Attitude of Gratitude

Ephesians 5:15-20

Introduction

Today, being the Sunday before Remembrance Day, is Remembrance Sunday. We take time to remember those who have served and those who serve. We think of those who died in combat and those who came back with wounds, both visible and invisible. For a long time, this has been one of the most meaningful times of the year for me and this is more so since I joined the Canadian Armed Forces and have had the opportunity to get to know many military members, some who have served in combat missions.

I would like to ask this question: Why do we observe Remembrance Day? You might think that is a pointless question. The importance of Remembrance Day is so obvious that it is hardly worth discussing. And yet there are churches that do not observe Remembrance Day, some because they see it as glorifying war, a concept contrary to the message of Jesus. So perhaps it is worth asking why we recognize Remembrance Day.

Remembrance Day itself was original a remembrance of the armistice that came into effect on November 11, 1918, which brought an end to hostilities, even if it was not the formal end of the First World War. There have been many other armistices throughout history and yet we probably cannot share one other specific date of another armistice. The First World War was unprecedented in terms of the numbers of deaths within such a short period of time, being really the first modern war with technology that was far deadlier than anything before. The armistice was not so much about the joy of a sensational victory over the enemy, as it was not, but rather a sense of relief that the slaughter was ending. Perhaps Remembrance Day has caught on because it is not so much aligned with marshal vigour of our military but rather the thankfulness we feel for those who have served and those who serve in a time when war is no longer about adventure and glory but about sacrifice of body and mind.

Remembrance Day, as much as it is about our determination for peace in the future, is also about giving thanks to those who have served and those who serve. Often when I am in public in my uniform, I have random strangers come to me and thank me for my service, not know what I have or have not done.

While these comments may be appropriate for Remembrance Sunday, how do they fit with the passage that we are looking at? We are going to be looking at Paul’s teaching on giving thanks and what it means to always be thankful. This is something that is easy to do when things are going well. This is often the focus of our celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday as we give thanks for specific blessings. But what Paul is talking about here expands on this and perhaps reflections on Remembrance Day will give us some insight.

Making the Most of Our Time

In the passage that we are looking at, Paul is still working out the details of how we live if all of the things that he has said about God are true. We are to be wise. Wisdom and knowledge are not the same thing. Knowledge is about having information. Wisdom is about understanding how to apply that information to life. Paul tells us that if we are wise, then we will be careful with how we spend our time. While there is much that is uncertain in life, there are two things that are constant: we all have twenty-four hours in our day and we all have some choice in how we spend our day. Paul tells us that we should not be drunk with wine but should be filled with the Holy Spirit. In one way that is obvious and in another way, it is a strange choice. Probably most of us do not walk up in the morning and ask ourselves if we want to get drunk with wine or be filled with the Holy Spirt. Paul is using extremes here to describe the wise life, in many ways similar to what we find in Proverbs. The concern with being drunk is not the health concerns or even that it is breaking religious rules. Being drunk leads to foolish behaviour and this is contrasted with being filled with the Holy Spirit which leads to wise behaviour. Being drunk is not spending our time well, while being filled with the Holy Spirit is spending our time well. 

But what does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Different churches have different views. Some think that it must be accompanied by charismatic gifts or high intensity emotion. Without criticizing those experiences, that is not exactly what being filled with the Holy Spirit is. It is about submitting ourselves to God and to the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is about allowing God to do his work in us and through us without resistance. Paul describes what being filled with the the Holy Spirit looks like. He describes singing songs. If you are like me and not a singer, that may not get you all that excited. But the key here is not the musical context but rather who this is aimed toward. This worship experience is described as being aimed at the Lord and sung to one anther. This is really along the same lines as the command to love God and to love one another. We worship God, in whatever way that looks, but the expectation is that it is an encouragement to others around us. We cannot separate separate love for God and love for people. That is the first part of being filled with the Holy Spirit. The second part is about living a life of thanksgiving.

Being Thankful

The theme of thanksgiving is a prominent one throughout the New Testament. I will say that it absolutely assumes that a Christian has some sort of thankful posture, an attitude of gratitude.

As I have mentioned, there are certain times that it is very easy to be thankful. We have been in some very difficult circumstances and then received an amazing answer to prayer. Years ago, our son Logan went missing for quite a few hours. We had read many stories of autistic children who have gone missing and the ending was not good. While I try to be a person of faith, there was a big part of me that did not expect to find him okay. When Logan was found, completely safe and sound, there was no effort to achieve a thankful mindset.

But Paul says something here that may be challenging for us. “[Give] thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything.” We are not told to give thanks for the good things but to give thanks for everything. How do we do that? Going back to autistic children who go missing, are those parents supposed to give thanks when their child was not found safe? That hardly seems fair. I have heard from people who have tried to apply this literally. If they are driving and their tire blows, they stop and give thanks to God for their blown tire. I appreciate the determination to be obedient, but how can we do this with any sincerity? Can parents whose child has received a difficult diagnose give thanks? Can a person who is betrayed by someone they care about give thanks?

I think that if we take this passage as being specifically about give thanks for the occurrence of every event from developing an incurable disease to losing someone in a car accident, we are missing the point of Paul’s words. Paul says we are to give thanks “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Scholars have notice in this passage the reference to all three persons of the Trinity. What Paul seems to be saying is that we give thanks not because a certain thing happened but because God is present to us in that circumstance, whether we feel it or not. God will not abandon us, even in the darkest of circumstances. We can be thankful at all time and in all things, not because we see some benefit in bad things happening, but because God is right there with us.

Conclusion

Are you thankful on Remembrance Day? I am thankful even though I am not thankful for war. Despite being in the military, I wish that every war would end and no wars would begin. I cannot be thankful for war but I can be thankful for men and women who have served and who continue to serve, signing up for unlimited liability, knowing that their lives could be at risk at any time. I am thankful for their presence on our behalf.

Last Sunday, we celebrated communion, a ceremony that some refer to as Eucharist. Eucharist is Greek for thanksgiving. How can Christians give thanks that the Son of God, innocent in every way, was executed in a painful and humiliating manner? It is not that Jesus died that we are thankful. It is that God was present in that death, reconciling us to God. That same God that was present two thousand years ago is present with us today, in the good and the bad. And because of that, we can give thanks at all time in all things.