"CHOOSE THANKS"
a message by Rev. Dr. Bruce Havens
Coral Isles Church, U.C.C.
November 24, 2024
Psalm 146 NRSV
1 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul!
2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God all my life long.
3 Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help.
4 When their breath departs, they return to the earth; on that very day their plans perish.
5 Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God, 6 who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith forever; 7 who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets the prisoners free;
8 the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous.
9 The Lord watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
10 The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord!
What are your favorite choices for Thanksgiving? Turkey, of course! Or maybe you are a nontraditionalist? Maybe spaghetti carbonara? I like my wife’s garlic mashed potatoes. Can’t beat a good gravy, right? And of course, pecan pie. Those are the things I would choose. Oops, I’ve got us all thinking about lunch and now you’ve got to listen to me for a few minutes. Well, at least pretend to, to be polite, right?
Do you remember that table game, “who would you choose…” if you could have 3 people for dinner? The idea was you could pick anyone from history, anyone who was famous or maybe even a long deceased relative? Not to be ugly, but I know some people would like to play “who would you like to choose to uninvite for Thanksgiving dinner?” There was Uncle Bob who would stick his finger in the mashed potatoes before they got to the table, burp loudly during dinner, then snore all during the football game? Or your sister-in-law Gladys who always wanted to tell you how you are cooking everything wrong and then criticized the kids at the table, and otherwise stayed way too long? When it comes to Thanksgiving, the real question is what do we choose? Do we choose to be thankful or do we choose not to be?
Today’s Scripture is a great Thanksgiving scripture because it really gives us reasons for giving thanks, doesn’t it? I always believe starting any day, any meal, any worship with words or songs of praise puts you in a thanksgiving mood. The Psalm urges us to:
1 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul! 2 I will praise the Lord
as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God all my life long.
The other part of this Psalm that I love for Thanksgiving is it gives me all kinds of reasons for praising God, and ones we might not immediately think of as we celebrate this holiday. The writer reminds us our God:
keeps faith forever, executes justice for the oppressed. Feeds the hungry, frees the prisoner, gives sight to the blind. Our God lifts up the fallen, protects the stranger [ that is “the foreigner], sides with orphans and widows, [ i.e. those economically challenged or excluded from economic justice ], and promises us that God is always in charge, God is always the one who reigns.
For me, these take me beyond mere selfish reasons for thanksgiving. This reminder lifts my eyes from the size of my turkey to God’s vision of the ultimate thanksgiving: a time when all people, and all creation, will have reason to give thanks. not just those of us with enough to put a big feast on the table. I also like that it challenges me to grow spiritually. Too often I think my reasons for having faith are about what God can do for me. Sometimes my vision gets limited to whether everything is going my way or not. I am always thankful when everything is going my way. Am I thankful for things that go God’s way? What about God’s vision? See, that’s what I think faith is all about. It’s less about getting what I want out of God but continually asking, what does God want me to become? Because I know I am always falling short of that. So, these values that the writer of the Psalm lists remind me of God’s purposes. Then it comes down to what I choose to do with my life. Will my life look like a life of thanksgiving and praise to God? It will if I choose to do and be about the things that God is about.
So, this Thanksgiving I want to share a prayer with you about choosing to be thankful. The prayer is written by Diana Butler Bass, a preacher, writer, and theologian. Feel free to close your eyes in prayer as I pray this. [“Prayer for Thanksgiving,” Day1.org, 2016]
“God, there are days we do not feel grateful. When we are anxious or angry. When we feel alone. When we do not understand what is happening in the world or with our neighbors. When the news is bleak, confusing. God, we struggle to feel grateful.
But this Thanksgiving, we choose gratitude.
We choose to accept life as a gift from you, and as a gift from the unfolding work of all creation.
We choose to be grateful for the earth from which our food comes; for the water that gives life; and for the air we all breathe.
We choose to thank our ancestors, those who came before us, grateful for their stories and struggles, and we receive their wisdom as a continuing gift for today.
We choose to see our families and friends with new eyes, appreciating and accepting them for who they are. We are thankful for our homes, whether humble or grand.
We will be grateful for our neighbors, no matter how they voted, whatever our differences, or how much we feel hurt or misunderstood by them.
We choose to see the whole planet as our shared commons, the stage of the future of humankind and creation.
God, this Thanksgiving, we do not give thanks. We choose it. We will make this choice of thanks with courageous hearts, knowing that it is humbling to say ‘thank you.’ We choose to see your sacred generosity, aware that we live in an infinite circle of gratitude. That we all are guests at a hospitable table around which gifts are passed and received. We will not let anything opposed to love take over this table. Instead, we choose grace, free and unmerited love, the giftedness of life everywhere. In this choosing, and in the making, we will pass gratitude onto the world.
Thus, with you, and with all those we gather with we pledge to choose thanks. We ask you to strengthen us in this resolve. Here, now, and into the future. Around our family table. Around the table of our nation. Around the table of the earth. We choose thanks. Amen.
I can only repeat the final words of the Psalm as a last reason for choosing thanks:
“The Lord will reign forever, our God, O people, for all generations. Praise the Lord!”
God reigns. Surely, God will reign all around the world, now and forever. So let us choose thanks. AMEN.
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