For These Things We Are Grateful 11/24/46
Scripture: Psalm 136: 1-9, 23-26
Text: Psalm 1; “O give thanks unto Jehovah, for he is good; for his loving kindness endureth for ever.” [American Standard]
We shall gather here in the Union service of thanksgiving next Thursday, according to the custom of Christian Americans, and in response to the proclamations of the president and the state governors. For the day is more than a bounteous meal or a family reunion. It is a time for reflection and grateful remembrance. This spirit is what gives meaning to the food and the family fellowship.
Since the week is, in a sense, Thanksgiving week, and since we can scarcely overdo our gratitude, I propose to speak of thanksgiving today, too. What have we to be thankful for this year? The cynic may “hurl,” rather than ask, the question. He may quickly list the obviously unpleasant facts with which we must all deal - and he will have no trouble finding them.
1) It is true that the general warfare seems over, but many veterans returning home after its battles have been unable to find suitable homes for their families and themselves.
2) The great latent ability of this nation to produce in abundance the goods we, and all peoples, need is hampered and hamstrung by bitter strife and prolonged conflict between much of labor and much of management. Needed machinery, clothing, food, fails to appear while idle establishments await the end of human stubbornness. And now, again, power is to shut off and heat is to be turned down while needed coal lies untouched in the nation’s pits.
3) Living costs have risen sharply, and the threat of further inflation hangs menacingly over all of us. Responsible political office-holders have proven inept, and party influence too often takes precedence over public well-being.
4) Moral standards have sagged when they should have put vigor into our common decisions. The international scene is uninviting. The future, seen through some eyes, is grim, or at least not promising. Why be grateful for such a mess?
The cynic is right, so far as he goes. But as usual, he is half blind and has looked for light only with the dark half of his sight. And perhaps a complete day of thanksgiving should be also a day of repentance and consecration to righteous struggle.
It would be foolish to deny that much of man’s contribution to life during the last 12 months has not been heartening. But we must not blame God for the things that man, in his own free will, has done in violation of elementary principles of decent living. It isn’t God’s fault if men have failed each other. God has to work in spite of men’s faults, and God has not failed us.
There are matters for which we may indeed be grateful. It is good for our spiritual health and general well-being that we remember them and see them clearly with unblinded eyes.
1) Once again, our nation has been given an abundant harvest. The farms of America have yielded great crops of grains and other foods. So great has been this gift to us that we need have no fear of famine in the coming year. There may be times when we can not find, or can not afford, some of the items we would like. But we need not be concerned lest our children be under-nourished.
Unless we take the trouble to think of it, we don’t half appreciate this great blessing. Millions of the peoples of the earth have not had, and do not now have, enough to eat. And their plight isn’t even “news!” We would read some human interest story about a foster mother who locked a child in a dark room for three weeks without care or food, and our hot indignation would rise over it. But we pass lightly over an occasional item about hundreds of thousands of the people of India dying of hunger in the streets of their cities. And China? O yes, it seems that great, overpopulated China is always having trouble somewhere with famine due to flood, drought, poor transportation, and so on. Europe? Sure, there are hungry people over there. Didn’t they have a war? What can you expect? I guess Australia had a drought last year. Too bad!
Only a bit of holy imagination in the realm of stark reality can save us from carelessness! We had a war too! Our strength and our great good fortune kept it from devastating our land and crippling our power to produce. Shall we lack the sense to be thankful for that?
We live by the ability of a transportation system, that was able to carry the tremendous strain of war, to still get food from where it grows, to where it is needed in our land. Isn’t that something for which to be grateful?
Australia’s drought was not duplicated in the United States generally the past season. Bless God!
There is room enough in our land for people so that they do not have to hang on the desperate edge of starvation if nature fails, for one season, to provide enough for the people of some part of the land. Isn’t that a blessing?
We are in a position to save the lives of many in devastated countries out of our own abundance. We promised to send them a lot this past year. We did send them what was promised and more. Thank God for the holy practical privilege of opening our hands and hearts and sharing generously with the less fortunate. That is not a burden, it is a joy! Let us by no means miss it in the coming months wherever need continues to be desperate. Our feast, in relative abundance, will taste better if we can hear the Master’s voice: “Inasmuch as ye did it unto these least, ye did it unto me.” Thank God, consciously, gratefully, practically, generously, for food!
2) You and I should also remember to give thanks for the fact that we are still alive and at work. Some have become so materialistic that they see no connection between God and the fact of personal existence. A woman who professed no religious convictions was asked this question: “How do you account for the fact that your heart continues to beat day and night without any conscious effort on your part?” Blandly she replied, “Don’t you think that is purely mechanical?”
Of course it is mechanical; so is the whole human body. So is an automobile piston. So is the whole auto engine. But the engine doesn’t run without some life and purpose to supply it with fuel, keep it in repair, control and direct its power output. Neither does a heart or a whole human body. Don’t take life for blind granted! Recognize it and be grateful for it! Should human beings be less appreciative of it than are the birds that warble their songs in the skies?
Our founding fathers could, and did, gather in thanksgiving after a season of suffering on a new and unfriendly shore that took the life of a staggering number of their little colony in one cruel winter. That was part of their rugged strength. Surely life is no less dear to us! Living in almost perpetual want and danger, they none-the-less appreciated the sustaining, life-giving power of God, and the simple gifts for which they could not refrain from giving thanks!
3) There is another consideration for which we should be extremely grateful. Those Pilgrim fathers came to these shores to escape tyranny and find freedom. Freedom was so all-important to them that it was worth the risk, and the spending, of life. We citizens of this land would not deserve our heritage if we failed of gratitude for the preservation of our freedom. The founding fathers found, and preserved, it only with great effort and vigilance. It must be so with us also.
Not so long ago, mighty enemies threatened our democratic way of life from the outside. The threat to freedom within our borders is as great as ever. It is a cause for alarm to every thoughtful American when there appear segments of life that do not have the wish, or power, to control themselves. Whenever individuals, or groups in our nation, try to take undue advantage of others, it is time for vigilant, freedom-loving citizens to step in, through their government, and see that protection is provided for those suffering from injustice. Let us give thanks for freedom, and resolve to stay the hand of tyranny wherever it appears or threatens.
4) There is more to be thankful for in the international situation than appears at the surface. Is it not better to live in a day when people generally know that serious problems exist and face them resolutely, than to exist in a day when problems grow without people even being aware of them? Better than the cry of “Peace, peace” to calm the masses is the recognition of the dangers of the day and the resolute effort to meet and divert them.
5) The chief reason you and I have for giving thanks is the continued assurance of God as seen in Christ. Every time we feel this assurance anew it makes the difference between darkness and light. The eager young people giving their vigor and offering the service of their lives in the mission of Christ through his churches at home and abroad are a testimony anew to the redeeming power of Christ not alone for individuals but for all peoples. The love of Christ has been the one benign force in this world that has made bearable the harshness and cruelty of the world’s evil; and it holds out the one promise of greater things yet to come!
If the disasters and evils of the world fill our eyes, let us avert them long enough to see these things for which we may be truly thankful - Food; life; freedom; hope; and the love of God in Christ. They are gifts of God Almighty.
“O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good; for his loving kindness endureth forever.”
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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, November 24, 1946.