Give Thanks, No Matter What

 November 20, 2020

Martin Rinkart was a Lutheran minister who came to Eilenburg, Saxony at the beginning of the Thirty Years' War. The walled city of Eilenburg became the refuge for political and military fugitives, but the result was overcrowding, and deadly pestilence and famine. Armies overran it three times. The Rinkart home was a refuge for the victims, even though he was often hard-pressed to provide for his own family. During the height of a severe plague in 1637, Rinkart was the only surviving pastor in Eilenburg, conducting as many as 50 funerals in a day. He performed more than 4000 funerals in that year, including that of his wife. Before the epidemic was over, he buried some 8,000 people, often in trenches and without services.

Rinkart was an accomplished musician as well as a pastor, and in 1647 wrote one of the most revered hymns giving praise to God for his blessings. Considering all he had experienced, his hymn is testimony to a faith even deeper than the adversity that had filled so much of his life. In a day and age where so much Christian music consists of little more than love songs to Jesus, Rinkart’s words stand faithfully defiant against all the ills this world can throw at us. In our present pandemic, it would be good to remember that life has often been much more difficult than we can imagine. Rinkart and many others chose to live and serve faithfully, refusing to give in to fear. We can be thankful tonight for this man of God who directs us to the Triune God who still rules and cares for his children, no matter what comes.

Now thank we all our God, 

with heart and hands and voices,

Who wondrous things has done, 

in Whom this world rejoices;

Who from our mothers’ arms 

has blessed us on our way

With countless gifts of love,

and still is ours today.

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!

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 Heaven adore;

For thus it was, is now, 

and shall be evermore.