Thanksgiving Sermon: A Blessing In The Storm
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Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations 1216 With Hat and Coats On
It was on Thanksgiving several years ago that Helen Hayes cooked her first turkey. Before serving it she announced to her husband, Charles MacArthur, and their son James: “Now I know this is the first turkey I’ve ever cooked. If it isn’t right, I don’t want anybody to say a word. We’ll just get up from the table without comment, and go down to the hotel for dinner.”
Then she retired to the kitchen. When she entered the dining room, bearing the turkey, she found her husband and son seated at the table—wearing their hats and coats.
Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning. Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and take them to heart that, by the patience and comfort of Your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life. … through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Give thanks
Give thanks
Give thanks with a grateful heart.
Give thanks to the Holy One.
Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ His Son.
And now, let the weak say "I am strong." Let the poor say, "I am rich," because of what the Lord has done.
Give thanks.
It is a simple song, like those who are mentioned within its lyrics. Also like them, it is a song which can be dismissed or ignored because of its simplicity. It also accurately reflects who we are, "Beggars," as Dr. Luther wrote on his deathbed.
Luther’s Works, Volume 54 Table Talk Recorded by Jerome Besold
“We are beggars. That is true.”
We give thanks, not simply because of what we have - that is what the carnal-minded person understands about Thanksgiving. For the people of God, thanksgiving is our response to Christ, God's gift to man.
May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face to shine upon us, Selah
that your way may be known on earth,
your saving power among all nations.
When we pray, we make our requests known to a God who has shown Himself to care for us. By His acts of creation and redemption, we have the clearest evidence that God loves us: first, by bringing us into existence and showing us "pure, fatherly, and divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness of mine at all!
Kolb, R., Wengert, T. J., & Arand, C. P. (2000). The Book of Concord: the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (pp. 354–355). Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.
And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
As the 60's balladeer, Jerry Butler crooned, "In every life, a little rain must fall." Life isn't always bad, but we should never be mislead into thinking that "Utopia" is a realistic expectation in a fallen world. Nevertheless, in the midst of the ups and downs of life, we can see the hand of God, even in the times when we seem to be just "getting by" when we would rather be "getting over."
It takes wisdom, honesty, and humility to recognize and admit that our times of growth and maturation were most often times that felt uncomfortable, maybe even painful. If nothing else, they allowed us to appreciate the "showers of refreshing" that come from God when we have withstood the hand of the enemy for a while.
I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
God's word shows us our weaknesses. It shows us that our desires are not unique, that they are a part of the human condition, going back as far as we have recorded time. The biblical narrations show that we long for comfort, safety, recognition, power, and acceptance, not just today, but throughout human history.
"And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks." (Luke 17:14-16)
Giving thanks is our response of recognition for God's intervention. The Samaritan saw, for reasons that we do not know, that Jesus was the reason that he was cleansed. We don't know what the others did, or why they didn't join him, and perhaps, we shouldn't be to hasty to render judgment. The Lord's mercies are "new every morning," but do we always remember to "give thanks, with grateful heart?"
Baptism, Confession and Absolution, and Holy Communion, each point back to the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, all of which took place "for us." How is it that they can be treated as empty rituals that we breeze or plod through? There is so much in the means through which God meets us with His gifts, and yet we, too often, have eyes but do not see, and ears but do not hear.
Still, He gives, and still, He forgives! Daily, He loads us down with benefits, whether we say a word of thanks or not. We live and move and have our being, we have health and strength, we have homes, fellowship, and vocations.
When He rose from the dead, Christ did so with the bodily marks of His "holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death." The Scriptures teach us that "He ever lives to make intercession" for us (Heb 7:25).
Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
So give thanks for your family and friends, as do your neighbors. Give thanks for the things that you are blessed to enjoy, living here in "the land of the free and the home of the brave," even as you pray concerning the areas where we need to do better, just as do your neighbors.
While you're doing those things, also give thanks to God, not only for those things that pertain to this life, but you cannot take with you to the grave, but also give thanks for those things that you might not see spread before you as you feast, those things that are invisible, in heavenly places. Give thanks for "the blood of Jesus" that covers you and your loved ones. His love that surrounds you with favor like a shield. His Word that enables you to live, and "His precious and very great promises" (2 Peter 1:3), that He sends to you through His servants in Word and Sacrament, and bids you to share with one another in order to encourage one another as we grow in grace and in the knowledge of Him.
Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.
Let the redeemed of the LORD say so,
Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy,
And let the peace of God, that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.