Sunday Service 22nd June

Be thankful in all circumstances

22/6/25

Call to worship

Hymn 746(MP): What a friend we have in Jesus

Time for all 

Hymn 367(MP): Jesus is Lord

Reading:  1 Thessalonians 5: 12-28

Prayer

Hymn 750(MP): What kind of love is this

Sermon

Prayer

Hymn 699(MP): Thou whose almighty word

Benediction

Welcome to our meditation for 22nd June.

How do you feel today?

Is what you feel a reaction to what is happening in your life?

There is a feeling that all our emotions are just reactions to what is happening around us; that you are happy because happy things are happening, or sad because sad things are happening.

However, many feel that that just leaves us a hostage to the world, and often we are.

But maybe we can control our emotions more, guide our emotions, so that we are not so much a hostage to fortune, but can have more direction in our lives.

We will consider that after our reading and prayer for today.

Prayer

 ‘Be joyful always, pray at all times, be thankful in all circumstances.’

Heavenly Father

This is the day you have made and you have called us to rejoice and be glad in it.

I wonder if that was a command or a call to use it as an opportunity.

We are weird in that too often we would take this as a command, then feel guilty that we have not fulfilled that command.

Maybe because of indifference, maybe because of a sense of privilege we have just not bothered to care enough to rejoice. We have all these good things going on in our life and we just believe we deserve them all.

Or maybe it is the opposite, we have such stresses and concerns, such worries about ourselves or those that we love that we struggle not to feel fear instead of joy.

So free us from the command, and help us to strive for the opportunity.

To recognise that today, no matter what, we can put our trust in you....and in that find hope.

To recognise that today we sing your praises surrounded by people who help us in our lives, and in that find a peace

To recognise that in community we can hold each other in prayer and care for each individual and family, and in that find joy.

We give thanks for the upcoming months of summer, for lighter days with less responsibility,

for upcoming holidays and longer days to share fellowship with our neighbours.

Make your presence felt among your people and let your stories be known in their lives.

We take the words of the psalmist:

you are my God, and I will give thanks to you;

you are my God; I will extol you.

This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Help us to take the opportunities today to see those parts of our life where we have let you be involved, and see the differences that you have made in our lives.

To rejoice in your presence and feel our heart soar with hope...

This we ask in Jesus name, and in his name share the words he taught us...

.

Our Father,

Which art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy Name.

Thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil;

For thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever.

Amen.

Sermon

‘Be thankful in all circumstances...’

It seems strange phrase, and very counter-intuitive.

I think part of our disbelief in this phrase is that for the most part, we don’t think we have control over our emotions.

Our emotions are a reaction to what is happening in the world.

If things are going well then we are happy, if things are going badly then we are sad.

It’s simple.

Though if the apostle Paul was standing in front of you today I suspect that he would say, ‘It is simple, but it is also wrong.’

And to quote directly his words...

‘Be joyful always, pray at all times, be thankful in all circumstances.’

And the person who said this, isn’t some very well off, comfortable dandy who has had all the privileges of life just handed to him.

He had been whipped five times with 39 lashes, he had been stoned and left for dead, he has been shipwrecked and spent more than 24 hours in the water,

imprisoned at least twice.

And yet he still says, ‘Be joyful always, pray at all times, be thankful in all circumstances.’

In all these things I think context is everything.

I believe that emotions have their place and sometimes the correct response in a situation is to have a negative emotion; sadness, anger, frustration.

I remember hearing about the death of one of the ministers I had worshiped under when I was a teenager.

A guy called Thomson Revel. Terrible preacher, phenomenal pastoral minister; his levels of empathy and compassion were unbounding.

In some ways he was a scary man. He would wave to you as he passed by in his car; which in itself doesn’t seem unnerving, until you remember he only had one arm.

Not that that was the worst of it.

Recently I was talking to someone who knew him years before I did, and he said it was worse, because when he had a motor bike he would wave at folk when he passed them.

Anyway I was in the street and bumped into one of the members of Thomson’s church who told me he had died and the funeral was very disappointing.

And when I asked why...she said that his widow had cried throughout the service.

According to this member of the church his widow should have been happy because her husband was now in heaven, and his widow had set such a bad example to the other mourners.

Sadness, anger and frustration are sometimes valid emotions to feel.

When our lives are radically changed for the worst, or if family and friends are going through a terrible time then sadness is a valid emotion.

The danger of trying to pretend that we don’t have these emotions is that we live a false life, a pretend life. A life based on what we think others think we should feel.

And the stress of living that pretend life is too great.

Imagine that you feel sad, but you are pretending that you’re not sad...think of all the consequences of that action...

You’re not getting any help from friends who believe you; because they don’t think you need help because you are acting happy.

You’re not getting any help from friends who don’t believe you; because when they try to help you are repelling it, because not to repel it would be to admit that you are sad, and you can’t do that.

In those rare moments that you do feel honest sadness you not only try to push it away, you feel guilty for feeling the way you feel...compounding the problem.

There was this crescent in Castlemilk where I was visiting a series of widows. And I thought that because all these neighbours were beside each other that they would be supporting each other...that that was the reason that they were all doing so well.

So you can imagine my horror when I found out that being true working class Glaswegians that they never talked about their feelings to anyone.

One of them admitted, ‘At night I cry when no one can see me, during the day I put on a face.’

And they all did, they all put on their game face as they went out together, and at night they all cried. And it helped no one.

False joy is not joy.

We all know that.

But sometimes we forget that real joy doesn’t mean not being sad.

