How Thankfulness Arose Even from Utter Tragedy

How Thankfulness Arose

Even from Utter Tragedy

O

ur very warm, wet summer has transitioned into fall with cool nights, warm sunny days, trees adorned with glowing brown, red, and yellow leaves, sights I haven't seen in this area for some time. Breathtaking!

Krystal has adorned our living room mantel with Fall decorations—pumpkins flaunting various shades of orange, a Fall wreath of leaves and gourds with a muted harvest patina, and other copper accent pieces that accentuate the flavor of the season.

As we head into fall, I’m reminded that Thanksgiving is just around the corner! We all are looking forward to family gatherings where we will feast on the traditional Americana meal of turkey, stuffing, potatoes with simmering hot savory gravy, corn pudding, sweet potato casserole, string beans, and of course the piece de resistance in the minds of many is home baked pumpkin pie with a mound of freshly whipped cream (no dream whip please!).

While Thanksgiving evokes images of God’s gracious provision and the wonderful gift of family for us today, one of Christianity's most beloved hymns of thanksgiving arose in circumstances that could not have been more different.

In November 1637, during the height of the 30 Years’ War in Eilenburg, Germany, there was especially no feasting or thanksgiving in any way, shape or form! It was the height of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). During the whole year of 1637 the “Great Pestilence” rampaged through the city, fueled by overcrowding from war refugees, and famine. All the pastors of the city died in the plague except one, Pastor Martin Rinkart. The task of burying the dead rested solely on this pastor’s shoulders.

By the end of 1637 according to traditional accounts, Pastor Rinkart had officiated over 4,480 funerals (let that number sink in!). When I was the sole pastor of a moderately sized congregation, sometimes during Holy Week there would be two or three funerals in addition to all the extra services but try to conceptualize one pastor at the worst point of the plague, sometimes officiating at fifty funerals per day! Think of the emotional, spiritual and physical toll this may have placed on him during the course of that year, especially considering one of the funerals he presided over was that of his own wife, Christine.

What is most heartening and astonishing about this story is that in the middle of the awful, hellish plague that was causing untold suffering, Pastor Rinkart refused to give in to despair in the face of all the gloom that surrounded him. He chose rather to praise God. This is the essence of our faith in Jesus Christ, the Resurrected One! The believer stares death, suffering, and loss of all kinds in the face and refuses to let suffering defeat him or her but praises God wholeheartedly because our joy is not based on our circumstances but on the fact that God loves us and that love was made real at the Cross.

Pastor Rinkart wrote the inspiring lines below in the face of death and destruction from the Thirty Years’ War. These poetic lines, now known as the hymn “Now Thank We All Our God,” have become the centerpiece of thousands of Thanksgiving services, and joyful Christian celebrations for almost four hundred years:

Now thank we all our God with hearts and hands and voices,

Who wondrous things has done, in whom his world rejoices;

Who, from our mothers’ arms, has blest us on our way

With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

Oh, 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 harm in this world and the next.

All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given,

The Son, and him who reigns with them in highest heaven,

The one eternal God, whom earth and heav’n adore;

For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.

                                (Now Thank We All Our God, LBW #533)

How could this man write the lines he did after seeing towards the end of the year,

when the plague reached its height, multiple bodies at a time thrown into trenches because they couldn’t keep up with the disposal process due to the sheer volume of the dead? It is because Pastor Rinkart saw beyond the piles of dead bodies to the day when all believers from Eilenburg, from throughout the world, from all times and eras would be standing before their Savior, victorious over Satan, plagues, warfare, persecution and eternal death through Jesus Christ our Lord. He believed as Job did, “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me” (Job 19:25-27). When we believe this sacred truth, we are inspired to lift thanks to God even in the midst of grievous burdens and tragedies.

The next time you feel overwhelmed by life’s sorrows and discouragements, take out your hymnal, meditate on Pastor Rinkart’s hymn “Now Thank We All Our God,” and on God’s countless gifts of love that He pours out upon you every day. If this hymn is included in our congregational services around Thanksgiving or during another season of the year, sing it heartily and let God’s heavenly joy surround you. Why not share the story of Pastor Rinkart with your guests around the Thanksgiving table and encourage them to either read or sing with you the beautiful words of “Now Thank We All Our God,” at the end of your meal?

Pastor Kurt E. Luebkeman