“Thanksgiving and Humility”

Psalm 95:1-7a

The sermon title is “Thanksgiving and Humility.” What I’m about to share with you is full of thanksgiving, but it might be a little lacking in the humility department. There arose a crisis in a church I once served that can best be described as making a mountain out of a mole hill – one of those cases where some folks truly were majoring in minors. The crisis: certain folks in the congregation objected to passing the peace.

I am so thankful that such is not the case at Grace. I truly believe that as pastor and people we do a pretty good job of being faithful to this morning’s text. Our choir, praise team, CWF, and musicians help us worship the Lord our God with a joyful noise. The congregation does a pretty good job of belting out the hymns. We have drums and a guitar to supplement our organ and piano. We do pass the peace, and do so with a sense of warmth, welcome, and celebration. We even sing to our visitors. For all that I am thankful.

Now comes the less than humble, or even less than charitable, part of my story. I often wish that I could sit the folks who objected to passing the peace in that other church down in this sanctuary on a day like today. I imagine being able to say to them, “Look! This is how a real church worships – na-na-na-na-na-na.” At this point I really need to ask God’s forgiveness of my immaturity and vindictiveness.

Okay: those folks will probably never attend worship here – it’s their loss. But we’re here every Sunday, coming before the Lord with our thanksgiving and praise; living out the words of Psalm 95. More than that we’re living out the opening words of “The Directory for Worship” as found in The Book of Order.

Says the Directory: “Christian worship joyfully ascribes all praise and honor, glory and power to the triune God. In worship the people of God acknowledge God present in the world and in their lives. As they respond to God’s claim and redemptive action in Jesus Christ, believers are transformed and renewed. In worship the faithful offer themselves to God and are equipped for God’s service in the world.”

We joyfully acknowledge God’s glory, power, and presence. We surrender to God’s claim on our lives – that’s where the humility part of worship is brought to bear. We experience transformation and renewal. We become better equipped to serve our Lord and his Kingdom. And passing the peace is a joyful part of our worship experience.

That’s the good news, but now comes a word of warning and encouragement. Wrote Jessica Tate: “Somewhere along the way, worship has become a solemn experience [in a lot of churches]; but praise felt in the depth of one’s being is anything but solemn. There is nothing in [today’s] psalm that suggests solemnity – quite the opposite, actually. Perhaps this psalm… suggests that worship and praise of our Lord and King needs a shot of joy, particularly in this season in which there is so much else to distract us.”

Furthermore she wrote: “Might we sing our songs to please our [Lord and] King? Might we celebrate together… ? Might making a joyful noise, for no other purpose than to praise Christ our King, be a good reminder of our loyalty to the one who transcends the demands of earthly allegiances?”

Today we are celebrating our annual Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday. In a few moments, as well as for the next few hours, we will be bringing before God tangible symbols of our thanksgiving. We’re going to do what many Christians find difficult: shaking loose some money for our Lord, and having a good time doing it!

Today is also the Sunday before our nation’s annual celebration of Thanksgiving. On this day we need to be reminded that this coming Thursday is about more than football, turkey, and trips to grandma’s house. It’s about honestly and humbly thanking God for his many good gifts, gifts we in no way deserve. It’s about recognizing the One who created and cares for all that is: “In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed.”

On Thursday, just as today, we need to approach our God with thanksgiving and humility. Verse six of today’s text instructs us to kneel down before our Maker. Why? Because he is our God and we are his people. He is the Creator. We are the created. Before him we must acknowledge his might and our helplessness, that without him we not only have nothing, we are nothing.

And yet God makes no demands of us. We are invited to worship, bow down, listen, and obey. Wrote Kirsten Johnson, “The God who is sovereign over all the earth does not use that power to force [our] allegiance, worship, or obedience…” God invites us to accept his love and enjoy his gifts. God invites us to make a joyful noise. Our Savior invites us to acknowledge him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He invites us to give him what is rightfully his: our worship and obedience – and to do so joyfully, thankfully, and humbly.

Ah, there’s that humility thing again. Although humility is very much a Christian virtue – we can’t follow Jesus without seeking to be like him in every way, including his humility and servanthood – it is a virtue much lacking in our modern American culture. Many of us, probably more of us than we realize, are people of accomplishment and power. Comparatively speaking we are the most affluent people on earth living in the most powerful nation on earth.

To truly bow down and worship our God is to acknowledge that there are limits to our freedom and autonomy. He is Creator; we are the created. He is King; we are his subjects. Subjects: people who subject themselves to his will, who submit to his rule. And that ain’t easy for people who have been taught to take charge, be in control, never accept second place without a fight.

All this is exacerbated by the culture in which we live, one for which humility, servanthood, and sacrifice is anathema. Also one that seeks every day to seduce us away from the worship of the one true God.

If nothing else this morning’s psalm makes clear the supremacy of our Lord over any and all idols that seek to seduce us. It is most definitely monotheistic in its theology: “For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.” This led Haywood Spangler to ask, “Is our monotheism a given, or something we must consciously assert, as did the Israelites?”

He goes on to unpack that question: “Consider that our lives are replete with institutions, objects, and individuals that we can trust as falsely as some ancient people trusted Baal or Zeus: schools, government programs, technology, the economy, homes, cars, consumer goods, authority figures, loved ones. These can be described as potential gods, because the temptation to trust in them, rather than the Lord, is real for us. They have a real power to attract our adoration and devotion, to the exclusion of God’s voice. Consequently, many situations in life require us consciously to acknowledge God as sovereign over all the false potential gods we face.”

I began this sermon with a description of one congregation’s unwillingness to pass the peace, an unwillingness to change. Their form of worship is what some would politely call a sacred cow. Let’s be real. A sacred cow is nothing more than a little tin pot false god in disguise. As thankful as I am that we don’t worship that particular little god here, I am aware that any form of worship – or annual celebration – or culturally imbedded way of doing things has the potential to become a sacred cow, to become in itself an idol to be worshipped.

That’s why we must always be careful to not allow the means to the end of worshipping and serving God to become ends in themselves; and also not to believe that our particular sacred cows are superior to somebody else’s. Such care requires more than a little humility, not to mention spiritual maturity.

But for today we will joyfully worship and thank God even as we celebrate an annual tradition. In doing so we will acknowledge that there is only one Lord and King over us even as we seek to serve him with humility. Amen.