With voices united our praises we offer and gladly our songs of thanksgiving we raise. With You, Lord, beside us, Your strong arm will guide us. To You our great Redeemer forever we praise. Why are we here this evening? Why have we come to join praises and songs of thanksgiving? There are a lot of reason why people could not come to such a service as tonight. Driving in the dark is a barrier for many. There are ongoing fears about infection rates of Covid 19. Why should we gather for thanksgiving when the fallen world we live in has been a bit trying as of late? Perhaps it would have been practical to not meet and give thanks.
A new strain of virus has changed the course of many aspects of our everyday lives. Some people have lost loved ones. We are praying for the health of one of our members who is now hospitalized because of this virus. Coinciding with this virus we have seen significant efforts in our land to use the virus as an opportunity to seize power and control, whether within families where domestic abuse and child abuse rates have soared. Not much to give thanks about.
In our media and news industry which has sought to increase fear of the virus and has sought to undermine those in leadership in our land in order to advance their social agendas. Without getting lost in a conspiracy theory direction we are observing that many in positions of government themselves appear to have taken the opportunity of the virus to condemn and limit religious gatherings or exercise new levels of control over people beyond what is necessary for our protection. We are seeing spiritual warfare in growing intensity in our land, where the truth is obscured and can be bought with a price, whether in elections or in other contexts.
In our own lives hardships of the virus have often impacted our ability to maintain our health through limits to recreation opportunities, gyms, or even gatherings such as occasions for fellowship at our church. And let’s not forget the realistic fear of how we might inadvertently spread a virus to friends or loved ones without intending. Our quality of sleep and quality of life and our peace of mind has been tested in this past year.
So again I ask why should we gather for thanksgiving this year?
Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 9 God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places Habakkuk chapter 3.
Our cause for Thanksgiving is not conditional on how our year has gone. Because we know that in this fallen world there will be times of draught, the crops may fail and our very livelihood may appear to be in ruin. We know from God’s Word that although things around us may fail, God’s Love is unconditional, His grace is sufficient for all of our needs- including many difficult events of 2020.
This is the essence of faith, that regardless of appearances we know that our Redeemer lives. Listen to the complaints Job lists and how he responds: I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer; I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy. 17 My breath is strange to my wife, and I am a stench to the children of my own mother.
18 Even young children despise me; when I rise they talk against me.
19 All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me.
20 My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth. 21 Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me! 22 Why do you, like God, pursue me? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?
Like Job, we can look at suffering and difficulties we have faced, cancer diagnoses that have separated us from loved ones, times when we have been humiliated and hurt by this fallen world and we can conclude “the hand of God has touched me! We are scorched by the trials of this world and there is a large scar. And yet Job looked in faith to the promise of the Savior:
23 “Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
24 Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever!
25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth,
26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet inmy flesh I shall see God,
27 whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
My heart faints within me!
When we look to the cross we see that despite appearances of betrayal, and scourging, whipping and mocking and humiliation and untold suffering, God’s love shines through unbounded. The love Jesus gives us in willingly laying his life on the cross is always there for us. We do not look to the world around us for evidence that God is good or for reasons to be thankful , and yes there are many reasons, but we look to the cross and there without doubt is the evidence, Jesus loves us.
And even as I describe the hardships of this fallen world we know the good and plenty the lord provides for us. We have been training ourselves to notice these things every Thanksgiving season, the imagery of the horn of plenty is familiar to us. The blessing pour out abundantly.
Our gospel lesson helps us to see that it is good to ask for these blessings.., and these blessings are especially known to us in the form of the good things of the kingdom, and the gifts of the church. If we ask in faith to hear more of God’s Word, and be comforted and guided by God’s Word, the Lord will grant this prayer. The Holy Spirit will fill us with abundance. Though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,3 though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. No matter what hardship we face, even the very earth itself shaking, God is in our midst.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
No matter the obstacle, when we pray for the good things of the kingdom God is in our midst, present with us.
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Our Heavenly Father indeed gives good things to us as we ask. We can give thanks that as we seek to grow in our faith, we will be rewarded with this end. As we cry out as beggars for Jesus to fill us and carry us through the hour of trial- we know Jesus is there granting us our greatest need, his presence. Amen.