November 24, 2023
Giving Thanks
It is a well told tale, but one worth retelling, especially in these days. The time and place is seventeenth century Germany. The specific context is the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). The person is Martin Rinkart, a Lutheran pastor, in the city of Ellensburg. Ellensburg was a walled city that provided refuge for those fleeing the violence and pain of that war. While it provided safety from war, it created a refugee crisis, with too little food and shelter for those inside the walls of Ellensburg. Though Rinkart and his family had little, they shared what they had with many people.
The overcrowding in Ellensburg led to numerous diseases and a plague, which together killed a large percentage of the residents. At one point Rinkart was the only living pastor in Ellensburg, leaving him to bury all of the dead, as many as 50 in one day. One of the funerals he presided over was that of his own wife.
One can only imagine the emotional and spiritual—not to mention physical—toll it must have taken on Rinkart. As a pastor, I wonder how I would have responded in such a situation? One of Rinkart’s responses was to craft a sung table blessing for his family, a prayer of thanksgiving for the goodness of God and the graces we have received from God.
We know this table grace today as the hymn, “Now Thank we All Our God.”
In a world which seems to us to be on the brink, it would do us well to consider these words as we pray for, and work towards, the redemption of the world. You might even imagine singing these words as a Christian in Afghanistan, Ukraine, Gaza, or South Sudan, to name a few.
Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.
O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And free us from all ills, in this world and the next!
All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given;
The Son and Him Who reigns with Them in highest Heaven;
The one eternal God, whom earth and Heaven adore;
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.
As you think of the Thanksgiving that has just past in the context of the challenges before you—and before us all—in the days ahead, might we begin and end each day with a word of thanks for the God who loves, redeems, and reigns over all creation. Might this give us confidence and hope. Might this hope animate our worship this Sunday, as we celebrate the Reign of Christ as Lord.
Continuing to give thanks,
~ Pastor Todd