Nearly 40 years ago when I was at college spending Thanksgiving
away from home; as a result I was feeling alone and lost. To cheer myself up I
began writing down the things in my life I had to be thankful for. Before I was
done I had filled two whole sheets of 8 ½ by 11 inch paper listing people, events and happenings in the world for which I was thankful. Not only did that list lift my spirits, but it showed me just how easily I had overlooked all the things in my life for which I could be grateful. Ever since then that simple exercise has been my personal Thanksgiving
ritual. Every year around Thanksgiving I sit down and make a list of all the
people, events, and happenings in my life and world for which I am thankful,
and every year I fill pages with my list. Every year I am reminded how
blessed I really am. No matter how many struggles and disappointments I have had to endure, no matter how much I may have struggled with failure, no matter how many mistakes I have made, and no matter how angry and disappointed I am by events going on in the world, I have never failed to compile a lengthy list of blessings. The list doesn't erase the disappointments; it just puts them in perspective.
Now thank we all our God, with
hearts and hands and voices
Who wondrous things hath made in
whom our world rejoices
Who from our mother’s arms hath
blessed us on our way
Through countless gifts of love
and still is ours today
Given these high and lofty words one might think that Rinckart had a reasonably cushy life. Most people don’t feel they have
been blessed with “countless gifts of love” or see “wondrous things” in their
lives. This sort of language doesn’t come easily to most people; it certainly
doesn’t come easy to me. So it was a great surprise to learn that in contrast to the
picture these words might conjure up for us, Martin Rinckart had anything but
an easy life.
Martin Rinckart served as a Lutheran
pastor in the little town of Eilenburg, Germany in the 1600’s during the Thirty
Years War. Not only did the residents of his little town suffer the privations
and ravages of war, they were also beset by an epidemic that killed people by the hundreds. When Rinckart began his pastorate in Eilenburg in 1623, there were three other
pastors in the town. As the town was ravaged by invaders, and beset with
disease, one of those pastors left for a safer place, while the other two were
felled by the fever. Rinckart was left to serve as pastor to the whole town. At
the height of the crisis it was estimated that Rinckart performed on average
40-50 funerals a day, nearly 4000 by one person's count. The burden of sadness and concern he carried was
unbearable by human standards.
If anyone
had reason to lose faith, he did. Yet he continued to serve, and through the
suffering he and those around him were able to see the grace of God in their lives and give thanks in the
midst of their struggle. He was not immune or blind to the suffering around
him. Rather he saw his life from the perspective of a God who suffered with him
and did not leave or desert him. Thus the hymn asserts:
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.
I teach
courses on poverty, racism and social justice, and spend alot of time working
on issues such as gun violence and educational equity. I find myself
having to contend with unjust systems, uncaring legislators, and bruised and
defeated individuals. The frustration and suffering I experience is nothing
compared to what Martin Rinckart faced. Even so I find strength and inspiration
in his overarching attitude of thankfulness in the face of suffering. Thus, this
Thanksgiving I sing and pray with him the words of his great hymn that ends
with these words
All praise and thanks to God who reigns in highest heaven,
To Father and to Son the Spirit now be given:
The one eternal God, whom earth and heaven adore,
Whoever was, is now, and shall be evermore.
May you too
find much for which you can be thankful on this Thanksgiving holiday.
