November 18, 2001
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.
George Washington proclaimed a National Day of Thanksgiving in 1789, although some were opposed to it. There was discord among the colonies, many feeling that the hardships of a few Pilgrims did not warrant a national holiday. And later, President Thomas Jefferson scoffed at the idea of having a day of thanksgiving.
But it was Sarah Hale, a magazine editor of the Boston Ladies’ Magazine who championed Thanksgiving for 40 years. Finally her obsession became a reality when in 1863, President Lincohn proclaimed the fourth Thursday in November as a national day of Thanksgiving.
Since then families have gathered from near and far to come home to Norman Rockwell’s picture of a white-haired grandmother in her white starched apron setting this huge baked turkey on the table in front of the proud grandfather who looks longingly at the bird he is about to carve. What a blessing to have turkey and sticky rice and all be caught up in good humor and animated conversations!
Sometimes getting everyone home for the holidays can become a challenge for us. There’s a story about an elderly man in Phoenix who calls his son in New York and says, “I hate to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing; forty-five years of misery is enough.”
“Pop, what are you talking about?’ the son screams.
“We can’t stand the sight of each other any longer,” the old man says. “We are sick of talking about this, so you call your sister in Chicago and tell her,” and he hangs up.
Frantic, the son calls his sister, who explodes on the phone. “Like heck they’re getting divorced,” she shouts, “I’ll take care of this.”
She calls Phoenix immediately, and screams at the old man, “You are NOT getting divorced. Don’t do a single thing until I get there. I’m calling my brother back, and we’ll both be there tomorrow. Until then, don’t do a thing, DO YOU HEAR ME?” and hangs up.
The old man hangs up his phone and turns to his wife.
“Okay,” he says, They’re coming for Thanksgiving and paying their own fares…Now what can we tell them for Christmas?”
We bless each other by our presence. We might even engage in antics like these to bring loved ones home for Thanksgiving. As you can see, we have a growing attendance in worship every Sunday when we can bless each other with our presence. We are blessed with people like you who want to come to church to thank God for his blessings. But in many churches in Europe, this is not so.
Filled with Dead People
If you have traveled in Europe, your tour would not be complete unless you visited Rome. Along the stops to see St. Peter’s Basilica and St. Paul’s Outside-the-Walls Church, you can visit the tombs of the most famous apostles, Peter and Paul. But I heard that if you want to see their heads, you have to go to St. John’s Cathedral where the heads are high above resting on marble columns. You see, the cathedrals of Europe are home to scores of people—dead people.
In Canterbury Cathedral in England, where for more than nine centuries pilgrims have made their way to pray and visit, there is only a cluster of people in worship. Many are tourists with video cameras. In this cavernous cathedral, most of the seats are empty.
What’s going on? The Psalmist said, “Come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.” (95:1). Is there no one singing anymore? Is there no praise left among the people of God? Are those who love God so few in numbers that the voices of those who do praise God, echo alone in the cavernous chambers of an empty house of worship?
Meaning of Thanksgiving Today
Social critics sense that modern life in Europe has become so easy and comfortable that people can avoid facing the big issues of life and death. Michael Chandler, a priest at Canterbury says, “You can get to age 50 or higher without ever facing the death of somebody close to you.” Without many opportunities to struggle with the meaning of life, we rarely respond to God with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.
If these situations exist in Europe, are we Americans doing any better?
Back in Puritan New England, Thanksgiving was the main holiday of the year, a day of churchgoing and prayer. In fact, thanksgiving was often considered more religious than Christmas because of the many pagan customs that they thought have polluted the birth of Christ like Christmas trees and Santa Claus.
The celebration of Thanksgiving in earlier days was more than feasting and football. It was more than a quick recitation of grace before the turkey is carved. And it seems that fewer and fewer people are interested in spending any part of the day in prayerful expression of gratitude for the blessings of life. More and more it seems that a sense of gratitude is fading from both our church and our culture.
Unlike the Psalmist said, we stop coming into God’s presence with thanksgiving and we don’t know how to make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise.
Why We Come to Church
If we don’t come to church to give praise and thanksgiving to God then why do we come? It seems that people come to church today with a different set of expectations. Instead of seeking out opportunities to express gratitude, many come looking for comfort, inspiration, stimulation and community. Now these are not bad things in and of themselves, but they line up more with self-improvement than with thanksgiving.
On the whole, we have developed a blindness to our blessings. We’ve come to see the good things of life as entitlements, rather than gifts. So we’ve lost the sense of wonder and surprise that gives birth to true thankfulness. If we can see that we are being given a gift, we feel joy. And gratitude is the experience that flows from this joy.
