Thanksgiving Eve
November 26, 2014
Cowenton UMC
Deuteronomy 8:7-18; 2 Corinthians 9:6-15; Luke
17:11-19
A movie came out in 2000 called “Pay
It Forward.” It’s a very sweet movie
about a 12 year old boy, Trevor, and his social studies class project to change
the world. Trevor comes up with the idea
of “pay it forward,” that when someone does you a favor, rather than “pay it
back” to that person, you “pay it forward” and do a favor for someone
else. His project is surprisingly
successful and not only makes a difference in his community, but ends up
spreading to the rest of the country.
Our Scripture readings tonight are in a similar vein. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians that “you will
be made rich in every way so that you can be generous in every way.”[1] What we receive from God, we pass on to help
others. We pay God back by paying it
forward and sharing the gifts he has given us with our brothers and
sisters. This idea goes back to Genesis,
when God tells Abram, “I will bless you so that you will be a blessing.”[2] We are blessed to be a blessing. God gives us blessings so that we can be
generous with them and share our blessings.
One
consequence of our generosity is how it affects us. As our Old Testament reading tonight reminds
us, “when everything you have is thriving and going well, don’t become arrogant
and forget the Lord your God.”[3] Thanksgiving time is about being grateful for
what we have, for what God has given us.
When we have a posture of thankfulness, we tend to be more likely to be
generous with our possessions. And when
we think about others, then we focus less on ourselves and aren’t as full of
ourselves. When we focus less on
ourselves and more on paying forward all of God’s blessings, then we are less
likely to forget God, or to delude ourselves into thinking that we don’t need
God. As Paul writes to the Corinthians,
“generosity produces thanksgiving.”[4] If you’re feeling a little Scrooge-like this
season, perhaps it’s time to volunteer at Streets of Hope or to donate to the
food pantry or make an extra offering to the church. We are blessed to be a blessing, and when we
bless others, we in turn are grateful and gracious with our time, talent, and
treasure.
Another
outcome of being generous is that it means everyone will have enough. Look at verse 8 of that 2 Corinthians
passage: “God has the power to provide you with every blessing in
abundance. That way, you will have
everything you need always and in everything to provide more than enough for
every kind of good work.” If we share
what we have, we will have more than enough for every kind of good work. That means getting the bills paid at the
church, that means getting together the Thanksgiving and Christmas baskets,
that means making an impact for Christ in our community. When we use what God has blessed us with to
bless others, when we pay it forward, then we will meet some of the physical
and spiritual needs in our community.
Our task is to figure out how to better use what God has given us so far
– how to use our building to impact our community for Christ, how to use what we do have to bless others. We may be a small church. Our average age may be 75. But that doesn’t mean God has given us
nothing. God has blessed us in many ways
and has the power to bless us more. It’s
our job to use wisely what he has given us, and not to use it for ourselves but
to reach out to the community. We are
not here in church for ourselves. We’re
here for others. You’ve probably heard
the quote from Abigail Van Buren, otherwise known as Dear Abby, “The church is
a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.” We are not here to be a museum. There are no fossils here; we don’t belong in
a museum. We don’t put our gifts on
display for others to look at. We use
them, like at a hospital, in the service of God, to bring others into
relationship with him. This isn’t about
us. It’s about God and what God is
calling us to do with the gifts he’s given us.
Sharing the gifts God has given us
is not just the right thing to do, but it
can also bring about healing. I say
it “can,” not that it necessarily does, because it depends on your attitude. If your attitude is grudging, and you only
share because you’re supposed to, that may help the person you share with, but
it’s only going to harden your heart. It’s
like the child whose parent makes them share their toy. It’s not done willingly or cheerfully. I read a parenting article a while back about
the pros and cons of teaching children to share.[5] It points out that when someone asks for
something that is yours, “no” is a perfectly legitimate response. Granted, it’s seen as a selfish response, but
it’s okay to say no when someone asks you for something. Second, from the other side, from the person
asking, if you always get the toy you ask for, the child learns that they
should always get whatever it is they ask for, and that’s not how the world
works. We don’t get everything we ask
for. If Isabel asks for another child’s
toy, I tell her she needs to wait until that child is done playing with
it. I’m not going to take what belongs
to someone to give her. And if someone
asks for her toy, as I’m sure A.J. will soon enough, he’s going to have to wait
until she’s done playing with it. Giving
that is done grudgingly or forcefully does not create a spirit of thanksgiving,
or gratitude, and it diminishes both the giver and the recipient. Instead, as Paul writes in this 2 Corinthians
passage, “Everyone should give whatever they have decided in their heart. They shouldn’t give with hesitation or
because of pressure. God loves a
cheerful giver.”[6] If you don’t want to give to the church, then
don’t. If you don’t want to support our
ministries, don’t. But if you do, if you
have the faith to step out and you want to share your blessings to bless
others, then, as Jesus told the one leper who returned to thank him, “Your
faith has healed you.”[7]
Giving is healing. It lessens our attachment to our stuff. It shows just how little we really need to
live. It makes us grateful for what we
do have, however much or little that is.
And God will bless it, when we use what we have to help others, when we
use our blessings to bless others, that’s why God gave us our gifts in the
first place. It wasn’t to hoard and
shove into a storage room or bury in the ground. It was to use to further his kingdom, which
is the business of feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming
the stranger, clothing the naked, taking care of the sick, and visiting the
prisoner. That’s what we are to use our
gifts to do. We were given them to give
them away. And “such generosity produces
thanksgiving.” So… happy
Thanksgiving! Amen.
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