Good morning!
Turn to your neighbor and say, “Neighbor, what are you thankful for?”
Thanksgiving is here. This week, we celebrate that holiday that has been called both the most American of holidays and the most Christian holiday. We stop for one day and remember the things that we are thankful for.
Other religions do not do this. The great Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement, the day when Jews confess their sins and ask for forgiveness.
The Moslem time of Ramadan is a month long fast, a time much more akin to our Lenten season than anything else.
As for the Buddhists, they tell us that all life is suffering. Why would you have a holiday of Thanksgiving?
No, Thanksgiving is uniquely Christian, although many other people have chosen to celebrate the holiday. You see, it is in Christianity that all humans find that there is something more to life than living it, something more to our lives than following rules and suffering, some greater purpose is found in our lives – discovering that God loves us and helping others discover that love.
Thanksgiving is always tied up with love. Our classic image of the Thanksgiving table given to us by Norman Rockwell shows smiling children and their parents, Grandpa is standing at the head of the table, and Grandmother is bringing a huge turkey to sit in front of Grandpa. Clearly, everybody is happy, the family is together, and family love is all around.
That love is important. Too often today, the family love has evaporated like water on a hot stove. The love in families evaporates for many reasons, but the most important two reasons are time and Spirit.
When a family does not spend time together, the members grow apart. Many studies have shown that the most important thing for an infant’s normal development is for the mother – or someone – to regularly hold that infant, to play with that infant, to talk to that infant. Children who are neglected at an early age, who are left alone and untouched end up having a huge cluster of problems as they enter school. In the worst cases, they cannot form attachments with anybody. Ever.
When the adults in the family don’t spend enough time together, they begin to form attachments with those people that they do spend time with. As Wanda Mitchell used to say, “Loneliness makes the heart grow fonder – of someone else.” A key reason marriages split up is when the couple stops spending time together and instead focus upon work and career. Farm families had few divorces. They ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner together and often worked together in the fields, in the barns, and on the fences.
So why do we focus upon our work and career and not each other? It usually comes down to one key decision made early in the marriage – how big is the house? Perhaps the most important decision that you can make in your family’s life is to restrain your desire for material wealth – and buy a small house.
Our modern standard is that we should get qualified for the largest house we can afford and then borrow the maximum we can afford, with the idea that over time our paychecks will get larger and our payments will get easier. But that assumes both parents are working full-time. If one can’t work – the other does overtime. And yet, it allows each child to have a room for themselves, and dad and mom to each have workplaces. An office for her – a man-cave for him, right? But that is simply a way for people to get away from each other.
Instead, a smaller, cozier house means that people have to be close to one another. Two brothers in the same room means two good friends develop for life. A single living room - with one television - means that people learn to negotiate and live together, enjoying things together. And a smaller house means a smaller house payment, which allows for some flexibility in work schedules, maybe even the ability to work at a lower paying job from home. Maybe a bit more money for the family to go camping or traveling on weekends. Maybe a bit more time spent together.
Think about what you could do if you had an extra $300 a month because you had a smaller house. You can still do that. You can trade down, selling your home and buying a smaller house. Or you can think and plan more carefully, so that as your family grows you can keep the house you have.
You see, most people think that material wealth and time are linked. If I had some more money, I could retire earlier and take more vacations.
But that is a lie.
Actually, the way it works is this: If I want to take more vacations or retire earlier, I must put in more time. I must work many overtime hours now so I’ll have the money to take my two weeks of vacation on a cruise ship next summer. But I’ll get two weeks of vacation either way. The real question is whether or not I’ll exhaust myself so badly between now and then that my spouse will spend time with someone else.
Instead, cut your expenses and spend time with your family now. It’s called “living small”. If you bring home $400 a week, plan to live in a place that only requires you spend $300 a week for your entire budget, with $100 a week free. If you bring home $2000 a week, plan to live in a place that only requires you spend $1500 a week. Live smaller. It’s really a key to living a more abundant life. Here’s the way it works:
When you stop working the overtime, and you come straight home after work, are relaxed, and don’t worry, you can get to sleep earlier, you won’t lie awake at night, and then when Friday comes, you won’t be exhausted, and you won’t be too tired to spend time with the family. You’ll also accomplish more at work than you did when you were exhausted. And your family life will be great.
