Christ The King Sunday – Thanksgiving Sunday

Ephesians 1:15-23

Today is Christ the King Sunday. It is the very last day of the year in the Christian calendar. Twelve months ago, we began a journey that has now taken us through the whole story of Jesus. It started last Advent as we awaited His coming. Then there was Christmas when we celebrated His birth. Epiphany reminded us that Jesus came to be the Savior of the whole world, and during the Sundays of Lent, we centered ourselves in the meaning of His giving Himself for all humanity. Easter was a time of great joy as we greeted the risen Christ, and then came Pentecost with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit so that Jesus’ followers could bring the Gospel to all creation. And since then, we have been thinking about and studying and putting into practice the meaning of our calling to be followers of Jesus today. And now, today, we come to Christ the King Sunday when we look ahead to that time when all the world will be gathered in His arms, and the Kingdom of God will be established once and for all.

Of course, next Sunday, we will begin the process all over again, and we will find new discoveries and treasures along the way. But before we get ahead of ourselves, I think it’s important for us to pause for a moment. And looking backwards over the year that has passed, and forward to the journey ahead, I can’t think of a better thing for us to do on a day like today than to say, “Thank you!” And since Christ the King Sunday just happens to fall on the week of our American Thanksgiving holiday, “Thank you!” seems like an especially appropriate theme for this morning’s sermon.

I have come to believe that the act of “Thank you!” is a spiritual discipline on an equal plane with things like prayer, praise, service, forgiveness, and even loving our neighbor. The next time you think about the things Christians do, try to remember that “Thank you!” is one of the most important.

In the letters St. Paul sent to the early Christian churches, he spent more time saying “Thank you!” than almost anything else. Paul is the one who reminds us to give thanks in all things. And in today’s reading from the letter to the Ephesians, we hear him say something really intriguing. Did you catch it when the passage was read a moment ago? It’s just a little thing – a couple of words in verse 16 – but such very important words.

“I have not stopped giving thanks…”

Now hang on just a second here. Are not these words attributed to the apostle Paul? The same Paul who spent most of his life as a Christian in dire straits – in prison, severely flogged, exposed to death over and over again? Is this the same Paul who five times received the forty lashes minus one? Who three times was beaten by the rod? Who was stoned once, and it wasn’t during a rock concert in the 1960’s? Is this the same Paul who was shipwrecked three times, and spent a night and a day clinging to some debris on the open sea? Is this the same one who, in a letter to the Corinthians, describes how his life as a Christian has moved from one dangerous situation to the next, and resulted in often going without sleep, often without food and water, often without friends? Is this the same apostle Paul who suffered that mysterious thorn in the flesh – some unspecified ailment, or weakness, or disability – and who three times begged the Lord for relief, but never found it?

Is this that poor sad sack of a guy from the pages of the Bible who is a lot like the dog described in that famous Lost and Found ad once printed in the local newspaper? Lost: three-legged black and white puppy; has one eye; chewed off ear; rash on belly; fur falling out; answers to the name Lucky.

Can you even imagine the hardships and tragedies that had befallen Paul during his life as a follower of Christ? And yet, he writes:

“I have not stopped giving thanks…”

When my best childhood friend Dennis and I were growing up, we got into a fight one day. We were roller skating down the hill on Cataumet Street which emptied into Calumet Avenue where Dennis and I both lived a few doors down from each other. It might have been right after Christmas because all the kids in the neighborhood seemed to have gotten a pair of those old metal roller skates with the adjustable slides that you put on the bottom of your shoes and tighten with a key. Remember those? Well, there we were, zipping down the hill, racing each other. I was out ahead and happened to be chewing some Bazooka bubble gum as we sped along, and I got this idea that it would sort of be like rubbing it in if I blew a big bubble and turned and showed it to Dennis as I zipped across the finish line. So I did. And Dennis, who was right behind me, instinctively flicked out his hand, burst that bubble all over my face, and sent me crashing onto my butt while he crossed the finish line.

Well, I was humiliated. And ticked off. So I went over to Dennis, and punched him in the face. He fell down. Then he got back up again and said, “Gee thanks!” So I punched him again. Again, he struggled to his feet “Thanks!” said Dennis. And I hit him again.

Now Dennis was a better friend to me that day than I was to him. To his credit, he never hit me back. He just kept getting up and saying, “Thank you!”

 Now, I’m pretty positive that Dennis was not saying “Thank you” in the deep theological sense of this sermon. No, he was being sarcastic, trying to shame me. And now that I look back on that day, those words do shame me as well they should.

But more importantly, I’ve come to think of that experience as being a kind of unintended illustration of the kind of unstoppable thanks St. Paul was talking about. No matter how often I hit him, ol’ Dennis just kept popping back up, and saying, “Thank you!”

Now, if you can get past the sarcasm of it all, maybe you can visualize something along the line of what the Bible is offering us here. We are called to the discipline of unstoppable thanks.Yes, life may well hit us with blow after blow, but we need to be able to see that, all around the hardships and the shadows and the tears we experience, are little evidences of God’s grace and beauty and blessing. And they are what help to heal to us, and assure us that God is with us in our pain. You see, when life turns dark, the only way to find your way through is by moving toward the light. And the discipline of giving thanks is a powerful way of discovering God’s light in the midst of the darkness.

Today, I wonder if you might be willing to consider three ways we might implement this discipline of unstoppable thanks in our lives.

First and most obvious of all, we are called to not stop giving thanks when difficulty and tragedy come.

