FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ATLANTA, GEORGIA
Sermon by Dr. Trisha L. Senterfitt
Associate Pastor for Care Ministry
Psalm 111, Ephesians 5:15-20
How soon summer passes and the days
grow shorter and the nights a little cooler, sometimes and the leaves begin to
turn beautiful colors. The writer to the Ephesians today reminds us to
“be filled with the Spirit and to give God thanks all the time for everything
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And likewise, in Psalm 111, the
psalmist “Praise the LORD! I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole
heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation.” And this is
what we do every time we gather here in this sacred place we have the intention
to come and sing praises to God and offer prayers of thanksgiving and to
celebrate what’s going on in our lives and to pray for help for the world. Give
thanks to God at all times and for everything.” Is that even
possible? Is it possible to give thanks to God for everything at all
times? I know that my parents certainly gave it their best effort trying
to teach us, my two brothers and me. The importance of giving thanks to God at
all times for everything. And likewise, Jack & I have given it our
best to teach our three children to give God thanks and to be aware of
thanksgiving in our lives as often as we can. And I’m sure you are doing the
same with your children and grand children or neighbor’s children. We give
thanks to God all the time. When we think about what it takes to live a
Christian life, what other than thanksgiving is right their in the center of
our religious practice.
So I invite you to think with me for a
few moments this morning about how it was that you met thanksgiving in your
life. For me, I think for my first memory is as a three-year-old little
girl in Louisville Kentucky when my dad was in seminary. I remember we
never sat down to the table to eat no matter if we were just having a peanut
butter and jelly we said thanks to God for our food and pray for all the
children in the world. God is great God is good let us thank God for our food.
And likewise when we got in bed at night, I’m sure you probably did the very
same thing, your parents would come into the room and remind you if you were
tired and ready to go on to sleep, that before you went to sleep you were going
to give God thanks for that day. And at
the end of every prayer, I can remember thanking God for mother and daddy, my
two brothers for my dog, really important to thank God for our pets and also
for all the people that I loved in my family and neighborhood. I also remember
my mother over and over reminding me, when someone would give me something even
as simple as a cookie, she would remind me now what do you say Trisha, and I
would say thank you. And then the next time as a little bitty person, I
sometimes forgot. My grandmother might send me a present in the mail and my
mother will call her immediately on the phone and remind me, now don’t forget
to say thank to your grandmother.
It is in that way, I think that we as little people or even if we learn it as an older person finally realize what it means to be a child of God. We finally recognize that with thanksgiving with us all the time, which it certainly is when your parents are reminding you. And then as we grow older we realize that thanksgiving is a presence with us, God with us all the time. When friends invited me over to play, my mother would not let me leave the house and I’m sure this has also happened to some of you about reminding me, don’t leave that house with out saying thank you. And in that way thanksgiving becomes woven into the fabric of our lives. I learned also that thanksgiving was, at my great grand parents house, it was important and present at my grand parents house, it was a presence everywhere I went and so thanksgiving began to take on a persona. By the time I went to school I took thanksgiving with me or recognized the presence there in those halls and classrooms. And for you kids, remember teachers really appreciate thanks, it always helps to have a good day when we remember to say thank you. But as the years passed and I became a teenager, I would have to admit that I was questioning everything and sometimes thanksgiving didn’t show us as often. I don’t know if that was your experience, but when she did appear, I began to realize that an ordinary day took on a whole different extraordinary mean about it. After missing six weeks of school when I was senior in high school that was a very trying time for me, because you know how much fun it is to go to school as a senior. And I had mono, so it took several weeks before I could get back to school, it was doing that time I think I begin to noticed the presence of thanksgiving even in a trouble scary time for me. I notice her presence throughout that ordeal, and then I realized that more likely I would notice thanksgivings presence when I was out in the woods in the smoky mountains hiking, as I did very often growing up or on the lake it was a mile from my house, water-skiing with my dad or my friends, or while spending time at our Presbytery church camp in beautiful Banner Elk, NC. For sure, thanksgiving belongs in nature, and sometimes it comes unexpectedly in wonderful places when you are on vacation or having a little time off, certainly when we take Sabbath time. The letter to the Ephesians is full of thanksgiving and praise. And reminds us that God creates, God destines, wills and reveals. So what about us? What are we to do, what is our response? The text says we are to live wisely and to give thanks to God for everything all the time. Now some of you may remember the word for the larger Catechism, which asks what is the chief end of human life is and the answer is “to glorify God and enjoy God forever.” As I look back over life and realize how thanksgiving popped up at some of the most unexpected times and places, I realize that giving thanks is one of the ways we learn about God and we begin to experience God. This is also how we learn about ourselves and who we are in God. Most of us were taught as little children to live with thanksgiving woven through our lives. Saying “thank you” to folks when appropriate and living with God in thanksgiving perpetually. When good things are happening like when we catch the first glimpses of a grandchild or a child we immediately are in the midst of thanksgiving and praise to God for the precious gift of new life. When we graduate, or get the job we’ve always hoped for or when we can maintain sobriety, or pass board exams, or finish a doctoral degree, we expect thanksgiving to be there in those times.
But what about the times of darkness
when depression pervades or when divorce comes in life? Is the author of
Ephesians off-base when inviting Thanksgiving “at all times and for
everything?” What about when death comes or when it is imminent? I
remember being 16 when my beloved grandfather was coming to the end of his
life, and I really did not want to go to the hospital to see him in his sick
state, but thanksgiving accompanied me to his room and I was grateful.
Friends, it is thanksgiving that accompanies me to the rooms of yours in
hospitals or nursing homes, with members of your families. The presence
of thanksgiving transforms the darkest moments to the lightest moments of the
day. Even if a person cannot speak toward the end of lives, I have seen
tons of those persons mouth those two precious words “thank you, thank you.” I have no doubt that thanksgiving
is present at birth and at death and every ordinary day in between.
While on sabbatical last summer one of
the many blessings I received was to be able to be in Chartres Cathedral when
our own First Presbyterian choir sang on tour there. As they sang spiritual
songs making melody to the Lord, thanksgiving was dancing all around that dark
splendid cathedral. And as I sat there being filled with the Spirit as
our choir’s voices welcomed thanksgiving, I thought no matter whether I’m here
in First Presbyterian Church, in my home in Morningside, whether I am on our
screened porch in the mountains in Chartres Cathedral, or in your hospital
room, no matter where we are, thanksgiving belongs everywhere at all times and
for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.