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| Give Thanks (Ephesians 5:19-20) |
| Written by Pastor Fausel | |
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Grace, Mercy and Peace to you … At our last pastoral conference, the speaker of the day challenged the pastors there to think of three blessings they had received from God over the past week. Three Blessings. And after challenging us with that question … he just stood there … smiling at us …as he watched the wheels turning in all our heads… And then after about 30 seconds he asked us this question: “How many of the three blessings you thought of were “good things,” and how many of those blessings were “bad things?” We knew he’d caught us all in a simple trap. We, even as pastors, had fallen prey to a way of thinking that’s sometimes called the Theology of Glory. The Theology of Glory understands that good things come from God, and bad things, necessarily, are evil, and therefore come from the Devil. The point our conference speaker was making is that: not all blessings from God ARE things we might humanly consider “good”… …Just as our children may not like being put in time-out or being deprived of a favorite treat … but that act on the part of the parent is a reflection of their love for the child. It is meant for the child’s good. And so, in the same way, sometimes God’s love for us is manifested in ways we may not always see as “good” … yet, those things ARE meant for our eternal good, and in that sense, they are truly blessings from God. But the Theology of Glory is so well entrenched in the way we think… God’s job is give you “good things” like health. and peace and prosperity. However, that understanding of God, that Theology, is not the Theology of Scripture. The Theology of Scripture has been described as the Theology of the Cross. The Theology of the Cross sees things for what they truly are. And so, that understanding of God, that Theology, can see even what we might call the bad things that happen in life as blessings from Him. Come on, Pastor, how can that be? Well, look at Jesus on the Cross … is that a bad thing or a good thing? When we look at a man being innocently put to death on a Cross for the misdeeds of another (namely us), it looks like a “bad thing,” a travesty of justice. But when we look at Jesus on the Cross with the eyes of faith … we see the love of God in action, we see the glory of God at work … so much so, we of faith even honor that event calling it “Good Friday.” That one’s easy… Let’s take a harder one. Say Max goes into the hospital for open heart surgery. You know how that’s supposed to go today … Max goes in, has the surgery, and he’s out in three days, and three months later he’s back to normal, perhaps even better than he was before his surgery. But that’s not how this one goes. Max, a week after surgery, is still in intensive care. He’s holding his own. One family member comes in and is all bubbly, and is certain because of their prayers Max will be healed and eventually will be back on his feet. That person is holding to the Theology of Glory. That God is in the miracle business … and joy, and happiness and long life are His certain will for us all. But the Chaplain at the hospital has a different theology. And so, by the way, does Max. Max and the Chaplain know for certain, that which ever way the outcome goes … God is working all things for Max’s eternal good. That even death, as awful and as heartbreaking as that can be, can be a blessing of God. Now that situation might be harder for us to swallow. But think about it. How will the family member who embraces the Theology of Glory handle Max’s death, if indeed that is what occurs? That person will see God’s purpose for Max, of health and long life, being thwarted. And if so, the question that always comes up is “why?” And there has to be an answer. Otherwise, God cannot be all powerful. And something like this could happen again. And so that person will wonder if their prayers were not being heard, and why, and they will spend a lot of time worrying about that. They may also imagine that if they’d only had more people praying, the outcome would have been different. The problem is: Max’s death and their faith in God can’t reside in the same county. Why? Because the outcome wasn’t “good.” The last thing they see is that Max’s death could be God’s good and gracious will … or in other words, a blessing. And so … the question this all poses for us today is: Can we see God in our sufferings, in our difficulties, in our down-times … or can we only see Him in heath, success and outward victory over life’s ills?? Remember … we’re talking about the God of Scripture here … not the one of the late night call-in shows… or of the pop self-help books. A God who says to each and every one of us: “My grace is sufficient for you… for my power is made perfect in weakness.” The Theology of the Cross… is how God truly makes His heart known to us. It’s when we are going through our “valley of the shadow of death” that we truly get to know the heart of God … It is so counter-to-our-culture … as it was even in the days of St. Paul. This understanding of the Theology of the Cross … God’s ways in bad things is what St. Paul so often referred to “foolishness” in man’s eyes. In our eyes, we like to think of God in those moving sunsets, those powerful stories of a conversion, or those cures from addictions, those successful parish programs … That’s where we like to point to God … Not in the bearing of our own crosses … but that’s