Learning To Give Thanks

Habakkuk 3:17-19     (NRSV)

Though the fig tree does not blossom,

    and no fruit is on the vines;

though the produce of the olive fails,

    and the fields yield no food;

though the flock is cut off from the fold,

    and there is no herd in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the Lord;

    I will exult in the God of my salvation.

God, the Lord, is my strength;

    he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,

    and makes me tread upon the heights.

Many of us seem to go through life as if we expect it to be a fairy tale

that everything is going to work out perfectly.

I think you know what I mean:

·         There is only one person in the world who would be the perfect spouse for me --- so I just need to look a little harder and I will find them

·         Life should be like the books that we read --- or the movies and TV shows that we watch --- filled with sex and adventure.

·         The lottery and the casinos fill us with the dream --- “If only I win the lottery, then my life would be so much better.

We sometimes want --- no even expect --- that our lives should be lived out like a fairy tale. 

We want our lives to include the phrase: “They lived happily ever after.”

The only problem is --- that is not the way life works.

Our lives are not fairy tales

          The things that we want to happen and expect to happen

                   Don’t always come true

Instead it seems to me that our lives are more like the fairy tales found on the old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons of my childhood --- do any of you remember them?

They were called FRACTURED FAIRY TALES.

If you remember --- the ones that began with a fairy struggling to open a very large book, and in the end get smashed by the book.

          FRACTURED FAIRY TALES

If you never had the opportunity to watch them there is good news --- you can find a number of them on YouTube – and they are hilarious because nothing ever seems to work out in those fairy tales

          Nothing goes perfectly

          Nothing is “happily ever after”

As a matter of fact --- these fairy tales are a heck of a lot like our lives.

I am preaching on LEARNING HOW TO GIVE THANKS so that I can hopefully learn how better to give thanks.

Sure, it is easy to give thanks for:

          Nancy

          Jessica & Sam, Lindsey and Haley

Nancy’s and my parents

Our siblings and their children

My friends

This wonderful church

But I would be lying if I didn’t admit that there are many things in my life that I find it difficult to give thanks for --- and it is those things that I constantly struggle with.

Habakkuk, is an interesting book in the Hebrew Scriptures, I am sure that you looked up the passage this week in preparation for this morning, but just in case you had a hard time finding it the book is located right next to Nahum.

Of course you have all read Nahum, haven't you?

Nahum was the name of my dog when Nancy and I got married.

You would have thought she would have run for the hills  . . .

But the truth is Nahum is truly a wonderful name, but nobody ever had any idea why I came up with it. 

          Nahum in Hebrew means comforter or consoler

Do me a favor --- don't waste your time going to read the prophet Nahum, because you would question why anybody would name their dog after such a terrible prophet. 

It is a mean book: Nahum seems to be angry with everybody, but Habakkuk is different. 

Habakkuk is a book of hope and joy. 

Habakkuk is searching for the same thing that you and I are always looking for. 

An answer to that question: "Why do bad things happen to good people?" 

Why does it happen", Habakkuk asks.  "Why?  It doesn't make any sense! 

And he poses this question to God in the first chapter when he asks:

(Habakkuk 1:13  NRSV)

Your eyes are too pure to behold evil,

    and you cannot look on wrongdoing;

why do you look on the treacherous,

    and are silent when the wicked swallow

    those more righteous than they?

Habakkuk struggled with that issue ---- he struggled with it and what is more, he got an answer. 

It is the same answer that you and I get, not always the answer that we want, but it is the answer that we get. 

That God is God, and we cannot fully comprehend nor understand God. 

                   Not always a very satisfactory answer

But even more important, what Habakkuk finds out is that the most important thing is to trust God and keep our faith.

And a part of keeping that faith is giving thanks! 

Giving thanks not only in times of good fortune, when it is easy for us to give thanks; when our table is full of food, when our children are healthy, when there is no war --- but he says: we must also learn to give thanks in times of sorrow, when expectations don’t pan out, when things don’t go the way that we expected or wanted --- when our lives become fractured.

I have thought a lot about giving thanks --- how to deal with thanksgiving, and what that all means ---- and as I reflected on my life, I have had numerous things happen to me that have helped me to better understand what it means to give God thanks.

Let me share a few.

A friend of mine, when I was a student at Duke

we were roommates together at Annual Conference at Lake Junaluska, NC. 

We stood up together to be ordained as deacons in the United Methodist Church.  And after it was over, we talked about how we would get together over the summer, the conference was in June and we had a couple months of summer left --- but we never did. 

We talked, and laughed and had a wonderful time together. 

We shared some of our deepest joys and dreams over being ordained, and beginning our ministries.  

When I went back to Duke that fall I found out that Brent had dropped out ---he felt that the ordained ministry wasn't the calling that he had received. 

And to be honest with you --- that bothered me deeply --- for here was somebody who I had shared all of my joys and dreams of going into the ministry --- here was somebody who had all the gifts and graces to be a wonderful minister, and yet he decided it wasn't for him.

Brent and I finally had the opportunity to talk about it --- and he said to me: "You know, I made a deal with God. I promised God that I would go into the ordained ministry for ten years, if only God would love me back.  And do you know what I realized.  God loves me anyway. I don't have to be an ordained minister for ten years for God to love me."

And I was somehow able to say: Thanks!

Thanks be to God!

For Brent had found something out --- and even though it hurt me at the time --- Brent found out something even more important --- that God's love exists for all of us, if only we would open our eyes to it!

