Readings: 1 Timothy 6. 6-10 & Matthew 6. 24-33
Today is a day to give thanks. But thanks isn’t an automatic thing is it? We tend to take things for granted when we have them and then complain when we don’t.
The world around us breeds discontent. We’re never settled, always looking for the next thing, the next upgrade. As soon as the buzz over a new iPhone has died down a new one is announced. Because contentment isn’t good for business, if you have a people who are quite happy with what they have they won’t buy new things, won’t upgrade or change.
But discontentment kills thankfulness, afterall if we’re not satisfied with what we have, it’s much harder to be grateful for it, maybe we’ll be grateful once we have that next thing, that next upgrade, maybe that will bring us contentment and we can be grateful. Moreover we often have an abundance of supply of the things we want, it’s always there so we take it for granted, we forget to be grateful because this is just how it is, you go to the shops and there’s enough food to go around, unless you got into baking back in 2020 during the lockdowns.
But this isn’t how it’s meant to be, this isn’t how life is meant to be. Isn’t life more than food or clothing or the next bit of technology? Isn’t there more to life than this?
Paul in his first letter to Timothy writes ‘Godliness with contentment is great gain’. In other words living as God would have us live whilst being content, satisfied with what we have, will do wonders for our state of being. And Paul sets the bar really low for being content, if you have food on the table and clothes on your back, that’s enough to be content, that’s enough to be satisfied. How easily we can lose sight of that and go after more and more, but that’s the path to ruin says Paul, for we will never be satisfied. If we can’t be satisfied with little, how can we be satisfied with much as there’s always more to gain.
Back in 2020 during the lockdowns Katy & I tended to do our food shopping late in the evening when it was quieter to avoid the crowds. But the disadvantage of that is sometimes things had sold out during the day. And a one evening we were in Tesco’s and they had sold out of the particular pack of bacon we usually get. They weren’t out of bacon, there were other packs, including the type we get in smaller or more expensive packs but the exact ones we usually got weren’t there, and I was really frustrated, I stood there in disbelief wondering if I’d have to come up with a different meal or horror of horrors, pick either the smaller pack or the one that was £1 more expensive than the ones I wanted. How thoroughly ridiculous of me, there was still food on the shelves, still options but I wasn’t grateful, I was disappointed and frustrated that the precise one I wanted wasn’t there.
Now this haze only last 10s max. But how often do we do that, in a myriad of ways, we’re not grateful for what we do have, but we’re frustrated with what we can’t, particularly if it’s usually available. It seems far more natural to complain than to give thanks.
Contentment with godliness is great gain. We need to grow in ourselves a heart of thankfulness, or if you like things that rhyme, an attitude of gratitude. And the first step towards that is to be content with what we have, questioning that desire to always have more, always get what we want. Because we may think that discontent and ingratitude doesn’t affect anyone else, doesn’t really matter, that it only affects us, but it affects our relationship with God from whom all things come.
Because behind each and every perfect gift, behind every paycheck, every foodshop, every new item of clothing, sits God. All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above, so we sing this time every year. All good and wonderful things aren’t just the result of the toil of our hands, the work of others, the reward for our efforts, they’re gifts from our Heavenly Father, moments of goodness and grace, meant to warm our hearts towards him.
Another thing I discovered during the lockdowns was mail order flowers, you go online, pick your flowers and they’ll be packaged up in a letterbox sized box and posted through the door, very handy. still use it now from time to time living so far from my parents for mothers’ days and birthdays. I’m told though that each time rather than just posting them through the door the delivery person rang the bell to hand them over. Now my mum is perfectly correct in thanking the delivery person for the flowers, but if that’s where the thankfulness stops, she’s missed something. The person standing at the door just brought the gift yes, but the giver who is behind the gift is me, and so the proper and greater thanks comes to me, usually in a phone call.
It’s right and good that at this time of year we give thanks for our farmers, our delivery drivers, our shop and factory workers who bring food to our tables, but if that’s where the thankfulness stops we’ve missed something, the giver of every good and perfect gift. God. Gifts given to warm our hearts to him, given to show his goodness and kindness and generosity. Ultimately thanks are due to him.
There’s one last thing that an attitude of gratitude does, it breeds generosity. Contentment and thankfulness are the seedbed of generosity. If we’re not content with what we have we won’t give it away, we need it in order to gain more. If we see what we have as having been hard earned, the fruits of our hard labours we’ll hold it tight, it’s ours by right.
But if we’re content with what we have we’ll hold it loosely. If we receive everything as a gift from our Heavenly Father we’ll receive it thankfully and open handed. And in doing so, seeing those who have less than us, who aren’t as fortunate, both in our own communities and around the world, we’ll pass on the gift, share it with others that they too may give thanks to our Heavenly Father.
If everything is a gift, and if we’re content with just food on our table and clothes on our backs everything else becomes a storehouse of generosity, to freely give to others, to bless others.
So as we give thanks for the harvest of land, sea and air, let’s give thanks to the one who gives generously, each and every perfect gift. And in doing so, let us be content, thankful, and generous, that all may rejoice in the blessings God has given us.
Amen