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For much of my life, I felt I had a pretty good understanding about thanksgiving. But, as time has gone on, I have discovered that most of my thinking was incomplete, and some of it was just plain wrong. I have been discovering the truth about thanksgiving.

The Truth About Thanksgiving - Ephesians 5: 15-20 - November 18, 2007 - Cicero United Methodist Church - Everett J. Bassett

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            For much of my life, I felt I had a pretty good understanding about thanksgiving. But, as time has gone on, I have discovered that most of my thinking was incomplete, and some of it was just plain wrong. I have been discovering the truth about thanksgiving.

            For example, I have discovered that I didn't fully understand the Who of thanksgiving. I used to think that thanksgiving was primarily for the person being thanked. So, for instance, when I read about Jesus healing ten men who had leprosy, and only one of them returned to say Thank You, and Jesus asked where the other nine were, I always believed that was mostly about Jesus feeling slighted - wanting to be appreciated. When you receive a sincere thank you card in the mail, or someone is grateful for something you've done, it's a good feeling. Jesus wanted that feeling.

            But now I believe that the truth about thanksgiving is that it is just as important, and maybe more so, for the person who is doing the thanking. Let's say, for instance, that a parent gives a child a piece of candy. The child grabs it and starts to run off. The parent says, "Hold on, there. What do you say?" And the expected answer from the child is "Thank you." Who is that for? Maybe it's for the parent, like, "I'll teach this child to say Thank You now, and maybe he'll say Thank You when he's a teenager, and I force him to clean up his room." But aside from that kind of delusion, this is really not about the parent feeling good. It's about teaching something important to the child.

            That brings up the second question - the Why of thanksgiving. I used to believe that the main reason for saying Thank You is what I just said - it makes somebody feel good for something they have given you or done for you. But that's only part of the story. There are other reasons for thanksgiving that have more to do with something happening inside you. Here's what I have come to believe: it is impossible to be a loving, spiritual, happy person, if you are not thankful in your heart for what you have, be it a tiny lot in life, or great wealth. In fact, the person who has hardly two nickels to rub together, and very little health and human companionship, can be the happiest person in the world if he/she is truly grateful for even that small portion. And the richest, most popular, most blessed person in the world will be bitter and unhappy without the gift of appreciation.

            Medical researchers have explained this in physical terms: Scientists have determined that when a person holds feelings of gratitude for fifteen seconds, levels of stress hormones decrease, coronary arteries relax; breathing goes deeper, blood supply to the brain and oxygen level in body tissues increase. The benefits in overall health are huge.

            We can verify the emotional benefits of thanksgiving by looking at the other side of the coin - when we are not thankful, negative emotions abound, reversing those physical benefits. Surely this is another way to consider that story of Jesus and the ten lepers. Jesus was upset that the nine didn't come back and thank him - not because he was insulted or needed that affirmation for himself. I believe it infinitely more likely that Jesus was upset because he knew that those nine men couldn't really be healed until they were thankful.  The leprosy may be gone from their bodies, but they were still spiritually disabled without thanksgiving.

            Jesus knew that lack of gratitude is as sinister as any physical disease. Someone has said, "Instead of being thankful when their cup runneth over, too many people long for a bigger cup." Too many people are restless and discontented, because whatever they get in this life, it is not big or good enough. There are some people rolling in dough today because they have learned to play on the lack of gratitude so prevalent in today's society.

            Here's a confession that I can make, and I think many others can make: we are addicted to new gadgets. For example, on September 29, 2005, I bought a new Palm Pilot. I know it was September 29, 2005, because every time I turn the blasted thing on, that's the date that comes up for today. But despite that, when I bought that Palm Pilot, I was ecstatic. This thing could keep my calendar, be my calculator, and had a great game called Bursting Bubbles. I was so grateful to get it. I determined that it should certainly last me four or five years.

            My problem is, every time I look up, something better than my Palm Pilot comes out. I'm only halfway into this one, and now they're telephones, and Internets, and movies, and everything but backscratchers - and I'm not thankful anymore. I carry in my pocket something that is nothing short of a technological miracle - and all I can think about is the better ones that are on the market, that do so much more, and that don't show September 29 every time you turn them on.