A little while ago, I read the story of a mother and father who experienced the ultimate in parental horrors. Midway through her senior year in high school, their beautiful daughter – an only child – was tragically killed in an automobile accident involving a drunk driver. Like some of you who have lost children, this was an unthinkable, unbearable, inconsolable loss. It consumed them in every way, and the darkness of that loss swept into every part of their lives – into their marriage, into their careers, into their relationships, into their faith. In many respects, when she died, so did they.

But months later, just before the time their daughter would have graduated, a couple of the daughter’s friends stopped by the house one day. They held in their arms the newly published school yearbook. It was dedicated to Amy’s memory, and in it were several photographs of their daughter. Below one picture were words she herself had written: To the best mom and dad a girl could have – Thank You!

There was a flood of tears, of course. Then one of the girls said, “You know Amy really loved you guys. She was proud to be your daughter. And we always loved coming over here because you were pretty cool compared to our parents.”

“Well,” said Amy’s mother, “we always loved having you over here because you were such good friends to Amy. I’m so glad she had you.”

And there were more tears. And more remembrances of all the good of Amy, and all the good of her friends, and all the good of her family, and all the good of the life they shared. And when the friends left that afternoon, Amy’s mother writes, “I found myself saying ‘Thank you!’ ’Thank you, friends, for being such good friends!’ ‘Thank you, school, for preserving those pictures and those words!’ ‘Thank you, husband, for being such a good dad.’ ‘Thank you, Amy, for saying…Thank you!’”

It was not a resolution to the loss they’d experienced, but it was a beginning – a beginning to a healing that will only be complete when mothers and fathers are reunited with their children again in heaven. But, in the meantime, it is the “Thank you” that provides some peace, and some hope, and some joy. It is the “Thank you” that reveals light in the midst of darkness. It is the “Thank you” that reveals the presence and the love of God.

“I have not stopped giving thanks…” said the apostle in the midst of life’s tragedies and difficulties. It is the ability to give thanks that leads us to the oasis in the desert where our lives can be renewed and sustained.

Now, a second way you and I can implement the discipline of giving thanks is to learn to say “Thank you” across the boundaries of time and distance.

Over and over again in the letters of Paul, whole sections are devoted to saying “Thank you!” to people who have contributed in some way to his life and ministry. “…our sister Phoebe has been a great help to many people, including me;…Priscilla and Aquila…they risked their lives for me;…Andronicus and Junia…who have been in prison with me;…my dear friend Stachys;…Tryphena and Tryphosa, those women who work hard in the Lord; …Rufus, and his mother, who has been a mother to me…!”

Paul shows us that it is important to not let the boundaries of time and distance stop us from saying “Thank you” to the people who have blessed us.

A short while ago, one of our very gifted musicians told me about the woman in her hometown who had little life of her own except for teaching children to play the piano – and that at such a low cost that it barely afforded her a living. And whenever we in our church hear Janie play as beautifully as she does, we are receiving this woman’s gift. I wonder how we could reach across time and space to say, “Thank you!”

And aren’t there people in your life – maybe even people you’ve not seen or heard from in years – who have blessed you with some gift of love, or help, or kindness?  What would it mean to them if you sent a card…or made a call…or wrote a letter…or paid a visit….just to say, “After all these years, and across all these miles, I have not stopped giving thanks for you!”? And if that person is no longer with us, what would it mean to their family to know of your gratitude for their loved one?

When we give thanks for the people God has led to our lives, we not only affirm their dignity and beauty as children of God, but we also begin to appreciate the meaning of the church – the community. None of us can make it through life alone. We need each other. God calls into a family. When we give thanks for the people who have blessed us, God – who created them in His image – is worshipped and praised. Oh, don’t let time and distance stop you from giving thanks!

Giving thanks in all circumstances. Saying “Thank you!” to the people God has sent our way. Those are two ways in which we should never stop giving thanks. And then there’s one more.

Always giving thanks to God by being faithful.

Yesterday was such a beautiful day, and not only because the sun was bright, the sky was blue, and Tennessee beat Vanderbilt. Yesterday was exceptionally beautiful because of the joyful dedication of the new St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church building. Those of us who were there are impressed with the beauty of the structure. But most impressive of all was the beauty of the gathered congregation. What a beautiful and diverse family of faith! Anglos and Hispanics together. Young and old. Men and women. Catholics and Protestants worshipping together!

And what joy was in the hearts of the people of that church! You could see it on their faces and in their eyes. What pride in what God has accomplished among them! What hope for the future!

And yet, it was just a year ago that the St. Thomas parish was rocked with a problem that could easily have been the undoing of all their hopes and dreams. Do you remember?

So what do you do when you’re out there serving God, and one of God’s servants lets you down? What do you do when, in the course of being faithful, life falls apart?

Well, Father Dave Boettner, the young pastor of St. Thomas, said it so well when we all gathered last Spring at the Yacht Club for an ecumenical lakeshore service. “WHAT do we do?” asked Father Dave. “Well, we do what we’re doing today. We gather. We worship. We serve. We do what we are called to do.”

There is no greater gratitude than that of the faithful heart. Though shaken by the winds of life, and sin, and betrayal, and tragedy, and difficulty of all kinds, it chooses to press on, trusting God for the ultimate outcome.

And yesterday, we saw demonstrated before us God’s marvelous ability to lead people from tears of sorrow to tears of joy.

The people of St. Thomas would not stop giving thanks…

…and God honored the gift!

As you gather this week around the Thanksgiving table, I wonder if you might hold up those beautiful words of St. Paul.

“I will not stop giving thanks…!”

And as you do, please know with certainty that Sandy and I, and all who serve you, will not stop giving thanks to God for YOU!