Sermon for October 10, 2021 Sermon Series: Week 1 House of Prayer Lutheran Church
“The Walk: Worship & Prayer - A Living Hallelujah” Rev. Karl-John N. Stone
Luke 24:44-53; Psalm 95; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-28
Are any of you fans of Norm MacDonald? He was a comedian, best known for being on Saturday Night Live back in the 90s, and sadly he died just a few weeks ago after living with cancer for 9 years. I was reading about him after he died, and learned that he was a Christian, and I found several articles written about how he had spent years wrestling with questions of faith and mortality. He once said “Like everyone, I am in search of the true faith of course. It’s been a rather long tough journey, for me at least.” [https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/20/opinion/norm-macdonald-christian-comedy.html] On a recent Reformation Day, Norm sent a message on Twitter giving a simple summary of the teachings of Martin Luther. He wrote: “Scripture. Faith. Grace. Christ, Glory of God. Smart men say nothing is a miracle. I say everything is." [https://www.1517.org/articles/the-gospel-according-to-norm]
How about that? Everything is a miracle. All of life is a miracle! All of life is a gift from God our Creator. And what is the first thing you do when someone gives you a gift? You say “Thank you.” It’s the natural and appropriate response. “Thank you, God.” And that, in its most basic form, is worship.
The earliest form of worship described in the Bible is of people building an altar and bringing an offering to God by sacrificing some of their best grain or livestock. They did this not to persuade God to bless them, but to express their love and thanksgiving to God because he had already blessed them.
The Bible describes not only how people worship, but even how all of God’s creation worships. For example, Psalm 148 declares: “Praise the Lord, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars! Praise the Lord from the earth you sea monsters and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and frost, stormy wind fulfilling his command! Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars! Wild animals and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds!” How can these things be worshiping God? By doing what God had created them to do. The sun and stars shine, the moon rotates in its orbit. The oceans plunge into the deeps and sea creatures swim there. The weather and climate make it possible for life to flourish. Mountains and hills rise toward the sky. Fruit trees produce fruit, cedars grow tall and strong. Animals make their homes in the fields and forests, snakes crawl in the dirt, birds soar through the air. They all worship God by doing what God has created them to do.
And what are humans created to do? First and foremost, to give thanks to our Creator. As Psalm 95 puts it, “O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.” Martin Luther makes this same point in his explanation to the First Article of the Apostles’ Creed. Luther begins by saying, “I believe that God has created me together with all creatures…”, then goes on to describe all the gifts and blessings that God has given us, and concludes, “For all of this I owe it to God to thank and praise, serve and obey him.”
But it’s not only the Bible and Martin Luther that teach how important to life an attitude of thanksgiving is. Scientific studies do, too, and Adam Hamilton writes about this in his book The Walk [p.32-33]. Researchers from the University of California San Diego and the University of Sterling in Scotland followed 186 patients with heart failure. Half of them were asked to keep a “gratitude journal” for eight weeks. They found that “those who kept a gratitude journal were less depressed, slept better, and had improved heart-related markers in the blood stream than the other patients who did nothing.” Another researcher, Dr. Murali Doraiswamy, from Duke University School of Medicine wrote, “If gratitude were a drug, it would be the world’s best-selling product with a health maintenance indication for every major organ system.”
And St. Paul also gets in on the act in our first scripture reading today from 1 Thessalonians, where he advises us to “Rejoice always.” Now, you may be thinking to yourself, “I’ve got lots of problems and stress and anxiety, and am not feeling particularly joyful. How am I going to rejoice always, or even give thanks just some of the time?” As the Benedictine Brother David Steindl-Rast teaches, “It is not happiness that makes us grateful. It’s gratefulness that makes us happy.” [p.31] God does not ask us to ignore our problems. God knows the problems and challenges that we face, and God knows that we need a way to be uplifted and realize the blessings he gives us each day. And that way begins with giving thanks for what we have instead of dwelling on what we don’t have. As Adam Hamilton puts it, “We’re not called to give thanks because everything in our lives is going wonderfully. We’re called to give thanks because our life itself is a wonderful gift from God.” [p.32]
As Christians, we look to the greatest gift of all as we offer our thanksgiving and praise: How Jesus gave himself on the cross on our behalf, to forgive our sins as the sacrifice to end all sacrifices; and in being raised from the dead, Jesus opened the door to new life for today and for all eternity. Right before Jesus ascended into heaven (as we heard in our gospel reading for today), he gave his disciples the basic instructions of what their worship would be, so that they would never lose sight of giving thanks to God for the miraculous gift of life. They were to gather together in faith, so that Christ would open their minds to understand the scriptures (this is what happens when we come together as a church, read the Bible, sing hymns and psalms, and hear a sermon). They were to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins through the suffering and rising of the Messiah (this is what happens when we turn to God for confession and forgiveness, and when we celebrate Holy Communion). They were to be witnesses of God’s presence and activity by going out into the world as servants of Christ (this is what happens we “go in peace to serve the Lord”).
A final important point is that thanksgiving to God is not only done in community, but also individually. St. Paul teaches us to “pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances.” How can we possibly pray without ceasing? Adam Hamilton gives some suggestions, by using our hands. Closing your fingers together on one hand is a reminder to worship together with others once a week. Opening your fingers apart on your other hand is a reminder to pray on your own five times per day (for example, when you wake up, at meal times, and when you go to sleep). You can use your hands to be tangible reminders to give thanks, and worship, and pray. And as you pray five times a day—your prayer can be as short or as long as you need, because God hears them all—you can ask God to help you grow into making your whole life one continuous prayer.
Prayer, in its most basic sense, is simply opening your heart, mind, and soul to the presence of God who is always with you. So making your life into a continuous prayer means becoming more and more aware of God’s presence at all times and in all places. That really is something to be thankful for! Amen.