“Singing the Faith: Now
Thank We All Our God”
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen. This morning we conclude our fall
sermon series “Singing the Faith,” looking at the background and
meaning of favorite hymns. As we celebrate Thanksgiving Day,
we consider the amazing story behind the hymn, “Now Thank We All Our
God.” The Encyclopedia Britannica says about the holiday, which we are
celebrating today: “In the United States, Thanksgiving, despite its religious
association, often has a distinctly secular flavor.” Thanksgiving is indeed
often more about feasts and family gatherings, parades and football, than
actually giving thanks to God. Some in our nation may not feel like giving thanks this year.
After more than a decade we remain at war, with several incidents the past few
weeks, in which a large number of young men and women gave their lives in
foreign lands. Many areas of our country have recently been ravaged by
floods and hurricanes. Many individuals and families are struggling
financially, and this Thanksgiving Day what is called the “workforce
participation rate” is at an all-time low, with a record percentage of our
population without employment. For you, personally, perhaps you are facing circumstances in your own
life, which leave you thinking: “What do I have to be thankful for? I just don’t
feel very thankful at this stage in my life!” The Pilgrims, the first settlers in America, arrived in Massachusetts
on the Mayflower in December, 1620. They made the mistake of landing in
the middle of winter, without provisions or shelter. Within a month, 10
out of the original 17 fathers and husbands in the colony had died. A few
months later, only four of the wives and mothers out of those first 17 couples
were still alive. By the spring thaw, almost half of the pilgrims had
died. Their suffering was horrible, their circumstances couldn’t have been
any worse. And, yet, a few months later, when they had a good harvest, the
survivors celebrated and gave thanks to God. Fifteen years after that first Thanksgiving celebration in the New
World, back in the Old World, another man gave the most astounding thanks in the
midst of the most dismal circumstances. Martin Rinckart was a Lutheran
pastor and accomplished musician in Germany in the early 1600’s, and author of
the words: Now thank we all our God, with hearts and hands and
voices. Who wondrous things has done, in whom His world
rejoices; Who, from our mother’s arms, has blessed us on our
way, With countless gifts of love, and still is ours
today. You might think that those words were written by a very happy,
well-blessed, satisfied person. A person for whom life was going rather easy. But, it was a time of terrible devastation known as the Thirty Years
War. Rinckart was the pastor in his hometown of Eilenburg. Because
it was a walled city, it became a last refuge for the wounded and war weary, as
the enemy army surrounded the city and cut it off. Along with the
thousands of refugees who took shelter behind the city walls came starvation, as
they ran out of food in the besieged city. Along with the wounded came
sickness, and, then, the dreaded Plague. Thousands died, including every pastor except Martin Rinckart. Left
alone as the last pastor in the city, he comforted the dying and often conducted
forty to fifty funerals a day, in one year burying over 5,000 people.
Because Eilenburg was his hometown, many of them were not only his parishioners,
but also his old friends and relatives. Finally, he conducted the funeral
for his own wife. And, then, he went home to the empty parsonage,
sat down at his desk, and wrote: “Now thank we all our God . . .” St. Paul writes in 1st Thessalonians, “Give thanks in all
circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” How could
the Pilgrims celebrate the first Thanksgiving after experiencing such misery and
loss? How could Pastor Rinckart write such thankful, joy-filled words in
the midst of such devastation, death and disaster, even after conducting his own
wife’s funeral? How can you, like them, “give thanks in all
circumstances”? St. Paul gives us the answer in Philippians: “I have learned to be
content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know
what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and
every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in
want. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” That is how the Pilgrims and Pastor Rinckart could give thanks even in
their struggles and sorrow: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens
me.” Psalm 121 says, “I will lift up my eyes to the hills, from whence
comes my help.” The Pilgrims and Pastor Rinckart lifted up their eyes
above and beyond their immediate circumstances. Even in the most trying
circumstances, they did not doubt God’s love for them, because they lifted up
their eyes to the cross. St. Paul says in Romans, “God demonstrates his
love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” St.
John puts it this way: “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his
only-begotten Son into the world that we would live through him. . . he
loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation
. . . I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” When
your life is a sorrowful struggle, lift up your eyes above and beyond your
struggles to the cross of Christ, and God’s assurance that by his suffering,
death and resurrection, your sins are all forgiven, and you will rise to eternal
life. This perspective is expressed in the second stanza of Pastor Rinckart’s
hymn: And keep us in His grace, and guide us when
perplexed, And free us from all ills, in this world and the
next. With these words, Pastor Rinckart tells us that his perspective goes
above and beyond this life, and its sorrows, struggles and disappointments. His
perspective goes beyond the suffering and death of his parishioners. His
perspective goes beyond even his own grief over his wife’s death, and into the
eternity of heaven. That perspective continues in the third stanza: 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. St. Paul puts it this way in 2nd Corinthians: “Therefore we do not lose
heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed
day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are preparing us for an
eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what
is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is
unseen is eternal.” Oh, 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
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