November 23, 2008
Thanksgiving Sunday
Rev. Wendy Miller Olapade
Text:  Ephesians 1:15-23

THANKS FOR NOTHING

It's Thanksgiving week.  Time to count your blessings and maybe overeat a bit.  Time to gather together and enjoy those beloved traditions native to your family’s heritage… maybe your favorite part is to fall back onto the couch and watch some football; maybe your family plays football like on those made for Lifetime TV movies; maybe your favorite thing is the meal itself; maybe it’s the funny and sometimes not-so-funny family moments around the turkey laden table; maybe it’s the leftovers – who doesn’t love a turkey terrific sandwich? ).  Maybe your favorite part is just giving thanks.

As a kid, I was never very happy with the inevitable brussel sprouts and succotash my Pennsylvania Dutch grandmother served, despite the fact that she grew the Lima Beans herself and froze the young Pennsylvania Silver Queen corn every summer.  I must admit that now I like fresh succotash—but I will never understand brussel sprouts.  I did love the Walnut Cake made every year in honor of my Uncle Herb’s Birthday, nobody could make icing quite like my Mommom--and I remember fondly the eating competitions between my 20 something year old uncles.   There was also the beloved annual tradition of my grandmother’s failed turkey, acquired fresh from the farm the day before in a road trip by my Poppop.  I mean it when I say annual.  Everyone was either at the table or close to sitting down at the table and she was in the kitchen yelling at my innocent grandfather, “Ruuuuuudyyyyyy. The turkey’s not cooked (or overcooked, or burnt on the outside and raw on the inside, one year it fell onto the floor on its way out of the oven)”.  I couldn’t imagine what was so hard about cooking a turkey.  Especially since it always tasted so good to me…  

Oh, the awe I carried around with me well into my adult years, over the challenges and responsibilities wrapped up in cooking a turkey.   But these days, after having had your basic “non experience” when I finally brined and roasted my own turkey for the first time a couple of years ago…I am thinking the annual screaming scene may have just been my Mommom’s ploy to insure she would get the compliments she desperately needed (but that is another sermon).

Anyway, the traditions of our holidays are great and yet gathering family together can set the stage for a bit of stress.  Not every family gathering is experienced as a blessing - And certainly this year – with all the anxiety and fear that we carry around about our economy, our personal investments, our church’s financial future and the future of our country, that stress can be even greater.  So I thought I would start off today with a couple of ideas proven to change the course of your Thanksgiving should you find the need to deflect a little dysfunction or need a bit of creativity to lighten the load.

1. When everyone goes around to say what they are thankful for, say, “I’m thankful I didn’t get caught” and refuse to say anything more.

2. Better yet, prepare a written, several-page-long speech, rolled up into a scroll and when asked about your thankfulness, pull it out and insist that no one leave or eat until you have finished.

3. During the middle of the meal, turn to Mom and say, “See, Mom, I told you they wouldn’t notice that the turkey was four months past its expiration date.  You were worried for nothing.”

Yep, It's Thanksgiving.  Time to count your blessings.  It is always good to be reminded of our blessings.  Now I’m pretty sure you have heard this perspective providing data before, but it surely bears repeating, even with the anxiety we are carrying about the conditions on Wall Street.

• If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep ... you are richer than 75 percent of this world of ours.
• If you have money in the bank, cash in your wallet and spare change in a dish someplace ... you are among the top 8 percent of the Earth's wealthiest people.
• If you woke up this morning with more health than illness ... you are more fortunate than the million who will not survive this week.
• If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture or the pangs of starvation ... you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.
• If you can attend this worship service, or any other religion-related meeting, without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death ... you are fortunate.  Billions of people in the world cannot.

It's not really that hard for us to count our blessings, is it?  Most of us could quickly and easily jot down a rather lengthy list, including thanks for family, for friends, for food, for clothing, for cars, for a home, for a job, for health, for freedom, for opportunity, and so on.

But before we offer up our symbols of gratitude today and throughout the week - I want us to think about this.  If we follow this logic, then it would mean that if we lack these things, we could not give thanks; we could count our blessings only if we have stuff to count.

But, the apostle Paul shows up in our lectionary this week, right here, smack dab in the midst of a recession the likes of which most of us have never seen, right here in the midst of this season designed to elicit thoughtful thanksgiving for all of our blessings – and encourages us to give “thanks for nothing”. 

