A Time to Give Thanks

I call your attention to a passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes.

Ecclesiastes 2:24 - 26 NIV

24 A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God,

25 for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?

26 To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

The biblical writer makes this observation in the midst of his discourse about human life. He seems to infer, from time to time, that much of life is nonsensical; in fact, all is vanity and vexation of spirit, to use the Elizabethan English of the King James Version.

But this seems to be the case only when we forget the proper object of our thanksgiving. There is a proper time – a proper season – for all things. Our experiences in life have been varied, and we remember that each situation calls for an appropriate response. We yell at a basketball game, but not at a funeral. We mislead an enemy in wartime, but not a partner in a business deal. We all talk at a reception, but listen intently to a sermon. Illustrations could be multiplied, but the point is made – there is an appropriate action for each place and time.

The fourth Thursday of November is Thanksgiving Day – a day to remember the Pilgrims and the pioneer spirit – a day to remember our pleasant station in life – and a day to reflect upon those principles which have made our nation great. We hold dear those freedoms that have been purchased for us by others at a price.

On Thanksgiving Day we give thanks, and that thanksgiving, according to the writer of Ecclesiastes, is to be addressed to God. Ecclesiastes 2:24 & 25 reads: A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?

Granted, in this technological age, when workers punch buttons like automatons, and nauseatingly identical products roll of the assembly line, it is difficult to see God. What does He have to do with mass production? And we might look at the Middle East or the Sub-Sahara and ask, “Where is a loving God?” What has He to do with war and hunger?

By inference, the biblical writer of our text answers the previous question, “That is the order of life. That’s the way things are. It is not yours to question, but rather to respond appropriately.” And I suppose that, if the writer were here, he would add, “And in order for your response to be appropriate, it must include God.” In my way of thinking there must be nothing more frustrating than for a professed atheist to feel overwhelming thankful, and have no one to thank!

The suffering of the homeless and the refugee is a problem, and will continue to be a problem. We should be concerned about doing what we can to alleviate suffering. I hope that we are each one involved, through a legitimate relief channel, in some problem at home or abroad. There is a time for responding to need, but there is also a time for rejoicing and giving thanks.

Perhaps the greatest contrast of this sort is the spring season of Lent, in which many of us move from the fasting of Ash Wednesday to the Feast of the Resurrection on Easter Sunday. We respond in a manner appropriate to the day or season. That is what we ought to do on Thanksgiving Day. We ought to respond appropriately.

Thanksgiving is not Ash Wednesday.

In spite of world hunger, in spite of civil and uncivil wars, in spite of environmental problems, let us leave the atheist with his problem of whom to thank, and give thanksgiving to God for His manifold blessings.

Ultimately, as James writes in his epistle:

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (1:17 NIV)

Happy Thanksgiving

J. Duane Beals. The pastor's study, November 2017