Got Blessings?

First Congregational Church – Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
Thanksgiving Day – November 24, 2005
Rev. Steven A. Peay, Ph.D.
[Texts: Deuteronomy 8:7-18/2/Corinthians 9:6-15/Luke 17:11-19]

“Got milk?” The white mustached figure – which could as easily be Garfield, Kermit the Frog, Donovan McNabb, the rock group ‘Kiss,’ or Britney Spears – has been peeking out of magazine pages at us since 1994. The ad implies that not only is milk good for you, it’s good for you regardless of who you are, or perhaps because you are who you are. If celebrities drink milk, so should you. There must be something to it if it’s been around for eleven years, I guess.

It’s too bad that the folks in Plimoth Colony didn’t come up with something quite so catchy. Ah, wait – we’ve been celebrating Thanksgiving officially as a nation for 142 years, ever since President Lincoln declared it. While the “first Thanksgiving” probably took place in July of 1623 – at least as the Pilgrims would have understood a “day of thanksgiving” – there’s no question that they did celebrate the end of the “starving time” by feasting with their Native American neighbors. I think that if they had a slogan it would be, “Got blessings?”

Blessings, it appears, are better for you than milk. When you try to define ‘blessings’ you see just how broad and how embracive the concept is. Blessings, our Puritan ancestors would say, represent the providence of God. Everything in our world, including us and even our desire to give thanks, is the result of God’s providence, God’s care for creation. Got blessings?

The author of Deuteronomy asks the people of Israel that – “Got blessings?” He asks because the people had forgotten the source of their existence, their land, their prosperity and their freedom. Like so many of our contemporaries, they came to believe that who they were, what they had, and how they lived were the result of their own effort. The Deuteronomist reminds the people, “remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today.” The Israelites got a short lesson in their history and God’s benevolent care for them and rendered thanks as they renewed their relationship. Got blessings?

The story of the Ten Lepers in Luke’s Gospel demonstrates how far and how fast we can fall when we forget we have blessings. Ten lepers came to Jesus for healing. All receive the gift, but only one, and him a Samaritan – a foreigner and not a Jew in good standing – returned to give thanks. What we see here is the message that there is more to life and to relationship than getting what we want and then heading off on our merry way. Like Israel, the lepers had been given a gift which should have not only awakened gratitude, thanksgiving in them, but also brought them into closer relationship with God – which always implies a change in the way we think and act. Got blessings?

The Pilgrims had been through great hardship. Half of their company, including the governor, died in that first long winter. Far from home, without the comfort even of their minister (John Robinson died before he could come to Plimoth); they still continued to thank God for the gift of the new land and new life they had received. As William Bradford, who became the governor, wrote in Of Plymouth Plantation, “. . .thus they found the Lord to be with them in all their ways, and to bless their outgoings and incomings, for which let His holy name have the praise forever, to all posterity.” Bradford echoes the wise words of Thomas Goodwin, Puritan preacher, who said, “Those blessings are sweetest that are won with prayers and worn with thanks.” They persevered in prayer and work – God blessed both and they gave thanks.

Thanksgiving is a consistent theme in Scripture – we certainly see that today. The core ritual action of the Christian faith is called the ‘Eucharist,’ which means ‘thanksgiving.’ There seems to be a theme emerging here – we need to remember that we’ve been blessed and then give thanks. The 14th century spiritual writer Meister Eckhart said, “If the only prayer you ever pray is thanks, that will be sufficient.” The late Fred Rogers, children’s television pioneer and Presbyterian minister, once said that the best prayer is “thank you, thank you, thank you. Amen.” We do this not because God might have hurt feelings if we don’t, or that even God might get a bit ‘ticked off’ at us. Nor does God need our thanks, as the prayer says, “even our desire to thank you is itself your gift.” No, it’s because realizing our blessedness and giving thanks for it is, ultimately good for us.

Dennis Prager wrote a book entitled Happiness is a Serious Problem. He says something that I think makes perfect sense, especially in light of what we’ve been exploring. ''There is a `secret to happiness,''' Prager writes, ''and it is gratitude. All happy people are grateful, and ungrateful people cannot be happy. We tend to think that it is being unhappy that leads people to complain, but it is truer to say that it is complaining that leads to people becoming unhappy. Become grateful and you will become a much happier person.''

This kind of happiness is what Paul is trying to tell the church at Corinth about when he explains a ministry of thanksgiving and glory. It also seems to be exactly what Biblical scholar Patrick Miller is saying in his article “In Praise and Thanksgiving.” Miller writes, “In a world that assumes the status is quo, that things have to be the way they are and that we must not assume too much about improving them, the doxologies of God's people are fundamental indicators that wonders have not ceased, that possibilities not yet dreamt of will happen, and that hope is an authentic stance. All this is ridiculous, of course, unless one has seen the wonders of God in the past: the overthrow of the mighty and the setting free of an oppressed people, the gift of life in the face of death, fertility where there was barrenness.

Resurrection defies all human categories. So, Christians gather every Sunday to give praise to God for the impossible wonder that raised Christ from the dead. In its act of doxology, the church says to the world that all our presumptions about what can happen are overruled by the wonderful impossibilities that God's power and freedom have wrought.” There is a transformative power to thanksgiving – we’re drawn out of ourselves, out of the status quo and into the fullness of God’s life. Thus Paul tells the church at Corinth, “you will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God.” Blessings beget blessings and thanksgiving is the proper response to all of it! Got blessings?

Edward Winslow wrote a letter back to England describing life in the new Plimoth Colonie. He gives us what appears to be the closest description of what the nineteenth century began describing as “the first Thanksgiving.” Having written about the hardships, he then turns to write about the plenty describing the varieties of fish, wildlife, fruits and vegetables that the new world offered to the colonists. He writes, “And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.” Thanksgiving leads us to generosity. The “needs of the saints” will be met and the overflow of thanksgiving goes to God. Thanksgiving calls us to remember what we have and to remember the needs of others, whether they are material or spiritual. To be truly blessed moves us to share what we have so that others may know what we know. Got blessings? Share them.

It may not be as catchy as the milk ad, but I think there’s a certain ring to “Got blessings?” I’d go so far as to say that it gets the job done. After all, even if we only start counting Thanksgivings with that long ago one back in July of 1623, we’re still talking about 382 years’ worth of them! The point, however, is that Thanksgiving isn’t about the celebration, it’s about a way of living in which we align ourselves with God’s life and God’s love every day. “Got blessings?” is for more than the fourth Thursday in November. It’s every day that we realize that God has given us an “indescribable gift” – life, all that goes with it in this wondrous world and the grace of relationship with God through the living Christ. There’s more to be thankful for than one day a year can handle, it takes a lifetime. Got blessings? You bet. Share them and thank God.