Give Thanks, Every day, and All Day

The sounds and smells of Thanksgiving began early this year. We have been preparing a feast for four since Monday and we will be preparing until it is time to sit and eat on Thursday afternoon. While the number of people gathered around our table this year will be fewer than in years past, the motions, prayers, and activities of the day will not be all that different.

 The Apostle Paul exhorted the Thessalonian church to rejoice in all things, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances. To me, especially in 2020, Paul’s words seem easier said than done. And yet, giving thanks is part of the DNA for the Church.

Rejoice always,

pray without ceasing,

give thanks in all circumstances. - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NRSV)

When we pray at home, we give thanks – when our feet hit the floor in the morning, around the table, after meeting with an old friend in the backyard for a beer (socially distanced of course).

We give thanks when joys enter our lives – the birth of a child, being reunited with an old friend.

We give thanks at milestones, graduations, birthdays, weddings. 

We give thanks when we are in need of help.

Blessed be the Lord,

for he has heard the sound of my pleadings.
The Lord is my strength and my shield;

in him my heart trusts;
so I am helped, and my heart exults,

and with my song I give thanks to him. - Psalm 28:6-9 (NRSV)

All of life is an opportunity to worship God with a thankful heart. Like any discipline, lives of rejoicing, prayer, and thanksgiving take disciplined practice and patience. There will be days when we are rockstar exemplars of Paul’s words when we live out the actions of the Psalmist to the fullest, and then there will be days when gratitude for God and Christ are everywhere but on our minds.

2020 has left many of us with our hands in the air, wondering if the despair of the past nine months has left us without reason to give thanks. And yet, we will pause to do just that. We will pause with guests absent - either to try and slow a virus or because they now rest for their labors.

There has been much this year to leave us feeling as though being thankful, assuming a posture of gratitude is beyond what this year has done to us. And still, we will pause and give thanks.

We are able to rejoice, pray, and give thanks because we know, through the power of Christ’s resurrection, that the evil, suffering, and death we see in this world do not get the last word. The help that we need has come and promises to come again. God has not abandoned us and we can look to the full realization of the Kingdom of God with hope because through the Church, through one another, and through sacrament, we are opening ourselves to experience the means of grace Christ left for us, and we cannot think of anything to do but rejoice, praise, and give thanks.