Divorces are expensive. Counseling for children – or yourself - is expensive. Health care is expensive when you are always working hard to pay your bills – instead of planning to have low expenses. But so many of us substitute buying things for love in our lives. Spend time cultivating the eternal things of this life and the next – relationships. Relationships with people and with God.
Time spent together is key to maintain and growing love. But another key point is taking proper care of your spiritual issues.
When two people come together in marriage, it is important that a balance of power be maintained. And that balance of power gets out of balance when one or both of the parents feels that they are independent, arrogantly right all the time, a god unto themselves. This most often happens when either member of the marriage – or both – never manage to admit that God exists and has an influence upon their lives.
You see, if you do not follow God, if you are not willing to follow Christ, then you follow some other god. That god may be a quest for material wealth, a quest for power – or simply an assumption that you are completely in charge and right all the time. Or even most of the time. In effect, you are pretending that you are a god, a being with free and independent action, beholden to no one, and you demand your way or the highway. And eventually, when someone is in a marriage with this deep-rooted idea, someone hits the highway.
A proper spirit is a spirit that yields. First and foremost, that spirit yields to God’s will. That spirit attempts to find God’s Will and follows that Will, always wondering if you are actually following God’s Will, but desiring very much to be following that Will. There is a humility of the spirit in that person.
Second, that person’s spirit recognizes that other people are images of God, and are therefore very, very valuable. One who truly follows God will never desire the harm of an image of God, the harming of another person.
Third, that person’s spirit then learns to yield to the will of others, accommodating their desires, yet stands strong and happy, aware that while the others are valuable images of God, you are also a valuable image of God.
It is this mutual yielding to one another, a will to do for each other, a striving to lift up the other person that is mutual that makes for a happy marriage. And when this concept of lifting up the other becomes second nature, the children grow and learn and become strong yet humble spirits also, newly minted and polished images of God. But it is very difficult to stay on this course unless you are in church regularly, sitting in worship on Sundays, and also joining in a small group who has the time and love and desire to say to you from time to time – “are you sure that you’re heading the right direction?”
If you want a happy family, it requires time which we give to ourselves by restraining our material wants, and it requires a good spirit, humbled by bowing the knee to almighty God and His Son, Jesus Christ.
And our Gospel reading today explains to us why it is so important to have these things – Plenty of time and the spare cash that comes from living small, and a good spirit, caused by paying attention to God.
Jesus tells that there will be two types of people in His flock. He refers to them as sheep and goats. Both were commonly found in a flock, but the sheep were more valuable in those days – they had finer hair, could be milked, and could also be turned into mutton. But they were more valuable alive than dead because of their fine wool. The goats, on the other hand, while they had wool and milk, their wool and milk was not of the same quality that the wool and milk of the sheep were, so the goats were usually killed and eaten.
Jesus tells us that while many people will be found in the church – his flock – He will judge us based upon our actions to determine who is actually following Him. It isn’t enough, you see, to simply declare “I believe in God” to be a follower of Christ. It isn’t enough, you see, to be baptized and attend church. Jesus has a higher standard for His followers. He asks us to treat all people with great hospitality, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, to welcome strangers into our homes, to take care of the sick, to visit those in prisons, and to give people drinks when they are thirsty. Those who do these things are like sheep, valuable for what they provide the world. Those who do not do these things are like goats, simply to be killed.
In other places, the words that Jesus uses have spiritual meaning. For example, Jesus tells us that He is a spring of living water. When we give people drinks of water, therefore, He isn’t JUST talking about physical water, but is also talking about giving people an understanding of who Christ is. When he talks about taking care of the sick, this doesn’t just mean physically sick, but also we are to take care of those who are emotionally or mentally or spiritually sick. When he talks about visiting people who are in prison, he isn’t just talking about physical prisons, but he is also talking about reaching and visiting those people who have put themselves in spiritual prisons, in dark places where they cannot escape from.
