Thanksgivings great and small.
Ordinary Sunday 8: 2nd March, 2003
Fr John Davis, Vicar of St Peter's, Eastern Hill
From the psalm set for today:
My soul give thanks to the Lord,
all my being bless his holy name.
My soul give thanks to the Lord
And never forget all his blessings. (Ps 103: 1-2)
Yesterday morning there was a cool wind and a bit of rolling thunder along with the rain showers. Suddenly we have the first taste of autumn – right on schedule. The 'Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness' is definitely upon us. The ground continues gratefully to soak in this steady rain. But meanwhile, the church was being prepared for our thanksgivings today. That bale of good hay was carefully carried down the aisle, not dropping too much. Tomorrow that will go to mulch the front garden of the vicarage. The fruits and the plump vegetables are a sign of all that is so good to eat that grows so readily in this climate. And there is also a space for the offerings that we all can make – practical things that will go towards our emergency food cupboard or that will be shared at breakfast each day by those who need it. So under the pulpit there is a place to receive these further gifts that have come, and will come today. And all was prepared.
So now we have just a brief time to pause and to give thanks. A time just before Lent, not to fast but to celebrate God's good gifts and God's intentions for the well being of this world. A time to consider how fortunate we generally are, and to remember those who are not. A time to repeat that opening to psalm 103. A time too, to pray for the peace of this world at this time of great tension, and a time to pray for the sharing of all those resources that are readily available, more carefully. So we do have much to consider.
Today the Children's Church families have brought forward their own gifts of food and of prayers for those in our own land still suffering from the effects of the drought. As well, they offered the new banner – a simple blue banner with a large white dove and the word 'peace'. It is the prayer of all of us that these children will live and grow in a world that is a world of peace and plenty.
How can we give thanks to God in a way that is meaningful for us? Harvest thanksgiving, even for people very disassociated from the land, still remains something that we can understand. But the steady supply we have available in our supermarket is very different to the ups and downs of the variable seasons in the real world of production. We just notice a change in price or quality, but generally we still can get what we need. And for that we should be profoundly thankful. This particular harvest though has for many in our inland areas been virtually non-existent. That was the case for the people of the parish of Lake Cargelligo in the Riverina. The $2,800 we sent then as a gift after our Christmas carol service in December was for them the harvest. They got nothing else. But now at least they have had good rain, and the preparations for the season that is to come are well under way. So there can be thanks for that.
Thanksgiving is both for gifts received and gifts anticipated. This can be so both for the material and the spiritual. Thanksgiving can be offered more in hope than in experience.
A country, a group of people, a family or an individual can face a most severe loss or burden. There can be observed patterns of great hardship or pain. Somewhere in there for the Christian is the sharing of that experience in the experience and the presence of the One who faced the cross and death, but who also offers the great hope and fulfilment of the Easter events that we are about to prepare for, once again, as the yearly cycle turns. That for us is a key difference.
The central theological issue is one of context. Are these bountiful blessings and these great hardships, together to be faced and experienced with God? In all these things, good and bad, hard and easy, is God to be there – with us, beside us, behind us, in front of us, as that great Trinity hymn puts it? That can still sound very formal and distant. To be genuinely connected with God in our living, there needs to be more than the distantly formal that might result just in careful or superficial 'appropriate' behaviour.
A genuine connection that is characterised by thanksgiving comes from a much more intimate glimpse and experience of God. Thanksgiving flows out of the grateful experience of having received, of having been given much. This is to do with the exploring of what is actually meant by such gifts as grace and forgiveness. This is rather more then, than an appreciation of the gifts of a lot of tasty fruits of the earth.
We can look at something like a fine tomato and reflect on the remarkableness of its growth from a small seed, on how just with the combination of soil and water and sun this thing grows – and it is good. We can as well look on something like forgiveness – let us say the forgiveness of which we speak every time we say the Lord's Prayer. That too can start small and in the right context grow and be very good to taste. And it can mean rather more to the shaping and the experience of a life than any number of pleasant vegetables. We do give thanks for good food and for all the other good things of the earth and today is a day that we do it. But even more so, we give thanks for the possibility of relationship with the God whose love and care for all the creatures of this earth has placed us all in relationship with each other. We are indeed encouraged to give thanks, either for what we have already received or for that which we might yet receive. This might be physical, material or spiritual. And that pattern and approach of thanksgiving is potentially life changing.
The whole gospel, all the events of the life, the teachings, the ministry, the whole story of the death and the resurrection of the Lord, is an act of outreaching love on the part of our God.
The story of the creation, of the origins and the forming of all that is, is presented as an act of love and care on the part of our God.
The story of the wandering people of God through the generations is presented and the steady loving and caring of a God who was constant and dependable, even though again and again these people went completely off the rails.
In all this, God is reaching out to us. We are freely offered the sharing of a life that is so much bigger than the sheer animal or vegetable routine of starting, growing, maturing and ending. This is indeed a matter of great thanksgiving.
The Christian answer to the religious search focuses on Jesus of Nazareth; Jesus the Christ, Jesus the Risen One. The Christian answer to the religious search centres on personal relationship with this Jesus: a thankful personal sense of knowing and of being known, an individual and corporate experience of love and nurture. We experience this in worship and in service, in prayer and in action. Mystics and saints and people of great devotional depth or gift may experience many times over what others of us may only fleetingly glimpse. But a glimpse may yet be enough to sustain a lifetime of grateful hope.
A grateful, thankful heart expresses gratitude and thanks in words and in actions. Whole collections of such people together can make a difference. Every now and then that sort of fine chemistry gets to work. It can happen in a relationship. It can happen in a family. It can happen in a parish. It is our prayer at this time that it can even happen in a world.
But we started out small and simple.
My soul give thanks to the Lord,
all my being bless his holy name.
My soul give thanks to the Lord
And never forget all his blessings. (Ps 103: 1-2)
The Lord be with you.
|
Views is a
publication of
St Peter's Eastern Hill, Melbourne Australia.
|