where we truly see God and also find His heart. Where’s all this going? To what God says to us through St. Paul in our reading for this morning. Something that makes no sense at all, and indeed even sounds like foolishness, if we hadn’t broached this subject of God’s blessings. What is it? What is this foolishness? We read in verse 20 of Paul’s fifth chapter in his letter to the Ephesians, …God though Paul saying: “giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ… “Giving thanks always … and for everything.” You see, you have a hard time doing THAT if you’re living under a Theology of Glory. How can you give thanks for those things which look untoward?... those things that look just the opposite of health and success and victory over life’s ills? Giving thanks always and for everything… Even Max’s death following his surgery? Giving thanks? Foolishness, right? Even that house foreclosure, that bankruptcy? Giving thanks to God for that!…?? My suffering because of someone else’s sin?… Giving thanks for that? …More foolishness, right? Paul and Silas sat in jail … being punished by the authorities out of their own hate or jealousy. And what did Paul and Silas do? They gave thanks to God! … to the point that they sat there and sang songs to Him. That was so counter-culture … so opposite of human nature, if you will … that it truly brought glory to God in the sight of unbelievers. That’s what this foolishness is … as we heard in the Old Testament reading … it is the wisdom of God, Wisdom … that looks like foolishness to human nature. Bear with us one more time and let’s go back to our friend Max, and say that in God’s time, he did die in the hospital. That family member who was praying for health, would have been so disappointed when their prayers were not answered … so much so they may have begun to doubt their faith… What Glory to God would there be in that? There might even be anger at God… you think? What kind of witness would that family member then have given to others looking at that whole situation? People may have said, “I’ll never have the faith that person claimed to have and look at the good it’s done them. That’s not for me.” So. How about this, now, for foolishness? What if … while Max was still lingering in the Intensive Care Unit … the Chaplain would have read this passage we have from Ephesians to that family member … especially that part about giving thanks to God always and for everything. Their human nature would protest, wouldn’t it? “How can you do that, Chaplain?? That’s foolishness! How can anyone give thanks to God for a surgery that’s not bringing the healing it was supposed to provide… and as a result my loved one, Max, is now near death? How can you give thanks to God for that???” That … IS … precisely … the question that GOD is putting in front of each and every one of us today. It’s very easy… to give thanks to God when the blessings, the good things, flow like a river. But when the blessings of God in our judgment lead us down uncomfortable paths … even a path that might be leading to our ever-after … we don’t give thanks … do we? We complain. We Judge God. We’d be lining up to submit our cause to a higher court for appeal, if there was one. Don’t worry, that’s just being human. Just as we might sit in jail and stew over our unjust incarceration, in self-pity… hardly for a second giving a thought to praising God … instead … wondering where HE was when we needed Him. Where … is God? Ah. He has Max all wrapped up in His loving arms in that ICU. He has that Family member firmly in His embrace as well. And He is working all things to their Good as He has called them to faith, to be His children, according to His purpose. Even though … their eyes may be having a hard time seeing it. So, what about the Chaplain’s encouragement from Scripture to give thanks to God, even in this situation? Even when doing so looks like so much foolishness? To do so IS an act of will, but only something that can be done in the power of God’s Spirit. You notice that St Paul writes … not just “give thanks to God” but do so “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” It is only in Christ … in Faith, that Paul and Silas could look at their plight and sing in the jail. It is only in Jesus Christ that Max can look toward the future and know for certain that the path he’s on will take him someday to the joy of heaven … be that today … or years in the future. And it’s only in Jesus Christ that that family member can finally trust God and His love … instead of Judging God by His willingness to grant or not grant their wish… …And even, in faith, to give thanks to God, in this circumstance… knowing that their Loved One, Max, is not alone … and never will be, this side, or the other side of the grave. Giving thanks … as foolish as it may seem to others without faith … and yet in doing so, giving as powerful a witness to God and His glory, that others will ever see. Believe me, I know, this one is not easy. But it’s very simple. And it causes us to really think about living what we believe … more so, perhaps, than any other part of our Christian life. “Give thanks always and for everything to God our Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. “Father, Yes, giving thanks to Him. The Son, Yes, doing so in faith, in His Name. But where’s the Holy Spirit? Ah, He’s the one in you doing it!... giving thanks in all circumstances, to God, though you! To God, then, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be all praise! And all Thanks! In Him. Amen. |