Why does Jesus consider our treatment of all these hurting people to be the same as our treatment of Him? Because all people are created images of God – and Jesus is God walking on this earth. If you throw darts at the picture of a politician, we all know that it represents your attitude toward that politician. So the way you treat fellow images of God represents your attitude toward God Himself – whether God the Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit. And always remember that you yourself are also an image of God. Treat yourself appropriately. Take care of that image and polish it daily.
The interesting thing about this story told by Jesus about the sheep and the goats is that the people who Jesus called the sheep were totally unaware that their daily acts of kindness that they performed in their humility was seen by Jesus as service to Him, the King of the world. They were completely unaware that they had touched Jesus when they fed hungry people, invited strangers into their homes, or looked after the sick. This shows how pure their motives were – they were not aware that their King was watching when they did these deeds. They simply did good because of their humble spirit. Jesus surprised them by telling them how great they were.
We are, after all, as Christians, we are the children of God, princes and princesses of the Kingdom. Our ancestor Adam was told to take care of the earth. As princes and princesses of the Kingdom, we are asked to also take care of the earth – and all the people on that earth. We will be judged upon how well we fulfill our roles as princes and princesses of the Kingdom.
When we became Christians, we are no longer common people. We are the nobility of the Kingdom. And we all know that the nobility of the Kingdom has responsibilities that common people can safely ignore. When Jesus and God bent down to you and said, “arise, child of God”, you were adopted into a holy family, filled with love and the power that flows in such a noble, strong family. And a truly noble family understands that they not only serve the King – but also all the other people in the Kingdom. A truly royal family member is always amazed at their ability to do good – but does it with a heart which is grateful to the Father that granted them such ability to do good. Having the power to do good, you see, is an immense privilege. We should never down or ignore that gift that God has given each of us.
Such a family, full of thanksgiving and grace, is what we belong to. Our Father provides everything for us – and for all the people outside our family. It is our responsibility to ensure that the least people in the Kingdom are taken care of. We each have that responsibility. But we are also thankful above all else that our Father loves us and gives us the strength to do good.
Look at what you have to be thankful for:
You can walk. You can talk. You can hear. You can see. You can touch. There are many people who cannot do one or more of those things. If you are one of the people who cannot walk or talk or hear or see or touch, ask yourself: Have I had life?
We all have life. Perhaps this is the greatest gift of all – and the thing we most take for granted. We often talk with people who say, “Why did God let that person die?” Perhaps the question we should all ask is “Why does God let me live?” Have you considered that question? Have you considered for what purpose God created you? Have you considered the ability to do good that is your life?
In the story of the sheep and the goats that Jesus told, the goats did not do anything overtly bad. They didn’t kill people, steal from people, or harm people in any way. They just failed to be hospitable to people. They failed to do good. And so they are cursed to eternal punishment.
Our burden, as members of Jesus’ flock, is to do good. Yet it is no burden at all. Doing good is its own reward. The surprise on someone else’s face when you go beyond what is necessary and do what is extraordinary is worth the effort. Trust me. Try it.
Look outside, later this week as you go shopping. You will see people of all types. You will see people who are strong and noble in bearing – and people who are wretched, bowed down by the cares of the world that are on their shoulders. Do your best to lift their burdens, to raise their spirits, to do for them what no one else would stop to do --- because you are a child of the Most High God, and they are images of our Father.
Go outside your comfort zone and do amazing things this holiday season. Give of your time, your presence, your skills, your treasures, and tell them of your Father who leads you to do these things. Show the world – and those particular people - what can happen when someone truly believes that God loves them, that God will take care of them no matter what, and who truly believe that they will live forever. Change our world and make it holy. Do as Christ would do!
Remember to put aside money for our gift-tithe. Set aside 1/10th of your gift expenses for collection at Christmas time for the children’s ministry (Clarksburg Mission) and the Upshire Parish House.
But don’t forget to do all the good you can do, in all the places that you can, to all the people that you can. Act like a holy prince. Act like a holy princess. Change the world.
So turn to your neighbor and say, “Neighbor, what are you thankful for?”
And say to your neighbor, “Neighbor, I am thankful that my Father is the King of the Universe.!”
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