11/19/89

“O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His steadfast love endures forever.”

(Psalm 107:1)

The human heart is not naturally grateful. For human beings gratitude is an acquired grace. Even with our Pilgrim Fathers thanksgiving to God did not spring spontaneously as we are accustomed to think.

The moldy old records of the Plymouth Colony reveal that the Pilgrims celebrated their first harvest festival in October of 1621, their first autumn in their new wilderness home. The quaint account tells of three days of feasting on wild turkey with their Indian friends, including Chief Massasoit. But there is no record of this harvest festival season being set apart for giving thanks.

The chronicle of the next year is filled with stories of misfortune. The colony had no autumn feast. A terrible drought withered the corn in the fields and turned the gardens brown. A day of prayer was observed and it was followed by a long and refreshing rain, and at the same time a ship was sighted loaded with friends and supplies. Then Governor Bradford appointed a day for “public thanksgiving”, but it was different from our present Thanksgiving Day for we find no record that tells of feasting following the long church services.

It was not until ten years had passed for the Pilgrims in their new world home that we find record of their celebrating the sort of Thanksgiving we have traditionally associated with them. Ten years filled with hardships suffered from the rigorous climate, disasters of plagues, attacks from hostile Indian tribes — ten years marked also by the wonderful mercies of a kind Providence which was always opening up a way of deliverance for them and showering blessings upon them; it was not until ten eventful years had passed that we find in the records of Plymouth Colony evidence of a Thanksgiving Day such as we are accustomed to celebrate, linking feasting and thanksgiving to God together. Then the quaint old record reads that the colonists gathered “in the meeting house, some half an hour before nine, and continued until after twelve o’clock,” with Psalm singing, prayer, and sermon. Then came “making merry to the creatures, the poorer sort being invited by the richer.”

No, even with our devout Pilgrim Fathers, thanksgiving did not spring so spontaneously as we are accustomed to think. The human heart is not naturally grateful … Most of us have to learn to say, “thank you”.

Therefore, one of religion’s chief concerns has been the cultivation of the grateful heart. Lincoln Barrett in an article entitled, God and the American People, said this most significant thing: “Religion is the final battleground between God and man’s self-esteem.” Man’s native disposition is to think of himself as the big-boy, the important guy who does everything for himself and runs things in general. Religion concerns itself with shattering this self-esteem. What method does religion employ to shatter man’s self-esteem? Why, the technique of cultivating the grateful heart, by reminding man over and over of the true source of all his blessings and his very being.

Israel in the wilderness was commanded to remember the Lord her God when she came into her Promised Land and prospered there, least she say in her heart: “My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is He that giveth thee the power to get wealth.”

The peace-offering, or thank-offering, which from the earliest times had a place in the ritual of sacrifice among the Jews, was to “keep alive the sense of dependence on God for protection and the natural blessings of life.” (Hastings Bible Dictionary)

Here, in the 26th chapter of Deuteronomy, we find the actual ritual of Thanksgiving in the Harvest Festival required of every Hebrew. When the day of Thanksgiving comes round, the man fills a basket full of the first fruits of his harvest — that is, the choice, the very best, not the leavings and the leftovers. This basket he carries to the Lord’s House. Meeting the priest at the door, the man says: “I profess this day unto the Lord, my God, that I am come unto the country which the Lord swears unto our Fathers to give us.”

Then the priest takes the basket, places it before the altar, and, standing in the presence of the whole congregation before the altar of the Lord, the man speaks these words: “A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians’ evilly treated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage. And when we cried unto the Lord God of our Fathers, the Lord heard our voice, and looked upon our afflictions, and our labor, and our oppression. And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs and with wonders. And He hath brought us unto this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey. And now, behold, I have brought the first fruits of the land, which thou, O Lord, hast given me.” (Deuteronomy 26:5-10)

If we were to perpetuate in our church an observance of the traditional Pilgrim’s Thanksgiving service, what would we do? With our offering we would come in the harvest season to God’s house. We would place it upon His altar. Were we to speak the sober truth in His presence our words would follow the same familiar pattern: “My father was an immigrant, ready to perish — the rejected, enslaved, oppressed off-scourgings of the old world. But in our distress we called unto the Lord God of our fathers. The Lord heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labor, and our oppressions. And the Lord brought us forth, slaves, out of many lands, across wintry uncharted seas, with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders. And He hath brought us unto this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that flows with milk and honey.”

Isn’t that what we would say in sober truth in this Harvest Thanksgiving season established by our Pilgrim Fathers? Isn’t that what our thanksgiving season really means? It is all for the purpose of cultivating in us a grateful spirit — to teach us each one to say, “thank you”, from our hearts.

