Preached at the Old South Meeting House

November 23, 2003

 
 

In the Hebrew scriptures we read: "Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God: do not say to yourself 'My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth,' but remember the Lord your God."  (Deuteronomy 8: 11 ff.)

The Apostle Paul writes to the Colossians:  "Let the word of God dwell in you richly, with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.  And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

The Gospel reading has become a traditional Thanksgiving selection -- Luke's account of Jesus healing the ten lepers, with only one returning to thank Jesus.  Jesus asks, "Were not ten healed?  Where are the nine?"

Jesus knew that ingratitude can be a poison which erodes your spiritual life.  If you have been careless, if you have taken too much for granted, let this Thanksgiving be a time of remembering, returning, and giving thanks.

Let us pray:

Creator God, we come to you with grateful hearts. As we worship here speak the word you have for us, strengthen us for the challenges of our lives, inspire us and give us your peace.  In the spirit of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

This is one of my favorite Sundays of the year.  With the wonderful hymns: "Come, Ye Thankful People Come," "We Gather Together to Ask the Lord's Blessing," "Now Thank We all our God."  "Now thank we all our God with heart and hand and voices."  It has been called the best all-purpose hymn ever written, suitable for every important occasion - birth, baptism, weddings, ordinations, or funerals.

These Thanksgiving hymns are among the best in the book.  Karl Barth once said that the basic human response to God is not fear and trembling, not guilt and dread, but thanksgiving.  He asked, "What else can we say to what God gives us but to stammer our praise."  Yes, this is one of my favorite Sundays of the year. Despite the fact that Della persists in displaying every Thanksgiving a hand-made sampler she bought years ago at a craft fair in New Hampshire which reads: "Every day is Thanksgiving Day at my house, when I welcome the turkey home."

Nevertheless, this is one of my favorite Sundays. What a privilege for me to stand in this historic pulpit.  How blessed each of us are to be here in this Meetinghouse.  We are here to "stammer our praise."  We are surrounded this morning by what Scripture calls, "A great cloud of witnesses in the listening skies," often referred to as the" balcony people" in our lives.  Can you see them sitting in the balcony, watching, listening, cheering us on: calling us to be as bold and brave as they were in relating our faith to the challenges of today.  If only these walls could talk, what a story they could tell.

There they are in the balcony this morning:  Benjamin Franklin, baptized here, referred to as the "First American;" Deacon Samuel Adams, "The Father of the American Revolution," William Dawes, another Deacon, who rode that midnight ride with Paul Revere: scores of faithful women and men:  our spiritual ancestors. What a glorious heritage!

Never forget the source of their strength and courage in all the days of the American Revolution:  They were sustained by their faith in Divine Providence.  They believed they were called to stand as a city set on a hill.  John Winthrop, the first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, delivered a sermon in which he spoke of his vision.  He said: "We must delight in each other, make others' condition our own and rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and common work, our community as members of the same body -- for we must consider that we shall be like a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are on us."

Such was the vision of Governor Winthrop. What is our vision today?  Scripture says "Where there is no vision the people perish!"  Frank Rich wrote in the New York Times a few weeks ago: "I don't care what anyone says.  It's always depressing when the circus folds its tent and leaves town.  So forgive me for mourning the passing of the recall election in California. . .as goes California so goes the nation.  It's Disneyland and not colonial Williamsburg that prefigures our future."

Is a Disney-like vision the only viable vision we have for our life together in this nation?

DisneyWorld -- a beautiful, phony place, run by nice looking people, with its idyllic Main Street?  Is there no alternative vision?  Yes, there is.  It doesn't have military power or economic power or market power.  It has something far better and, in the long run, more powerful.  It has the power of God's love and the power of human love.

This alternative vision comes out of the faith tradition shared by Islam, Judaism and Christianity:  namely, that one Creator God has created one human family in God's own image and so we are children of one God and sisters and brothers.  It is simple, this vision, yet so stunning.  It is what convinced the ancient world that Christianity was true.  One of our earliest theologians, Tertullian, in the second century wrote:  "What marks us in the eyes of our enemies is our practice of loving kindness.  'Only look.  How they love one another.'"  And then this ancient thinker broke out of the tradition of tribes and nations to a new vision of humankind.  To the pagan Romans he wrote, "We are your brothers and sisters too."

Yes!  Where there is no vision the people perish.

Churches, communities of faith, are charged with keeping alive God's alternative vision.  What is your vision for America?  As an election year approaches, the United States is by far the richest and most powerful nation in the history of the world.  Never before has it been more important than it is today for us to have a vision for our nation that does not exert power for power's sake.  A vision, shaped here in this Meetinghouse:  Of a nation with liberty, justice and the pursuit of happiness for all, a concern for the common good, the equal rights of all citizens, as expressed in the vision of Governor Winthrop.  The wellbeing of the world community of which we are a part.

