Thanksgiving Sermon

November 25, 2003, 8:00, 9:30, 11:00 AM

Rev. Ronald Burcham

Typed from audio transcript

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Chaplain Lance Kettleson right now is stationed over in Iraq, and periodically he sends e mails back to the families of the soldiers that are underneath his care. One of those families is the Graaf family, so he serves Adam over there. And they were kind enough to forward me one of his e-mails. I'd like to share just a part of some of his thoughts about Thanksgiving.

"Like a swarm of hungry mosquitoes they descend. They descend upon the American soldiers climbing out of their Hum Vee's in full battle gear, quickly scanning the surroundings for potential danger. They come materializing out of every doorway, nook, and cranny of the small, friendly city. These Iraqi children come within minutes with a course of chatter, over and over repeating, 'Meester, Meester.' The Iraqi kids, like children around the world wherever GI's are found, have learned the art of communication. Their Middle Eastern pronunciation of 'Mister' comes out with a broad smile and extended hand, first to shake hands and then it's rotated upwards with the palm up, the universal gesture for 'Gimme. Gimme something.' The context determines the nature of their request. From convoys, the request is food and water bottles. From others, maybe it's candy. Perhaps it's for school supplies. So their pleas of 'Meester, Meester' is followed by 'pencil, pencil' or the equivalent of mimicking writing on paper so that you get the idea. It's hard for the American soldiers not to be generous in response to these persistent requests. The villages are so poor by our standards. The children are cute and bright and, besides, most soldiers seem to like kids. Who wouldn't want to help out in even the smallest of ways? Only a scrooge, a miser, a cold-hearted tyrant wouldn't want to help out. But after a few hours of this constant buzzing of the ears, the constant 'Meester, Meester, gimme, gimme,' even the kindest of soldiers' souls tend to lose patience and become hardened. There is absolutely no peace, no letup from the persistent begging accompanied by the most pitiful expressions formulated there in the children's faces that would make Hollywood actors blush with humility at their own acting skills compared to these kids. After repeated hours of this, soldiers actually volunteer to climb up in the hot-to-the-touch HumVee turret to man the 50 calibrator even on a sizzling day just to get away from the swarms of kids yelling, 'Meester, Meester, gimme, gimme.' Even the most compassionate soldiers, after a while, under the weight of the combat gear, the Kevlar helmet, it saps their compassion and patience. 'Meester, Meester' is heard so often. In fact, at the end of the day returning to the base and finally removing the helmet and the heavy battle gear, the weary soldier sinks onto his cot still hearing those echoing words while trying to get another night's sleep in Iraq. 'Meester, Meester, gimme, gimme.'"

Chaplain Kettleson goes on, "Why would these two words out of all the other words spoken in a day stand out so much? It dawned upon me the other day during a village visit that this must be what it's like for our heavenly Father when we pray. When we pray, along with the other millions of believers, it must sound like a swarm of annoying requests to God. 'Meester God, Meester God, give me, give me. I want this. I need that. I need help over here.' No one really blames the kids in the village their persistence. They're poor. They have needs, of that there's no doubt. But is my prayer life no different than the persistent pleas of the Iraqi children?"

I read that and I had to ask myself, "Is my prayer life no different than the Iraqi children?" And so I'm bold enough to ask you this evening, "Is that what your prayer life is like?" That each time you come before God it's to make a request, it's to ask the Lord for something. Maybe you say, "Please, Lord." Maybe you end it, "In Your Name." Or maybe you even tag onto it, "If it is Your Will." But each time we come to the Lord, is it always with the hand stretched out with the palm up looking for God to give us something? Then maybe it's good as a nation we pause for a day of thanksgiving, a day maybe to put a little bit of balance back into our life, to gain a little bit of perspective on really what's happening and all that God has already given to us.

We can see that in the ten lepers that were healed by Jesus. Now all ten of them were healed, and yet only one of them comes back to thank God. One wants to think, then, what happened to the other nine? Are they going off down the road seeing that they're cleansed and already formulating their next request from God? "Maybe now that I'm cleansed God can help me find a job. Now that I no longer have leprosy, maybe I can have some assistance in trying to find my family." But just one. Just one came back to thank God.

This Thanksgiving, do we need to put things in perspective? Do we need to change the balance? Do we need to really ask ourselves what is our prayer life all about? Now there's no doubt that every one of us has needs, and every single one of those needs is legitimate. We have worries. We have cares. We have hurts. And certainly it is appropriate for us to turn to God and to ask God for help. But is there any balance in those requests? Or is that the only prayer that we offer up to God, the only time we look to God, the only time we talk to God is, "God, I need you to heal my body because I'm sick. God, I need you to mend this relationship. God, I need you to help me find a job. God, I've got this big test coming up and I need your help on that. God, can you help me balance my checkbook." Are those the only prayers we offer up to God? Certainly, God wants to hear those prayers, and I really don't want you to misunderstand me. I'm not saying that we should not offer those prayers up nor am I saying we should limit the requests we give to God. Throughout scripture, God tells us we're supposed to come to Him. Jesus Himself says, "Take the burdens off of you. Put them on Me." Jesus says, "Ask, seek, knock, and it will be given unto you." No, God says to make your requests known to me. But on this, as we get ready to celebrate Thanksgiving, can we put a little bit of balance into it? Can we gain some perspective? If all we ever do is ask God for things, then all we're really focusing on is what we don't have and what we need and what our wants are and where our hurts are. But can we step back and get perspective? Can we look at all that God has given to us?

