Sermon for 11/23/23: Day of National Thanksgiving

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Remember with Thanksgiving
Deuteronomy 8:1-10

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen. 

 

If you had lived in Old Testament times as a child of devout Hebrew parents, you would have learned very early on to recite the Ten Commandments from memory. As you grew and your thinking matured, perhaps you would have asked the question, “Why?” And your father, recalling other words of Moses, would have recounted for you the story of God’s gracious dealings with your people despite Israel’s failure to be faithful. And then he likely would have closed that conversation with the words of our text: “And you shall remember...the Lord your God.” No words can better describe the significance of Thanksgiving Day.

Remember what the Lord your God has done. Who created this universe? Who made man? Who brought judgment upon Adam and Eve, but, with that, also the promise of a Savior? Who destroyed the corrupt world of Noah’s day but redeemed and kept alive a remnant to replenish the earth? The answer to all of these questions is the same: it is God! And so goes the whole Biblical confession: God judging, God redeeming, God promising—God at work in the world of His creation.

Sign upon sign, wonder upon wonder, grace upon grace, Holy Scripture reveals what God has done. And the faithful people of God, whether Old or New Testament, never tire of recounting these things; it is oyr song of faith! What God has done for His saints of old, He does for us as well. We are, as the Psalmist says, “...the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.” Surely such a witness should bring to our minds God’s work in our world today, and in our lives individually. He judges us, He redeems us, He speaks His promises to us. “Only the fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” Only the fool claims that God is not at work for good in this world. The truth is, there is no end to the blessings of grace and goodness our God showers upon us.

So let us recount our many blessings and remember the Lord our God with thanksgiving. He has given His promise of grace and blessing to us, even as He has given it to His people of every time and place. It is for our good when He shows His displeasure with our sin. It is for our healing that He forgives our sins when we turn to Him in repentance. And in His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, God holds out to us that promise of new life, both here and hereafter, as we trust Him with thanksgiving. Each experience of life—each joy and sorrow, each rebuke and reward—is God with us to bless us, and all of this is for our everlasting good.

There is a very old story about a man who complained to his pastor that God had cursed him with an unbearable amount of anguish and sorrow and misfortune. He had come to his pastor for advice that he might be better able to bear those burdens. But his pastor told him, “I cannot help you. Go and see Jacob the water carrier. He has suffered every misfortune and sorrow that can come to a man. Let him help you.” So the man sought out Jacob and explained why the pastor had sent him. After listening to him, Jacob looked at him with amazement and said, “ I can’t understand why the pastor has sent you to me. I have never really suffered any misfortune in all my life.” You see, Jacob’s faith was such that everything in life was a witness to him of God’s wisdom and goodness. That was real thankfulness, a way of thanksgiving we would do well to cultivate.

Each day, let us remember the Lord our God with a thankful life, for it is in a thankful life that faith in God and obedience to His commandments come together. As St. Paul wrote: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” It is our lives the Lord wants—our lives of faith responding to His work in the world and among us. To remember the Lord with thanksgiving without also remembering our neighbor in love is as incompatible as expecting forgiveness from God without forgiving those who sin against us. Only God by His grace can make us this way; only God can enable us to be truly thankful.

And so, on this Thanksgiving Day, if in some simple way we can remember what the Lord our God has done for us, and if we can remember Him with some semblance of thanksgiving, and if we can remember Him and our neighbor with some part of our life, then we are truly blessed. God has been at work in us by His powerful Word of grace, because each and every thankful word or deed finds its source in Jesus Christ and His saving work for us. It is for this—and above all, for our Lord faithfully taking upon Himself all of our sins so that we might be cleansed by the blood of His suffering—that we are thankful. And He will continue to work a faithful thanksgiving in all our hearts and lives, not only today, but also tomorrow, and for all the days of our lives. In the name of the Father and of the Son (†) and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always.  Amen.