Trinity Metropolitan Community Church of Gainesville (Trinity MCC)

“Teachings on Thankfulness”

Rev. Jim Merritt

Trinity MCC

November 22, 2009

Thanksgiving Sunday

Introduction:

            Are you aware of the fact that this is the last Sunday of the year? It really is the last Sunday of our liturgical year. This year we’ve been in lectionary cycle B and next Sunday, on the first Sunday of Advent we move into cycle C. And I just love the way today’s reading from the Old Testament book of Joel helps us close out our year with gladness and joy and with hearts full of thanksgiving and gratitude. And I felt blessed all over again this week studying the reading from the Gospel of Matthew where God promises to supply all of our need. So with all of that in mind, let’s think together about some Teachings on Thankfulness.

I.                    Rejoice and be glad for the great things our God has done

I’m reminded of the way many churches begin their worship service with the

Pastor standing in grand form leading the congregation in the words, “This is the day our God has made, let us REJOICE and be glad in it. And you ask me, “What is all this rejoicing about? And here it is; rejoice that we have pastures full of good and healthy food, pastures full of fruits and vegetables and grains producing their full yield. We are well fed and I still believe there is enough food available to feed the entire world if we could simply feed them and get politics out of it. Rejoice that our fields are in full bloom and producing their full yield. Rejoice and be glad on this Thanksgiving Sunday!

            Rejoice and be glad that Yahweh had poured down vindication on us. Yahweh, this God, our God has rained down showers of blessing on us. Yahweh has said with a loud and mighty voice and with a sweet and nurturing voice, these people, YOU people, are my people. You will be my people and I will be your God and I will vindicate you in the face of all manner of evil said against you and in the face of all manner of evil done against you. Rejoice and be glad children of God because God is pouring down God’s showers of blessing on us and vindicating us before all those whose history is to victimize. We are the people of God, the Children of God, the Apple of God’s eye and God is in the process of vindicating us in front of the world’s eyes and perhaps most important of all before the eyes of the “Christian” world. Rejoice and be glad because of God’s vindication.

II.                 Decide today, on this day, who you will serve.

We’ve heard it over and over again. No one can serve two masters. A house divided

against itself cannot stand and many other phrases like that. And we’ve tried on a lot of new things here in the last five months. We’ve been trying on Godly living in ways some of us haven’t considered in a long time. We are seeing what God can do when we just try following the ways of God in all our practices and maybe just maybe this Thanksgiving will be our opportunity to try on a full commitment to Godliness. Maybe this will be the time when we can try out letting the Divine one live fully through us. Oh what a time it would be for us to really commit to the ways of love; to love the unlovely, to treat kindly those who hurt us to the core, to take care of our own seeds of anger rather than acting our anger on each other Jesus who takes care of the birds of the air and the fish of the sea and this Jesus who asks us, in light of all of this, why do you worry and why do you fret? Consider the lilies and all their beauty and do not worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will take care of itself. If we take seriously the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:25-33, we do not need to worry excessively about our own circumstances or become preoccupied with our own food and clothing but rather should strive for “the kin-dom of God.” Since God’s realm in the biblical tradition is characterized by justice for everyone, our work toward that realm involves not only the struggle for equal rights for LGBT people, but also struggles against poverty, racial injustice, sexism and violence. A world in which all such struggles achieve their goals would truly be cause for thanksgiving. And let me add on this important weekend of Trans Remembrance that we MUST, absolutely MUST stand more strongly and protect more carefully our Trans sisters and brothers who are far too frequently victims of senseless acts of violence, senseless acts of spiritual violence and senseless acts of murder. We MUST fully bring Trans people under our umbrella and include and protect them in more meaningful and more effective ways.

III.               Be Thankful in All these things – Consider these blessings with me;

a.       I’m thankful for the opportunity I have to serve God by serving you.

b.      I’m thankful that in the middle of this year you and I decided to embark on an adventure together.

c.       I’m thankful that I grew up in an environment where I could give my life to Jesus at the age of 8, commit my life to ministry at the age of 16, be ordained at the age of 18 and stand here today in my late 40’s living out a calling and a dream.

d.      I’m thankful for the privilege I’ve had of welcoming newborn babies into the world and helping guide over those at the end of their times on earth and for the powerful presence of the Spirit in all of those moments.

e.       I’m thankful that I still have both of my parents with me at this point in my life. I’m looking forward to being with many members of my family on Thursday and for the opportunity to love on and care for my mother as she prepares for major surgery on her back. I believe she will be free from pain one day soon.

f.        I’m thankful for every child with whom I’ve had the great privilege to share a little time. I’m thankful for those moments when the light came back on in their eyes and both they and I knew they would make it. And they did.

g.       I’m thankful for Metropolitan Community Churches, for Rev. Elder Troy Perry who lovingly brought me in, for Rev. Elder Nancy Wilson who is and will always be MY pastor, and for the work I am so honored to do representing all of us in MCC.

h.       And, my sisters and brothers, I am thankful for you. I am so very proud of you and this church. I echo Nancy’s words from earlier this week, “It makes my heart soar,” to be here with you and to be a part of what God is doing in this place and in all of us together. I can’t think of a place in all the world that I would rather be in this moment than standing right here in this place on this holy ground with each one of you.

Conclusion:

            Teachings on Thankfulness. Let us all join together during this week and throughout this season in giving thanks.

Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks to the Holy One
Give thanks because God’s given Jesus Christ, the Son
Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks unto the Holy One
Give thanks because God’s given Jesus Christ, The Son
And now let the weak say, "I am strong"
Let the poor say, "I am rich
Because of what our God has done for us"
And now let the weak say, "I am strong"
Let the poor say, "I am rich
Because of what our God has done for us"

Give thanks, give thanks, give thanks.

Lyrics by Don Moen

Lessons on Thankfulness; Give Thanks. God bless you today. AMEN



Joel 2:21-27

21Do not fear, O soil; be glad and rejoice, for Yahweh has done great things! 22Do not fear, you animals of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green; the tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and vine give their full yield. 23O children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in your God who has given the early rain for your vindication, and has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the later rain, as before. 24The threshing floors shall be full of grain, the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. 25I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent against you. 26You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Yahweh your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. 27You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I, Yahweh, am your God and there is no other. And my people shall never again be put to shame.

Matthew 6:24-34

24“No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

25“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Parent feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 28And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will God not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Parent knows that you need all these things. 33But strive first for the kin-dom of God and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

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