by Fr Gabriel-Allan Boyd
When we see the story of Saint Paul’s life and read his writings, we discover that thanksgiving was at the heart of everything he did. It seems as though he just couldn’t thank God enough. Over and over and over again, his letters to the Churches overflowed with thankfulness to God. His advice to Christians is, “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for all of you who belong to Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 5:20 & 1st Thessalonians 5:18). These weren’t just empty words. Saint Paul lived that great sense of thankfulness, even in the worst of circumstances. Even when he and his fellow missionary, Silas, were suffering —having been stripped of their clothes, whipped, with painful lash wounds on their backs, imprisoned with their feet locked in stocks…and from the darkness of midnight, by God’s grace, there they were, singing praises to God at the top of their lungs, while the other prisoners listened to them (Acts 16:25). Paul was thankful because he realized that his chains helped him to advance the Gospel message (Philippians 1:12-14). Such Thanksgiving is humanly impossible…which means that it’s supernatural and essentially a gift from God. Saint Paul understands that thankfulness isn’t just one of many virtues that characterize the Christian life, but rather that it’s the characteristic of faith in Christ. For Saint Paul, even in the midst of agony, without any of the comforts that we all enjoy, without roast turkey & mashed potatoes or any of our other comforts, thanksgiving was a way of life…the way of being.
But why did Saint Paul consider thanksgiving to be so very important for Christians?
The answer is found in the life and example of our Lord, Jesus Christ, with whom we are to become one. As we unite our lives with Him, taking on a spirit of thanksgiving actually completes something in us.
Just look at what we see Him do in the Gospels. Remarkably, the Bread of Life, Himself, gave thanks to His Father immediately before He multiplied the fishes and the loaves. “Then He took the five loaves and the fish, He cried out in thanksgiving...” (Matthew 15:36). The One who is our Wisdom was thankful to His Father for the wisdom given to the simple. “At that time Jesus prayed this prayer, “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank You for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike” (Matthew 11:25). The One whose word brought everything from nothing into being, spoke words of thanksgiving to His Heavenly Father for hearing and answering His prayer at the tomb of His friend Lazarus. “Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, thank You for hearing Me. You always hear Me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent Me’” (John 11:40-42). The One who established the Passover in the Old Testament, became, Himself, the Passover Lamb…giving thanks to the Heavenly Father. “And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me’” (Matthew 26:25). Jesus Christ expressed His gratitude—giving thanks. It’s a peculiar thing for us to imagine, but over and over we see our Lord, Jesus Christ—God, Himself—offering up thanksgiving to His Father. God is both offering and also giving thanks. God reveals Himself to us as Thanksgiving. If the Creator of this world, and the model for what it means for us to be fully human continually offered thanks, then we should, as St Paul said, ‘follow God’s will by being thankful in all circumstances.’
Thus, the best reason for giving thanks is that it makes us more Christ-like…unifying us with God.
However, since we live in a fallen world, where our humanity is corrupted by sin, thanksgiving doesn’t come naturally. It’s not automatic. Like many good, holy and righteous things—we need to develop it as a habit—cultivating a way of thinking and behaving, training ourselves in thanksgiving in order to flourish and grow. But instead of cultivating thanks, we often do the exact opposite by whining and complaining. How many of us even bother to take the time to count our blessings? How many Thanksgiving holidays have you and your family spent actually going through that exercise? And if we don’t, how will we know how blessed we truly are? And if we don’t think we are blessed then we’ll always walk around with a sense of entitlement, like somebody always owes us something. We don’t think of it often this way, but ingratitude is sinful. It causes us to miss the mark, to fall away from God, not closer to Him.
That’s why the Orthodox Church’s central sacrament, the Eucharist, has thankfulness at its heart. It’s pointing us to The Mark—Jesus Christ, Himself—and towards a participation with His way of thankfulness. The very word, “Eucharist” comes from the Greek word for “thanksgiving” (ευχαριστία). And when, as we’ve often heard, our Church Tradition reminds us us that we should all live Eucharistically, it’s prompting us to remember that this spirit of thanksgiving should flow forth from the chalice into every other part of the rest of our lives. We come to worship God in the Liturgy facing east—toward the Orient—to re-orient our whole lives toward this Eucharistic (thankful) way of being.
Just watch what we say and do in the Divine Liturgy. Directly after we recite the Creed, the priest proclaims, “Let us lift up our hearts…Let us give thanks to the Lord.” And the people respond together, “This is proper and right.” Then throughout the consecration prayers, the priest begins offering up a great many prayers of thanksgiving. “For all these things we thank You and Your only begotten Son and Your Holy Spirit; for all things that we know and do not know, for blessings seen and unseen that have been bestowed upon us.” Pay attention to this. It’s important to realize that everyone who lives in such thanksgiving is capable of salvation and eternal joy. Thus, the Divine Liturgy instills within us a way of being that approaches every circumstance with hearts full of thanksgiving to God. It’s meant to impress upon each of us an attitude of priesthood (as St Peter affirms, you are “a royal priesthood” - 1 Peter 2:9), where every Christian is inspired to approach every encounter with any person and any other part of creation as an opportunity to be transformed together in Christ offering them back up to God in thanksgiving—that you may “proclaim the praises of Him who called you from darkness into His excellent light.” Thus, in the Divine Liturgy, as you see the priest offer up the gifts in thanksgiving, you begin to learn what it means for you to live-out this priesthood of which St Peter speaks.
So, giving thanks isn’t just a small prayer we say before or after receiving a meal. Neither is it something we only do once a year on a national holiday. Rather, thanksgiving is the way we participate in the Source of all being…and the way we continue receiving being from Him. The life of Christ stands forth as a life lived in thanksgiving—filling every moment with thankfulness and praise. This Thanksgiving holiday (America’s only Eucharistic holiday), let’s meditate upon the first and most important Thanksgiving…the one that happens between the members of the Trinity. May we become like our Lord, as we begin to learn what it truly means to “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with hymns, being thankful to Him, and blessing His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endures to all generations” (Psalm 99:4-5).
“And whatever you do in word or deed, do *all* in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him” (Colossians 3:17).