Thanksgiving: On Balance

On this day of Thanksgiving, let me start with a question:

Is thanksgiving a feeling or an action?

Or put another way, during this time when we think a little more intentionally about thanksgiving, are you thankful, or do you give thanks?

This weekend, there will be a lot of Thanksgiving dinners happening, around tables laden with turkey and mashed potatoes. At many of these gatherings, people, including our family, have a little ritual that they do. Those who are gathered will be encouraged to say something that they are thankful for this Thanksgiving.  And they do. We are thankful for a good meal, for the people around the table and for so many other good things that we enjoy in life.

This is good. Talking about what we’re thankful for is a good thing.

But being thankful is a feeling. It’s good, but it’s not nearly as powerful as giving thanks.

This year, I am so thankful that my family came to our cottage for a thanksgiving dinner. My son and daughter-in-law drove from Toronto, my daughter and her partner changed their plans to be with us, my parents had to drive in the dark which they prefer not to do these days.  I am thankful for all of this, and that’s good. But much more powerful than my feelings of thankfulness and gratitude are my action of giving thanks. When I thank each of them for coming, acknowledge the effort they have made, tell them how much it means to me and how they bring joy to my life, that act of thanks-giving actually does a few things.

First, it builds relationship. It draws us closer, and I don’t have to tell you how important that is. One of the ways that giving thanks builds relationship is by exposing just a little bit of my vulnerability and need. I need these people in my life, I know that my life would be less without them, and I thank them for giving me the very thing that I need and would not be able to have without them. And so it is that in that action of giving thanks, by opening ourselves up a bit and acknowledging how much we need each other, we build trust, the trust that I will be there for you, and you for me.

That’s why the action of thanks giving matters. Giving thanks builds trust and deepens relationship.

We know what it is to give thanks to another person. Do we know what it is to give thanks to God? Or are we simply content with a feeling of thankfulness that is vaguely directed beyond ourselves?

When we give thanks to God, whether by praying, through our offerings or by some concrete action, we are taking an important step in building a relationship of trust with God and in God.  Trust is not like a light switch, it’s not something that we can just turn on or off by an act of will. Trust is a relationship that is built over time, through deliberate action, by showing someone we care, by saying sorry when things go wrong, by forgiving when we are wronged. And by giving thanks, always, even every day of our lives. We know these things to be true in our relationships with others. It is also true in our relationship with God. Do you trust God?

How we answer this question for ourselves impacts our lives in two incredibly important ways, and this is where we drop into the gospel reading that we just heard from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

First, if we trust God, we will worry less.

Second, and I think of even greater importance, if we trust God, we will make God’s ways a priority in our lives.

The gospel we just heard, this section of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is all about priorities. It’s about finding the right balance in our lives.

We talk a lot about having a good life balance these days. Jesus says “is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” Gen Z says “is not life more than your job and earning money?”  I think they’re both saying pretty much the same thing. We need to get our priorities straight. We need to find the right balance in our lives.

Sure we have needs, we need to eat, we need to drink, we certainly need clothing as a Canadian winter approaches. It’s easy to worry about these things and a whole lot more.

But Jesus says, “strive first for the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness.”

And this is where the question of balance comes in.

On the one hand, we can worry about our own needs. On the other, we can strive for the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness.

Worry about my needs . . . .  Strive for the kingdom of God

Worry about my needs . . . .  Strive for God’s righteousness

Where’s the balance in your life? What are your priorities?

Maybe before we can answer that question, we need to talk a little bit about what Jesus’ actually means when he encourages us to strive first for the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness.

Jesus talks a lot about the kingdom of God, but when his disciples ask him about it, he tends to respond with a story rather than a definition. The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, like a sower who sows good seed, like a treasure hidden in a field, like a woman who has lost a coin. The kingdom of God has drawn near, is within you, is in your midst. The kingdom of God is an image that’s not meant to be pinned down with an exact definition, it’s an open-ended idea, full of growth and surprise and delight.

God’s righteousness, on the other hand, is pretty well laid out for us in the scriptures. Righteousness is about living in right relationship with God and neighbour. It is the way of peace, mercy and justice, it is about loving God and loving one another, living the way God intends us to live.

So I find it helpful to think of the kingdom of God as a movement, as God’s great movement to set things right in the world, as God’s movement to bring love, peace and justice, to bring about God’s righteousness. It is a movement in which we have been invited to participate.

So are you in? Will this be your priority? Are you ready to participate in God’s movement to set things right in the world, God’s movement to heal and restore all that is wrong, to bring about peace and justice? Or, is all your head space taken up with your own cares and worries?

Jesus wants you to shift the balance in your life away from worrying about your own material needs and possessions and towards your participation in God’s kingdom, this great movement of love and justice that we’ve been invited to join. It’s a question of priorities.

And just in case you’re still on the fence about all this, Jesus throws in a promise for us.

“Strive first for the kingdom of God, and God’s righteousness, and all these things, these other things like food and drink and clothing, all these things will be given to you as well.”

It’s a promise with a dual meaning. The first meaning is the straightforward one, that God can be trusted to provide us with good things, the things we need, in our lives. That we can trust God to care for us, to be with us, and to provide the necessities of life. For the most part, we know this to be true. God’s creation is good. This good earth provides enough food, enough drink, enough clothing to provide for our needs. We have air to breathe, water to drink and friends and family to love us. We are loved by God, and we belong in God’s family. We can trust God to care for us.

It’s not a promise that life will be trouble free. Jesus himself acknowledges at the end of our gospel reading that there will be troubles, in fact he says “that today’s trouble is enough for today”. Life can be hard. The promise is not that life will be trouble free. It is rather the promise that God cares for us, and will care for us even in the midst of trouble, and so we can worry a little less.

But there is also a second way of understanding the promise that if we seek first God’s kingdom, then all these things will be given to us.  And that is to notice that when Jesus says to strive for God’s kingdom, he’s speaking in the plural, to all of us gathered before him. He’s not so much speaking to us as individuals as he is speaking to us as a community. And if we as a community strive first for the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness, if we join God’s movement to set things right in the world and to bring about peace and justice – then don’t you think we would start looking after each other a bit better?

Don’t you think that maybe then we can start to provide for each other? That when someone is hungry, we’ll feed them? That when someone lacks housing, we can provide shelter? Sure, there are troubles in our world, but an awful lot of them are the result of our own collective failure to share God’s good gifts equitably amongst ourselves, our collective failure to pursue God’s ways of peace and justice.  So strive first, all of you, for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Put your trust in God and God’s ways. Shift the balance in your life. Make it your priority to participate in God’s movement to set things right in the world. Care for one another. And in all times and in all places, give thanks to God for all that you have received, and for God’s care for you even, or perhaps especially, in times of trouble.

Amen.

Homily Thanksgiving Sunday, October 13 2024, Trinity

Reading: Matthew 6.24-34

Image by Karolina Grabowska