We Have Many Reasons to be Thankful
“Do all things without grumbling or disputing,” Paul says, “that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.”
Church, have we ever had more reasons to grumble than we have this year? The tremors of grumbling have been rising and rising, and we are not immune. Grumbling about the virus — about symptoms and quarantines, about infection rates and social distancing, about masks, about online school, about governors and the CDC, about vaccines, about new restrictions, canceled plans, and more Zoom calls. Grumbling about politics — about the election, about justices and court cases, about parties, policies, and candidates, about mail-in ballots and recounts, about transitions. All of that laid on top our individual trials — sicknesses and surgeries, closures and layoffs, isolation and depression, life changes and tough decisions. Just last week, our 56-year-old boiler gave out. It could have died last year or next year, but like everything else, it chose 2020. We all have reasons to grumble.
And none of us needs to be taught to grumble. My wife and I have a 4-year-old and a newborn. Generally speaking, children do not need to be taught to eat, sleep, pee, or whine. Grumbling comes naturally. Grumbling is easy. We are born grumblers.
That makes gratitude unusual. It’s unnatural. It offends all our tendencies to grumble, to complain, to protest. Gratitude stares at our world broken by sin, divided by sin, in bondage to sin, plagued by sin… and gratitude sees even more grace. Even more mercy. Even more glory.
What stands out in a world full of grumbling? What shines brightly in the midst of crooked and twisted generation? Thankfulness. Colossians 3:15–17:
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Thanksgiving is not a Christian holiday, but thankfulness — the heart and habit of gratitude — thankfulness is profoundly Christian. We do not just give thanks on the fourth Thursday of November, but on every Thursday. And on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday too. And we don’t just give thanks this month, but during Advent too — and at the beginning of a new year. We even give thanks in January and February, when we can’t go outside without the threat of death. Thankfulness, gratitude, is profoundly Christian.
Why? Because we know we have a better possession, and an abiding one… A better country and an abiding one… A better body coming, and an abiding one… A better, more abundant life, and an everlasting one. Like everyone else, we have hundreds of reasons to grumble. But unlike everyone else, we have even more reasons to give thanks.
My exhortation for us this morning, church, is that we overcome grumbling — the grumbling in the world and the grumbling in us — overcome grumbling with gratitude.