Here’s the thing I think Paul was getting at.

There is a belief that whatever emotion we have, that that is it.

So if we are sad then that is the only reality, and we are not allowed to even think of another reality.

Whereas the truth is that we can temper our emotions, with other real emotions, other real truths, that help us to overcome our darkest emotions.

So we can embrace our dark emotions and hold them into the light.

Let’s stick with Mrs Revel after she had lost her husband.

What if she embraced her sadness...which I think she did?

Didn’t try to hide her sadness for the sake of others expectations of her.

But she took all that sadness on board.

Acknowledged the pain, acknowledged the changes that she would now face without Thomson, her husband, being in her life.

Acknowledged the uncertainty of maybe having to look after the family money for the first time,

organise direct debits and the paying of the rent,

or even just having to put the rubbish bins out herself instead of Thomson doing it.

Every time she is hit with one of those things that Thomson did but she now has to do she tries to be thankful for what he did.

When she finally puts out his clothes she can smile as she remembers what a terrible dress sense he had, how awkward he felt in crowds.

Except children, he always came alive round children, they were always curious as to what happened to his arm.

She can laugh again as she remembers how bad he was at telling jokes.

Maybe she can have peace because she starts to think that Thomson is at peace.

She might even be able to rejoice as she remembers what a life they had, a life that many don’t have.

And then she can celebrate the life that has been as well as mourn the loss.

‘Be joyful always, pray at all times, be thankful in all circumstances.’

Now here’s the thing I think Paul is really getting at.

You don’t wait until you’re in the darkness before you buy a candle, by that time it is too late.

You don’t wait until you are in a shipwreck before you learn to swim, by that time it is too late.

We need to live a life where we are continually reflecting on things we can be joyful about.

Two simple techniques that may help.

At university we were taught that everyone struggles at some point, and often our reactions tend to be more extreme than they should be.

If some things are going badly then everything is going badly, we don’t see any good in our life.

We take things personally, it isn’t that we have had a bad day, it is that we are bad through and through and that is why we are having a bad day.

And it’s not that we are struggling just now, we feel we will always be struggling, it will be never ending.

It becomes a vicious circle where we deny any good as fleeting and accidental, and accept every bad as permanent and deliberate, part of a pattern that can’t be broken.

And this professor said that in those times we had to accept the truth, but acknowledge that it wasn’t the whole truth.

And to do that in a physical way, of using our hand and flicking it over.

So

(hold out flat hand) That was a terrible sermon, (flick hand) but it was just one sermon and they will have forgotten it by Tuesday.

I made such a mistake there...but it was just a mistake and I can find forgiveness,

I shouldn’t have had that cake...but the diet has been going OK up to then and I can start it again from now.

We don’t deny the bad, but we match it with an equally true good.

It just puts things in context, and reminds us that the world isn’t all dark, and neither are we. There is good in us, and we can bring that out.

The other simple technique is a Thank You notebook.

It is just a note book and every morning or every evening we get into the habit of writing maybe just three ‘thank you’s for the day that has been.

Thank you for the wonderful meal today.

Thank you for the good weather.

Maybe thank you for conversation I had with...

Or Thank you for getting that administration done.

Sometimes just Thank you for surviving that day in one piece.

When we get into the habit of it, then it starts to slowly make a difference.

I got into a habit of every morning starting my personal prayer with the words, ‘Thank you for yesterday, I was a good day...and I then found that I had to work out what I was actually thankful for. I was shocked at how often the day before had just vanished from my memory.

But then, when I deliberately reflected on what has happened, that I remembered good things had happened, and I had nearly let those memories just slip away.

And that then started to affect the day ahead, there was the presumption that good things would happen, I just had to keep my eye out for them.

And if there was bad things happening, then that was OK, for they would pass.

It took a lot longer for me to start doing that at night.

The number of times I would forget to say ‘thank you’ for the day that had been.

The trick is not to get annoyed at it, or beat yourself up over it, just persevere. And eventually I found more often than not as I turned in my bed to go to sleep I could hear the words in my head, ‘Thank you for the day.’

Paul faced dangers we will never face, he also faced struggles and uncertainties that we can understand all too well, and his advice to us is as relevant now as it was then;

‘Be joyful always, pray at all times, be thankful in all circumstances.’

Let us pray

Heavenly Father,

we offer our prayers, for ourselves and others, with a heart that is a wee bit more thankful for you being in it.

It is with thanks that we see how you have worked in our past,

given us times of great joy and fellowship,

guided us in times to say the right word at the right time,

given us insights of hope and wonder.

From that heart we pray for your creation,

for the bountiful growing season that is summer,

for farmers coping with climate change—sometimes too much water, or too little,

worries the farmers may have about providing for community, and for family.

May your creation show the hope we need to see and be thankful for.

We pray for warring nations who destroy rather than build up,

for warring individuals who label ‘others’, as different, less human and therefore more easy to destroy in the name of justice.

May the warring nations begin to see the humanity in their enemies and find in that a place for healing and reconciliation.

May the nations show the peace we need to see and be thankful for.

We pray for individuals we know, or families that we care about, who are going through times of great stress; maybe financial stress, maybe relational stress, maybe health stresses that are undermining the quality of their life.

May our homes show the healing we need to see and be thankful for.

We pray for the church throughout the world, for the congregations and communities

committed to following the way of Christ throughout Scotland.

Merciful Lord, we pray that our churches become a refuge for all, where people can see that they can put our trust in you rather than mortals.

Where all can see Your steadfast love endures forever.

Where we may trust and see that your will is done.

Amen.