Thanksgiving

(NIV): 6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written: “They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.” 10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. 12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 14 And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

Telic Note

Thanksgiving is often viewed as a special time to give thanks to God for the gifts he has given us throughout the year. Today I would like to emphasize how what we do for others will help produce prayers of thanksgiving to God.

If you were in charge of decorating for Thanksgiving, what would you include? Undoubtedly it would include things related to turkeys, Fall flowers, a cornucopia, recently harvested fruits and vegetables, squash, grain. Perhaps a Pilgrim or two. Because Thanksgiving takes place in the Fall and its origins were to give thanks to the Lord for providing food that was harvested to be used to tide them over until the next growing season, Thanksgiving certainly has a Fall Harvest theme to it. But we do not limit what we give thanks to God to just harvest items. We thank him for all of our “daily bread” which Luther describes as

But lets return to the harvest theme. Harvest at St. Paul’s Lutheran parsonage was rather slim this year. Unlike some of my predecessors, I am not a gardener. I do not sow neither shall I reap. We did harvest some black berries along the fence line and a few volunteer squash but that was not because we sowed. We sowed sparingly and we reaped sparingly as well.

What was your experience in the sowing and harvesting realm this year? Although weather is certainly a factor, we must all agree witht he axiom that there is a direct connection between what and how much someone sows and what they will reap.

How can we apply this? Well, it certainly has a direct connection to the literal meaning of the words.

At times the Bible relates this to our moral conduct:

(NIV): 7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

(NIV): 17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18 Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

(NIV): 8 Whoever sows injustice reaps calamity, and the rod they wield in fury will be broken. 9 The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor.

(NIV): 12 Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you. 13 But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception. Because you have depended on your own strength and on your many warriors,

Last Sunday we noted how the thief on the cross confessed this when he realized that Jesus had done nothing wrong but that he and the other thief were getting what our sins deserved.

This Law. God has created us to serve him and we are accountable to him for the way we live our lives. What we deserve because of oru sins is temporal and eternal punishment as we confess often in worship. If the blessings we receive depended on how well we have sown this past year, we all deserve the proverbial lump of coal (and worse) in our stockings this Christmas. The wages of sin is death.

But the gift of God is eternal life. The heart of our faith is trust in the Gospel that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and that as a result God does not treat us as our sins deserve. Nevertheless, we should not abrogate our responsibilities. Christ’s love compels us to live for Jesus.

In a practical way this is done by how we treat our fellow man. Jesus teaches this in the parable of the Sheep and the Goats when he says, “Whatever you did for one of these least of brothers of mine, you have done it unto me.”

First of all, we need to be aware of our responsiblity toward our fellow man.

Secondly, we need to be motivated to do something about it.

Question: Are we gong to be generous or stingy when it comes to helping others?

In our text, St. Paul is appealing to the Christians in Corinth to participate in a special offering to aid in famine relief. Although passages from this section are often used to encourage giving money to church (see envelope), that is not the immediate context. The immediate context was to give toward a fund raiser aimed at relieving the high cost of living because of an ongoing famine. In this section, St. Paul urges generosity for several reasons:

They had been the ones to volunteer to do this.

God will bless those who are generous by being generous to them. (Promise not a transaction)

Their generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

While it is true that God can provide for people through miracles, he often does it through natural means. This involves the whole sowing and reaping thing. But it also involves people. Whether they give to us as wages, or as a gift or inheritance, we do receive from others. The expected response is to give thank them. But as Christians, we also realize that these gifts come to us by God’s direction and so we thank him as well.

So on this Thanksgiving, we gather together to praise God from whom all blessings flow.

We also do well to thank those whom God has used to bring his blessings to us.

God encourages us to be generouse with what we have to help others and we pray that this will result in them joining us in giving thanks to God.