Quite naturally the question rises, why is religion so involved in the cultivation of the grateful heart? Cicero once said that: “The grateful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the others.” Here, then, is the foundation of all other virtues. There is no hope of building bigness in personality unless the heart has first been made grateful. Religion, which concerns itself so supremely with character, will of course be concerned with that virtue which is the parent of all the others.

“A wise mother believed that the grateful heart was the greatest virtue. When she sent her little child off to school for the first time, she prayed: ‘Today she goes to school. She is so little, God. She is my baby. Watch over her — where my eyes cannot follow. And dear God, there are so many things she does not know — about the other girls who will torment her and laugh at her for her mistakes — or maybe because her clothes are not as good as theirs — because her hair is straight and won’t ever hold a curl. She does not know about this kind of cruelty yet. Nor does she know about pushing and shoving. Protect her, God, with a grateful heart. And please, God, help her to love her teachers — all of them she’ll ever have in the long, bittersweet years. Help her to remember that they are human too — like her mama is — that they too can get tired and cross and sometimes harassed beyond endurance. Help her to give them her love, no apple-polishing, just that warm, steady little flame that tells them that she appreciates. She will, God, if you give her a grateful heart. And she’s bright, dear God. Please give her grace to carry this gift with humility. And one thing more, please, God, open her eyes and heart to the troubles of those about her so that all who look to her may be comforted — and none through her be willfully hurt. They won’t God, if you give her a grateful heart. A grateful heart is my prayer, O God, for my girl who goes to school today.’ There it is. A grateful heart is not only the greatest virtue but the parent of all the others. If you have it you have almost everything; if you don’t have it you have almost nothing.” (John Homer Miller — Christian Herald, November 1948)

But there’s another reason religion is so concerned with the cultivation of a grateful heart: a grateful heart is the secret source of human happiness and contentment. That’s the chief business of religion, you know, bringing people into the more abundant life. It’s not lots of money or even abounding good health that causes human happiness. Rather, it’s the grateful heart. You can be as rich as Croesus and yet utterly miserable if you don’t have a grateful heart, while happiness and contentment will crown even poverty and rags, if you possess a grateful heart.

1. T. Forsythe told of going into a theater once where he saw “a packed audience brought to a dewy silence, like the half hour in heaven, while a young girl on the stage caressed a child to sleep with words they had all known long, and memories they had known longer still, sung to a grave sweet melody:

‘O, the auld hoose, the auld hoose,

What though the rooms were sma’,

How many cherished memories

Do they like flowers reca’!

The auld hoose, the auld hoose,

Deserted though ye be,

There ne’er can be a new hoose

Will seem sae fair to me’.

No, it’s not the biggest houses, not the finest ones that house the most happiness. It’s the houses that hold the grateful hearts that are blessed with a halo of happiness.

But religion is supremely concerned with the cultivation of the grateful heart because it is the open door, the entrée, for God’s Holy Spirit to come into our lives with the divine comfort, strength, and power which He brings for our life’s transformation.

 

PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING

November 28, 1963

Eternal Father, whose outstretched hand is ever open to all Thy children in generous giving, strong support, and gentle guidance, hear us now as from our hearts we say our “Thank yous”.

We thank Thee, O God, for life and food and shelter; for family and friends whose presence with us and confidence in us have meant more to us than meat and drink. And, Lord, comfort all whose hearts ache in this thanksgiving season because they have lost a friend or a dear relation.

We thank Thee, O God, for our spiritual life; for the light of truth and love and brotherhood; the light of justice and good will, which are Thy good gifts to us all through Thy well loved Son, Jesus Christ. We thank Thee, O God, for our place in His church, Thy household of faith, both the church militant and the church triumphant. And, Lord, comfort those who know not the inner peace and power of Thy kingdom — those who are lost in the confusion of hate and bitterness. May they be gathered into the circle of Thy loving care.

We thank Thee, O God, for our country: for all patriots who more than self their country loved and mercy more than life; for all who have built order and strength and continuity and justice and brotherhood into our common life, that we might abide in joyous safety with our families and friends about us, prospering and unafraid. Comfort, O Lord, with Thy peace and Thy love, all troubled souls who think life calls them to be apostles of discord. May their spirits experience and show forth Thy peace and love.

O God, we offer unto Thee our prayers for the Kennedy family this Thanksgiving Day; that though their sorrow cannot be removed nor their loss restored, may they be comforted by the evidences of a chastened, humbled, and grateful America; that they may know that their sacrifice has not been in vain.

For President Lyndon Johnson, his family, his chiefs of staff, and all our national leaders, we pray, O God, that they may carry their responsibilities with honor, dignity, and devotion, ever conscious of their dependence upon Thy grace and ever grateful for Thy rich goodness to our nation.

Hear our prayers, O Gracious Father, receive our thanksgiving, and send into our hearts the spirit of Thy Son Jesus Christ, that we may receive Him as our Prince of Peace and King of Love. Amen.