"Give thanks in all circumstances." Easier said than done,
eh? With all that can and does go wrong with our lives, "Give
thanks in ALL circumstances?"
Corrie Ten Boom in The Hiding Place relates an incident
which taught her something along that line. She and her sister,
Betsy, had just been transferred to the worst German prison camp
they had seen yet, Ravensbruck. Upon entering the barracks, they
found them extremely overcrowded and flea-infested. Their
scripture reading that morning happened to be the one we read a
moment ago - rejoice always, pray constantly, and give thanks in
all circumstances. Betsy told Corrie to stop and thank the Lord
for every detail of their new living quarters. Corrie at first
flatly refused to give thanks for the fleas, but Betsy persisted.
She finally succumbed. During the months spent at that camp,
they were surprised to find how openly they could hold Bible
study and prayer meetings without guard interference. It was
several months later when they learned that the guards would not
enter the barracks because of the fleas.(1) Hmm.
This past Monday evening, distressed at having missed my
Sunday evening "fix" of good television writing because The West
Wing had been pre-empted the night before, I turned to the Bravo
cable channel that was running its weekly West Wing marathon.
One of the episodes was the one that was broadcast shortly after
the September 11th attacks entitled "Isaac and Ishmael" and was
an attempt to put the horror in some perspective. The scenario
was a lock-down of the White House because of a perceived
terrorist threat which happened to detain some high school
students who were on a tour at that moment. Several of the White
House senior staff, also stuck in the lock-down, were talking
with the kids.
One brief vignette jumped out at me in conjunction with this
morning's theme. White House Communications Director Toby
Ziegler was talking about Islamic extremists and their
relationship to the teachings of Islam and how seductive the
movement toward evil could be. Toby is Jewish and he was
recalling an incident from his childhood. "A friend of my dad's
was at one of the [concentration] camps. He used to come over to
the house, and he and my dad used to shoot some pinochle. He
said he once saw a guy at the camp kneeling and praying. He
said, 'What are you doing?' The guy said he was thanking God.
And my dad's friend said, 'What could you possibly be thanking
God for?' He said, 'I'm thanking God for not making me like
them.'"(2)
Giving thanks in a concentration camp...for anything?
Actually, the most intense moments of thankfulness seem to be
found, not when the sailing is smooth, but when the waves are
rough and threaten to drag us under. Think of the Pilgrims that
first Thanksgiving. Half their number dead, a world away from
hearth and home, no guarantee of a better future, but still there
was thanksgiving to God. That same sense of gratitude led
Abraham Lincoln to call for a Thanksgiving Day in the midst of a
disastrous civil war, when the list of casualties seemed to have
no end and the nation struggled for its very survival. Or after
the hurricanes this year, over and over again, statements from
survivors, not lamenting what was lost, but giving thanks for
what was left.
"Give thanks in ALL circumstances, for this is God's will
for you in Christ Jesus." I wonder what the Thessalonians who
first heard these words thought about that. They were probably
Gentile converts to Christianity living in a prosperous port city
astride a major trade route. It was the capital of the province
of Macedonia and thus the seat of Roman administration. It was a
melting pot with a variety of cultural influences and many gods.
And, of course, there was the imperial cult of the Caesars, which
would prove to be socially and commercially dangerous to ignore,
regardless of any other gods you might worship.
The story of Paul's visit to Thessalonica is found in Acts,
chapter 17. It was a short visit - the text says he preached in
the synagogue for three Sabbaths. But he obviously made quite an
impression and had such tremendous success at winning converts to
Christ that the Jews were enraged and raised so much trouble that
Paul had to be smuggled out, in peril of his life, to Beroea.
