Thankful Living with God at the Center

Matthew 6: 25-33

Roger Lynn

November 19, 2017

Thanksgiving Sunday

(click here for the audio for this sermon)

(click here for the video for the whole worship service - the sermon starts at 23:00)

We are regularly bombarded by messages of scarcity. “There is not enough – not enough food, not enough money, not enough oil, not enough safety, not enough love, not enough God. We are not enough – not smart enough, not strong enough, not attractive enough, not spiritual enough, not good enough.” Such messages hit us fast and hard and often from all sides – including even from inside ourselves. And to the extent that we believe these messages of scarcity we fall prey to one of the great falsehoods of our day. It simply is not true. We live in an abundant universe. We worship an abundant God. There is enough, and more than enough. We are enough, and more than enough.

Four days from now we will be celebrating Thanksgiving in this country. Beyond just the massive quantities of food and excessive hours of football, Thanksgiving has traditionally been a time set aside for reflection. It is an opportunity for us to bring our gratitude into the foreground of our consciousness so that it might color and shape the whole of our living, not just for a few hours on a Thursday afternoon in November, but from that moment forward into the rest of our days. We have a chance to ponder the presence in our lives of our family and friends, the roof over our heads and the food on our tables, the world we have to live in and the breath which fills our lungs. In the words of Maria von Trapp in “The Sound of Music” – we simply remember our favorite things.

All of that is short-circuited, however, when we buy into the message of scarcity. I submit to you that deep, genuine thanksgiving arises out of a perspective of abundance, and is impossible when scarcity thinking dominates the landscape of our awareness. This is particularly true when we allow scarcity to define not just what we have, but who we are. When we believe that we are not enough then true thanksgiving will elude us. We find ourselves distracted by thoughts of what we don’t have, or what we are about to lose. Such a view of life tends to shut us down rather than open us up.

This is why I really appreciate today’s reading from Matthew’s Gospel. It points us beyond our scarcity thinking and straight into the heart of God’s abundance. This is particularly clear when we hear it in the language found in Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase – “The Message.” It catches us off-guard and slips in past our usual defenses. It makes it possible for Jesus’ understanding of life to really be heard. I invite you to listen with fresh hearing:

If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to God than birds. Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion - do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers - most of which are never even seen - don’t you think God will attend to you, take pride in you, do what is best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way God works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how God works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. 

(Matthew 6:25-33 from The Message by Eugene Peterson)

“Steep your life in God-reality!” Wow! That, in one compact little sentence, is the foundation for thankful living. When we put God at the center of our living, at the center of our awareness, then everything else falls into a very different perspective. We can’t help but be aware of the abundance. We can’t help but see the fullness of life. We can’t help but express our deep and heartfelt thanks. That list we make on Thanksgiving takes on a sacred, holy glow as each item on the list becomes an occasion for seeing God’s presence infused into every moment and every experience. It is the faithful perspective which singer/songwriter Peter Mayer points us to in his song “Holy Now.” He sings about the experience of growing up in a church with a scarcity perspective, and the dramatic, night-and-day contrast he now finds in seeing the world through a lens of abundance.

“When holy water was rare at best

It barely wet my fingertips

But now I have to hold my breath

Like I’m swimming in a sea of it

It used to be a world half there

Heaven’s second rate hand-me-down

But I walk it with a reverent air

’Cause everything is holy now”

(click here to view the video of Peter Mayer singing "Holy Now")

And when we start living our lives from this perspective it changes everything. Fear drops away. New possibilities begin to emerge. Deep, rich sharing becomes possible. More chairs get added to table. Everyone is invited, and still there is enough. We live in an abundant universe. We worship an abundant God. There is enough, and more than enough. All we have to do is open our eyes and our hearts to see it. And once we see it we can begin living it, with God at the center. Thanks be to God.