“A Giving Thanks Sunday”

A GIVING THANKS SUNDAY

Praise be to the Lord,
for he has heard my cry for mercy.
The Lord is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.
My heart leaps for joy
and I will give thanks to him in song.
The Lord is the strength of his people,
a fortress of salvation for his anointed one.
Psalm 28:6-8

I call it a GIVING THANKS SUNDAY instead of A Thanksgiving Sunday so that, hopefully, you might sit up and listen a little more closely.  All of us have things to Give Thanks for.  I know, some more than others, but everyone can find SOMETHING!

Today I want us to look for the unusual to Give Thanks for, not just the usual things.

I Give Thanks for Chick-fil-A.  I know at this time you can’t go in there and sit down and eat, but that’s coming.  I Give Thanks not because they have good biscuits, but I sit there and now people have begun coming to me and telling me about things going on in their lives.  Slowly, very slowly I am becoming the Pastor of the Madison Chick-fil-A.  Of course now it’s just the drive thru.  And it’s hard to sit in the drive thru and write sermons.  But a lot of writing can begin over a Sausage and Egg Biscuit, you’d be amazed.

I Give Thanks for the O so faithful people who began Bostwick United Methodist Church over 115 years ago.  We all get to enjoy days like this because of them.  When God called a people to begin a Church in this area, they said, “Here am I, send me!” (Isaiah 6:8)

And I Give Thanks for all those faithful people who kept this Church alive and thriving through the years.  Many of you have Parents and Grandparents and probably even Great-grandparents who were here in the beginning.  Let’s Give Thanks to them… and to you for following in their footsteps.

I Give Thanks for arriving here when I did in June of 2001.  That was landmark year in Bostwick UMC’s history.  Dr. John Bostwick, III had died earlier that year and the people of the Church were still reeling from the blow.  Then that summer we lost three great women in our church, Mrs. Anne Malcom, Mrs. Annie Sheffield and Mrs. Mama Dot Bostwick.   Then, of course, there came 9/11, 2001.  The country, including Bostwick, GA was shaken, stunned.

We made it through that year, and on October 19, 2001, John Bostwick, V was born and baptized a few weeks later.  At that point Bostwick UMC turned a corner.  We didn’t forget the things we needed to remember about that year, we just started building good events into the story of BUMC.

I Give Thanks for the very nice office I have to work in at Bostwick UMC.  I was the first preacher who was able to use that office in 2001.  I can look out the window and see the birds on the feeder, or someone going by on a tractor pulling round bales of hay.

I Give Thanks for that beautiful Fellowship Hall where we can gather as a whole church and have plenty of room.  I miss those gatherings.  Maybe those Sundays aren’t too far away again.  I’m looking forward to that first Sunday meal after Church.  Don’t get between me and the pineapple sandwiches.

I Give Thanks for all the Teachers and retired Teachers who sit in our congregation regularly.  They keep me on my toes and make me watch my grammar.  And now that we are recording our sermons and have them on line, I am paying more attention to my enunciation.  I’m sorry, all I have is this North Georgia accent to offer.

I Give Thanks that I live in an area where I can drive less than a mile and see a cotton field in full bloom, a pasture with cattle and another with horses and another one with big round bales of hay.  The diversity of the countryside around us is amazing.  O yea, did I mention the sheep and goats, and the soybeans and canola fields?

I Give Thanks every morning when I listen to Atlanta radio and hear the traffic jams and know the only thing that will slow me down will be that tractor pulling those round bales of hay, or a truck pulling a cattle feeder.  I know people pass through this town on 83 and are irritated by the hay wagons and cattle trailers, but not me!  And they need to slow down and smell the pastures anyway, don’t they?

That’s enough from now about you… what do you Give Thanks for?????

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created man in his own imagein the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.  Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.“ (Genesis 1:26-28)

Bostwick UMC  11/15/2020