someone tells me to do something without an explanation. It's not that I'm contrary; I usually try

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1 SERMON TITLE: "Give Thanks!" SERMON TEXT: Psalm 107:1-9, PREACHER: Rev. Kim James OCCASION: November 18, 2012, at Wesley UMC INTRODUCTION I've always been the kind of person who wants to ask, "Why?" I've never liked it when someone tells me to do something without an explanation. It's not that I'm contrary; I usually try to get along and do whatever is expected of me. But if I can understand why I should do something, it makes doing it so much easier. At Thanksgiving time, we are reminded that we should give thanks, but little explanation is usually given to us about why we should do that. Of course, we know that expressing gratitude is polite, and--when we're in a happy mood and wanting to please others--good manners might be reason enough. But, just in case we aren't feeling all that happy or worrying all that much about what others think or feel--or just in case some troubles are causing us to feel less grateful this year--then we might want to look at giving thanks in a different way. It just might help to understand some reasons why being thankful might benefit us. So, whether you're already feeling the thanksgiving spirit or you need some encouragement, I invite you to consider Psalm 107 with me this morning. Let's see what it says about why we should give thanks. 1. RECOGNIZE & FEEL HOW BLESSED WE ARE One of the first things we notice in Psalm 107 is that one benefit of giving thanks is that doing so helps us recognize and feel how blessed we are. As the Jewish people of long ago sang this ancient song of thanksgiving, they were reminded how much God had looked after them and cared for their basic needs. As they lifted their voices in this act of thanksgiving, they felt the joyful blessings of God. The same thing happens today when we make a list, tell a friend, sing a

2 2 song, read some verses of scripture, say a prayer, or recite the blessings of Thanksgiving. We too are reminded how blessed we are. We recognize this in our minds, and we feel it in our emotions. So what kind of blessings are we talking about? Psalm 107 gives us some ideas. In verses four through seven, the psalm reminds us that after the Hebrew people had been slaves in Egypt and wandered in the desert wastelands, God led them to a place where they could settle and make a home. Most of us appreciate this blessing of a home. A home can be a house that keeps us safe, comfortable, and warm. A home can also be a neighborhood or a city that feels familiar and right. Before I came to Pueblo, I was the pastor of the United Methodist Church in Yuma, Colorado. There were many nice aspects about Yuma, but I never quite felt like I belonged in that small, agricultural community. But when I moved to Pueblo, I immediately felt right at home. It's hard to define or explain that feeling, but when we feel it, we know we are blessed by God. Besides the blessing of a home, Psalm 107, verse 9 reminded the Hebrews that God blessed them with food--satisfying the thirsty and filling the hungry with good things, giving them fruitful harvests and maintaining their animal herds. Verse 20 says that God blessed the Hebrews by healing the people. In verse 29, the Hebrews were reminded that God stilled the storms, calming the distress of those who were sailing at sea. Today, we know of God's work in our lives in these same kind of ways. God feeds us when we're hungry, heals us when we're sick, and protects us from danger. Of course, we can always name exceptions. We wonder why our loved ones suffer from cancer and Alzheimer's. We know of people who are killed in tragic accidents--like those veterans who were run over by

3 3 the train in Texas a few days ago. But we also know the more general truth that people are living longer and healthier lives all the time, and that accidental deaths happen much less frequently than in times past. When we offer thanks for these blessings, we both recognize them in our brains and feel them in our hearts. 2. FOCUS ON THE POSITIVE IMPROVES LIFE A second benefit of giving thanks is that it helps us focus on the positive. And when we think of the good things in our lives and tell God and others how appreciative we are, our life actually improves. This is true no matter how bad our situation is. If we can think positively, options open up, solutions appear, and our life will get better. That's not to say that everything is rosy. No doubt, there were times when the Hebrew people suffered terribly. Psalm 107 refers to lots of troubled times when the Israelites cried out to God. In our reading, we skipped verses 10 through 34. Those verses contain these words and phrases: sat in darkness, deepest gloom, prisoners suffering in iron chains, rebelled, despised, bitter labor, stumbled, distress, bars of iron, affliction, iniquities, gates of death, peril, reeled and staggered like drunken men, and wit's end. There's no denying that things go wrong. But that's exactly why the Psalm writer said we should give thanks to God. Just because bad stuff really does happen doesn't mean we should let it consume us and destroy our hope. As we see in verse six and many other verses of this psalm, the helpful point is to focus on the fact that, when the Hebrew people cried out for help, God heard them and delivered them from their distress. God met their needs in wonderful and loving ways. And, no matter how much trouble we're in, no matter how bad we feel, God can help us, too. When we say, "Thanks," we remember this positive truth, and it enables us to reach out for the help we need. It enables us to improve our life.

4 4 I've been wanting to go see the new movie about Abraham Lincoln. I don't know what the movie will tell about him, but one thing I've read is that Lincoln was the president who finally proclaimed Thanksgiving an official national holiday. Two hundred forty-two years had passed since the first Pilgrim Thanksgiving, and three previous presidents had turned down the idea. But in 1863, in the midst of the Civil War that was tearing the country apart, President Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November as an annual celebration of Thanksgiving. Why did he do that? Certainly not because things were going well. Maybe President Lincoln knew that the whole country needed to put aside negative thoughts. Maybe he realized that giving thanks helps us focus on the positive and improve our life. 3. REMIND US THAT WE AREN'T ALONE A third reason to give thanks is to remind ourselves that we aren't alone. In the New International Version, the 43 verses of Psalm 107 contain the words Lord, him, or his 50 times. What that says to me is that the songwriter had a clear sense of God's presence. In their successes and their failings, in their good times and their bad times, God was with them. When life is going well, it's easy to get a big head and think that our success or happiness is all because we've single-handedly pulled ourselves up by our own bootstraps. And when life isn't going so well, it's very easy to feel overwhelmed, scared, depressed, and alone. That's especially true if there's been a divorce, a death in the family, or the loss of some other important relationship. Giving thanks to God keeps us from becoming conceited, arrogant, and selfish during the good times. And giving thanks to God keeps us from feeling alone during the difficult times. There's a story about a woman who asked her farmer husband to say grace before a meal. Her husband, who wasn't a very religious man, replied, "I don't know why you think we should

5 5 thank the Lord, when we tilled the ground, we planted the seeds, we did the fertilizing, we harvested the crops, we ground the grain, we kneaded the dough, [and] we baked the bread."* Maybe that farmer ought to realize that we did not put the sun in the sky or cause the rain to fall. We did not tilt the earth on its axis, so the long days of summer would warm the earth. We did not create the first seeds and fertilizer. We did not even create our strong backs and smart brains. All those things are the work of God's hands, not ours. And sometimes the benefits we receive are the work of other people's hands. Like our church Thanksgiving dinner last night, right? We could have never had a wonderful feast like that if we hadn't all pitched in and helped. We work, we play, and we live in community with God and neighbor. Together we give and take, so that we have each other to lean on, and so that all our needs are met. Giving thanks reminds us that we aren't alone. CONCLUSION In times of economic downturn or emotional distress, giving thanks might seem too difficult, too celebratory, too artificial. But it's important to remember that giving thanks isn't just something we do because it's polite or expected by others. Giving thanks is also something we do to help ourselves. We give thanks in order to recognize and feel how blessed we are. We give thanks in order to help us focus on the positive, which improves our life. And we give thanks to remind us that we aren't alone. To me, those all seem like really good reasons to give thanks! *Adapted from Frank Lyman, "Finishing in the Top 10%," Dynamic Preaching (Oct.-Dec. 1998), p. 13.