Thanksgiving Day (November 24, 2022)

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be alway acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our Strength and our Redeemer. Amen.

I’m sure each of us can come up with a long list of things we’re thankful for. Each of those particular people, things, and events we are thankful for are windows or icons whereby we can see God working in our lives clearer. Through the particular goods we are given by God, we come to know him as the universal Good.

St. James reminds us of this this morning: “Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." Everything good comes from God, who is Goodness itself. Because God is the ultimate Goodness, he can’t change. If he changed to be less good, he wouldn’t be the ultimate Good. God is unchanging. Our notion of goodness comes from God who is Goodness.

So as we’re thankful for those good things in our lives, we direct that thanks to God because he is the fount of all goodness. He is our ultimate provider.

Jesus says this same thing in Matthew 6:25: “do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on.” He goes on to point to the birds of the air and lilies of the field. The birds don’t do any work, they don’t make provisions for themselves, they don’t clock in at 8 and clock out at 5, they don’t have 401ks; yet, “your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they?"

Similarly, the lilies of the field don’t do work yet God clothes them in such splendor. “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith?" Because we see how God cares for those things that are lesser than humans in the order of creation, how much more will God provide for us? “Therefore, do not be anxious saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.”

Today is a beautiful day for us to consider the blessings God gives us in our lives. Each of the individual blessings we have should remind us of the ultimate blessing: that Christ became human and died on the cross to restore relationship between us and God. So today, let us give thanks for this benefit and all the other instances of God’s goodness working in our lives. May each of these blessings serve as an impetus for us to “seek his kingdom and his righteousness,” allowing his will to rightly order all of our priorities.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.