“I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now.”   Philippians 1:3-4

 

Last week, with the change in the weather, my mind started wandering to my favorite holiday – Thanksgiving. Pumpkin pie and hot cider crept into my thoughts like a long-lost friend. And wouldn’t you know it, while shopping for a few “necessities” I couldn’t resist the temptation to buy a turkey? Now “ole Tom” is dominating my freezer waiting for the big day. At check-out I started thinking about how long it had been since I last bought turkey – yes, that’s right – last Thanksgiving. What a shame! I love turkey all the time, but for some reason, it’s been unintentionally delegated to one day a year.

     Thanksgiving, when we come together thank God for his blessings and provision to us is also a time when we express our appreciation to family and friends for what they mean to us and for being in our lives – or, at least it should be. But like my turkey purchase, we often put off thanking each other until “some-day.” The pressures of daily life, the challenges we all share and an unconscious notion that folks around us know we appreciate them minimize or, even worse, impede the attitude of thankfulness that should characterize and dominate the person of faith. Too often we ruminate over what others don’t do or are doing “wrong” instead of celebrating what they are doing. We often cry out to God about what we don’t have instead of being thankful for all we do have. We get so focused on the negatives in our relationships with others, especially our church family, we totally discount how blessed we are to have each other at all.

     Paul, in his letter to the church at Philippi, openly and boldly declared his thanks to God for all the persons there. Where all of them supporters? No. Where all of them easy to deal with? No. Did all of them agree with him? Definitely not! And yet, he seemed to realize even though their levels of faith were different than his own; even though they often had problems that complicated his life; even though their God-given gifts and graces were different than his, each of them was a gift from God to him. They were a means of grace, individually called by God and equipped for the ministry at Philippi. In short, Paul thanked God for making them part of his life as together they shared the gospel.

     In order to get “ole Tom” in my freezer, I had to get rid of some things to make room. The lasagna I never reheated, the one scoop of ice cream I was sure I would eat someday and the “whatever” that was wrapped in unlabeled aluminum foil had to be discarded so my Thanksgiving bird could roost. What attitudes do we need to re-evaluate that stand in the way of our being truly thankful for each other? What bridges do we need to rebuild or mend? What regrets or hurts have become stumbling blocks to us and need to healed by God’s grace combined with our willingness so we can turn them in to the building blocks for the foundation of the future of the church God wants St Paul to be?

     Come to think of it, maybe I shouldn’t wait for Thanksgiving to enjoy my turkey. Why, thanksgiving can be any day – all I have to do is decide to do it! And so, it is with living thankfully – to God and to each other. Hey, anyone seen my basting brush?                                                                              

In Christ, Pastor Lon

​