Psalm 16; 1 Thessalonians 5:15-18
Presented November 19th, 2006, by J.D. Kline
Thanksgiving Sunday
In her book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Annie Dillard describes grace as a waterfall, and us with our cups down under that waterfall, trying to catch as much grace as we can in its superabundance. The problem, of course, is that ours cups are already filled with lots of other stuff—with full agendas, with task to accomplish, with appointments to consider, with dreams to attain, with possessions that easily take control of our lives—so much so that we make little room for the abundant grace, for the incredible gift of God’s acceptance and love. Our temptation is to so focus on the future, on the there and the then that we are hoping to achieve, that we miss opportunities to experience God’s grace right here and right now.
Writes Dillard, “Experiencing the present purely is being emptied and hollow;” in other words, we must make ourselves receptive. And how is it that we make ourselves receptive, but by focusing on life’s wonders. I recall some years ago being struck by the simple observation of Episcopal priest Urban Holmes, claiming that the primary agenda for ministry in our day is enabling people to rediscover, relearn, their capacity for intuition and wonder. We live in a time when many are skeptical of the spiritual life, and even were we to have spiritual insight or spiritual experiences, we are often reluctant to share them. But as Holmes goes on to assert, that reticence “does not mean that God is no longer present, but that in our Western culture we have made so little of the imagination, intuition and wonder” that we often miss the very presence of God.
The early church recognized that prayer is not simply the mouthing of prescribed words, nor merely times of quiet at set times, but much more, prayer is relationship with God; prayer is life rooted in God, life receptive to God. Surely it is this kind of understanding the apostle Paul has in mind when challenging fellow Christians at Thessalonica to “rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). It is a matter of the imagination, opening our eyes and our hearts to the wonder of God’s presence, imagining and envisioning new possibilities for life. It is this ability to recognize and to embrace the presence of God that enables us, with the apostle Paul, to link prayer, joy, and thanksgiving. Paul connects the three, not only in today’s lesson from 1 Thessalonians, but with some frequency in his writings. To the Philippians, you may recall, Paul cries out:
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God (Philippians 4:4-6).