“Opening Our Eyes to See the Glory of the Lord”

Preached by John DeBevoise
At Palma Ceia Presbyterian Church
On November 21, 1999

 I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.  I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your hearts enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.  God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come.  And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

         Ephesians 1:15-23

So that with the eyes of your hearts enlighten.  What does that metaphor mean?  The enlightenment of the eyes of your hearts.  So that you can discern with an inner spiritual sensitivity?  So that you can discern with the sensitivity of love?  So that, with the eyes of your hearts enlightened, you can discern what it is God not only is doing but has already done in your midst and for you.  So that with the eyes of your hearts enlightened is what the apostle is praying for, not just for this community in Ephesus, but for you, this congregation. 

There is an old story about a far-off land that was ruled by a tyrant.  This tyrant had an iron clad grip over every part of his kingdom and over every thought that the kingdom had.  He was able to control everything in the kingdom but one thing.  And that frustrated him enormously.  He was unable to destroy or to control the insistence of these people to believe that there was a God.  So he summoned his counselors and he put the question to them:  “Where could I hide God so that people will end up not believing in God?” 

The first counselor suggested, “Well maybe we could hide God on the moon.”  After they talked about that for a while, they thought, “You know, eventually scientists may devise a way to travel to the moon and then people would find God up there.  So this won’t work.”  Another counselor talked about it for a while and said, “Well what if we hide God down at the bottom of the ocean?”  They thought that might be a good idea, and as they thought about it they said, “Well you know, with enough time, someone will figure out a way to get to the bottom of the ocean and explore down there.  Then they would find God.”  Finally the oldest and the wisest of the counselors said, “I know where we can hide God where no one will ever see God.  Let’s put God right there amidst all of the ordinary events of people’s lives, and that way they’ll never notice God.”

Today begins a very special week.  At Thanksgiving time we see God and what God does in the routine and the recurring parts of our lives, as well as the extraordinary parts of our lives.  At Thanksgiving we make an intentional effort to look and see how God has blessed us and where God is present.  It is a time when our eyes are particularly sensitive (the eyes of our hearts, to use the apostle’s metaphor) to see where God is blessing us and is at work amongst us.  It helps, of course, that we have the props of the cornucopia here in the front of the sanctuary to remind us to be looking for the presence of God and God’s blessings.  It helps that we have beautiful days like this where the very atmosphere reminds us that God is present and here blessing us.   It helps that we have all these wonderful hymns and this powerful choir to sing to us, reminding us to see how God is blessing us.  The celebration of Thanksgiving reminds us to open the eyes of our hearts and to look to the blessings of God. 

It was different for the people in the book of Numbers, wasn’t it?  They didn’t have to look for God.  The presence of God was just always very apparent to them.  God had given them, during the day, a pillar of clouds so that whenever they looked up from their camel or from the place where they were working, they could see the big pillar of cloud right there.  They knew – God is here.  God is with us.  We don’t have to work to see God.  Whenever we wonder is God with us, we look right there and there is this roaring pillar of clouds.  And at night a pillar of fire.  So that if in the middle of the night they became anxious or fearful (What if God has abandoned us?), they just opened the flap of the tent and looked out, and there was the roaring pillar of fire.  Yes, God is here.  We can see that God is with us.  So they never had to worry about the presence of God or to be afraid of being apart from God. 

Those who are familiar with the story from the Book of Numbers know that it is the story of a people who, again and again and again, spend their time griping and complaining about their fear that God has abandoned them and left them out in the desert without anything to eat or anything to drink, or without any intention of ever bringing them to deliverance.  Again and again, they whine to Moses that perhaps they would have been better off if they had just stayed in Egypt, where while they were in slavery, at least they knew what was going to happen to them the next day. 

They became insensitive to the clear sign of God’s presence to lift them, the great pillar of cloud and fire every day and every night.  They just overlooked them because it was so consistently obvious.

There are certain smells and there are certain tastes associated with Thanksgiving that also help to bring our senses to this looking for God’s presence.  I don’t need to name them.  You’re smelling them already with each day as we get a little closer to Thursday. 

One of the senses that people have on this Sunday, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, is either the sense of triumph or the sense of defeat.  Whether their sins are like garnet or as orange as the setting sun, this Sunday brings everybody in the state back to the house of the living God, to bury old rivalries regardless of whether their school won or lost.

And just as there are certain tastes associated with Thanksgiving that push us towards God, there are certain words.  The words most appropriately associated with Thanksgiving, however, are not turkey or cranberry or football, but rather, words from the Bible.  Each part of the Bible has some contribution to make to the feast that causes us to look towards God.  The Old Testament, in the Pentateuch, gives us these grand descriptions of the festivals that people had to remind them of God’s presence and God’s mercy.  The gospels give us the story of the thin lepers, and the one who remembered to come back in thanksgiving.  The epistles give us stories like the one we have this morning, where someone in the epistle is praying and giving thanks not only for the people, but for what God has already done in Jesus Christ.  In the Psalms, we are told to taste; taste and see that the Lord is good.