But in that brief time, a wonderful bond of affection had been
built. Paul called the little congregation "our glory and our
joy."(3)
But some problems had cropped up. The preaching of Christ's
Second Coming had produced an unhealthy situation in which people
had stopped working and had abandoned all ordinary pursuits to
await the Lord with a kind of hysterical expectancy. So Paul
tells them to be quiet and to get on with their work.(4) They were
worried about what was to happen to those who died before Jesus'
return. Paul says don't worry, they will miss none of the
glory.(5) There was the ever-present danger that they would
relapse into immorality - it was hard ignore or escape the
contagion of the heathen world. There were some in that little
fellowship who questioned authority, even hinting that Paul
himself only preached the gospel for his own personal gain(6) and
that he was something of a dictator.(7) As one commentator noted,
"These were the problems with which Paul had to deal; and they
show that human nature has not changed so very much."(8)
"Give thanks in ALL circumstances, for this is God's will
for you in Christ Jesus." No qualifications. ALL CIRCUMSTANCES.
As hard for the Thessalonians to hear as it is for you and me.
But then we think about it, and we find a way. Houston
Hodges is a retired Presbyterian minister who lives in Alabama.
He is a wonderfully down-to-earth gentleman (in the very best
sense of that word) who had hip-replacement surgery a couple of
years ago. Not long after, he posted a note on PresbyNet.
Listen.
"I still go to the lovely warm therapy pool...three days a
week, to prepare for the US Gymnastics Team at the Tokyo
Olympics, or to keep my titanium hip-joint mobile, whichever
comes first. We regulars like the water at a robust 95 degrees,
and complain when it gets down around 90; it is an entirely
salutary experience to immerse oneself in it up to the neck, then
stretch and move and waggle one's appendages. The scenery is
nice, too, since the place is inhabited by a coterie of trim and
athletic young people, mostly of the female persuasion, in their
attractive working garb, which consists of one-piece swim suits.
"There I was this morning, thoroughly enjoying upping my
self-righteousness points, when an attendant wheeled in a young
man about 30, in a full-fledged and formidable contraption
looking more like a light tank than a wheel-chair, with rods and
tubes and braces all over it. He's evidently a quadriplegic,
whose muscular control is limited to his head, though there was a
brace to support his head on his neck. The attendant started
disgarbing him from the layers of February coverings, while
Andie, the mother superior of the therapists, did an assessment
session with him, right at the side of the pool, three feet from
where I was paddling my innertube.
"She was talking with him about measurable objectives for
his next phase in his therapy -- questioning, rephrasing,
prodding, analyzing behaviors. His head remained absolutely
motionless; his voice, which I could not not hear, was labored,
almost mechanical. I tried not to hear some of the things they
were discussing, about suctioning breathing passages and the
mechanics of chewing and swallowing. But I could not not
understand when they talked about having 'normal, ordinary
conversations, without strain.' He had trouble quantifying what
he'd like to achieve; Andie pressed him into fantasy role-playing: 'Just imagine what you'd like to be able to do, and tell
me what I'd see and hear if you did it.'
"They finally worked around to describing what he's going to
work on: 'Three five-minute conversations a day, without strain.'
Three. Five minutes each. Fifteen minutes. A day."
Houston concludes, "I don't have any problems, any problems
at all."(9)
I loved hearing last week about Bob Clark's daily practice
of beginning each morning by writing down five blessings from God
that he had experienced the previous day, and his encouragement
to you to do the same. What a wonderful way to begin the day!
Bringing that kind of perspective to what might lie ahead makes
all the difference in how you meet what comes. Then it is EASY
to "Give thanks in ALL circumstances..."
Once upon a time, in some far away mythical world, there was
a group of people that gathered for a community thanksgiving
service. All the churches in the area got together and planned
the service. Everyone in all the churches was invited. They
would do this every year, and every year it was the same thing.
They would gather and sing hymns that everyone liked and there
would be a sermon that no one would remember, they would take an
offering for some worthy cause and after the service they would
visit with friends and neighbors while they ate cookies and drank
coffee. Year after year the same. They enjoyed it, it was a
chance to get all the churches, and all the people of the
community together. So year after year they would have their
community thanksgiving service.
Then came one unusual year. There was really nothing
unusual about the planning - they planned to have the same kind
of service they had in previous years. The beginning of the
service was the same. The sermon was the same...then after the
sermon they started to sing one of their favorite hymns. They
all sang out, "Count your blessings...name them one by one..."