Unfortunately, like so many Europeans who have come to expect life of ease and comfort, we’ve lost the sense that each day on this earth is a wonderful gift.
Given the prosperity of modern life, even during these economically harder times, many of us have the sense that wealth and well being are a right, guaranteed just by living in America. This starts with young children who are often showered with presents by their parents, so that the gifts they receive at Christmas and on birthdays are not recognized as gifts but are viewed instead as their due.
And of course, children aren’t the only ones caught in this trap. Working teenagers and young adults increasingly use their earnings to load up on the latest electronic gadgets and games, computers, clothing, and cars in a race toward a level of prosperity that previous generations took years and years to achieve.
Living at home for longer periods, often free of any responsibilities for room and board, they end up with an illusory sense of material well being, a phenomenon social scientists call “premature affluence.” Once out in the world on their own, they are more likely to feel disappointed than gratitude as they adjust to a lower standard of living.
We’ve come a long way since the Mayflower Pilgrims felt gratitude for the simple gift of surviving that first harsh winter.
Forty Years of Blessings
When I heard from Roger Tom that the OYYAs, who were the older youth young adults 40 years ago, wanted to celebrate their momentous anniversary, I was amazed on how dedicated and committed these people have become. They probably didn’t start off 40 years ago saying to themselves, “Let’s be dedicated and committed. Let’s stay together for 40 years.” They could have ended up like many other church groups that have dissolved and faded from our memories.
For their faithfulness and obedience to God’s plan, God blessed the OYYAs. God blessed them as God has blessed all of us here. And what do people of God do when we are grateful and thankful? The Psalmist says,
“O come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to
the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence
with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to
him with songs of praise!
For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
Following my message, the OYYAs will give you a gift—a surprise. They will sing an anthem, “How Shall I Sing to God?” For 40 years, they have discovered that against distress and hardships, disappointments and pain, challenges and set-backs, they can still find in their hearts gratefulness to God. How shall they sing to God? The only way is to sing praises of thanksgiving. The only way is to make a joyful noise that God has been present in their lives. The only way is to affirm that it is ultimately God who is the center of their lives and all of life.
Thanksgiving Sunday
On this Thanksgiving Sunday, let us give thanks for the presence of God in everyday life, in the moments that we discover healing and wholeness, in the long nights when we thought that we were alone to only find out that God has been there by our sides all along.
Remember the 10th leper of the Gospels. When this leper returned to Jesus to thank him for his healing, Jesus makes it clear that this thankful leper is the one with true faith, for he sends him away with the words, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well (Luke 17:11-19).
“Has made you well!” That’s the point! Without thanksgiving and praise, we’re dead people like so many corpses in a cathedral. It is praise to God that gives us life and health.
Have you ever thought of the word, “rejoice?” There’s no such word as “joice.” We do not “joice” and then later “re-joice.” We only rejoice! The point is that God has already given us surprises and gifts that we never expected or deserved. We go around thinking that we are entitled to more when we have already been blessed. We have already received. Our only response is to “rejoice” for the Psalmist says,
Let us come into his presence
with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to
him with songs of praise!
We are not like the sightseers or tourists that barely fill the great cathedrals of Europe lining up to see corpses of dead apostles. No, we are dedicated, faithful and living pilgrims lining up every Sunday extending out into the street to come into this sanctuary to sing songs of praise and thanksgiving.
We are not just coming home to enjoy the roasted turkey, homemade pumpkin pie, and rooting for our favorite college football teams. No, we are seeking each other’s presence and wanting to hear how God has bless each one of us, how God has healed each one of us, how God has guided each one of us so that we may give prayers of thanksgiving.
For God is good!
The OYYAs after 40 years are doing what the Psalmist said. When we are thankful to God, we make a joyful noise to God with songs of praise.
Listen to what they will be singing,
How shall I sing to God when life is filled with gladness,
loving and birth, wonder and worth?
I’ll sing from the heart, thankfully receiving,
joyful in believing. This is my song, I’ll sing it, sing it with love.
And they wrote a new verse that sings,
How shall we sing to God for forty years of blessings?
Amazing grace, we give you praise
for families and friends, sharing life story,
giving God the glory
This is our song. We’ll sing it, sing it with love.
May this Thanksgiving holiday filled you with a grateful heart for God has blessed you graciously and the only response you can make is to sing out songs of praise! Amen.
Let us pray.
O Mighty and Wonderful God of the world, we praise you with voices of thanksgiving for we have much to be grateful for. We rejoice with hearts filled with joy for all that we have received. Thank you, Lord who made heaven and earth. We pray with songs and love in our lives. Amen.