Sunday Service 7th September

Prayers of thanksgiving

7/9/25

Call to worship

Hymn 449: Rejoice! the Lord is King

Reading:  1 Samuel 2: 1-10

Prayer

Hymn 30(MP): Alleluia, Alleluia give thanks to the risen Lord

Sermon

Prayer

Hymn 19: Ye gates, lift up your heads on high

Communion

Hymn129: The Lord is King

Benediction

Welcome to our meditation for 14^th of September.

We are continuing our series of types of prayer.

Last week we were looking at the prayer of complaint, this week we look at the prayers of thanksgiving.

Prayer

Heavenly Father,

You have brought us together from many places and many situations.

As we arrived at this act of worship only you know what is in our hearts.

Those that are uncertain of their future.

Those that know the next part of their lives will be hard.

Those that believe they have come through the worst life had to offer and can now relax.

Those that have planned away and are trying to make those plans work.

Those who have given up on trying to predict what will happen next and feel they are living in a limbo.

Those that feel they are surrounded by people they can trust.

Those that don’t know who to go to in times of stress.

Those that feel alone.

It is tempting to come today with a wish list.

If only we had...and then we would be happy, then we would be content, then we would be at peace, then we would be thankful.

And we forget the gifts you have already given us.

We ignore that gifts you have already shared with us.

Taken for granted all the gifts that surround us.

Change our heart, open our eyes, help us to see the truth we have failed to understand.

In our silence we give thanks for the past and all the people who have supported us and loved us and cared for us...

In our silence we give you our thanks for our present the chance to meet in this building and in this community and realise that we are not alone as we walk through the unpredictability of this world...

In our silence we pray for our future and the people you invite us to love and care for, the people you want us to laugh with and celebrate with and console and comfort...

We may not know what is ahead; we may never guess what tomorrow may bring,

but we do know, that if we want,

we can walk that path with you beside us, that we do not need to face our future alone, that you have put people in our lives to share and enjoy this precious life...

and for that, in the name of Jesus Christ, we give thanks.

Amen

Sermon

We are in a season of looking at prayer, and in particular looking at different types of prayer in the Bible and what they can teach us.

Today is one of the hardest prayers for us to look at...prayers of thanksgiving.

The reason for that is that, more often than not, we don’t have hearts of thanksgiving. Mainly because we have the wrong idea about the purpose of these prayers.

The object of these prayers is not for us to give thanks to God, God doesn’t need our thanks... the object of these prayers is to change our heart.

And more often than not we don’t want our hearts changed, we are more than happy with the way our heart is.

So we don’t bother with thanksgiving.

I know that sounds hard.

But let’s look at this prayer of thanksgiving from Hannah.

Especially, let’s look at the context.

The first book of Samuel starts with a woman called Hannah who is unable to have children.

She prays to God and promises that if she becomes pregnant then she will dedicate that child to God,

and in her mind that means that the child becomes a priest of the temple of Shiloh where he will spend his life dedicated to the God who gave him life.

A year later and she is pregnant.

She weans the boy Samuel until he is three, and then hands him over to the local priest Eli who then takes over as parent.

It is after she hands Samuel over to the priest that she gives this prayer of thanksgiving.

Now I know times are different, and attitudes might be different, but they are not that different.

How would you feel as a mother of a three year old just handing over your child to someone else?

You get to see that child once a year for about half an hour where you give the child a new set of clothes...and that’s it. Would you see that as a reason for thanksgiving?

Imagine you are that three year old.

And for no reason whatsoever you are just left at the temple one year.

The next year your mum sees you, and then walks away.

You are not allowed to go home.

What’s worse; other children are born of that mother, brothers and sisters, but they are never left behind. They get to play round the temple, see the sights of the town, then go home with mum.

All you are left with is a new set of clothes that have to last you for a year.

Would you see that as a reason for thanksgiving?

If you where Hannah, and you knew that that was what was ahead of you;

knew the heart break of leaving your son every year,

knew that that child would struggle to understand what was going on...

would you use that as a reason to give thanks?

(Video: In many churches round the world there is the celebration of...)

(Menstrie: Today we celebrate)

Communion.

Originally it was the celebration of Passover...where the Jewish people celebrated the freedom from slavery in Egypt.

Jesus changed that into a celebration for all people being free from the slavery of our mistakes, our sins, our regrets, of failures, our successes won at the cost of others.

But Jesus gave his prayer of thanks knowing that the men before him would betray him, would run away, would fail him at the very moment that he needed them most....is that an occasion for thanksgiving?

That is why prayers of thanks giving are not about God, prayers of thanksgiving are about us...and what those prayers do to us.

Because prayers of thanksgiving are a choice that we make.

Hannah had a choice...