In fact, Paul offers us the example of his own thanksgiving for nothing at all - not one physical, material, tangible thing.   Instead, Paul gives constant thanks for things which are not things:

Faith in the Lord Jesus,
love toward the saints,
a spirit of wisdom and revelation,
the riches of God's glorious inheritance
and the immeasurable greatness of God's power (Ephesians 1:15-19).

None of these blessings can be seen, touched, purchased or possessed,  and yet, they are the very greatest gifts we could ever receive.  To give thanks for the non-tangibles, is exactly what Scripture calls giving praise.   

And Praise, dear ones… is the recognition that it is all about God and not about me.

There is a classic praise testimony, popular in the contemporary Black Church, that goes something like this: "Thank you, God, for waking me up this morning; for putting shoes on my feet, clothes on my back and food on my table.  Thank you, God, for health and strength and the activities of my limbs.  Thank you that I awoke this morning clothed in my right mind."

In Antoine de Saint-Exupery's classic book The Little Prince, the fox character is saying goodbye to the little prince, and as he leaves he says, "And now here's my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

"What is essential is invisible to the eye," the little prince repeats, so that he will be sure to remember.  The fox's insight is right in line with what the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "We look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:18).

It is the unseen that is eternal.  What is essential is invisible to the eye.  Helen Keller wrote that “The best and most beautiful things cannot be seen or even touched; they must be felt with the heart.”

This approach to Thanksgiving runs counter to conventional wisdom, and it refuses to fall into step with the swarm of shoppers that typically surge into shopping malls this Friday to begin the Christmas buying binge.  "Black Friday," they call it - the biggest shopping day of the year.  It's not black because it's bad, according to merchants, but because they count on it to turn the red in their books to black.  Maybe they should call it "Green Friday," the color of money.

But ponder the perspective of the apostle Paul.  He doesn't give thanks for turkey or succotash, jewelry, Xboxs or I-phones.  He refuses to focus his gaze on the things that can be seen, because he knows that these things are temporary. 

Instead, he looks only at the essential and eternal things that are invisible to the eye.  When he counts his blessings, he lists absolutely nothing you can buy, and nothing you can own - only faith, love, a spirit of wisdom, a spirit of revelation, God's inheritance, God's power.

In the Greek, verses 15 through 23 (with a brief gasp for breath after verse 21) tumble all together into one long, jumbled, exhausting and somewhat convoluted rush of words.  The effect, however, heighten the excitement and expectation that Paul wanted to convey to the Ephesians about the gift of Jesus himself.  If the structure of Paul's prayer overwhelms the reader, its content overwhelms the believer with the blessings available through Christ.

Paul first gives thanks for faith and love. "I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints," he reports, "and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you" (1:15).  Paul knows that the sign of true success is not your stuff.  Instead, success is being a person who trusts God completely, and who loves neighbors consistently. 

Paul also gives thanks for a spirit of wisdom and revelation (v. 17), which he prays will come out of our ever-expanding relationship with God through Christ.  This spirit of wisdom opens our eyes to what God is planning for us, and it helps us to see that there is nothing richer or more valuable than a life in communion with God, both today and in the life to come. 

The final invisible item that Paul wants us to appreciate is the immeasurable greatness of God's power, a power that has raised Jesus and seated him in the heavenly places.  This power has put Jesus in a place of ultimate authority, far above every earthly ruler, not only in this age but also in the age to come--In short, Jesus rules.

But the best part is this: God's amazing power is at work in us, and this power is experienced as we take part in the life of the body of Christ, that body of believers known as the church (vv. 19, 23).  It doesn't really matter how much wealth or power or prestige or personnel or inventory or square footage we control in this world, because our greatest influence comes through our work as disciples of Jesus.

These then are the blessings:

• as followers of Jesus we experience the divine life and power of God that fills all things; that power energizes us and gives us spiritual strength;.
• as followers of Jesus we are able to endure incredible hardship and overcome enormous personal obstacles—including recessions and losses to our 401Ks and the fears about the future of our beloved community.
• as followers of Jesus we are able to share the love and grace and hope and peace and forgiveness of our Lord; what can be more valuable than these things?
• as followers of Jesus we are able to step out in mission and share the gospel in both our words and our deeds—and in so doing, we can change the world.
• as followers of Jesus we are able to be a blessing.

None of these is a "thing," in a material sense.  Whether we are rich or poor, homeowners or homeless, working or unemployed, we have access to an amazing set of essential, eternal, unseen treasures.

And, as Christians, then we can honestly say to God: Thanks for everything.

Reference:  Homiletics Magazine, Fall 2002