Sermon Tone Analysis

1 cor 11:

Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, is a public holiday celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November[1] in the United States.

It originated as a harvest festival.

Thanksgiving has been celebrated nationally on and off since 1789, after Congress requested a proclamation by George Washington.[2] It has been celebrated as a federal holiday every year since 1863, when, during the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens," to be celebrated on the last Thursday in November.[3][4]

Together with Christmas and the New Year, Thanksgiving is a part of the broader fall/winter holiday season in the U.S.

The event that Americans commonly call the "First Thanksgiving" was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in October 1621.[5]

This feast lasted three days, and—as accounted by attendee Edward Winslow[6]—it was attended by 90 Native Americans and 53 Pilgrims.[7]

The New England colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating "thanksgivings"—days of prayer thanking God for blessings such as military victory or the end of a drought.[8]

I am Thankful for.........

....the taxes I pay

....because it means I’m employed.

....the clothes that fit a little too snug

....because it means I have enough to eat.

....my shadow who watches me work

....because it means I am out in the sunshine.

....a lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning and

....gutters that need fixing

....because it means I have a home.

....the spot I find at the far end of the parking lot

....because it means I am capable of walking.

....my huge heating bill

....because it means I am warm.

....all the complaining I hear about our government

....because it means we have freedom of speech.

....the lady behind me in church who sings off key.

....because it means that I can hear.

....the piles of laundry and ironing

....because it means my loved ones are nearby.

....the alarm that goes off in the early morning hours

....because it means that I’m alive.

....weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day

....because it means I have been productive.

The art of thanksliving.

It is gratitude in action.

It is thanking God for the gift of life by living it triumphantly.

It is thanking God for your talents and abilities by accepting them as obligations to be invested for the common good.

It is thanking God for all that men and women have done for you by doing things for others.

It is thanking God for happiness by striving to make others happy.

It is thanking God for beauty by helping to make the world more beautiful.

It is thanking God for inspiration by trying to be an inspiration to others.

THANKSGIVING.

Greek words derived from the root eucharist- are used in the NT almost exclusively in the sense of thanksgiving directed to God (in the LXX the verb and substantive do not occur in the Hellenistic sense until the apocryphal writings).

The only exceptions are Acts 24:3 and Rom 16:4, although cf. 2 Cor 1:10–11.

On Luke 17:16 cf.

v 18.

A. Thanksgiving at Meals

It was the custom of the Jews to praise God for each dish (cf.

t.

Ber.

4:1; b.

Ber.

35a).

This expressed their sense of dependence on God’s gifts in creation.

Festive meals were opened by the master of the house with a grace said over the loaf of bread before it was distributed.

The meal ended with a benediction over the cup of wine.

Both actions are expressed by the Hebrew berak or the Aramaic berek.

1.

The Prayer of Thanksgiving at the Last Supper.

This is referred to in the Pauline tradition of the Last Supper (1 Cor 11:24) and in Luke (22:19) by the participle eucharistēsas, whereas in Mark (14:22) and in Matthew (26:26) it is expressed by eulogēsas.

Both these verbs are translations of berak/berek, but eulogein seems more appropriate and is already used in LXX for berak.

However, it should be noted that Aquila also uses the term eucharistia in the sense of “praise”—always for tôdâ: Pss 25(MT 26):7; 41(MT 42):5; 49(MT 50):14; 68(MT 69):31, etc.

In Rom 14:6 and 1 Cor 10:30 eucharistein is used in connection with food (cf. 1 Tim 4:3–4).

Thus praise and thanksgiving are inseparable (cf.

below).

In any case eucharistein used absolutely, without object or subordinate clause, obviously comes from a Semitic background.

The act of praise at the end of the meal is referred to in Mark 14:23 and Matt 26:27 (cf.

Luke 22:17) by the participle eucharistēsas.

This is a stylistic variant for the act of praise (eulogēsas) mentioned at the beginning of the meal.

In Luke 22:20 and 1 Cor 11:25 eucharistein is implied by the word hōsautōs (cf.

Luke 22:19; 1 Cor 11:24).

2. Thanksgiving in Jesus’ Miraculous Feedings.

It is often supposed that in the narratives of the miraculous feedings the words chosen for the introductory actions of Jesus echo the tradition of the Lord’s Supper.

But Mark himself shows in 8:14–21 a paraenetic interest in the feeding stories which does not appear to be oriented toward the Lord’s Supper (cf.

also 6:52).

Nor in 6:41 does he assimilate the description of the opening actions of Jesus at the meal to the traditions of the Lord’s Supper as it appears in 14:22.

On the other hand, Mark 8:6 shows a striking agreement with Luke 22:19 (cf.

also 1 Cor 11:23–24).

The inescapable conclusion is that the tradition of the Lord’s Supper utilized by Paul has influenced the pre-Markan tradition of the Feeding of the Four Thousand.

Since v 7 interrupts the context, it is possible to reconstruct a pre-Markan version of the story which features only the bread.

This would link it with the Lord’s Supper, so making the miraculous feeding an allusion to the community celebration.

The Kyrios acts as host to those who are “afar off” (cf.

v 3b) and to those who are near (Eph 2:17).

The fish were added later and assimilate the story to the Feeding of the Five Thousand.

Thus the eucharistic associations of the original story were suppressed in order to emphasize the miracle.

In the pre-Markan tradition behind Mark 6:35–44 the fish motif cannot be eliminated (vv 38, 41, 43).

The phrases expressing the actions are unlike any known eucharistic tradition.

As a result there is no obvious reference to the Lord’s Supper.

In Matt 14:15–21 the fish motif recedes into the background to some extent, but it is not completely eliminated (cf.

vv 17 and 19).

True, the terminology describing Jesus’ action (note the word klasas, v 19, which deviated from Mark) conforms to some extent to the tradition of the Lord’s Supper.

But the forms of the verbs and the references to Jesus’ looking to heaven are also points which differ from the supper tradition.

Thus Matthew does not intend to establish any close connection between the Feeding of the Five Thousand and the Lord’s Supper (cf.

also 16:5–12).

Rather, he was unconsciously influenced by some features of the supper tradition.

In the Feeding of the Four Thousand (Matt 15:36) Matthew follows Mark in his description of the preparatory actions of Jesus (Mark 8:6–7).

By including the fish in the opening act of praise (unlike Mark, v 7) Matthew is following his practice, noticeable elsewhere, of shortening Mark’s material.

The finite verb elaben (instead of the participle labōn in Mark 8:6b) is determined by the participle at the beginning of v 35 (in v 6a Mark has a finite form of the verb).

There are no signs of any influence of the Pauline tradition of the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor 11:23–24) on Matthew any more than there is on Mark.

In Luke’s version of the Feeding of the Five Thousand (though cf.

Luke 9:13, 16) the fish motif is soft-pedaled.

This may be explained by the fact that in 9:12–17 Luke combines Mark 6:35–44 and Mark 8:1–9.