What is your vision for your church?  Again, consider the vision which found shape and voice in this Meetinghouse:  showing mercy, honoring all people, regardless of their status, embracing the most vulnerable, setting before all people an open door.  A vision we see most clearly in Jesus.

Where there is no vision the people perish!

The greatest enemy of this vision is complacency.  One person says to another:  "I have come to the conclusion that the two greatest problems facing our nation today are ignorance and apathy.  What do you think?"  The other person replies: "I don't know and I don't give a damn."

This is the attitude of so many today:  "I don't know and I don't give a damn."

I don't know and really I don't care about the folks who have lost their jobs in the last twelve months, that's too much for me to wrap my heart around. The answer to the question, by the way, is 102 million people fell below the poverty line in the past twelve months. Six hundred thousand of them are children.  I don't know and I really don't care what is happening to the ozone layer or to wildlife habitats or to the ice flow in the Antarctica.

Complacency, indifference, has a destructive power:  destructive of the human spirit and human society, and now, we are slowly beginning to realize, destructive of the planet God has entrusted to us and where we are called to live and serve as God's stewards.

We resist evil by being engaged, by caring and by acting and standing for something we believe in, by being brave and faithful, by not turning out the cries we hear from our neighbors in this city and the world.  Wasn't Edmund Burke right when he said: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men and women to do nothing."

Or as has been said: The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference; the opposite of beauty is not ugliness, it is indifference; the opposite of peace is not war, it is indifference.

Here in this sacred place we are surrounded by the living memory of those who 0were not indifferent or apathetic, but who cared with a passion and who risked everything in the pursuit of the vision which called them forward: pledging to each other their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.  As we seek to make this vision a reality, the good news is we do not have to rely on our unaided strength alone:  for we have each other and God has promised to be with us in the struggle for justice and peace.

The liturgical calendar of the universal Christian Church reminds us of this on this day known as "Christ the King Sunday."  Today is the last Sunday of the liturgical year.  Next Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent, marking the start of a new liturgical year.  "Christ the King Sunday" celebrates the Christ who frees those who are captive and unites those who are divided. Christ is the King of the liberated and reconciled.

We have seen many images of Christ in twenty centuries.  But the image of Christ the King stirs fresh joy and courage in our souls.  Christ the King threatens all kings and rulers. Christ the King challenges all ideologies and all regimes. Christ the King unsettles all those who seek only their own comfort and prosperity.  Christ the King awakens new life in each of us and in the church, empowering us to join with the creative loving power of God to transform visions into realities.

This is the ground of our thanksgiving - God's love revealed in Jesus Christ.

If you have been careless, if you have taken too much for granted, let this Thanksgiving be a time of remembering, returning and giving thanks, for we have been richly blessed by the God who comes to us in Jesus Christ.

I think of the story I came upon recently of a man seated in a crowded restaurant. The waiter approached him and asked if he would mind having someone share the table, and the man said, "No, I don't mind."  The stranger sat down. Soon the food was served.  The first man bowed his head and closed his eyes to say grace. When he opened his eyes the other man said, "What's the matter with you?  Do you have a headache?"  "No," he answered, "I was thanking God as I always do before I eat."  "Oh, you are one of those. Well, I want you to know I never give thanks to anybody any time.  Especially when I eat, I just start right in."  The first man answered, "Well then, you are just like my dog.  He does exactly the same thing."

People who are growing toward spiritual maturity-- and surely that is your goal and mine -- are people who are grateful.  If you cannot muster any gratitude this Thanksgiving, then it is probably a sign that it is time for a spiritual tune-up. Today is the day to get into the heavenly habit of giving thanks to God.  How do we do it?  With prayer and by singing the great Thanksgiving hymns, even when we do not feel very grateful. The very acts of prayer and song have the power to transform our perspective on life.  So that at the end of the day we will not hear Jesus asking about us: "Were not ten healed?  Where are the nine?"

People who are growing toward spiritual maturity -- and surely that is your goal and mine -- are people who know that their gratitude is in their prayers and songs of thanksgiving, and most importantly, in their deeds of loving kindness and compassion:  in a commitment to justice and mercy for all.

Only through such deeds of gracious love and courageous acts will the vision we hold for our nation and our church ever become a reality.  A vision expressed in a prayer prayed by Nancy Taylor, our Conference Minister, upon the arrival of the schooner Amistad in Boston.

"I invoke the presence of God who promises us a new Jerusalem some day, yes, but aches for a New Boston today.  The New Boston where wealth is not equal to power and privilege and white does not mean right, where justice is just that: fair, blind and available for everyone, where all children are guaranteed excellent education and where justice and righteousness roll down like a mighty stream."

Where there is no vision the people perish.

This is the alternative, radical vision which calls us forward as the people of God and as people of the Old South Church in Boston.  May we be glad and grateful and try always to be worthy.

Now thank we all our God with heart and hand and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in whom this world rejoices.
Who from our parents' arms, has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love and still is ours today.

Now thank we all our God.

Let all the people say, Amen and Amen.