Holidays are the hardest time to preach. They come every year; their purpose and reason are usually pretty clear and there's very little that you can add. Few preachers want to merely repeat what they've said before and what everyone already knows.
So I was toying with using this time to question whether we should have a Thanksgiving Day. After all, shouldn't we as Christians be thankful every day?
Then I saw an article on the internet about how one doesn't need to believe in a god to be thankful for one's life, one's good health, or one's successful career. I'm a bit of a stickler for the proper definition and use of words and I pointed out that while one could appreciate those good things in one's life, without believing in God, one couldn't be thankful. You thank a person for a gift or gracious act. You cannot thank blind, non-sentient chance. From a strictly non-theistic stance, one must acknowledge that you did not choose your parents; they did not choose which sperm and egg would unite to cause you; your DNA determines to a large extent your health and, according to some scientists, your personality. So there's no one to thank. Or if you are arrogant, and, ignoring both science and theology, think you really are responsible for all of your success, you could congratulate yourself. Either way, without God, Thanksgiving is just "I'm One Lucky S.O.B." Day, a celebration of smugness.
For thanksgiving to occur, there has to be a gift, there has to be a giver and there has to be a recipient who is humble and grateful. So you can and should be thankful to your parents for being good parents, to your doctor for keeping you healthy, and your boss for not firing you. But for being alive at all, for being in a world and universe that favors life, for able to articulate the concept of thankfulness, there is no one to thank, unless, as many non-theists do, you anthropomorphize a process, like evolution.
Without God, what is just is. Nothing is a gift; it is just a fact. It is not a sign of favor or disfavor, or of any kind of intention. You may be happy to have it or unhappy but you can't be thankful or resentful. You cannot thank God for your talents nor can you blame him for perceived deficits. You've simply won or lost a cosmic lottery. And if you seem to lose that lottery, if you are saddled with a bad family, illness or accident, or a disappointing career, there is no way you can be grateful for that.
With God, however, anything and everything can be seen as a gift. If you have a talent or a wonderful spouse or great children, you can thank God. You can also, and I have seen this, thank God even for the things in life that most would see as negatives, like a dysfunctional family or a failed business or being in jail. I've seen people who had a life-threatening illness tell me that it made them more grateful for their life, for their families, for the little pleasures and joys. It has helped them prioritize their lives, spending less time on work and more on loved ones. It has brought them into contact with people they otherwise may not have met: doctors, nurses, therapists, other patients and their families. Sometime they realize that they can use their experience to help others in the same circumstances.
This is a situation C. S. Lewis called complex good. It is a good that can only exist because of evil. Love, sharing, and beauty can exist in an unfallen world. Compassion, forgiveness, reconciliation can only exist in a fallen one, because they are good reacting to and overcoming evil. And some people come to be grateful for the hardship or darkness that made it possible for them to grow intellectually, physically, emotionally and spiritually stronger and more mature.
Without God, there is no giver. There is no intention that you receive something. Some non-theists like this. They don't wish to be indebted to anyone. But it also means that there is no one to question, ask guidance of or complain to when you receive something you'd rather not. You can decide to make it a learning experience but there are no expectations that you do so. You can let it make you bitter and angry if you wish. In an indifferent universe, you are free to imbue it with any meaning or none at all. You cannot expect consolation, though. Or compensation or wholeness or healing in either this life or any other. There is literally no promise of a happy ending or justice and thus there is no reason for hope.
Hope is the consequence of having a loving and faithful God. Trusting God allows us to see this world, this life and everything that goes with it, pleasant or not, as a gift. His promise of a good outcome for a life spent serving him helps us through the rougher times. And we can expect his help with understanding and using his gifts properly, the way a parent or grandparent will help a child ride the bike she received or learn a game he has unwrapped. God's presence is also a gift. We are not on our own and that both gives us hope and makes us grateful.
Without God, there is no recipient. Pleasant and unpleasant stuff just presents itself to you. There is not rhyme or reason to it. You can try to reject it or just accept it or, irrationally, feel entitled to any good fortune that comes your way. But that deprives you of the benefits of cosmic gratitude.
Science has been studying gratitude of late. The findings are remarkable. Gratitude has been linked to good health, decreased anxiety and depression, increased quality of sleep, kinder behavior towards others, and higher long-term satisfaction. It improves marriage, decreases pain and lowers one's blood pressure. It makes one less aggressive, more optimistic, less materialistic, more spiritual and less self-centered. Gratitude increases your energy levels, helps you relax, makes you more likely to exercise, and lengthens your life. Psychologists call gratitude the forgotten factor in happiness. They've found that keeping a daily gratitude journal makes you happier longer than winning the lottery.
And, yes, you can and should be grateful to the people in your life for all they are and do. And for the fact that they exist and that you exist and that the sun exists and all things good, both simple and complex, exist, you can and should be grateful to God. And for the fact that your sins are forgiven and that you are reconciled to God and that you are now a child of God and that you have eternal life, you can and should be grateful to Jesus Christ. And for the fact that Christ lives in you and for the fact that you are being transformed into his image and for the fact that you have access to God and for the fact that you are being guided into all truth and for the fact that you have a guarantee of resurrection and for the fact that you can bear the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, you can and should be grateful to the Holy Spirit.
For Christians all is gift and grace; everything flows from God's undeserved, unreserved goodness. He gives us gifts that we might share them with each other. And if anyone lacks anything, it is because we have tried to hoard his gifts rather than share them, or because we have not devoted the same resources, energy and ingenuity that we show in getting what we want. But those abilities are themselves gifts from God. God's generosity should move us to reciprocate. As Jesus said, "Freely you have received; freely give."
And so maybe there was some truth in my first sermon idea. Thanksgiving should not be restricted to one day. We should be thankful to God everyday for family, friends, our creation and redemption, for the good news of God's love and for the privilege of serving him. Science shows that gratitude is vital to our mental, physical and spiritual health. In other words, we were created to be thankful. So from this day forward, let us rejoice in the fact that we have countless reasons to be thankful, beginning with our overwhelmingly generous God.
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