Sermons

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Acknowledging
November 22, 2001
Thanksgiving Meditation
Pastor Dan Baumgartner

Lynne and I were a little worried about each giving a very short meditation this morning . . . until Curt told us about a Ukranian church where, this Sunday, two pastors and EIGHT deacons will ALL give FULL sermons! I think you are in good shape this morning!

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. Colossians 2:6-7 (NRSV)

Look at that last phrase, ABOUNDING with Thanksgiving. Overflowing, unable to contain it all. And Paul says that is to be one of the marks of being a Christian.

. . . I want to live like that. I want to live my life in gratitude . . . I want my kids to as well. But I must sheepishly confess at how bad my technique has often been in that regard. As a parent, many times I have gone to pick up one of our kids from a friend’s house. You’ve probably done this as well. As I stand on the front porch, thanking their host . . . I find myself turning to Jesse or Nick or Dana (regardless of their age and capabilities) and saying “Did you say Thank You?” And their host looks at me like I’m from another planet, smiles condescendingly and says “Oh, they said thanks already.”

. . . I SWORE I would never do that! But even though my technique was terrible, and perhaps my motives more mixed than I wanted . . . I DO want my kids to learn to live gratefully.

This morning . . . seems right to think for a moment about this ACT of giving thanks. It’s not a demanding thing. It really doesn’t take much. Just TWO WORDS. And much easier than that THREE word phrase that says “I am sorry!” Two words . . . that we communicate in a little note, or a phone call, or just looking someone in the eye to say a sincere “Thank You.”

I’ve told you before, in these last couple of years I have tried to go back in my life to say “Thank You” to people who have been influential to me: a Junior High basketball coach and teacher, a pastor. Each time, it’s really been an amazing moment. And one of the interesting things is . . . it just FEELS good . . . to say thanks. Somehow, the world

stops for a second. Whatever bad may be going on, whatever difficulties we have, it freezes for a second. We stop reaching, or grasping, or moving a hundred miles an hour, and focus on one person and say Thank You. It’s very satisfying.

So what exactly are we doing when say THANK YOU ? One thing is . . . we are acknowledging our dependence on someone else. When I say to Anne: “Honey, thanks for picking up the kids,” I acknowledge that I couldn’t have done it, or if I could have, my life would have been much more complicated. Saying “Thanks” acknowledges that we do not do things in a vacuum, or by ourselves. In fact, when it comes right down to it . . . there is almost NOTHING we do alone in this world. No matter what we achieve, do, or accomplish, we do not do it alone. If you are a teacher, you depend on parents raising their children, or on your colleagues at school. If you are an engineer, you are part of a team that works on a project, and you depend on one another. If you are a writer, though the creativity comes from within, you are mentored, you pick up ideas from others, you are assisted by an editor or a publisher. There are just very, very few things that we actually do alone. We depend on others.

Similarly, when we say “Thank You” to God . . . we ACKNOWLEDGE OUR DEPENDENCE ON HIM. Oh, we are an independent-minded people. We want to do our own deal, order our own spiritual journeys, set goals for how we get where we want to…but we deceive ourselves. WE are so dependent on God.

When we thanks God for the sunset (or the rain!), we are saying “I cannot do that.” When we thank God for forgiving us, we are saying “I depend on You.” When we thank God for guiding us in life, we are saying “I need You.” When we thank God for His presence, we mean “Where would I be without You?” When we thank God for saving us, we say “God, in Jesus Christ, you have done what I could never do…turn me back to you.”

When we say Thank You to God . . . we acknowledge our dependence on Him. And we return, at least for that moment, to the way we were created. We were not made to be independent, but to be in an intimate relationship with God.

The Psalmist is right: “It IS a good thing . . . to give thanks to the Lord.” Amen.