Hannah could have decided to be angry,

angry with herself for making such a promise, and keeping that promise,

angry with God, or the priest Eli, because they didn’t need to take her promise seriously, and if she let that anger grow she would have grown up hating God, herself and probably everyone else.

But instead she was thankful, thankful that she had a son.

Thankful every time she saw him that he was fit and healthy.

Thankful for the precious time she had with him each year.

Thankful that she had someone to love and who loved her,

and even that she had a God who listened to her

and loved her and her son to keep them strong and healthy enough to meet up each year.

That choice to look at what we can be thankful for...instead always moaning about what we don’t have, that’s a choice we can make.

Jesus had a choice.

Knowing what was ahead, the betrayal, the beatings, the humiliation, the false court case and the painful death that he had to go through but didn’t deserve....

Jesus could have been angry.

Angry at himself that this was a path he was going through.

Angry at his disciples, that after he had given them so much; that in return the disciples would give back so little.

Angry at his Father that this was the cost of complete love and that the Father was willing to go through that pain for the sake of the human race.

But instead he was thankful.

Thankful that he had the courage to go down that path.

Thankful that he uniquely knew the depths of the Father’s love for him...for all humanity.

Thankful that the story wouldn’t end with his death.

Thankful that there was a hope that generations later there would still be people that were inspired by this vision of love to do amazing things in the name of that love.

You see we have a problem.

Our problem is not that we are evil.

The problem is that we do not experience life in all its fullness,

we do not appreciate how precious our life is,

we do not appreciate the opportunities that each moment brings.

And, again, it not because we choose to be evil.

It is because, without thinking, we chose to be indifferent.

Let me ask you this question.

When you woke up this morning did you think to yourself...It’s great to have woken up?

When you had breakfast did you think to yourself...I’m so glad I have food on the table?

When you put your clothes on did you think...isn’t it wonderful I have such a large choice of clothes to wear?

Probably not.

You see often we take such stuff for granted.

And we have so much that we take for granted.

That we have clean water to drink, water to wash ourselves with...many people in the world don’t.

We have more food than we need to eat...many in the world don’t.

That it is safe for us to have opinions about many things that differ from the opinions of others...many in the world don’t have that luxury.

The sad thing is that we have all these things, and we just take them for granted.

And often don’t appreciate them, or enjoy them...

And because our hearts aren’t full of thankfulness for having all that stuff, or joy for having all that stuff...

our hearts fill up with other stuff...

like not caring for others, because we are bored.

like selfishness, because we don’t know what to do

like tiredness, because we can’t be bothered doing anything.

That’s why prayers of thankfulness are important.

Because thanksgiving prayers remind us of what we have, they remind us of the source of all that stuff,

they help change our hearts from hearts of indifference to hearts of gratitude,

they help change our hearts from hearts of selfishness to hearts of generosity,

they help change our hearts from hearts of general boredom to hearts of purpose and meaning.

The warning is...that if we don’t fill our hearts with prayers of thanksgiving...then our hearts will fill up with other stuff...

at best indifference and boredom and just feeling that life is meaningless and pointless, and if not those things maybe things that are even worse; like fear, insecurity, maybe jealousy or envy, anger and hatred.

But if we have the courage to be thankful, to make a decision to express it and feel it, then that leaves our hearts open to

hope in a God that loves us,

joy in a God who cares for us,

trust in a God who is always with us.

The object of thanksgiving prayers is not for us to give thanks to God, God doesn’t need our thanks.

The object of these prayers is to change our heart.

Let us pray

Heavenly Father,

There are a thousand things on our mind;

The clutter of everyday stuff like having to make meals and wash dishes and try to keep the house relatively clean,

The struggles of family life, of mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, children and grandchildren and the constant worries about their health or their finances or their falling outs.

The never ending bad news about the world, wars and rumours of wars, constant inflation the ever increasing cost of stuff, the inequality between those that have and those that don’t, even the weather brings fears of fires and floods.

In the end it just feels like too much and it is so easy to just give up, surrender to the fears and try to hide from life.

But what kind of life would that be?

That can’t really be the life you want us to have, can it?

So help us be willing to accept the life you want to offer us.

The life where we are thankful for what we have, what we have been given.

The life where we are confident that the love we share is eternal and nothing, not even death, can stop us from feeling it.

The life where we can make a difference for the better in the lives around us, the lives we touch sometimes daily, sometimes occasionally.

The life where a simple greeting is an opportunity to assure those around is that they are not alone, and in turn realise that we are not alone.

May we find ourselves smiling at the knowledge that we are known by you, loved by you.

May we find ourselves rejoicing at the knowledge that those we know, those we care for, are known by you, loved by you.

May we find ourselves celebrating at the knowledge that this world is known by you, loved by you.

This we ask in Jesus name

Amen.