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Thanksgiving Sunday; The Propers for Thanksgiving

In the East London district of Stepney, just off Commercial Street on Settles Street, about 80 years ago and before, there was St. Augustine’s Church. In it’s day it was an Anglo-Catholic parish church, an occasional pain where the more evangelical bishops of London sat, but doing the work of Christ in a then, and even now, London slum area. Today, the site is a small square. Until a few decades ago it was a burned-out ruin.

On a December night in 1940, the elderly Vicar stood in the street, helplessly watching his church burn to the ground. Fire bombs an air raid had lodged in the roof and could not be put out. The altar vessels and the Reserved Sacrament had been rescued, but nothing more could be done. The priest, Father (A.F.) Asher stood, tears streaming down his face, watching his life’s work destroyed. He was one of those priests who give their entire life to their vocation, and he was watching that life burning before him.

And yet, on the following Sunday morning, in a make-shift chapel fitted into a large room of the Vicarage, Father Asher turned to his sorrowing congregation, all of whom had loved their little church, and said with a smile, “My friends, what you and I have to learn to say, cheerfully, is, ‘The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord; Thanks be to God!'”


It is Thanksgiving Sunday, a day on which we remember God’s goodness towards us, and the many benefits we have received from God’s hand. But that story reminds us that thanksgiving is not just something we are to do in good times, when God has been good to us, but at all times. That is easy to forget in times of loss, personal or corporate, or in times of illness, or in times of financial difficulty. But as all of our readings this morning remind us, thankfulness is not only a response to whatever good things God does for us; but an attitude of life, an attitude of gratitude!

The Old Testament reading is from the sermon by Moses to the people of Israel prior to their conquest of the land promised to their ancestor Abraham. In order to be properly thankful, one must develop a good memory. It does not do to forget God’s gifts and acts, in good times or in bad. Counting one’s blessings is not just a pious phrase, it is part of the proper worship of God. And so Moses urges his audience to always remember the blessings that have been bestowed on them, and to remember that it is not from their efforts that they have received them. And further, Moses reminds his listeners that the gifts that God is giving to them were already promised to their ancestors, and that the entire history of the descendants of Abraham up to the moment of entering the promised land has been God working to fulfil God’s promise. Thus, a part of thanksgiving is the remembrance of those who have come before us, and who have made our blessings possible. Just as God’s promise of a land for his people has been a part of all the history of the Jewish people, so thanksgiving, the attitude of gratitude, is to permeate all of the life of all of us.


The 2nd Lesson, from Paul’s 2nd Letter to the Corinthians, is an exhortation by Paul to the Corinthians to take their share of a financial appeal for the impoverished Church in Jerusalem. This relief fund was one of Paul’s important projects, not only because it would help the poor of Jerusalem, but also because it would express solidarity between the newly founded Gentile churches around the Aegean with the largely Jewish church in Palestine. The Corinthians have dragged their feet. We do not know why, but their reluctance prompts Paul into the longest discussion on giving for the needs of the Church in the Christian Scriptures.

There are four principles that we can take from this text, all of them of significance on this Sunday of Thanksgiving. The first is a principle of return; as one gives, so one receives. Give sparingly, and one receives sparingly, give freely, and one receives freely.

Let me immediately say that I am NOT promoting what has been called the prosperity gospel, give to God and God will give you lots more back, that you can see on late night Sunday religious televison. But, it is simple mathematics and elementary economics that the more generous with wealth all of us are, the more there is for everyone. Just one example; it is an economic fact that this earth produces enough food each year, overall, to feed every man, woman, and child alive an adequate diet. Scarcity and hunger are a product of systems that make it simpler, easier, or more profitable to hoard or waste excess food, generally in the Global North, rather than distribute it to where it is needed. They are not a consequence of the earth’s capacity to feed humanity.

That leads to a second principle of this text, God has been generous. There is a close relationship between our generosity and our faith. We may hold onto our goods and money because we are concerned about our well-being and self-preservation. But that implies that we believe that our preservation is in our own hands. To hold our wealth somewhat easier, to let at least some of it go lightly, becomes an expression of faith because it symbolizes a commitment of ourselves and our future to God. To selfishly cling to our possessions symbolizes our doubt in God’s ability to provide!

Thirdly, this text emphasizes that generosity ought to be voluntary rather than forced. God loves a cheerful giver! Undoubtedly, whether giving comes from guilt, or compulsion because we are pressured, or from just generosity, does not matter in one sense; giving can be used to do good regardless of motivation. But Paul is more interested in the motivation that gives rise to giving, since it is the motivation that reveals one’s attitude toward God. There is a challenge in this text to us to rethink our attitude towards giving to various works of charity; all too often our generosity is compelled by guilt or threats of dire consequences to come if we are not generous. On this Thanksgiving Sunday, Paul offers us another vision for our giving!

And finally, a fourth principle to be drawn from St. Paul’s message to the Corinthians is that generosity produces thanksgiving. Any act of giving produces gratitude in the one who receives. But in addition God is honoured, acts of generosity produce thanksgiving not only towards the giver, but also towards God. It matters to Paul that acts of generosity results in thanks being given to God. It is not that God needs our thanks, but such thanks express the right kind of faith – faith in God as Creator and Sustainer. Giving thanks to God always is the true mark of faith, for it recognizes that all we are and all we have comes from God.

There is much in this lesson from Paul’s correspondence to read and hear at Thanksgiving. There is much here about God’s generosity and God’s ability to provide for us in abundance. There is also a call for generosity of heart. This text says “No” to the tightly zipped pocket; it says “No” to looking out for number one first. It calls us to sow generously, in order to reap with abundance. But above all, this text shows us that thanksgiving and generosity, the attitude of gratitude, are expressions of our faith in our God!


Finally, the Gospel story is a familiar one, very much one with the theme of thanksgiving that is predominant this Sunday. But note, as often happens in Gospel stories, it is an outsider, in this case a Samaritan, who behaves as all the faithful should, who has the proper attitude of gratitude. This story of the healing of the ten lepers joins together faith, obedience, and thankfulness into one.

Ten lepers beg Jesus to heal them from their affliction; they have faith that Jesus can do so. Jesus sends them to the priests, who alone can pronounce them clean and able to rejoin society, and, as they obey and go, they are healed. But only one, a Samaritan heretic, returns to Jesus to give him thanks. Jesus wonders what happened to the other nine; “What happened to them, that they did not return to give praise to God?” Their ingratitude did not take away the physical healing they had received, but the Samaritan, the outsider, receives more. “Your faith has made you well,” Jesus says to him. That verb translated “made you well”, in Hebrew and Aramaic may also be translated “has saved you”. The additional blessing received by the Samaritan is salvation!

We cannot suppose that Luke tells this story in his Gospel simply to paint a foreigner in a more favourable light than nine Jews. There is something to be learned from this story by the Church. It is not unreasonable to suppose that the message of this story is that we cannot take the blessings of being Christians for granted. Gratitude as a way of life is an essential part of our faith; it is necessary to salvation.


If we take all our Scripture lessons this morning and try to distill from them one idea to take away with us for Thanksgiving Sunday, it is that faith without thanksgiving is an illusion, and that thanksgiving without generosity is hollow. If we live in a attitude of cheerful, generous gratitude in all our lives, then our total lives express Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving every day, not only on this one weekend of the year.


Copyright ©2017 by Gerry Mueller.