GIVING THANKS TO GOD IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES
Isaiah 65:17-25; Luke 21:5-19
November 18, 2007
Betty Berghaus
At first glance, these passages might seem to be very opposite. The Isaiah passage speaks of an ideal place, a joyful place, where no one hurts or weeps, where death does not claim children or young people, where there are no mortgage foreclosures, or droughts, and fields yield abundantly; and where there is such peace that even the creatures that usually prey upon one another lie down together in harmony. This is a place protected by God, a heavenly place.
Then we look at the passage in Luke, and here Jesus talks of false teachers and wars and famines and plagues and persecution and betrayal, etc., etc., etc.! What a gloomy Scripture for the Sunday before Thanksgiving!
But let’s look closer at these two passages which are part of the lectionary readings for this Sunday. As was true of many of the prophets, Isaiah had thrown his share of doom and gloom at the people of Israel. When they were living among heathens and indulging in their worship of other gods, when they were not taking care of one another, Isaiah ranted like this:
“What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?...
I will make it a waste…for the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting;
[God] expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry….Ah, you who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is
room for no one but you, and you are left to live alone in the midst of the land! The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing:
Surely many houses will be desolate, large and beautiful house, without inhabitant…”
“Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite and opened its mouth beyond measure; the nobility of Jerusalem and her multitude will go down…” (Isaiah 5, selected verses)
That is rather scary. And it sounds way too familiar to today’s circumstances! The prophets were given wisdom to see what was happening with the people of God, and they warned them about the consequences of their selfishness and arrogance and disobedience. But when the people of God were down and out, as they were later in Isaiah as they tried to rebuild after returning from the horrors of the exile, the prophets then gave encouraging words to a people who turned to God for solace. “For I am about to create a new heaven and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind…” The “former things” must have been horrible, and the prophet then spoke for a God who would restore and comfort.
The passage in Luke is a bit of an odd one for Jesus. It has been called the “little apocalypse.” For those who do not know about apocalyptic literature, it began to appear not long before the time of Jesus. Most of it was written in between the times of the Old and New Testament writings. Some Bibles contain the Apocrypha, and include these writings for our discernment, though they are not a part of our official Scripture. Included in these writings are an addition to the book of Esther, a book of the Wisdom of Solomon, and Bel and the Dragon, an addition to the Book of Daniel. The Book of Daniel, by the way, is the only Old Testament book that contains apocryphal writings. The most well-known apocryphal book, of course, is Revelation. Apocalyptic means “revelational,” and apocalyptic literature was written in response to persecution and severe trials. In the midst of such times, God does not appear to be in control, for evil forces seem to be winning. But the writings speak, in codes that only those in the know can interpret, with beasts and secret numbers, of the age to come, when God’s rule will prevail and crush the present age of evil.
Perhaps we can now see that our two passages today are not really that far apart. In Luke, Jesus warns of the terrors that will come, or have already come. In Isaiah, the prophet brings word of God’s comfort after and in the midst of the trails.
The interesting thing to me is to notice how much the trials of these passages resemble the events of today. Isaiah, most likely written in the 6th century before Christ, lets us know that the former time was one full of inopportune death (babies and adults), of greed, of oppression of the working class, and of wars between nations. Luke too talks of wars, and also of natural disasters, and persecutions. And the scary thing, my people, is that, with the exception of the persecutions perhaps, most of these disasters are things that the people brought upon themselves. They ignored God’s commandments and caring presence to pursue other gods. They became greedy and selfish, and the poor, the widows, and the orphans were ignored, and suffered. The lower working class were abused, just so that the rich could make more money. The rich built bigger houses than they needed; they purchased more land than they could handle. Diseases must have spread to slay infants and adults in an untimely way. Does any of this sound even slightly familiar? The word of the prophet might well tell us at times these days that we are disobeying God’s will. We too buy bigger houses than we need, and fill them with more stuff than we ever use. We have more cars than we have family members. We ignore the care of our earth, even, and perhaps especially, in this time of drought.
But maybe, just maybe, we are enough into the trials, with banks foreclosing and gas and energy and food prices soaring, with people traveling less and buying less, with wars raging and more threatening, with terrorist warnings, with droughts and fires, and more, that the prophet would now bring us a message of solace and comfort.
But, the Scriptures teach us that redemption would require something of us. We must turn back to God. “Repent,” said the prophets, “Repent,” said John the Baptist. “Repent,” said Jesus. We must not be led astray by false teachers, Jesus said, and we must trust God when we hear the awful news of wars and disasters. But that is easier said than done! And there’s more. Remaining a Christian, following God’s will in the midst of a world that is not, may mean that Christians will undergo suffering for the sake of the gospel. The early Christians were put on trial and killed for their beliefs. Families were split when one believed and another did not. But, said Jesus in our passage, this gives you the opportunity to witness. And don’t worry about what to say, he told his people, for I will give you the words you need, and “wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict” (Luke 21:15). It will not be easy, he said, for “you will be hated by all because of my name” (v.17). But, you will not perish from this, and lastly, he said, “By your endurance you will gain your souls” (v.18-19).
