PENnED

Today is Thanksgiving Day.

Everyone knows that. What makes this Thanksgiving different is that we are celebrating it in a pandemic. Everyone knows that too! The challenge, however, might be finding things that we can be thankful for today.

Despite the COVID deaths, lack of money and scarcity of food for many, as well as the risk of catching the deadly virus, there are things that we can be thankful for.

For one, we can be thankful for the confident assurance already shown by the incoming administration in dealing with the health crisis and, consequently, the stalled economy. We should rejoice in the fact that the pandemic will now be tackled in a scientific, clear, and comprehensive way. And that without the unnecessary drama!

For us believers, Thanksgiving is a great opportunity to thank God for what we have because of our faith in Christ. While some Christians see their faith and the things they believe in as an escape from this world and its troubles, we should see it differently.

While we too believe in the hereafter, faith has to be lived out in the here and now. Thus, the following message should be taken as a guide for how we should live our lives now in view of what we have in Christ.

What are we to thank God for? To answer that question, let us consider 1 Corinthians 1:4-9:

Thanksgiving

⁴ I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. ⁵ For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— ⁶ God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. ⁷ Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. ⁸ He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

That the Corinthian Christians are a spiritually gifted bunch—they “do not lack any spiritual gift” (v.7)—may have been a great help in the ministry of building the church, at least at the start. However, as of Paul’s writing this letter, their giftedness is obviously not serving them well.

The Corinthians are divided (vs. 10-17) and some of them “have become arrogant” (4:18) apparently because they “already have all (they) want…[and] have become rich!” (v. 8). Paul’s words of thanks for the Corinthians must therefore be understood within the context of their division and personal arrogance, among other weaknesses.

The way Paul does it is quite subtle. And yet, if the Corinthians, who may have boasted for being wise (which 1:26-31 seems to imply), read his letter very carefully, they would not miss Paul’s unmistakable message.

Paul begins by letting the Corinthians know that he “always thank[s]…God for [them]” (v. 4). Yes, despite their immaturity—being still “mere infants in Christ” (3:1) and pride. Paul’s thanksgiving for the Corinthians serves as an ego-shrinking message. How is that?

Clearly, the Corinthians could not boast about their gifts or whatever spiritual riches they might think they have. They did not create their giftedness on their own: “grace is given [them] in Christ Jesus” (v. 4).  

And although they might be tempted to trust in themselves for gaining God’s favor (perhaps because of their being gifted and big ego), Paul was thankful that their future in Christ is secure, not because of them or their ability, but because of  God who “will also keep [them] firm to the end, so that [they] will be blameless [despite their sins] on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and because “God is faithful” (verses 8-9).

In other words, there is no basis for Corinthians’ boasting—everything they have have been given to them by God!

Today, we too might be tempted to thank God for me when we ought to thank God for him and his grace. We might be tempted to thank God for me because…

I am not like those sinners who, for example, belong to a political party of ‘baby murderers’,

I faithfully give 10% of my income to my church (well, most of the time),

I am more obedient to God than those, say, who do not observe Old Testament festivals, rituals, and commandments,

and I am more deserving of the ‘heavenly crowns (plural)’ than others who, in my estimation, are really fake Christians who I don’t expect to see ‘in the air’ or ‘in the clouds’ at rapture as they will be left behind in a chaotic world and suffer the wrath of an angry God.

When we tend to thank God for me rather than him and his grace, it might help us overcome the temptation if we read again and again (yes, even if we have already done so many times before) the parable of Jesus in Luke 18:9-14 :

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

⁹ To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: ¹⁰ “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.

¹³ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

¹⁴ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God (italics added). For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”