“Give thanks in all circumstances, 

for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

–1 Thessalonians 5:18

Later this week, the people of this country will stop to give thanks. The first such celebration occurred in 1621 when the Pilgrims and Wampanoag people marked a good harvest. The modern observance dates to 1863 when Abraham Lincoln called for a day of thanksgiving a few months after the Battle of Gettysburg. . As part of many Thanksgiving celebrations today, the host or hostess will ask everyone at the table to name one thing for which they are grateful. To help you prepare for  that moment, we reflect now on the Apostle Paul’s admonition to “Give thanks in all circumstances.” 

Those words are from his first letter to the church in Thessalonica.  In the chapter where he gives that counsel, he is talking about life in a local congregation, but the instruction is more wide-reaching. Notice, too, he doesn’t say “give thanks for all circumstances.” No, he says “give thanks in all circumstances.” That difference in prepositions makes all the difference.

For perhaps you will gather around a table painfully aware of an empty chair or a loved one’s health challenge. Your meal could be quite modest because of a job loss or other financial blows that have impacted the household budget. You may not feel particularly thankful in that moment because of a strained relationship or a shattered dream or some other challenge occupying your mind. In such cases, it would be hard to give thanks for your circumstances, yet it is still possible to give thanks in them because of God’s abiding care. Here’s an example from my professional life.            

A previous pastorate needed room to expand so the members voted to purchase two adjacent properties.. Negotiations on the first one went smoothly, but the second was a challenge. It consisted of two lots and a house where an 85 year old woman lived. It was owned by her eldest son, a local businessperson I will call Fred, who had a well-deserved reputation for driving a hard bargain. Fred named a purchase price double the assessed value, included the swap of a house the church owned to lessen his capital gains, and required a lease giving his mother lifetime rights to the house. The church could never raise the rent either. At the meeting where the proposal was put to a vote one member put it well: “It’s a bad deal,” Mildred said, “but if we wait, it will be worse.” 

The congregation approved the proposal and continued to move ahead with the project. It developed a master plan and conducted two capital campaigns, approved a design and put the contract out to bid. When the estimates came back, the lowest one was higher than what the church could afford. , We scaled back, cutting out three classrooms and bringing in one end of the building ten feet. It was disappointing to all of us, yet soon the long-awaited construction finally began.

One day, I was in my office trying to talk on the phone despite active bulldozers outside my window when a man I had never met burst in and demanded that I hang up. He was our tenant’s younger son who shouted that his mother was terribly upset that trees were being removed and that no one had asked her permission. We went outside and I began talking with the project manager when someone drove up and handed me an injunction. All construction activity immediately stopped.  

I went back inside to call our attorney. He asked for copies of the rental agreement, the injunction, and our construction plans. I then reached out to Fred, who, as it turned out, had initiated the legal maneuver. I asked if we could meet right away. He agreed, but when an elder and I arrived at his office he kept us waiting. After finally entering the room, he did most of the talking.    

“I’m so disappointed in the church,” Fred said. “I moved my mother to this community years ago and bought her that house so she could live out her final years in peace. Out of the goodness of my heart, I agreed to sell the house to the church at a price far below what I could have gotten elsewhere. I even let your attorney draw up the rental agreement and thought I could trust the church to treat us fairly. I guess I was wrong.”  He stood up. “I’m too angry to talk about this anymore today, but consider your project stopped until further notice.”

The elder and I went back to the church. The construction crew had left for the day. Our architect was on vacation and could not be reached. I had no idea how to proceed. Just then, our attorney called back. “It’s true that the lease you signed gives her the right to approve anything that happens on the property as long as she lives there.”  My heart sank and I began to imagine what negotiations would be like for us to continue the project. “But,” the attorney added, “her lease is on the parcel which isn’t affected by the construction, so you are free to proceed.”

I’ll never forget the smile that covered my face and the relief that filled my heart. I will also confess to wishing I could have been a fly on the wall when Fred got that message, too! When our architect got back into town and we talked about the experience, the divine involvement in those events soon became apparent to me. Had the church been able to afford the structure we wanted to build, we would have been about six feet onto the land protected by the lease and thus work would have been stopped, likely for weeks. Yet because financial realities forced us to redesign that end of the building, we were just inside the setback line for the adjacent parcel.

“Give thanks in all circumstances,” Paul said “for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”  May it be so for you on Thursday and in all the days that follow.

Generous God, we are humbled by and grateful for your active presence in our lives. May our hearts be filled with gratitude in all circumstances, knowing that we do not ever travel alone. Amen.