Thanksgiving Eve Sermon

So, as promised, here's my combined Thanksgiving Eve sermon. I start, Anthony the intern from Holy Angels Catholic Church continues at the part marked "Anthony" and then I finish...

Sermon - Thanksgiving Eve, 2006

Text: Matthew 6:25-33

In his book, “The Lord is My Shepherd,” Rabbi Harold Kushner cites a story about a group of tourists on safari in Africa. They had hired several native tribesmen to carry their supplies while they made the trek. After three days, the tribesmen told them they would have to stop and rest for a day. The tourists were not tired, and the tribesmen explained, “We have walked too far too fast and now we must wait for our souls to catch up with us.”

Thanksgiving is a time to allow our souls to catch up with us…

I’ve been the intern at Lord of Life Lutheran Church for about three months now. I’ve had my share of ups and downs during that time. But until recently I’ve very much felt like one of the tribesmen carrying supplies and walking through the desert in Africa. The difference is that I’ve decided to carry my own baggage – not some tourist’s.

I’ve been walking through the last three months weighed down by worry. Worry that I won’t do my job right. Worry that what I may have learned in seminary won’t serve me at all in the parish. Worry that people won’t like me. Worry that I may not be a good pastor.

Worry, worry, worry.

It weighed on me like a ton of bricks – and I carried it with me wherever I went. To the office, to the store, visits with shut-in members, conversations with people in the congregation. Three months – a short amount of time – unless you’re carrying the weight of a dozen worries with you everywhere you go.

I walked too far, too fast and now I need my soul to catch up.

Thanksgiving is a time to allow our souls to catch up with us…

One day for our souls to catch up with us – one day out of a whole year. The tribesmen stopped after walking for only three days. We stop after walking for three hundred sixty four days, that is unless it’s a leap year, then it’s three hundred sixty-five.

One day doesn’t seem to be near enough for our souls to completely catch up after three hundred sixty-four days of walking with heavy baggage.

We spend those days worrying about what we will eat, or what we will wear.

Three hundred sixty-four days we worry about how to pay for our house and our utilities. We worry about our jobs, if we’ll be fired or if we’ll get a promotion. We worry about sports and piano lessons for our kids. We worry about our own health or the health of our loved ones. Will mom make it through surgery? Will we have to put grandpa into a nursing home? We worry about finding people to watch our kids when we have to run to a meeting. We worry about what colleges we’ll be accepted to. We worry about who will like us – who will hate us. We worry about what we will do with the rest of our lives. If what we are doing is what God has called us to do.

Worry, worry, worry.

For three hundred sixty-four days we carry the baggage of our lives. It is an exhausting task – carrying all these worries around. It can and often does drag us down.

The crowds following Jesus spent plenty of time carrying the heavy baggage of their lives too. They spent three hundred sixty-five days worrying about what they would eat, what they would drink, what they would wear.

Worry, worry, worry.

What will they feed their kids that night? Fish? Bread? Where will it come from? Will the day’s catch have enough fish to pay all the bills? Little Phillip’s tunic was ripped in half while he was playing with the other kids – how can we afford to replace it now? Can we sew it back together for a couple more months until we get the year end bonus?

Worry, worry, worry.

I can only imagine what the people thought when Jesus told them not to worry about their lives, what they will eat or what they will drink, or about their body, what they will wear.

Don’t worry??? What do you mean?? How can I not worry at a time like this – with my life and the life of my family at stake?

Yet Jesus tells them, tells us, not to worry.

Anthony’s half of the Sermon

Do not fear, be glad and rejoice for our God is doing great things among us! Stop, look around you, and allow your soul to catch up with the business of your life. We gather this evening as a Christian Family despite our worries and anxieties precisely because our God remains ever faithful to us. We must have the courage to allow Jesus to transform our worries into true peace. The worries you and I have…the heavy baggage we carry around with us…these things are very real…but as baptized Christians these worries and baggage are no longer our own…we do not have to bear these burdens alone. Christ bears them with us!

We are called as baptized Christians to never forget that Jesus Christ has the power to transform our anxieties…our worries…our burdens into peace and contentment. Our readings this evening remind all of us that there is no need to worry about our lives for the life we live as Christians is not our own but Christ is living within us! As Christian believers we were baptized into the new life of Christ…A life which transforms minds, and moves hearts…A life that is poured out for others…What greater gift have we to be thankful for? The real question now becomes: Have you and I embraced Christ’s gift of life to the fullest or not?

As a nation we have so much to be thankful for…our freedom, our democracy, the beauty of our land, the freedom to practice our faith, the blessings of family and friends, and our church communities. All of these blessed realities point to a larger truth…that you and I do not enjoy these benefits of merely our own accord…like our worries and anxieties, we do not carry these blessings on our own…True Thanksgiving helps us to recognize that all that we have, all that we are, is a gift from God!

We gather together this evening as one Christian Family to offer thanks and praise to God. In a spirit of thanksgiving, we rejoice together as a Christian People knowing that our God has ransomed us from worries, ransomed us from anxieties and fear…ransomed us from death…bringing us to new life in Christ Jesus! As a people united in the baptismal spirit of Christ, we place our fears, our worries and our anxieties in the loving embrace of Jesus.

Our prayer this evening becomes the words of the native tribesmen: “We have walked too far too fast and now we must wait for our souls to catch up with us.” Have you and I embraced Christ’s gift of life to the fullest by allowing our souls to catch up with us? This thanksgiving may we all have the courage to rest in the peace of God, the peace that only Christ can give.

Kate’s Part Again

I have had the privilege of traveling to Biloxi in the last two months to do some hurricane relief work. While I was there, I was reminded yet again of how much God is active in the world, of how much God constantly gives, even in the midst of the worry.

For the past year, the people of Biloxi and the rest of the Gulf Coast have been walking with the baggage of loss. Loss of homes, loss of family heirlooms, loss of precious photographs, even loss of life. Many lost everything they owned. For these people, their worries of food, clothing, and shelter are very real.

Yet Jesus says, “Do not worry about what you will eat or what you will drink or what you will wear.”

He says it every time a group leaves a place like Lord of Life or Holy Angels to travel to the Gulf Coast. He says it every time a volunteer shows up at a house to do some work. He says it with every person like Heather who takes a 6 month personal leave from work to volunteer in Biloxi. He says it with every article of clothing donated and every article given to somebody who needs it. He says it with every truck load of supplies sent. He says it with every nail and every screw. Every tube of caulk and every ceiling fan. He says it with every meal cooked and every comforting hug. He says it with every smile and every laugh.

Jesus says to all his children, “Do not worry… But strive first for the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.”

And the only thing the people can do is say, “Thank You.”

Amen.