It has been a long time now, and I don't know if you even remember Rev. Weir? 

          But this story has stuck with me through the years.

Rev. Weir was held hostage in Lebanon, and when he was finally released it was interesting to hear his comments on what gave him the strength to carry on. 

He said, what enabled him to continue to live was the ability to give thanks --- to give thanks over things that we would see as trivial. 

          To give thanks over receiving some fruit. 

To give thanks to being chained by only one leg to the radiator instead of two.

To give thanks for a shower

and most of all, to give thanks for each and every day that he was alive. 

Despite the fact that he was held hostage, not knowing where he was, not knowing what his fate was to be, Rev Weir was able to give thanks, thanks to God, that he could continue in his service.

Last week was the 32^nd anniversary of the death of my brother Stewart. 

Every year, as I approach the 11th of November, I struggle with giving thanks.

Why?

Why did Stewart a 24 year old, full of life, full of love

Why did he have to die?

I was in my last year at Duke when Stewart became ill

At the two little churches that I served in rural North Carolina they had a rather unusual practice on Sunday mornings.  They alternated each week who had worship first.

          1^st & 3^rd Sunday it was Richfield UMC

          2^nd & 4^th it was New Mt Tabor

                   (And you think our changed schedule is confusing . . .)

One little problem --- some months had 5 Sundays

They solved the problem by not having worship on 5^th Sundays

So four times a year, I could head north and spend the weekend with my family

I was a full time student at Duke and would commute 110 miles each way to school.

I had no money --- and the months that had a 5th Sunday, on the 4th Sunday, as I greeted the congregation following service, people would put money in my pockets and say to me "Go Home". 

I am so thankful for those loving congregations --- they will never fully know the impact that they had on me.

It was late in the afternoon of November 9th, 1985

I was getting ready for a lock-in (at the parsonage) with the youth from the two churches.

My telephone rang and it was a collect call from my dad

          Father's don't call their student children collect

He was at the hospital and the doctor told him that if I planned on coming home before Stewart died --- I needed to leave immediately

How can one give God thanks ---over something like this?

But even Jesus Christ, who shows us what it means to give thanks, did it at a time of sorrow. 

We all know the story.

On the night that He was betrayed, Jesus took bread, and after giving God thanks he broke the bread and gave it to his disciples, and after the supper was over he took a cup, again he gave God thanks, and gave the cup to his disciples.

We know that story ---but we tend to forget one important part --- Jesus knew what was coming --- he knew he was going to be crucified and killed.

Jesus knew that his ministry on earth was about to come to an end --- and yet, even knowing that --- even knowing how he was going to die, a most horrible death --- Jesus was able to give thanks and rejoice in God.

A phenomena that I find interesting is that when most people come in to see me for counseling, the generally come in saying one thing.

More often than not, they are upset about the things that they do not have.  It is extremely rare that someone will come in thankful for all the blessings that they have received.   We live life in the --- if only

          if only I had this

          if only (fill in the blank)

          . . .  IF ONLY . . .  then my life would be better.

Paul wrote to the church at Thessaloniki:

(1 Thessalonians 5:16-18   NRSV)

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Give thanks to God in all things . . .

The text does not say that we should give God thanks FOR all things ---- rather it says we should give God thanks IN all things!

Personally I like the International Children's Bible version even better:

(1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18 ICB)  Always be happy.  Never stop praying.  Give thanks whatever happens. That is what God wants for you in Christ Jesus.

We do not need to give God thanks FOR the bad things in life --- but we do need to thank God.

We need to thank God that God was, and is, with us during those hard, fractured moments of our lives.

On Sunday, November 10th, following services Nancy and I got in my car and started a painful journey home.  We knew that Stewart would probably have died before we arrived --- it was a long sad journey.

We arrived at my parent's house early in the morning of the 11th --- and 45 minutes after we arrived --- Stewart crossed the horizon to the next chapter.

I don't give God thanks for the cancer that killed Stewart. 

I don't give God thanks that Stewart died.

I give thanks that Stewart lived!

I give God thanks that God gave me Stewart and that I got to spend 24 wonderful years with him --- too short --- yes!

          But God blessed me with it! 

And for that I say THANKS!

Did you listen to what Habakkuk says in the third chapter?

(Habakkuk 3: 17-19 NRSV) 

Though the fig tree does not blossom,

    and no fruit is on the vines;

though the produce of the olive fails,

    and the fields yield no food;

though the flock is cut off from the fold,

    and there is no herd in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the Lord;

    I will exult in the God of my salvation.

God, the Lord, is my strength;

    he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,

    and makes me tread upon the heights.

God makes my feet like hinds feet. 

A hind, a female deer, a deer that is able to climb the mountains, sure footed because its back foot follows in the exact spot of its front foot. 

Not falling when there is no room for error. 

God makes my feet;

God makes your feet the exact same way. 

God sent Jesus to be our example and the way for us to follow --- and even in times of sorrow, Jesus was able to give God thanks.

Learning to give thanks is not something that is easy for me, because I have learned that regardless of my faith, regardless of my thanksgivings, that does not prevent evil from happening, it does not prevent injury form occurring, or sickness from striking those that I love. 

But I know that through my faith --- through my attempts to follow the high places of God --- that I am still a child of God's, and that I am called to follow as best I can, pausing to give thanks, even when it does not seem appropriate or easy to do.

God makes my feet like hinds feet; God gives me that ability to go forward even when it doesn't seem that I can go on.  THANKS BE TO GOD!