            And that's how we are programmed. Our cup is overflowing, but we're trained to want the bigger cup - and that is the road to misery. Because it's not just about a better Palm Pilot, or camera, or TV, or car - and there are always better ones! Before you know it, it's about never being satisfied with your job, or your home, or your neighbors, or your spouse, or your kids, or your friends. There is surely a healthy way to long for something more - a way that calls you to not get complacent, and to strive to improve. But if you can never be thankful for what you have, then you are truly on the road to misery. It's not the happy people who are thankful; it's the thankful people who are happy. That's the truth about the Why of thanksgiving.

            But what about when the cup does not overflow? What about the lean times, the sad times? Here is where I have learned something about the When of thanksgiving. I used to think that it was important to be thankful when things were going good. But then my life took a turn, and I hit hard times. And that's when God taught me something I hadn't realized before - that it is even more important to be thankful when things are going bad. In fact, thanksgiving is one of the healing gifts God can send you. Because when your feet are knocked out from under you, and you have lost the things you thought were essential- then you can get an accurate picture of the things that really matter. For example, when you are flying high and everything's going your way, you might overlook the gentle kind voice of someone who is being a great friend to you. When you are down as low as you could imagine you could go, that voice might save your life. In the valley of the shadow of death, you find out who your friends are, you find out where your

strength is, you find out how precious just the simple gift of life is, and you find the Shepherd who walks beside you, whose rod and whose staff will comfort you.

            I have been reading a book entitled Come Be My Light, a sharing of the private letters of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. When the book came out a few weeks ago, the press made a huge deal out of the fact that Mother Teresa's letters are full of doubt and deep questioning about God. This woman who lived her life as a shining example of faith in action, was actually engaged throughout her life in a constant struggle to keep the faith ­to believe that God was actually with her. Yet despite all of that inner struggle, and despite the hardships and suffering she witnessed every day - she constantly expressed her thanksgiving. She even thanked God for the 'darkness' she experienced inside, because she believed it deepened her understanding of her Lord Jesus, and helped her to better know the people she was serving in the slums of the city. And the result of that thankful spirit was a deep level of peace - even though she often could not feel that way.

            In Ephesians 5: 20, the writer of the letter urges the Ephesians to be "giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Now, that's a tall order. Give thanks at all times and for everything? Even for the coworker who drives me crazy? Even for the recurring physical challenge I am facing? No - especially for those times. Because, as the apostle Paul discovered, those 'thorns in the flesh' are ways that the strength of God is made known. When to give thanks? At all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

            And then finally, the How of thanksgiving. I used to think that offering thanks was a little compartment in my life. Once I have said Thank you to God, whether by singing a hymn or saying a prayer or making an offering, then I can move on to other things. But now I have come to realize that there are no other things. Everything about faith and life hinges on thanksgiving. God has blessed us in more ways than we can possibly acknowledge. We can't just say Thank you and move on. The only way to answer the How question of thanksgiving is to give your whole life to God. What else can we do with such a precious gift as life itself, other than to spend it honoring the God who gave it, and the Christ who saved it?

            Does that mean we spend every moment praying in the chapel? No. I happen to believe that part of the way we honor God is to sit down and enjoy thoroughly a wonderful Thanksgiving meal- or to enjoy the company of children - or to laugh around a table playing games or telling stories. But then there is more beyond that. God cannot be fully honored if we forget the cries of the needy, or neglect the care of our souls, or live roughshod and destructively toward the earth and rest of creation.

            The truth about thanksgiving is that it is intricately interwoven with the ways we give back, and the care and compassion with which we treat God's world. That's the answer to the How of thanksgiving. We give thanks by honoring God with every bit of our very lives. How could we give less?

            So let's review the truth about thanksgiving - Who needs thanksgiving?  Every one of us needs to learn to express thanks for our blessings.  Why?  Because it is the only way to truly be a happy, growing, spiritual person.  When?  At all times and for everything.  And How?  Only by giving all that you have, all that you are, in devotion to God.

            One final thought: Someone said, "If we can't get all we want, we should at least be thankful we don't get all we deserve." We should never allow a thanksgiving season to go by without lifting thanks for the heart of mercy that Jesus broke for us on the cross. We don't get what we deserve, but are forgiven and free, thanks to his love. For Christian believers, this is the ultimate blessing that pulls our hearts to absolute gratitude to God.             .

            Over 300 years ago, Isaac Watts said it better than anybody in the last verse of his beautiful hymn, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross." That verse goes like this: "Were the whole realm of nature mine/ That were an offering far too small/ Love so amazing, so divine/ Demands my soul, my life, my all." How could we offer God any less?