1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: “Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Thanks for Nothing

     I am sure that many of you may not have the opportunity to go to church for Thanksgiving Day.  I know that this is true for my mother in a nursing home in South Dakota.

     Thinking of Thanksgiving and my mother I remember a Thanksgiving Day when it could have been said “Thanks for nothing!”  Mom had started a goose for Thanksgiving Dinner early in the morning.  During the night before thanksgiving, it had started to rain, a freezing rain.  The power lines broke and we had no electricity.  We had 65 milk cows that needed to be milked.  Without going into great detail, we were able to get them milked in the morning and in the evening taking twice as long as usual.  After chores in the evening Mom opened the oven door thinking that the goose would be spoiled or only half done; and instead, the goose was done.  It was Thanksgiving!

      Have you ever heard the expression, “Thanks for nothing.”  People will sometimes use this expression when they are upset with what a person did or did not do.  My message for you is “Thanks for Nothing!”

     I know; that is an unusual title and message for thinking of Thanksgiving Day.  It sounds like I am ungrateful, and I want all of you to be ungrateful for all that God has done for you.  If it sounds like I am saying, we should thank God for nothing--I am!  Listen again to what St. Paul is saying in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “Give thanks in all circumstances.”  All circumstances!  Not just during good times, but also in bad times and when there apparently isn’t anything at all for which to give thanks.  Thus comes, “Thanks for Nothing!”

     It is easy to be thankful in abundant or pleasant circumstances.  Such as, food on the table, a roof over your heads, falling in love, getting married, the birth of a new baby, when someone is generous and kind to you, when friends or family come to visit that you haven’t seen for a long time, when you have electricity, when the goose is done for the Thanksgiving meal.  These are all happy times and times for rejoicing and for giving thanks.

     But you can absolutely be certain that when I have burned myself that I was not singing a song of thanksgiving and, I would add, that is not what God would have expected of this weak human being, or of you, when we are in the midst of pain and or sorrow.  Many of you are going through or have gone through some tuff times, such as illness, divorce, marriage problems, or the death of a loved one.  You maybe don’t even feel that you have anything to give thanks for today or this Thanksgiving.

     God does not expect you to be thankful for times of misery in your lives.  To thank God for the difficult times in life would imply that God is somehow responsible for the dark times of your lives.  God is not responsible for your problems.  It is far more likely that we have brought the problems upon ourselves with our own sin, or the problems are from the sin of someone else, or it’s the consequences of a world decaying with sin.  But God is not the author of evil.  Sin and Satan are the mighty forces for that.

     Although, whatever the source of our problems, the message is the same, we can give thanks for nothing!  How can we be thankful at all times, especially in hard times?  When I have burned myself or when we lost electricity I could have dwelt on that pain and trouble.  I don’t know about you, but for me there is no greater pain than a burn.  Smashing a finger with a hammer or being cut by something is painful; but a burn seems to be the worst.  But, after a while, I was able to give thanks; for a burn always reminds me of what I have been saved from: The unquenchable fires of hell for my sins, “where there will weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  Giving thanks for nothing is a refocusing of the dark pains before us by putting them behind us.  

      I am the sort of person who understands best with pictures, drawings, or examples and so I find this example very helpful in this situation of putting things in front of me to behind me:  Notice your shadow.  It is dark and symbolizes the dark times in our lives when we go through depression and crises that happen in our lives, usually due to our own sin or the sin of others.  The shadow also represents worries and heartaches and the darkness of sin against which all of us must fight.  

     Whatever the darkness symbolizes for you, it is generally not a pleasant experience, and you can’t run away from it.  Who has ever run away from their shadow?  When you are in the middle of these unpleasant, painful, and dark circumstances of your life, there is only one way you can be thankful and there is only one way to praise God; that is to realize that all things have been conquered by His Son Jesus Christ.  

     Let’s think of it this way: Wherever the sun shines there will be a shadow.  There can never be a shadow unless there is light.  In other words, as a Christian, there can never be dark, shadowy, painful times in our lives without the presence of God’s reassuring light, because Christ Jesus has conquered all the things in this world.  For “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:36-39).  All these things are only being mocked when they try to give us darkness.

     With that thinking: Where is your shadow when you face the light?  It is behind you.  Where is your shadow when you turn away from the light?  It is in front of you. 

     When we talk about the sun that warms our earth and the shadows that we can see it makes perfect sense.  So, it is when we talk about the Son, Jesus Christ, when there are difficulties in our lives.  

     If you turn away from the light of Christ, given in Word and Sacrament, and only focus on the shadows of pain and suffering in front of you; it does seem ridiculous to give thanks.  When all you see in front of you is the darkness of your problems, of course you are going to be overwhelmed and feel like God has abandoned you.  It is not helpful or wise to stare at the shadows in our lives unless we remember that the light of Christ is right behind us to support us in the work of overcoming sin and other forms of darkness in our lives.

     Word and Sacrament cause you to have Christ in front of you.  The shadows of life are still there; but they are behind you.  For when the light of Christ is in focus it warms and strengthens understanding in these times so that you can give thanks for Christ’s constant and comforting presence.

     All of us are walking through the valley of the shadow of death.  All of us could be overcome with the fear of that darkness; but by the grace of God His Son was sent to shine on us and put those shadows and death behind us and have a hope that the rest of the world does not have.  You have a light that is in God’s Word.  That Word tells of all that God has done for the things that can conquer us in this world: Sin, death, and the power of the Devil.  He sent His Son to suffer and die and conquer these.  We have a light that is in Baptism.  That work of God on you assures you that you are baptized into Jesus’ death and resurrection so that you cannot die a death of total separation in darkness and pain; but rather that you are His dear child with the promise of God’s grace upon you.  We also have the Lord’s Supper.  The light of the Lord’s Supper is to strengthen you with all of your bodily senses in the assurance of the forgiveness of sins.  For it was Christ’s body and blood that was given for the payment of the forgiveness of sins.   

     With that much of the light of God surrounding you, you can both face the darkness in your lives and give thanks to God “in all circumstances” of this world; because He sustains and keeps you in the Light of the World, Christ Jesus, His Son, your Savior, for all eternity.  “For God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).”