Brothers and sisters in Christ, in many a recent year the Sunday after Thanksgiving has been the first Sunday of Advent- a time where we turn our attention to the promises of scripture that prepare us for celebrating the birth of Jesus. Today, as early as Thanksgiving is in the month this year we are instead in the Last Sunday of the Church year.
Accordingly, we have an opportunity to dive more deeply into the meaning of giving thanks and thankfulness in the Christian life. Where many a people started putting Christmas decorations up this year already after Halloween, we can pause to consider what Thanksgiving really means to us.
The scripture described the lack of Thanksgiving as one of the chief marks of Satan and unbelief. In Romans chapter 1 St. Paul writes “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened, Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”
The lack of thankfulness goes hand in hand with idolatry. The people became futile in their thinking when they stopped giving thanks to God and turned inward toward their own wants and demands. You can see the same lack of thanksgiving today in the attitude and tone of those who want to deconstruct society to a form where anything resembling the goodness and order of God’s creation is called patriarchal oppression that needs to be pealed back.
Even in the context of this lack of thanksgiving to God, in our society today there is a lot of talk about gratitude in the secular world. People with no religious beliefs seem to resonate with the ideas of gratitude, as in learning to appreciate all of the good things that you have in life. But gratitude is not quite the same thing as Thanksgiving. Gratitude directs its focus not on appreciating God the giver, but on appreciating the gifts themselves.
If you focus only on gratitude it is contingent on how well things are going in life. It’s easy to be grateful when you have a steak dinner, but not so much if you have a dinner that has accidentally been half burnt.
With a focus on gratitude alone, you may feel guilty that you cannot feel more appreciative of things during times of difficulty. If you look inward at your lack of appreciation you are likely to feel bad about yourself that you are not grateful like God wants you to be.
It is a different thing to live in thanksgiving. Here we focus on what the Lord has given us not only materially in this life , but also spiritually in the next world. When times are difficult we can still be thankful. Martin Rinkart wrote the hymn “Now Thank We all our God” in the context of his pastoral care to a community with so many losses in the 30 years war in Europe coupled with countless deaths from the black plague.
Rinkart was immersed in sorrow during the peak of the plague to where he performed countless funerals each and every day. Yet we see in this hymn the focus was on Thanksgiving for the gifts of Salvation the Lord gives us- valued even more in the midst of losses.
Our cause for Thanksgiving is centered in our life and salvation in Christ. His gifts to us are immovable and present to us in times of want just as in times of plenty. As Psalm 30 reflects: “For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”
A popular mental discipline in our present culture is Mindfulness. Mindfulness tells us to live in the moment and not be weighed down by worries about the future or guilt about the past. There can be some benefit for Christians to be able to live in the present moment, especially in regards to our prayer and worship. Yet for the Christian the present moment is always defined by the past blessings the Lord has given us, and the future plans the lord has for us.
In our Old testament reading from Deuteronomy we see this exact pattern. The people of Israel are asked to remember how the LORD God has led them these past 40 years in the wilderness, remember how he tested you to strengthen your faith, remember how he provided for your every need even with bread from heaven, how you were never truly in want.
We live our life as Christians remembering the victory over death and Satan’s hold at our baptism. We live as Christians remembering the Lord’s provision to us over time in the form of places to live, schools and friendships, churches where we first learned the story of our salvation.
We remember career successes and avenues of purpose in life as adults. For some of us this has included the Lord’s gift of marriage, and the Lord’s gift of children. We can remember times of going astray and times of testing where the Lord humbled us and taught us to rely on Him all the more.
In our reading from Deuteronomy, keeping the commandments is part of this remembering: 6So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him.
When we give in to the temptation to sin, it usually means that we are living only for the present moment and are not remembering what the Lord has done for us. But as we remember the Lord’s gifts to us we have the power to resist temptations.
In 1 Timothy chapter 4 St. Paul writes how the Holy Spirit warns about those who will depart the faith by following the teaching of demons. One of the false teachings of demons is to teach people to abstain from what God has given to us. The scripture reads: through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,
Notice the counter to the temptations of false teachers to reject what God has given- to receive God’s gifts with Thanksgiving. When we are thankful for what God gives us, we are not going to be so easily tricked into giving up what the Lord gives us as if it makes us more holy and righteous. Like Israel, we are to look back at what the Lord has given us- so that we may receive all the gifts of His design for creation with Thanksgiving.
As the people of Israel remember the Lord’s faithfulness to them in the past they are also asked to look in faith toward the Lord’s promise to them in the future.
7For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, 8… 9a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, … 10And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
Just as the people of Israel looked forward to the bountiful gifts of the promised land, we can look forward to the inheritance we have in heaven, the new promised land where all of God’s people will dwell.
When you find yourself weighed down by the circumstance of the present moment. You can always be looking back to what the Lord has brought us through in life year after year- and as we remember the Lord’s goodness to us in the past we have peace, to be still and know that He is God here in the present moment as well.
And we can always be looking to the future in Thanksgiving for the Salvation Jesus has promised us on the last day. When the present moment seems like it has more difficulties, more burdens than we feel we can handle, we know a blessed rest awaits us when all of our needs will be provided for.
Worship is the chief way in which we can live in thanksgiving. In our gospel lesson only one out of the ten lepers returns to him to give thanks. This man who returned recognized that the healing Jesus performed for him was not the last thing he needed from Jesus. He saw Jesus more than a means to an end who healed him of this awful disease- he saw Jesus as someone who is life himself.
And that is how we can approach our participation in the Divine Service. We are not just here because we know Jesus will heal us of our sin and give us the balm of forgiveness. We are here to know Jesus and abide in Him who is our life.
When we begin the Divine Service, we know how it will end, with the forgiveness of our sins and the delivery of the renewing word of the gospel. Yet we can enjoy and appreciate every moment of the service because it is spending time in the presence of Jesus, it is our giving thanks to Him with our utmost attention and care. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit that we can worship him in Spirit and truth.
And the good news for us is that even when we do not feel particularly moved to give thanks, he is faithful to us. He is praying for us, he is interceding to the Father on our behalf. His attention and care and devotion to us far surpasses anything we can do on our own. His righteousness saves us, his love for us is what moves us to thanksgiving. Thanks be to God for the gift of a living faith that He nurtures in us. Amen.