And that is when everything changed because, suddenly, in the
middle of the chancel, there was an angel. Everyone knew it was
an angel...and slowly as people realized who was there, they
stopped singing and just stood and waited to hear what the angel
had to say.
Finally the church was silent and the angel spoke: The
angel said, I have come today with a message for you. The
message is: "Count your blessings, name them one by one. Now."
Well, they thought that was a pretty strange message, but well,
when an angel speaks you should listen and do it, so one brave
person said, "I am blessed to be in good health." And the angel
said, "One."
Someone else said, "I am thankful for a promotion" and the
angel said, "Two." Another person said, "I have been blessed
with a loving family" and the angel said "Three." Someone else
said friends, and another said neighbors and the angel said four
and five...and then a farmer said a good harvest and the angel
said six. And then there was a long silence as people tried to
think of more blessings. The angel looked around at the 96
people that were there and said again "Six? Only six? Count
your blessings, name them one by one." And everyone was silent,
because no one could think of any more blessings to name.
Now as it happens sometimes, there was a young man in one of
the pews - not a child anymore, not yet an adult though, and he
was bored with all of what was going on. He heard the angel say
count and name and so he started thinking of names of friends.
He started trying to list all his friends names in alphabetical
order in his head. He really wasn't paying much attention to
what anyone else said. Then the angel said again, "Name them.
Now." And the young man, almost without thinking, said, "Arnold
and Billy and Bob and Dad, although he is Dad and not really a
friend, and Frank and Gary..." And the angel smiled and said, 7,
8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Well, that started people going...and everyone
was calling out names of family members and friends and
neighbors, some even called out the pastors' names. And the
angel just kept counting.
Then someone said, "I'm thankful for flowers," and that
started them going again. They gave thanks for violets and
marigolds and mums and poinsettias and lilies and petunias and
roses and morning glories and the name morning glories reminded
someone of something else and they said, "I'm thankful for
sunrise," which, of course, led someone else to say sunset, and
that reminded them of birds singing and that reminded them of
other animals, so the angel heard dogs and cats and birds and
giraffes and dolphins and whales and snakes and spiders and mice
and hamsters and gerbils.
By now of course people were really getting into the spirit
of things and they were excitedly calling out blessings. Well,
that mood caught on and one small and very young voice said, "I
like turkey...and they were off again, giving thanks for dressing
and potatoes and cranberries and sweet potatoes and corn and
green beans and home made rolls and butter and milk and jelly and
peanut butter and pumpkin pie and mince meat pie and cherry pie
and chocolate pie and the angel just kept on counting.
This was beginning to be a fun game now and so another young
voice said, "I'm thankful for my teddy bear... and others
mentioned sleds and bikes and games and cars and dolls and
puppets and crayons and paper and pencils, which led one lady to
think about writing letters and how good it was to get letters in
the mail so she said stamps and envelopes and someone else said
telephones and another said e-mail....and so it went. One
remembered blessing led to another and everyone shouted out
blessings or with a quiet voice said something near and dear to
them and the angel took time to listen to everyone until they had
all named the blessings in their lives.
Finally the angel said "6,782!" and the people applauded.
Then the angel looked out over the crowd and said, "Now you can
finish singing the hymn" The organist struck a chord and they
sang, "Count your blessings name them one by one." And people
smiled as they sang, for they knew just how many blessings they
had.
Of course that is a made up story. That would never really
happen. Nah. But, then again, who says we have to wait for an
angel?
The word of God: "Give thanks in ALL circumstances, for this
is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
Happy Thanksgiving.
Amen!
1. Bible Illustrator for Windows, diskette, (Hiawatha, Iowa: Parsons Technology, 1994)
2. "Isaac and Ishmael," Aaron Sorkin, The West Wing, NBC, original air date 10/3/01
3. 1 Thessalonians 2:20
4. 4:11
5. 4:13-18
6. 2:5, 9
7. 2:6-7, 11
8. William Barclay , Daily Study Bible Series, CD-ROM edition, (Liguori, MO: Liguori
Faithware, 1996) used by permission of Westminster/John Knox Press
9. Houston Hodges to the PresbyNet meeting H SQUARE, 2/19/03, Note #3722
click and send us mail