The Miracle of Thankfulness

John 6: 1-14 Jesus crossed Lake Galilee, which was also known as Lake Tiberias.  A large crowd had seen him work miracles to heal the sick, and those people went with him. It was almost time for the Jewish festival of Passover, and Jesus went up on a mountain with his disciples and sat down.

 When Jesus saw the large crowd coming toward him, he asked Philip, “Where will we get enough food to feed all these people?”  He said this to test Philip, since he already knew what he was going to do.

 Philip answered, “Don't you know that it would take almost a year's wages just to buy only a little bread for each of these people?”
 Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the disciples. He spoke up and said, “There is a boy here who has five small loaves of barley bread and two fish. But what good is that with all these people?”

The ground was covered with grass, and Jesus told his disciples to have everyone sit down. About five thousand men were in the crowd. 11 Jesus took the bread in his hands and gave thanks to God. Then he passed the bread to the people, and he did the same with the fish, until everyone had plenty to eat.

The people ate all they wanted, and Jesus told his disciples to gather up the leftovers, so that nothing would be wasted.  The disciples gathered them up and filled twelve large baskets with what was left over from the five barley loaves.

 After the people had seen Jesus work this miracle, they began saying, “This must be the Prophet who is to come into the world!” Jesus realized that they would try to force him to be their king. So he went up on a mountain, where he could be alone.

Let us pray: 
Thank you Father that it is always by your hand that we are supplied our every need. Thank you Jesus that you always see beyond our scarcity bringing us to the abundance of your love.  Fill us now Holy Spirit and overflow through us to all we know.
Amen.

 

Great changes and miracles start with the practice of thankfulness.  A small boy who had 5 loaves of bread and a couple of fish had something more.  He had a thankful heart to be in the presence of Jesus. The boy shared his food with thankfulness at being asked. 
Throughout the Old and New Testaments we see thankfulness practiced at the start of prayer.  Thankfulness was to dominate all sacrifices.  The sacrifices were not to be bargaining chips or attempts at bribing God.  They were intended to bring God’s people into an awareness of God’s provision, love, and mercy towards them. 

Much of the animal sacrifices offered to God were ordained by God to become feasts for His people to reflect on the Law.  They had feasts given to feast on God’s salvation towards them in the past, and His love towards them in the present.   
The Gospel of John consistently portrays Jesus as the true bread of heaven who provides eternal life for those who believe on Him.  Here in the feeding of the 5,000 men plus women and children, we see Jesus the Bread of Life providing physical miraculous bread for the people who had left their normal daily routines to hear His words of Life. 

These were Jews who grew up hearing about how God had provided manna for their ancestors in the wilderness when He freed them from Egypt.  In the bread they ate the day that Jesus fed them they handled and tasted the physical proof of Jesus’ divine anointing.
I’ve had the privilege of recognizing many miracles in my life.  I believe each one of us have lives that are filled with the miraculous, but too often we are blind to the good works that God is doing in our lives. 

There is always some rationalization we can make about miracles like many people do with the feeding of the 5,000.  The most common rationalization about that day is that when the basket with the food was passed around that many others who had also brought food along added to the basket as it was passed. 

Can you imagine an unorganized, unannounced spur of the moment potluck that would feed 5,000 men plus women and children that would feed everyone and leave leftovers? It’s about as likely as Rolls Royces growing on trees.

Some of the things I’ve been privileged to see I am quite sure qualify as absolute miracles.  Some were dramatic miracles, miracles of definite healing like a blind man’s milky white eyes becoming clear and his sight returned. 
Some were kind of sweet, almost romantic miracles, seeing a cloud filled sky that was pouring out rain make a clear blue circle just over the wedding reception area of some friends. Or seeing God provide more food than what seemed possible again and again out of almost completely empty food supplies.

Every miracle I’ve witnessed involved thanksgiving at the start and finish of it.
The most memorable thanksgiving miracle for me involved my parents.  My parents really tried to be good people.  They were Christian Scientists and didn’t smoke, drink alcohol, or use bad language.  The first book I remember was the Bible and the first words I remember were God loves you.

Unfortunately, somewhere along the way they lost the “I love you”.  They were quick to say, “God loves you” when we got scraped up or fell down.  They also lost any expressed sense of thankfulness.

When I was a teen, my mom and I would have horrible yelling arguments 3 to 5 times a week.  At about the age of 14 I started using quotes from the Bible and Christian Science writings as part of my arguments against what she said.  Our arguments became fewer after this, but it also felt like my mother had come to despise me.

