Giving thanks?

Psalm 134

Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord! Lift up your hands to the holy place, and bless the Lord. May the Lord, maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion.

Psalm 134 Modern Translation

Be thankful, servants of God, You who wait for God. Be thankful all the days of your life. Be thankful for the beauty of the earth. And the One who is making it will bless you.

A seeker once went to the holy woman in the desert because life had become too chaotic and he yearned to have balance and order restored within him. The desert woman said to him, “Your life is chaotic because you have become dependent on change, on excitement, on variety. You want always to experience something new instead of finding what is new through the repetition of what seems old. If you would have balance and order within, do one small thing at the same time each day with gratitude in your heart and slowly the tattered fragments of your life will be bound together into a textured tapestry of beauty. It does not take great doses of hardship – only one small thing done every day at the same time with gratitude in your heart. One small thing every day, at the same time, with gratitude in your heart. One small thing, every day, same time, with gratitude. And that will be enough.

We live in a world filled that often moves a pace that many of us find had to keep up with on our good days. All around us tells us to go, go, go and if we are at rest something must be wrong with us. But there is something special about taking time to take time.

One of those times ahead of us comes in the form of the Thanksgiving Holiday. Many of us will be gathering with family for the yearly ritual of turkey and mashed potatoes. We will once again run ourselves frantic with preparing to host or be hosted at the table once more. And then on Friday next the frenzy of pre-dawn shopping. A time that is supposed to be about family and giving thanks for God's bounty has, like most other days of rest, become a time of chaos.

But what would happen if we stopped this Thanksgiving and really gave thanks? How different would our lives be if instead of frantically gathering the family for food we gathered our families and together prepared a meal with thanksgiving? What would happen if at our gathers rather than eating and running off to the football game of the day we gave thanks for each other? What if we shared memories and let our families know how much we love and care for them even when we disagree?

I think our Thanksgiving celebrations would be a lot different. I think we would find in this holiday a joy that has been lost in the shop-til-you-drop mentality that has become part of our cultural celebration of thanks.

I for one will make an effort to slow down this Thanksgiving Day, to give thanks for the many blessings and great things that God has given me in all aspects of my life. My invitation is for you to do the same. Let us promise that we will make this year different because if we lose sight of what giving thanks, we lose sight of who we really are, and that is too high a price to pay for the latest electronic gadget.

Why Go to Church??

Scripture
Galatians 1:11-24:

For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I, Paul received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism.

I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it. I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. But when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in me so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with any human being, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were already apostles before me, but I went away at once into Arabia, and afterwards I returned to Damascus.

Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and stayed with him for fifteen days; but I did not see any other apostle except James the Lord’s brother. In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie! Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea that are in Christ; they only heard it said, ‘The one who formerly was persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy.’ And they glorified God because of me.

Meditation: Why go the Church?

I have always been plagued by the question...Why do you go to church? More often than not my answer revolves around variations on "that's where I encounter God" or "that's where God works on me" but more recently I have started responding "Church is where I get my vision cleared." But there is much, much more to why I go to church than just that.

Recently I read an article that clarified why the church exists and why we go there. I share that article with you written by The Reverend Eyleen Farmer:

I’ve had my share of arguments with the Church. I’ve been bored enough to make grocery lists on the back of the bulletin; angry enough to stomp out in a huff; hurt enough to leave in a flurry of tears. Some of you may be shocked to hear this, but my guess is that I’m not the only one here who has ever felt this way.

Even my granddaughter, who is only five years old, has days when she would rather stay in her p.j.’s and play than get dressed and go to church. A few Sunday mornings ago, she told her mom, “I don’t like God, I don’t like Jesus, I don’t want to learn about them, and I wish church never existed!” Caroline of course is only the youngest in a very long line of church detractors.

In fact, it’s rather trendy these days to bash the church, along with religion and even God. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and The End of Faith by Sam Harris have both been best sellers. And Christopher Hitchens’s book, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, is currently number three on the New York Times non-fiction best-seller list. For Hitchens the falsity of religion is “blindingly obvious;” he calls those of us who cling to belief in God “morons, lunatics or liars.” (NYT review)

It’s too bad, but an undeniable fact, that the church so often lets us down. It disappoints, frustrates, infuriates. It betrays, wounds, and bullies. In its long, tortured history the church has more often than not been timid in the face of injustice, self-protective in the face of threat, and arrogant in the face of challenge.

You don’t have to know very much at all about history to click off the sins of the Church—Crusades, Inquisitions, and witch-hunts for starters. The greedy corruptions that fueled the Protestant Reformation, the misuses of scripture to justify slavery and the exclusion of women; more recently, abuse scandals and battles over homosexuality…

So, why are we here? Why do we continue to cast our lot with the broken body called the church? We come here, of course, for all kinds of reasons. But I can tell you that I am here because the freedom of which Paul speaks, living into the law of love, is more demanding, more difficult by far than following rules. I’m here because I know I can’t do it on my own, no matter how hard I try. I’m here, we’re here, because we need each other, because when we come together to say our prayers and share a common meal, we make love possible. Because here is where we have the best chance to grow into what Paul called “the full stature of Christ.”

Hospitality of Food...

Isaiah 25:6-9

On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. And God will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

Food is an important part of who we are. Food expresses everything from our cultural background to our understanding of who God is in our lives. How we share food, with whom, when and where we share food are all important aspects of our identities and defines us to a certain extent.

Throughout the Scriptures food has played an important role in the lives of the people of God. Had Abraham and Sarah not set out a small feast for the angels God would have chosen another couple to be the parents of great faiths. Jesus in his day sat at table with the outcasts and disenfranchised of his time much to the chagrin of religious establishment of his day.

Food has been and continues to be a means of expressing hospitality. The funny thing about food is that it is a fundamental part of who we are as people. We mourn with food, we give thanks with food, we gather to reconcile, remember, drown our sorrows and even worship around food. Heaven has to be a place of dining tables!

Isaiah’s vision of a rich banquet, replete with foods of all kinds, the bounty of the nations gathered at God’s table to celebrate the best of who we are, is an inviting scene. This is Isaiah’s picture of heaven. I like the idea that heaven is a banquet. If heaven is a banquet of rich foods (and I would imagine no calories, this is heaven after all) we are in good company. We get a chance to preview heaven whenever we as a community gather for simple meals in our homes, for pot lucks at our church but especially on Sundays around the altar.

But like any good thing we can be tempted to draw lines around who is invited to the table and who is not. In Isaiah's vision all the nations come streaming into God's abundant feast and that is what we are to be about. We find it hard sometimes to even share food with the people next door furthermore inviting strangers to our tables. But hospitality around food makes the world of difference.

Imagine if you invited your next door neighbor over for dinner? Imagine if you invited that new couple at Church or that single guy you don't know very well to have lunch? I think stories would be told, common interests would be found, new relationships and connections would be made all because we chose to share the hospitality of food.

So think about Isaiah's vision and think about your dining room table. Perhaps in no other place in your house do you get an opportunity to glimpse the life of heaven than in the place where we share food.

P.S. The early church buildings were designed to be giant dining rooms so in a sense our churches remain basically feasting halls.

Prayer: A Celtic Welcome Prayer

We saw a stranger yesterday.
We put food in the eating place,
Drink in the drinking place,
Music in the listening place,
And with the sacred name of the triune God
He blessed us and our house,
Our cattle and our dear ones.
As the lark says in her song:
Often, often, often, goes the Christ
In the stranger’s guise.