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November 12, 2006

"With Thanksgiving"

1 Samuel 1: 4-20

It is the Sunday after Thanksgiving and I am sure that we are all sufficiently stuffed! We have had our share of turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie. And I am sure that we have had our share of leftover turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans and pumpkin pie. I know that I have. I was afraid that I would not be able to fit into any of my clothes this week. I shared with the ones at the Community Thanksgiving Service, the McColls would have a huge feast on Thanksgiving, and let me tell you, we did. We also had our share of lots of snacking throughout the Thanksgiving holiday week.

And now we arrive at church today, this Sunday. It is kind of a funny Sunday. In some years, it would be the first Sunday of Advent. But this year. Well, this year, it is an in between Sunday. It is not really Thanksgiving Sunday and it is not the first Sunday in Advent. Most people are considering this Sunday their traveling day so that they can have one more day with their families or even a few people traveled on Saturday and are taking this as their day to recover from the “family gatherings” before having to go to work tomorrow.

So we are left with this in-between day, an in-between Sunday. This kind of funny Sunday. We can’t skip it and go straight to Advent. That’s next week. And I know that the worship committee was thankful for this week of extra preparation time. There is one more week of November. One more week of fall and harvest time before the Christmas rush starts. One more week before we began looking toward that stable in Bethlehem, awaiting the Chris Child.

What do we do with this funny Sunday? I am sure you were thinking as you got up this morning, we will go to church like we always do, worship like we always do. It is just a regular Sunday. And now that you are here, you realize that it’s an in between Sunday. One more Sunday until we reach Advent.

Well, I am here to share with you that this Sunday is no ordinary Sunday in the life of the church. It is Christ the King Sunday. The last day in the liturgical year. The Sunday where we celebrate the King of Kings and lift up the wondrous King who came and show us the way of peace and love. Christ the King Sunday completes the Christian journey through the life of Jesus Christ on earth and in heaven which began with the preparation for the birth of Jesus in Advent. It is the Sunday that we concentrate on and celebrate our Lord's reign as King over us and the world we live in. It is festive day of rejoicing and celebrating that our Lord Jesus Christ is indeed a King sent to save us and teach us how to live.

We as Christians recognize that our King, Jesus Christ came as a peaceful king to show us the true way to be in relationship with God. Our King came not as a mighty ruler with armies and to start wars but came as a simple son of a carpenter who taught us the way of justice and hope. Our King came as the Messiah of hope and grace, not the Messiah of battles and power struggles. Jesus Christ the King came not to oppress people but to set people free from our own limitations and destructive natures. That is our King, Jesus Christ. Who is the Son of the King, the God most High that we celebrate today as we read this psalm of praise by Hannah.

Hannah had experienced this grace filled peace from her King, her Savior, God. She understands that our God is a God of contradictions compared to our human understanding of how the world works. God makes the rich poor and the poor rich. God makes the strong weak and the weak strong. God makes the might humble and the humble mighty. And it is that God who sent Jesus Christ to us to show us how to live and love and be in true relationship with God our King and Savior.

Hannah celebrates God in this psalm of praise. She celebrates the King of Kings that she has experienced in her life through prayer and the fulfillment of a promise of a son. This Lord above all is the one who listened and recognized Hannah’s plea. This King of Kings is the one that showed grace to a simple, forgotten woman through the birth of a son, who becomes one of the most well-known prophets in all of Israel. Hannah celebrates a God who recognizes God’s children and lifts them up in times of trouble. Hannah praises her God who brings justice and hope to the world. Hannah has experienced God’s grace and now lifts up her voice in song to celebrate this one and true God.

One of the thanksgiving arts and crafts I remember doing as a child was tracing our hands and turning the outlines of our hands into turkeys. And on each feather, we would write something that we were thankful for in our lives. One feather was for family. One feather was for friends. One feather was for food. One feather was for usually our pets. And when we finished we had something concrete to hang on our refrigerators to remind us what we are thankful for in our lives. As we were at Mike’s parents house this Thanksgiving, the boys were going through boxes of old papers and stuff. And Mike came along his “thanks turkey” that he had made as a child. It must have been a country wide arts and crafts project! He showed it to me and we laughed over the fact that he had added on his feathers: TV, Atari, and a few other toys with the usual items like food, family and friends. He showed it to his mom and asked why she had saved it all these years. And she said it helped her to remember all this things that they had to be thankful in their lives.

And I realized that that “thanks turkey” was in a way a psalm of praise to God, thanking and praising God for all that God had done in their lives. God had provided a loving and caring family. God had provided wonderful friends. God had provided food for this family. God had blessed this family in many ways. And this little outline of a hand turkey was praising God for all the blessings in their lives.

As Hannah brings her son, Samuel to the Temple to be dedicated and turned over to the priests to fulfill her promise to God, she knows that this God has done amazing things in her life. She knows that this God will take care of the faithful and punish the wicked. Hannah knows that this God is the God most high and watches over those who are in need. Hannah has experienced the grace, peace and love of this God and now raises her voice in thanksgiving and praise.

Hannah understands that one cannot help but to celebrate and rejoice when one has experienced the love of the Lord Most High. Nothing will stop the feelings of joy from coming forth. Nothing will stop her song of praise and thanksgiving to a God who is merciful, who is just, who is cares for God’s own children. Hannah understands that the one and only proper response in receiving the grace of God is to sing of God’s praises and to share the Good News with all. She understands that the King of Kings, the Lord our God, the God Most High is merciful, and she sings of God’s praises in her psalm of thanksgiving.

And It is this God Most High who sent God’s only Son into the world to show us how to love each other and to love God. It is this Lord our God who gave us Jesus Christ so that we could truly understand how to be in relationship with our God. And it is this mighty God whose praises that we sing about today in our psalms of praise and thanksgiving.

As we celebrate Christ the King Sunday, we know that the one true God is worthy of praise. We know that our God is a God of justice and peace. We know that our God sent us Christ our King to save us and teach us how to live. And we lift our voices in praise and thanksgiving.

And you thought it was just another ordinary Sunday.

May we always lift up our voices in praise and thanksgiving to our God Most High! Amen.

Rev. Heather McColl
Midway Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

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