Rejoice Always? Give Thanks in All Circumstances? - 1st Thessalonians 5:16-18
A
little boy was asked to return thanks before a holiday dinner. The family members bowed their heads in
expectation. He began his prayer,
thanking God for Mommy, Daddy, brother, sister, Grandma, Grandpa, and all his
aunts and uncles. Then he began thanking
God for the food. He gave thanks for the
turkey, the dressing, the fruit salad, the cranberry sauce, the pies, the
cakes, and even the Cool Whip.
Suddenly
he paused, and everyone waited—and waited.
After a long silence, the young child looked up at his mother and asked,
“If I thank God for the broccoli, won’t he know that I’m lying?”
My
brothers and sisters, we have gathered tonight for our Thanksgiving
Service. WE are entering what many
consider to be the most festive time of the year. We gather to give thanks for the many
blessings that God has poured into our lives.
We rejoice, or at least anticipate rejoicing a month from now,
remembering the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is a celebratory season.
The
irony is, my brothers and sisters, that for many folks this season does not
bring about joy and feelings of thanksgiving, but instead brings about sorrow,
misery, regret, or sadness. These are
the folks that hear the words of Paul and say, “Rejoice always, pray without
ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances?
You’re kidding, right? Don’t you
understand what I’m dealing with?”
How
many of us here tonight have that feeling?
We think that Paul was out of touch with reality. How many of us have had times in our lives,
whether during the Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Year’s season, or at other points
in our lives where rejoicing and giving thanks were the furthest thing from our
mind?
Maybe
it was when we were laid off from our job.
We had bills to pay. We had a
family to support. There was no other
work to be found. Rejoice always? I don’t think so.
Maybe
it was when a friend betrayed us. We
thought we could count on her, only to find out that she told our darkest
secret to another group of friends, making fun of us in the process. Give thanks in all circumstances? I don’t see it happening.
Maybe
it was after the doctor called and asked us to come in to discuss our test
results. “It doesn’t look good,” he
says. “Stage Four,” we hear. Rejoice?
Get real Paul.
Maybe
it was when a policeman knocked on the door at 2 am, “I’m sorry to tell you,
there’s been an accident….” Give
Thanks? For most of us thanks is not
what would want to pour forth from our lips.
We have
all had those circumstances in life where we just could not find reason to
rejoice or give thanks. For others of
us, it is not even circumstantial…some of us here battle in the same way that I
do, and it really makes it hard to rejoice and give thanks many, many
days. A few of you that have been in
Bible Study groups with me know this, the rest of you, especially from our
sister congregations, do not.
Around
1990, while a student at Methodist College (now Methodist University), I was
diagnosed with a chemical imbalance resulting in manic-depression, or as it is
more commonly called now, bipolar disorder.
The manic phases were limited, the depression waves were dark. Poetry that I wrote during that time was
rejected by magazines that specialized in dark poetry because of how dark my
writing was. Nothing seemed hopeful
during that time. Suicide seemed like a
viable option. I was in multi-visits a
week therapy and heavily medicated, and very close to being hospitalized. I want to tell you that rejoicing and giving
thanks were not really part of my vocabulary.
I
give thanks to God now that for 20 years this January I have been off of the
medication and out of regular therapy. I
give credit to the medicine, a wonderful social worker and compassionate
psychiatrist, and my relationship with God for bringing me to this point. It was only after the meds slowed my thinking
down that the therapy and faith were able to get a foothold in this war and
pull me to the point of coming off the medicine.
Mental
illness is a stigma that many folks want to hide or deny. I understand why. I had my diagnosis used against me very early
on, in of all places, the church. I
have had family members, who after seeing that I have been off medicine so
long, have suggested that the doctors may have just misdiagnosed me because they
don’t like the label of mental illness.
The problem is that they cannot see the battle that rages inside with,
at some points, is almost daily. When I
talk about it in some groups I state that I am a “recovering manic-depressant,”
because like alcoholism and addiction, it is not a battle that once won is
never an issue again, it is a life-long recovery process. Sometimes it makes rejoicing and giving
thanks hard.
I
share my story tonight for many reasons.
First, because God laid it on my heart to share it tonight, not because
I wanted to, but because God put it there.
I have been anxious about it and I have many colleagues and friends
praying me through this tonight.
Secondly, because though I have had my illness used as a weapon against
me in the past, I have seen God use it as a gift in talking with others who are
in the battle, or helping their families understand the reality of the
battle. And finally, because six years
ago, when some circumstances in my life compounded this daily battle, I finally
learned one reason why Paul says, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and
give thanks in all circumstances.”
If
there was anyone in Scripture who could have argued for seasons of life where
rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks could be dismissed, Paul had the
credentials. As Paul became premier
evangelist to the Gentiles, he endured one trial after another…many of which
would make our worst days seem like a holiday.
Paul
tells the church in Corinth, for reasons other than learning to give thanks and
rejoice, of what he has endured for the sake of spreading the Gospel:
Five times I have received from the
Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three
times I was beaten with rods. Once I
received a stoning. Three times I was
shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys,
in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger
from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea,
danger from false brothers and sisters; in toil and hardship, through many a
sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked. And, besides other things, I am under daily
pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches.[i]
Like
I said, if there were a person who could argue against a celebratory attitude,
it would be Paul. Yet it is Paul who
said, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all
circumstances.” It is Paul that we read
of in Acts, who, during one of his imprisonments, is reported to have been
“praying and singing hymns to God.”[ii] Paul did not just talk about rejoicing always
and giving thanks in all circumstances.
He lived it out…and I now understand why.
Six
years ago when a family situation weighed on my heart and mind so hard that had
I still been seeing my psychiatrist, I would have likely been back on
medicines, I found a new tool from God in the battle with the depressive
swings. Praising God—rejoicing and
giving thanks. During this season of
darkness there were two songs that I listened to repeatedly on my iPod. The first was “Stand in the Rain” by
Superchick, the other was “Praise You In This Storm,” by Casting Crowns. Because I want this to continue to be an
evening of giving thanks and rejoicing, I am not going to sing either of those
for you, I encourage you though, if you are not familiar with them, to listen
to them The first is an encouragement to
stand firm in the face of difficulties knowing that we won’t drown to me
calling up the promise from Isaiah 43: “When you pass through the waters, I
will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when
you walk through the fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not
consume you.”[iii] The second a reminder of the promises of
Christ, “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age...”[iv]
and “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.”[v]
What
does rejoicing do when, whether circumstances or mental illness leaves us
feeling like there is no reason to rejoice?
It does so many things.
1)
It
reminds us of the promises of God, especially the promises that He will give us
the strength to endure and that He will never leave nor forsake us.
2)
It gets our focus off of ourselves and our
circumstances (the places of darkness) and onto God (the light of the
world). It takes away the power of
darkness in our lives and replaces it with hope and life.
3)
It bears witness to the world that our
relationship with Christ enables us to rise beyond our circumstances—that what
we face in this world can never separate us from God—whose faithfulness to us
is greater than anything that could assail us.
Is
life good right now? Then “rejoice
always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances.” For God is the source of all blessings.
Is
life hard right now? The “rejoice
always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances.” For that is how the battle is won…
In
the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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