
Pilgrims and Thanksgiving
“Being Thankful in Tough Times” is not an original title. It is a title of many essays, sermons and books. The holiday of thanksgiving began not because of all that people had, but what people had endured and what little they did have. Some historians identify the first thanksgiving as being on December 4, 1619 when 39 English settlers arrived inward on the James River near what is now Charles City, Virginia. They made a pact on the boat that if they did make it across the ocean, they would give thanks to God on the day they arrived and to remember this day every year they survived. Some did not survive, but they still gave thanks for the hope of the new land and to God.
In the more noted origin of thanksgiving in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the Mayflower arrived in Plymouth also in December of 1620. It was a harsh winter and in the words of H. U. Westermayer, “The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.” William Bradford has named all the people who died during that first winter in his detailed documentary called Of Plymouth Plantation. We all know the story of the Pilgrim’s first winter, extreme adversity, and then a summer of harvest and a thanksgiving which this time included a feast. Yet, when one actually reads some of the details and see the actual names of those who died, it becomes real and not just a story for children.
Edward Winslow writes in the autumn of 1621, “Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruits of our labors; they four in one day killed as much fowl, as with a little help beside, served the Company almost a week, at which time amongst other Recreations, we exercised our Arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and fell five Deer, which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed on our Governor, and upon the Captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful, as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.”
The Bible Is Also About Being Thankful in Tough Times
The origin of thanksgiving is not just to be thankful. It is to be thankful when times are especially difficult. It is more important to be thankful when times are tough than when things are easy. The bible is filled with stories of hardship, faith and thanksgiving as well. Adam and Eve are tossed from the Garden of Eden because they were not thankful for all that they had and wanted everything. Think of the faith of Noah in the face of a flood; the vision of Abraham in the midst of doubt; the betrayal of Joseph by his brothers and the following redemption during a famine; the entire story of the enslavement of the Israelites and the exodus in the wilderness and the thanksgiving of the manna; the fall of Jericho and the trials of King David; Daniel in captivity in the Lions den; Jonah and the whale; the incredible story of the anguish of Job which ends in thanksgiving and even Jesus and the crucifixion which concludes, “Into Thy hands, oh God, I commend my spirit.”
Yet through it all the psalmist states, “O give thanks to the Lord, for God is good; for his steadfast love endures for ever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in; hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress; he led them by a straight way, till they reached a city to dwell in. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to the sons of men. For God satisfies him who is thirsty, and the hungry he fills with good things.” (Psalm 107: 1 – 9)
When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough
Harold Kushner, the author of the very popular book When Bad Things Happen to Good People also wrote later When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough. To a large extent this book is about the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes sounds more like a title than a personal name, but Ecclesiastes is a person and a prophet. His name in Hebrew is “Kohelet” and means “the one who convenes an assembly, the one who calls people together.” He was a teacher who prepared people for the practical problems of living. Personally Ecclesiastes had a lot in common with Job. He faced life realistically and tried to give hope in the midst of tough times. He wrote this book toward the end of his life and expressed his own fears of growing old and dying without ever feeling that he had really lived. He seems to be searching desperately for something to give his life enduring meaning.
He is mostly known, like Job, of a final reconciliation with the ways of the world and even acceptance. This is why his passage that we all know so well, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;” etc. Ecclesiastes did not deny the tribulations of life, he faced them along with his own mortality, and he placed life in a larger perspective which included a trust in life and in God in spite of the tribulations.
In essence, Ecclesiastes says, “Don’t sweat the small stuff and most of it is small stuff.” Kushner concludes his book, “If religion could teach secular society to accept failure without becoming paralyzed and to reach for forgiveness without mitigating our sense of responsibility, we might end the dejection and moral lassitude which now suffuse our civilization. If religion could restore a sense of personal dignity to our society, it would secure the basis upon which any hope of rebuilding the morale of our civilization must rest. God redeems us from the sense of failure and the fear of failure because God sees us as we are, as no human eyes can see us. I believe that God sees us so clearly that God knows better than anyone else our wounds and sorrows, the scars on our hearts from having wanted to do more and do better and being told by the world that we never would.”
“Does it make a difference how I live?
Then Kushner asks, “Does it make a difference how I live? Does it make a difference if I am a good, honest, faithful, compassionate person? It does not seem to make a difference to my bank account, or my chances for fame and fortune. But sooner or later, we learn as Ecclesiastes learned that those are not the things that really matter. It matters if we are true to ourselves, to our innate human nature that requires things like honest and kindness and grows flabby and distorted if we neglect them. It matters if we learn how to share our lives with others, making them and their world different, rather than trying to hoard life for ourselves. It matters if we learn to recognize the pleasures of every day, food and work and love and friendship, as encounters with the divine, encounters that teach us not only that God is real but that we are real too. Those things make all the difference.”
No matter what the tough times are in our lives, we can still make deliberate mental decisions to be thankful for whatever is before, even the little things, especially the little things. Kushner last paragraph says, “Gratitude comes to tell us that the world is full of good and beautiful things, food and wine, flowers and sunsets and autumn landscapes and good company to share them with, but that we have to enjoy them right away because they will not last. They will not wait for us to finish other things and get around to them. It is a time to eat our bread in gladness and drink our wine with joy not despite the fact that life does not go on forever but precisely because of that fact. It is a time to enjoy happiness with those we love and to realize that we are a time in our lives when enjoying today means more than worrying about tomorrow. It is a time to celebrate the fact that we have finally learned what life is about and how to make the most of it.” This is all within our human capacity and state of mind – no matter what challenges lie before us. Being thankful is not just for thankful times, but especially for tough times.
Two Choices
You know, we constantly have two choices every day and in every moment of our lives. We think that our attitude is basically based on what has happened to us. We are strongly conditioned to believe that we are always affected by external circumstances and we have very little choice. In fact, we have many choices about how we are to react to the external circumstances which confront us. We cannot always control those external circumstances and influences, but we can control our internal reactions to such circumstances and influences. This psychological and very practical realization is in, one sense, easy to understand, but often difficult to practice. At the same time, it is very possible to practice if we can only remember to do it. We have two choices every day, every moment.
I always remember listening to Red Skelton being interviewed about his positive attitude of life even though he often played the clown, the bafoon, or the hobo. It may have even been on the Tonight Show. Red Skelton responded by saying, “Every morning when I wake up each morning I always have two choices. I can choose to feel good or I can choose to feel bad. And I ain’t no dummy, I choose to feel good.” I was young at the time, but I always remember that statement. Perhaps because I was always enjoyed Red Skelton. Being thankful is always a choice – no matter what and it will make a difference in your life and in what really matters.
Jesus said, “Be not anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Your Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.” Amen.
Rev. Dr. Gregg R. Anderson
Aspen Chapel
0077 Meadowood Drive
Aspen, Colorado 81611
http://www.aspenchapel.org