TOGETHER IN HIS PRESENCE: GRATEFUL
Dear Friends,
I do not think I have ever met anyone who is too full of thankfulness and gratitude. I hope I am not offending my friends, family and church family by saying this. I am not saying everyone is insufferably entitled, ungrateful, and full of envy. I am saying I have met people who are filled with envy, and blind to their envy, even calling their envy of others “wisdom”. I have met people who are insufferably entitled and who are blind to their sense of entitlement, even calling this “wisdom” and “maturity”. I have met very ungrateful people. But I have never met anyone and then later said - “that person is way too filled with gratitude and thankfulness to the Triune God and to others.” To be honest, I am sure no one has met me and thought I was unbalanced because I was too grateful. I am not using myself as the measure for all Christians, but I think that all Christians need to grow in a sense of gratitude and thankfulness to the Triune God and to others - and we need to grow in “giving voice” to gratitude and thankfulness.
This is the fourth blog in a series called “Together in His Presence”. We are looking at what should characterize a church’s worship service, and by implication, what should characterize the life and ministry of the local church itself, and the people that make up the church. Our guide is a “Call to Worship” written by Thomas Cranmer in 1549. It is the “Call to Worship” for his services of Morning and Evening Prayer. In this deeply biblical Call to Worship is a call to “render thanks for the great benefits that we have received at His hands”. This brief phrase is so good in tone and content, reflecting the intimate language of the Bible. Think of the word “render”. It points to the truth that it is “our meet, right, and bounden duty” to serve our Lord and Saviour by giving voice to our gratitude and thankfulness. What we receive from Him are “great benefits” of both body and soul, of common grace and special grace, of creation and new creation, of the past, present and future, temporal and eternal, seen and unseen, physical and spiritual, private and communal. Finally, the Triune God is not a distant god working through intermediaries - no - we receive “at His hands”. His giving and blessing is up close, personal and intimate. Let’s hear again the Call to Worship.
“Dearly beloved brethren, the Scripture moveth us in sundry places to acknowledge and confess our manifold sins and wickedness; and that we should not dissemble nor cloak them before the face of almighty God our heavenly Father; but confess them with an humble, lowly, penitent and obedient heart; to the end that we may obtain forgiveness of the same by His infinite goodness and mercy. And although we ought humbly acknowledge our sins before God; yet ought we most chiefly so to do, when we assemble and meet together to render thanks for the great benefits that we have received at His hands, to set forth His most worthy praise, to hear His most holy word, and to ask those things which are requisite and necessary, as well for the body as the soul. Wherefore I pray and beseech you, as many as are here present, to accompany me with a pure heart, and humble voice, unto the throne of the heavenly grace, saying…..”
I will close this blog with a prayer that Thomas Cranmer wrote. This moving and deeply biblical prayer is both a prayer that you can pray; a concise biblical theology of thankfulness; and a prayer which guides you to pause at wide vistas that call for our personal additions. It is a prayer well worth learning by heart, using it as a guide to pray so that you will grow in thankfulness and gratitude. But first, we are one church with three congregations, 8am, 10am, and online. Please pray for “your” service. Please pray for the other services. Please pray that the Lord will deliver us from the blinders of envy, entitlement, ingratitude, and pride and instead fill us with the Holy Spirit who will draw us to the person of Christ and His finished work upon the cross; and from there, into a life deepening in gratitude and thanksgiving. Please pray this General Thanksgiving for yourself, and your church community. Pray that gratitude is reflected in all our ministry.
“Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we Your unworthy servants do give You most humble and hearty thanks for all Your goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all people (pause to give specific thanks). We bless You for our creation, preservation and all the blessings of this life; but above all, for Your inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And, we beseech You, give us that due sense of all Your mercies, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, and that we show forth Your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to Your service, and by walking before You in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to Whom with You and the Holy Spirit be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.”
George+