 

When I started hearing the gospel message that Jesus had died for my sins I also heard other things.  The young evangelist told us from Scripture how God called us to honor our parents in both words and deeds.  God convicted me that if I did not honor my parents than I was dishonoring Him also. Slowly I learned to hold my tongue and look for ways to serve my parents. 

After about 3 years of praying for and seeking a good relationship with my parents there still were some big things missing. The two biggest things missing were the expressions, “I love you” and “thank you”.   I prayed for months about saying these simple words in our family. They were words that I did not remember ever hearing in our family.

Finally one night my father, mother, and I sat at our dining table having just finished eating a wonderful meal together.  I looked at my mom and said, “Mom, thanks for that great meal.” 

After so many years of not hearing these words my mom exploded with anger.  She rose up from the table her face flushed red and said, “Don’t tease me!  We don’t say thank you in this house.  No one has ever thanked me for making a meal!”

I quickly said, “But mom, I’m not teasing, I’m sorry I’ve never said thank you for all you do.  I really mean it, that was a great meal.” Than she burst into tears and left the room.  I looked at my dad and he also was red faced with tears running down his face.  He than followed my mom to go talk with her.

After that meal my dad never failed to say “thank you” after a meal again.  But, there still was that other small mountain of a phrase missing from our lives. And it still left a kind of dry hardness to our times together.

 

A few weeks later my mom and I were in the kitchen washing dishes after our evening meal.  Since I had become a Christian we had developed this pattern of washing and drying the dishes together often talking as we worked.  As we were putting the towels away I faced her and said, “Mom, I love you.”  

 

She again turned red and kind of exploded with something like, “How can you say that?” And she left the room.   I stood there praying and thinking I knew what she meant.  After all those years of fighting and neglect of right relationship – she was astonished that I could now state such words.

 

She came back to the kitchen within a couple of minutes.  My dad came to the kitchen door and listened.  She apologized for exploding at me, at the same time she asked again, “How can you say those words?”

 

I prayed a quick prayer for the right words and said, “ I believe that God loves us all and wants us to express His love towards each other personally.  I am glad to have you as my mother and believe God has given us each other to love.  I really do love you mom.” 
With much tears my mom hugged me and said, “I love you too, Mark.”  

 

My dad again picked up on this change quickly and our household seemed completely changed.  Perhaps it seems like such a small thing to you hearing about how we learned to say ‘thank you’ and ‘I love you’.  For me it remains one of the biggest miracles I have had the pleasure of being part of in my life.

 

This coming Thursday we have a national holiday of Thanksgiving.  This Thanksgiving day was originally set apart by the founding Fathers of this country as a day for all who live in this country to focus on giving rightful thanks to God for His constant mercies and grace towards us through His Son Jesus Christ.

 

Jesus told us that to love your neighbor as yourself is similar to loving God.  A huge part of loving God is having a thankful heart that expresses that thankfulness.  In a similar way, a big part of loving your neighbor is having a grateful heart for your neighbor and expressing that thankfulness.

 

Let us share some Bible verses about thankfulness together in small groups now. We will meet in groups of 3 to 5.  English speakers please meet with myself.  We will get back together in about 10 minutes.

 

SMALL GROUPS
Thank you for your good sharing.  Let us come together for the conclusion of our sermon.

As you prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving this week prepare your hearts with gratitude. When Thursday arrives please consider how you can express your gratefulness to God and appreciation to those around you. 

One definite gift I’m very grateful for lately are the prayers of this church.  A couple of weeks ago we were wondering how God was going to supply us with the money to pay all the bills facing us.  Then we asked you all to pray for us.

The next day after we sought the prayers of the church I started to be flooded with work.  The flood of work continues. Though often tired from working long days I am deeply grateful to God and also to you all. 
Thank you.

Please listen to the following prayer from a Hebrew prayer book.

Though our mouths were full of song as the sea,
and our tongues of exultation as the multitude of its waves,
and our lips of praise as the wide flung firmament;
though our eyes shine with light like the sun and the moon,
and our hands were spread forth like the eagles of heaven,
and our feet as swift as deer,
we still would be unable to thank You and bless Your name,
O Lord our God and God of our fathers,
for one thousandth or one ten thousandth part
of the bounties which You have bestowed
upon our fathers and upon us. 

 

Please pray with me:
Please fill us with gratitude for you and each other Lord Jesus.  We thank you for your gifts of love and life knowing that we still see as if through a murky glass.  Please bless this nation with an attitude of thankfulness towards you and appreciation for each other. Thank you Lord

Jesus.

Amen.