O Give Thanks to the Lord

Rev. Alex Sloter O Give Thanks to the Lord Thanksgiving Eve (11/25/2020) Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Tomorrow afternoon, families across the nation will celebrate Thanksgiving. But thanksgiving seems like the wrong reaction to 2020. What is there to give thanks for? Tables this holiday will have empty chairs where grandparents or other family members used to sit, victims of the dance of death. Other homes will be in quarantine or in recovery from a dangerous virus. Many people will be alone. Is thanksgiving the right reaction? Many college students won’t be returning to campus after Thanksgiving weekend. Younger students are facing a school year without any of their normal school activities. Is thanksgiving the right reaction? Millions have lost their jobs, farmers have lived through a drought, cities have been burned by all kinds of fire. And the one thing we all want to be over just won’t end—the pandemic. Is thanksgiving the right reaction? Maybe not. As we survey the events of 2020, we see reasons to grieve, reasons to be resilient, reasons to repent. But reasons for thanksgiving? Not so much. The reasons to grieve are obvious. As of Monday evening, Covid-19 was a complicating factor in about 248,000 deaths. Families in our own church have lost relatives to Covid. That doesn’t count families that have lost loved ones due to another illness. But if death hasn’t visited a person in 2020, another reason to grieve probably has. Some are grieving the turmoil in this country. What is happening to our nation? Others are grieving the loss of significant life events. Weddings, funerals, graduations, any number of school activities, all cancelled. For our young people, it may even seem as though an entire year of their life has been lost as schools and universities remain virtual. Loss of job, loss of normalcy, loss of church, when people survey 2020, they see reasons to grieve, not give thanks. Some look at 2020, and they see reasons for resilience. 2020 has been a rough year, but three highly effective vaccines have passed clinical trials. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Covid has caused many deaths, but nurses and doctors have saved many lives. Their examples can encourage everyone else to hang on. It’s true that 2020 has been a tumultuous time, but God is still God. And because he is in control, there is always hope. No matter how bad things get, nothing will overthrow God’s rule. When these people survey 2020, they may not see reasons for thanksgiving, but they do see reasons for resilience. Others see reasons for repentance in 2020. I have had several people approach me after a service or stop by the office during the week and say, “Pastor, God must be trying to tell us something.” They look at 2020 and they see violence. They see anger. They see natural disasters. They also see sin. They see that our country has forgotten God. They wonder at how our young people can believe this or that when they were raised to know right and wrong. They probably see sin in their own lives as well. When they look at 2020, they see a call to repentance, God warning us to turn around before something worse should happen. And while it is dangerous to identify what we see in the world too directly with God’s hand, as though we could read his mind, every event that proves our helplessness is a call to repentance. And this year has been filled with things that prove our helplessness. 2020 laughed at our lockdowns, our carefully laid plans, our normal routine. When faced with forces beyond our control, repentance is always appropriate because it turns us to the God who can save us, the only one who controls all things. Grief, resilience and repentance. These seem like appropriate responses to 2020. But thanksgiving? Not so much. Yet here we are, gathered for a Thanksgiving service at Peace Lutheran church. Are we blind? I don’t think so. We all see what has happened this year. But we also see God’ blessing. Our Lord has taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” And what does this mean? According to our Small Catechism, it means, “God gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people. But we pray in this petition that he would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.” Thanksgiving, celebration, these are always appropriate responses when we survey our lives, even our lives in 2020, because in the midst of all the troubles and trials and turmoils, we also see that hand that gives. We see God giving daily bread. Trouble has a way of hiding God’s hand. It’s like trying to drive in snow. There will always be trouble in human life, but when there is only a little trouble, we can see through it to God’s blessing. It’s like a few flakes here and there in the air that barely obstruct our vision. But when troubles multiply, a whiteout occurs and all we can see is snow. We are surrounded by all the same things, the same road, the same terrain, the same familiar landmarks, but we can’t see any of it through the snow. 2020 has been like that. The bad news has tended to cover up the old, familiar blessings until they were almost hidden. But if we slow down and look closely, we will see that familiar hand, the hand of God, giving us our daily bread. I was talking with a shut in once, and she shared this thought with me, “Every morning when I wake up, I pray to God and give thanks. I don’t know what the day will bring, or whether I will make it to the end, but the morning is a gift. So I give thanks.” That is the first gift we receive each day. The gift of the morning. The gift of life. Sometimes the troubles of life can come so quickly that they obscure this reality: we live. And that life is a gift from God. Our first morsel of daily bread. But God is not content to give us existence only, though that itself is a good gift. But he adds to this initial gift all that we need to support this body and life. When asked what is included in the daily bread that God gives, Luther responds in our Small Catechism, “Daily bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.” That is quite a list. It includes everything that allows human life to flourish. And just for good measure, Luther adds, “and the like” just in case he missed something. So when we look at our spouse, that helpmeet and ever faithful friend, what do we see? A gift from God, a morsel of daily bread. When we look at our parents, those people who sacrifice so much for our good, what do we see? Gifts from God, morsels of daily bread. When we look into our country, we see all of the problems, but we also notice how much good our country has done, and how much good is still possible for us and others to experience here. We see a fatherly hand behind the snow, giving us daily bread. And we haven’t even gotten to actual bread just yet. But when we sit down to eat, what do we see? Right on the table, daily bread from a good and generous God. That is why we pray and give thanks to God before every meal. The first time someone asked me to pray for a meal here, I said, “Let’s pray Luther’s table prayer.” So we prayed together, “Come Lord Jesus, be our guest, and let these gifts to us be blessed.” Then I said, “Amen.” But everyone else continued, “Oh give thanks to the Lord for he is good, and his mercy endures forever.” People out-praying the pastor. Kids were looking at me like, “Really Pastor? You don’t know anything.” I was hoping to be here for a few years before anyone figured that out. But the psalm verse at the end of the prayer really sums up our whole relationship with God. “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, and his mercy endures forever.” But the greatest gift we receive every day is the gift of Christ. Without Christ, 2020 would be a lost year. But with Christ, everything works toward our salvation. He has even forced death to serve our good because the grave has become the gateway to heaven for all who believe in him. When people survey 2020, they see reasons to grieve, reasons for resilience, and reasons for repentance. We see those things as well, and these reactions are appropriate. But we see something in addition to all this. When we look at 2020, we see reasons for thanksgiving because God is giving us daily bread. Oh give thanks to the Lord for he is good. Amen.