Seeing Double

Preached during the 8:00AM Worship Service
Udarbe Memory Chapel, Silliman University Church
Text:  Psalm 100:1-5

Good morning! How are you? Kumusta? Greetings like these usually elicit more or less the kind of response like that of the greeting, and we usually shot right back – “I’m fine, Okay lang, Mao ras gihapon, etc.” These are exactly not serious talks nor in-depth conversations, but small talks that have evolved into clichés. These clichés have become normal brief interchanges among friends and acquaintances.

We couldn’t help it but clichés have in one way or another become a way of life for some, if not most, of us today. The sad thing is that, if this is will become the essence of our communication today, for sure our relationships will definitely stall instead of improve. Worse it might go down the drain. It is only through the honest sharing of emotions and feelings that we develop our relationship with others.

Nothing is truer in our relationship with our God. Sadly, in the hustle and bustle of our lives, we tend to just easily mutter a worn-out sentence or two to God and call it a prayer and go one with our lives. Yes, while God can hear us even in these kinds of prayer, sadly, our relationship with God will surely suffer.

Our scripture today comes from a book that expresses the heart and soul of humanity. In it are found the very expressions of authors who experienced doubts, fears, joys and jubilations honestly expressed in words. All these point to a relationship between the writers and God that is truly deep, honest and genuine. (iLumina Bible Software)

Psalm 100 expresses one of the central themes of the book of Psalms, that of Thankfulness.

Thankfulness—this is what we are celebrating today. Although the history of the American Thanksgiving Day can be traced back to the lives of the early Pilgrims, our thanksgiving today should be a reflection of our very own experiences in light of our Christian faith.

So, why do we give thanks today? Yes, we do recognize that everything comes from God and so we give thanks. However, we must remember that beyond this seeming cliché of thanking God for everything, there’s a deeper meaning to all of these. We need to recognize that there are certain essential traits that characterize genuine thanksgiving. (from C. Welton Gaddy, Genuine Thanksgiving, The Minister’s Manual, 1998-1999)

First is that Christian thanksgiving stems from a relationship. The story of Abraham being chosen by God to be the ‘Father’ of all nations is a story of a covenant relationship. The story of the fall of humanity necessitated the need for us to be redeemed. And in the story and history of our faith, God called out Abraham and established a covenant, an agreement, for them to help God achieve the plan of redeeming the people and the creation. God made a covenant with Abraham, for God to bless Abraham in order for him to be the father of a great nation, for God to bless this great nation with their own land, and sustain, provide and protect them against their enemies.  In return, as their part of the covenant, the people, through Abraham should agree to be used by God to become a blessing to all nations and thereby redeeming them back to God.

The story of Abraham and his call is the story of the very reason why we exist as a community of faith and why weare here as a community of faith today—because of the covenant between God and the people, the very story of our faith. And this covenant continues on with the greater covenant relationship of salvation that we have in Jesus Christ.

Christian thanksgiving therefore comes from a relationship with God.

Secondly, we need to remember that faith fashions Christian thanksgiving. Genuine thanksgiving is an act of faith. We don’t do it for us to feel good, but we thank God as a response to God’s goodness, and responding to God with thanksgiving is as natural as breathing. This is who we are as Christians, being thankful is second nature. Even in suffering we are reminded to be thankful, not because of the sufferings but that inspite of the sufferings God is still with us helping us along the way and strengthening and ever equipping us to face such situations. For as St. Paul said in Romans (5:3-4), “We also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us.” Thanksgiving is always an act of faith.

Lastly, genuine thanksgiving finds expression in ministry. Let us remember God’s promises, let us remember that God promised to bless us—and I’m sure God did—and this God did for a very important purpose—for us, in return, to become blessings to others. If we are to examine our lives today, to count our blessings—everything that we have today—we can indeed very well say that we are all blessed.

One secret that I always love to share in terms of being so much blessed by God comes from Jesus’ parable of the talents in Matt. 25:14-30. In the parable, all of us are entrusted with blessings for us to make productive use—and that is to become blessings and in the process, be blessed ourselves. Those who use their talents, gifts and everything that God gave will surely receive more. For whom will God entrust his blessings but to those who know how to use them wisely and for the right purpose?

This is our covenant with God in the many blessings that we have and we have to recognize this by being thankful to God for entrusting us with such blessings and responsibilities.

As a people who have received God’s blessings, we are therefore expected to become blessings ourselves to others.  Becoming a blessing to others therefore means reaching out to others and sharing the Good News of God’s salvation, not just in word but more so in deed, in the way that God is leading us—in the way we live, relate with our family, our neighbors, our fellow workers in our workplaces and with the community as a whole.

As members of the household of God, we therefore have to remember that we have a covenant with God not just to go about with our daily routines, we have a covenant with God to be a blessing to the rest of God’s creation.

In our covenant, God intends us to be channels of God’s blessings to the world and that is the very reason why we are so blessed, in order for us to become blessings to others.  Being blessed by God therefore is not a privilege but a responsibility, a great responsibility that is borne out of our gratitude to God for God’s love to us through Jesus Christ.

Today, as we celebrate Thanksgiving  let us remember that God is again reminding us to do our part of the covenant, telling us to ‘Go and be a blessing to others as I have blessed you.’

In loving gratitude to God let us altogether respond to become blessings to each other, loving and caring for all as members of the household of God, through Jesus Christ. Amen.