Again and again this week, across the centuries, people hear the scripture and hear the words of Thanksgiving.  The words of Thanksgiving are not, “Please pass the turkey,” or “Go ‘Noles!”. The words of Thanksgiving are, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.  Happy are those who take refuge in them.” The words of Thanksgiving are, “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!  Worship the Lord with gladness and come into his presence with Thanksgiving.”  The words of Thanksgiving are,  “Know that the Lord is God.  It is he that hath made us and we are his.  The sheep of his pasture.  We are his people.”

Read through some of the Bible this week and you will find the joyful expressions of God’s people as they come towards praise.  You’ll also find, if you read through the scriptures this week, you will also find yourself submerged in sorrows at times.  You’ll revisit past hurts and griefs vicariously with the scriptures. 

It seems very significant to me that it wasn’t after their team won the state championship that the pilgrims celebrated Thanksgiving.  Rather, it was after the worst winter of their lives.  A killing winter.  A winter that literally had seen the death of about half of their colony.  Poor crops.  Bitter cold.  Much disease and death.  They were simply thankful that anyone had survived to be able to live to tell the tales.  And in the scriptures, they found the language to give voice to that experience.  The voice that came forth for them was the voice of Thanksgiving.  “Blessed be the Lord who daily bears us up.  God is our salvation.”  This is one of the Psalms they read.  “Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint.  Preserve my life from the dread enemy.  Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked, from the scheming of evil doers who wet their tubs like swords, who aim bitter words like arrows.” 

The pilgrims were people who knew what  it meant to have enemies.  Do some of you have enemies?  The pilgrims were people who knew what it meant to live in a world where there were folks every day who were trying to figure out how to kill them.  Maybe some of you feel that way.  And they are the ones who come forward with this celebration of Thanksgiving.  The pilgrims and the puritans found in the scripture appropriate words for people who lived through killing winters and difficult times.  Psalm 147:  “He gives snow like wool.  He scatters frost like ashes.  He hurls down hail like crumbs.  He makes his wind blow.  Who can stand before its cold?”  And you thought it was just the picturesque American scene.

And yet, these pilgrims and these puritans, in the midst of these experiences, instituted the celebration of Thanksgiving.  This teaches us that truly it is out of mixture of both joy and of sorrow that we come to the celebration of Thanksgiving.  This is the story of your life this morning.  If we knew only joy, we would take it for granted.  And if we knew only sorrow, we would despair.  But it isn’t knowing both that we learn what we have to be thankful for.  It isn’t knowing both that we arrive at Thanksgiving.  I point this out because I know that there are some of you here this morning knowing great joy and there are some of you here this morning experiencing great sorrow.  Faith and anxiety. 

The scriptures teach us that the house of the living God, the activity of worship, is the right place to bring both – joy and sorrow, faith and anxiety.  Because here in the sanctuary of the living God, we find the reminder and the witness of God’s providence and care.  In God’s heart, there is room enough for both.  Room for the burdens and troubles of the heavy laden, room for the praises and hymns of the thankful.  And here there is help for both. 

Chief amongst the tastes associated with this season ought to be this one:  The taste and sense of coming to the house of the living God.  The taste and the sense of kneeling before the throne of God and turning one’s heart and mind towards God who has made himself known in Jesus Christ.  The story of Jesus is the story of God present in the midst of trouble.  The story of Jesus is the story of becoming sure of the presence of God’s love in the midst of our world.  It is a thanksgiving story.

This week we will celebrate the last Thanksgiving of this century.  For the early pilgrims and for us, the feast is meant to be something other than just an excuse to eat a huge meal.  The feast is meant to draw our attention to God’s mercy over the whole of the year, over the whole of the last hundred years. I believe that lifting up Thanksgiving is meant to be a help.  A help to those who come with their hearts full of praise, for their hymn-making and their doxology.  And to help those who come with their hearts inattentive, their hearts unable to see the mercies of God present around them, as a way of reminding them and directing them.  That’s what Thanksgiving will do for them. 

The season of Thanksgiving is meant to be a help to those who come to the feast with their hearts worried or broken, as a way of reassuring them that God will keep God’s promises.  That God is working his purposes out as a way of reassuring them that God has already established a victory in the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

There are certain tastes, certain words, associated with Thanksgiving.  Amongst the words most appropriately associated with Thanksgiving are these:  Look at the world with they eyes of your enlightened heart, so that you may see and know the hope to which God is calling you. 

Look around you.  Find that which is good this week and thank God for it.  Find that which is caring and thank God for the person doing it.  Look around.  Look inside and look outside.  Think on that which is noble and true and beautiful and express your praise for it.  Don’t allow the bad or the ugly to keep you from seeing the beautiful.  Look at the world with the enlightened eyes of your heart, which the Father of Glory has given you. God is present in the extraordinary and in the routine events of our lives. 

In the life, death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our practice of Thanksgiving is meant to help bring God back into our sight, and in so doing, bring to others and to ourselves a better world.

Thanks be to God for all that God has done.

©  John T. DeBevoise, 1999.