AT THIS season of the year , in North America we look back to the historical epic of the first harvest vouchsafed by a merciful God to a brave Pilgrim band. If the courage of pioneer settlers is all we see in this event, we may be seeing only one small facet, albeit an important one, of true thanksgiving. Those sturdy settlers were probably unaware of their part in an epic of history.
For all the admitted and amazing courage, tenacity, and devotion that we here in North America see in the fathers of our nation, Thanksgiving may become but a patriotic symbol with a localized meaning. In point of fact, true thanksgiving has larger, universal connotations. So vital and so vast are they that we may even become selfish and parochial if we ignore them in our seasonal Thanksgiving services of worship.
At this season when throughout the Christian world men and women will be praising God for the bountiful harvests, it will be easy for us to forget that two thirds of the world's population is underfed, badly housed, with inadequate cooking and toilet facilities, and without proper medical aid. True thanksgiving must remember the poor, the hungry, the sick, the illiterate, and we might well pray for the worldwide five-year Freedom From Hunger campaign launched July 1, 1960, by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization from its headquarters in Rome, Italy.
It is from the Biblical background that we get the widest conception of true thanksgiving. In the Old Testament thanks and praise were an integral and significant part of corporate worship, often accompanied by the singing of massed choirs. Individual thanksgiving was common among devout Hebrews: "I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might" (Dan. 2:23). In Psalm 100:4 another Hebrew word is used also meaning "thanks," "praise," "confession": "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name." In both private life and public worship the Hebrews knew how to praise and thank their God.
The New Testament is replete with praise and thanksgiving for specified reasons, of which these are a few:
1. In prayer to God: "Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God"
(Phil. 4:6, R.S.V.; cf. Col. 4:2).
2. For physical food: "Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples" (John 6:11). Compare His thanks at the Last Supper (Luke 22:17; 1 Cor. 11:24).
3. For healing: "One of them [the ten lepers], when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks" (Luke 17:15, 16).
4. For deliverance from danger: "When he had thus spoken, he took bread, and gave thanks to God in presence of them all [after the shipwreck and long fast]" (Acts 27:35; cf. chap. 28:15).
5- For souls accepting Christ: "For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God ... ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God" (1 Thess. 2:13).
6. For the dissemination of the gospel: "I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world" (Rom. 1:8).
7. For Christian fellowship: "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now" (Phil. 1:3-5).
8. For growth in redeeming grace: "We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity ["love," R.S.V.] of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth" (2 Thess. 1:3).
9. For deepening sanctification through obedience to truth: "We are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth" (2 Thess. 2:13).
10. For deliverance from personal bondage to sin: "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Rom. 7:24, 25, R.S.V.).
11. For the sacrificial service of fellow believers: "Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus: who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles" (Rom. 16:3, 4).
12. For the loyalty of friends: "I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers, hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus, and ... all saints" (Philemon 4, 5).
The words from which are derived "thanks," "thanksgiving," "thankfulness," and cognate words are among the great words of the Greek New Testament. In Luke 6:32, 33, 34 the word charts, surely one of the greatest words in Christian thought, is rendered "thank," as also in Luke 17:9. The same word in Romans 6:17 is rendered "God be thanked," or "thanks be to God" (R.S.V.). The reason for this thanks to God is that superlative act off' redemptive grace: "That you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed" (Rom. 6: 17, R.S.V.).
The noun eucharistia (English, eucharist) has the meaning "to give well" or "freely." It denotes "gratitude" or "an internal feeling of thankfulness" as in Acts 24:3; "thanksgiving" as in 1 Corinthians 14:16, where the curious contextual question is "When thou shalt bless with the spirit [i.e., in a language unknown to hearers], how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned ["one in the position of an outsider," R.S.V.] say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest?" When we give thanks, as when we preach, it is glorifying to God and edifying to the hearer if we use the plain, forthright language of the gospel of Christ, which is the medium by which the Word of God touches the human heart.
There is a beautiful use of the verb eucharisteo in Ephesians 5:20, R.S.V.: "Always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father." (Cf. Col. 1:12.) In Colossians 3:17 (R.S.V.) the same word has a comprehensive meaning in relation to the personal conduct of the believer: "Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
In Romans 15:9 there occurs an interesting use of the verb exomologeo, which in the middle voice implies the making of an acknowledgment, whether of sins or in honor of a person: "That the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name." It is used also prophetically in Romans 14:11 (referring to Isa. 45:23): "As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God." The significance of our Lord's words in Matthew 11:25; Luke 10:21: "I thank thee, O Father" is "I make thankful confession" or "I make acknowledgment with praise." See W. E. Vine, Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, vol. IV, p. 122.
We need to get a picture of thankfulness, not as a momentary attitude of mind on a special occasion but as a way of life, service, and worship. Selfishness cuts off the love of God from our hearts, "and a large revenue of praise and thanksgiving from human hearts and human lips is prevented from flowing back to God."—Christ's Object Lessons, p. 383.
When in 1844 Henry Alford wrote his famous hymn "Come, Ye Thankful People," he inserted a stanza setting forth the thanks and praise of the redeemed for final triumph over sin.
Then, thou church triumphant, come, Raise the song of harvest home; All are safely gathered in, Free from sorrow, free from sin; There forever purified In God's garner to abide; Come, ten thousand angels, come, Raise the glorious harvest home!
As we sing our praise at this season, may it transcend all small and selfish implications and carry us forward to the final day when every creature shall sing: "To him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might for ever and ever!" (Rev. 5:13, R.S.V.).