The Scriptures give us choices for how we live our lives as Christians. We are free to turn from God and to pursue worldly ways of acquisition and success and fame. We can try to see if money can indeed buy happiness. Or, we can be true to our Christian faith and endure the trials of life perhaps somewhat as outsiders, or “resident aliens” (as Hauerwas and Willimon label Christians) in our world. And we can know that we are always loved and supported by our Lord (and by our fellow Christians). Contrary to what some believe, the Scriptures do not guarantee Christians lives without suffering. Quite the opposite, Christians usually realize that suffering is a part of life, and that our faith is what enables us to make it through the trials and tribulations. Peter Gomes, in The Good Book, said:
“Religion is not the answer to the unknowable or the unfaceable or the unendurable; religion is what we do and what we are in the face of the unknowable, the unfaceable, and the unendurable. It is the constant exercise in making of sense first, and then of meaning.” (Gomes, p.213)
The apostle Paul understood suffering. He suffered for his conversion to Christianity. But he wrote these words in Romans (5:35):
“…we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
An article in a recent issue of The Christian Century magazine is entitled “Sound Theology,” and the author, Jeremy Begbie, applies music theory to all of life. He talks about ETR, which stands for equilibrium-tension-resolution. This is a basic psychological pattern that we all live out in our daily lives. Begbie also relates ETR to patterns in Scripture – creation/fall/redemption; promised land/exile/return, and to Walter Brueggeman’s analysis of the Psalms as moving from orientation to disorientation and then to reorientation. He says that music relies on these interchanges of tension and resolution. Music that moves from an equal state to tension gets our interest. But the music needs to be resolved. Music that never resolves leaves us somehow unsettled. Music moves in and out of tension and resolution, tension and resolution - and so do our lives. So perhaps the tension of trials and suffering is not just a burden of life, but a necessary part of life. And it is often through the trials that we most recognize and become thankful for God’s movement in our lives.
The ultimate word to sum up this almost counter-cultural outlook on life, and the best Thanksgiving scripture for us, perhaps, comes from the First Letter to the Thessalonians, which says, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (I Thess. 5:16-18)
I have shared the story from Corrie Ten Boom’s book before based on this scripture, but this story seems to tell this message best, so I will repeat it again. In The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom tells of her experiences in the concentration camps in Germany in the 1940’s. She and her sister were interred and forced to labor there. Corrie and Betsy managed to hide a Bible, and held Bible study and prayer time in the women’s dorm at night. They were amazed that the guards never found their Bible and took it away from them, for the guards were cruel. One night as they prayed, Betsy prayed in thanks to God for the ticks and fleas and for the guards. Corrie looked up from the prayer in astonishment at Betsy, who, by the way, later died in the camp. In a more private moment, Corrie asked Betsy how she could possibly pray for the ticks and fleas and for those nasty guards. Betsy quoted the I Thessalonians passage, saying that God expects us to give thanks in ALL circumstances. Corrie shook her head and walked away. But the next day she heard the guards discussing why they did not enter the dorms (and perhaps find and seize the Bible). They stayed away because of the fleas and ticks! And Corrie marveled at her sister’s great faith!
So this Thanksgiving, as you gather around your tables, give thanks for the wonderful things you have - for the warm and comfortable home, for the presence of family and friends, for plenty of food. But even if you are not feeling very thankful, if you are feeling bereft because money is getting tight, or because of illness or infirmity, or because family is not near, or even if they are near, they are not very enjoyable (!) – even if you do not feel very thankful, or think you do not have much for which to give thanks – do so anyway! In faith, give thanks to God for those “unthankable” things in your lives! And wait to see what happens. You just may be surprised!
For the message of the Scriptures is clear – no matter what we do, no matter what happens in our lives, God loves us, and God desires good for us. God loves us enough to come and be one with us, to suffer and die for us, and to rise for us, showing us how great God’s love is for us. Through the trials and sufferings of our lives, God remains constant. Even if we fall away in doubt, God is with us. And with God with us, we can endure whatever comes our way. And by our endurance, says Jesus, we will gain our souls. And we will gain joy and peace that help us to endure the days that lie ahead.
I give great thanks for God’s loving presence in my own life. Even in the midst of a scary world full of war and violence and uncertainty, I have so much for which to be thankful this Thanksgiving (including all of you!). I hope you have much to be thankful for too. So on Thursday, I hope that you can indeed “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, [and] give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
Amen.