You know, in comparing our country to that of Iraq, comparing our children to the Iraqi children that came out to visit the soldiers, there is no comparison, is there? What we would consider poor in our country, they would consider rich. After all, this is the country where self-storage places are booming. Why are self-storage places booming? Because we have so much stuff in our house, we need to rent a place to take our stuff to put it in the storage place so we can get more stuff into our house. God has blessed us abundantly. Every one of us really should consider ourselves affluent of all that God gives us. Can we add a little bit of perspective this Thanksgiving? Add some balance in our relationship with God?

We can thank our forefathers of having the wisdom to recognize that, as a nation, we needed to stop and pause and to thank God for all that He's given to us. Now it's curious to me that Thanksgiving is a national day of thanks. It's not a religious holiday. You'll not find it on any church calendar anywhere. No, this is something we do as a nation. This is something the United States has declared that there shall be a national day to give thanks to God. But isn't it true, even as a society, we've lost the focus of that? We've lost the focus of what our forefathers intended. Thanksgiving now is more about turkey, football games, and gearing up for that big shopping day on Friday.

This year, can we pull it back in? Can we reclaim Thanksgiving for what it's really supposed to be about? A recognition of all that God has done and to come to God, not with our outstretched hand with the palm up but to hold up our hands in prayer in thanks to God and awesome disbelief of all that He's done for us. It is a day for us to give thinks. It's a day for us to remember the past and all that He's done for us. It's what God was calling for in the Old Testament lesson. The people were ready to go into the Promise Land and before they crossed over to this land flowing with milk and honey, this prosperous land, God says, "Now, wait a minute, when you go over there, don't forget Me. Don't forget what I've done for you. Don't forget about crossing the Red Sea. Don't forget about the water that came from the rock. Don't forget about the manna that you found every morning. Don't forget about the fact that I kept your enemies away from you." God says, "Remember all the blessings that I've already given to you before you start asking for even more blessings." You see, God was worried that they'd end up and be such an affluent people they'd forget about God. It just sounds too closely familiar to me in our country. So God says to remember. And, on this day of Thanksgiving, we should remember God's blessings as a nation. Is there any other country in the world like our country? The freedoms we enjoy, the abundance that is given to us, there is no other place on earth like what God has given to us. And the only reason we have it is from His gracious hand. We need to remember that. We need to remember what our forefathers fought for, the liberty, the justice, the freedom we have. We need to remember that men and women are stationed around the world defending us and defending our freedoms and our country. We need to remember the leaders of our country that are there willing to take the bullets from the press and everyone else because they want to be there to lead our country and to govern us. We need to be thankful for what we have as a nation, for one day at least, instead of us complaining about the things we don't have or the things we don't like about our country, just think how awesome it is how God has blessed us in this place.

And what about our personal lives? To remember back all that God has done for us, all the great ways in which He has blessed us. If nothing else, can we remember back, can we thank God for all the requests we made to Him that He said yes? Can we also thank God for all the requests we made to Him and He said no? Can we thank God for the spiritual blessings that He's showered upon us, the fact that we can be called His children, the fact that, through Jesus, we've been granted forgiveness, that we don't have to have a conscience that bothers us day and night because God has washed that away? Can we thank Him for the eternal life which is yet to come for us? Can we thank Him for the eternal life that's been granted to those who've gone before us, our family and friends, all the blessings that God is there, countless? How about the blessings of this world, the cars you have, the clothes, the homes, the list could go on and on? Or the important things, your spouse, your children, your family, your friends, the relationships you enjoy? For one day out of the year, can we just concentrate on those only?

In fact, that's what Chaplain Kettleson suggests. He suggests that, for one day out of the year, we offer up no requests to God. That every single prayer we offer up on that day is a prayer of thanks and praise. If you think about that for a moment, that is easier said than done. Because I have to tell you, there have been enough prayers where I've been thanking God and, in the end, I sort of slip one in there. Kind of an "Oh, by the way, God, thanks for everything but could you help me with this one thing?" Or "You know, this kind of came to mind. I wonder if you could help me handle that?" One day. Just one day. No open palms. Just folded hands, thanking God for all that He's done.

Chaplain Kettleson wrote this. He said, "For even if we return to our self-absorbed ways the day after Thanksgiving as we battle other Christmas shoppers and the first-grade assault of the shopping do-or-die season, at least we'll have had one day where we never asked a thing of God, showing just plain, old-fashioned, unadulterated gratitude. If God could be surrounded by praise and thanks instead of requests."

This Thanksgiving, offer up only praises, only thanks to God. And maybe what you can thank Him for the most is you can thank Him for the fact that, unlike us, He never tires of hearing our requests. His heart never turns cold to the things we ask Him for, and He never turns a deaf ear to the needs and the wants we present before Him. So, for one day, we won't. For one day out of the year, only thanks to God for all that He's done. Amen.

Copyright 2003 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church