Thanksgiving B

Thanksgiving Day, Year B

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

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

When Thanksgiving Day rolls around each year, it really is a milestone for us as both Christians and as Americans. As Christians, we’ve seen the end of the church calendar arrive, and we’re getting ready for the Advent season and a new church year to begin. It’s a time of new beginnings, of reflection on what it means to wait for our Savior, and what we can do to “make straight the way of the Lord.”

As Americans, Thanksgiving also heralds the arrival of the Christmas season - even for secular America, there’s still a bit of that “peace on earth and goodwill toward men” that makes this time of year just a little bit nicer…once it gets here. But we have to celebrate Thanksgiving Day first…so let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

We all know the story of Thanksgiving and the tradition that followed. We teach our kids from a very young age about the pilgrims and the natives gathering together, sharing the fruits of their harvest and showing their gratitude for all the blessings that they enjoyed. Many American families practice that at the beginning of their Thursday feast by going around the table and sharing what they’re thankful for… even many families who aren’t Christians do this.

I like that a lot. Mostly because that’s a very Biblical thing to do. All through the Old Testament, God *commands* his people to remember what He’s done for them. Our Deuteronomy passage is one such command. God wants them to remember and to be thankful. Why do you suppose that is?

Think about the people with Moses - remember how as soon as they had escaped Egypt, they were just barely beginning to enjoy their freedom, and they began to complain? It didn’t take long. They had prayed and cried and lamented about how miserable they were under Egyptian oppression, so God freed them… and as soon as they were free they started to complain. And this happened frequently in the story of God’s people. They would “forget” what God had done for them, and that ultimately led to them turning away from Him. What happened in between? They neglected to give thanks to God.

But I really want to look carefully at what Paul is telling us in his letter to the Philippians. This is a really good insight into the power of a thankful attitude. And I think what he’s telling his flock there has a lot to offer us today.

“...do not be anxious about anything, ...” he says. We could spend the rest of our time on just that phrase, couldn’t we? Have you been anxious about anything in the last month? How about just the last week or 2? Have you been anxious today? Are you anxious right now? If you’re watching the world around us, it would be hard to NOT be anxious about something, wouldn’t it?

But let’s not forget what’s going on in this letter: Paul is sitting in a Roman prison while he’s writing this. If you had the whole chapter in front of you, you would see that the previous 2 verses say this: “4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;...” He’s in prison, and he’s saying this. How’s THAT for perspective?

“[But] in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” “In everything” Paul says. Everything? Really? Yes, really. Parents - do you care what your kids are doing 24 hours a day? Well, so does our Heavenly Father care that much about us. In fact, infinitely moreso! He *wants* us to bring these prayers to Him.

Now there’s something else here that Paul is trying to explain, but I didn’t really get it until Bible study last night with my friend Pastor Dave Hefner. He told a story about his college roommate - also a Christian - who was amazed at how calm Dave was when everyone else was anxious and nervous. He said, “I don’t get it Dave, how are you so calm?” To which Dave replied, “when I give something to God, I don’t try to take it back from Him.” Do you see what he meant by that? When you pray about something and ask God to help, leave it with God. If we trust God - and we do - then we know that God will do what He knows is best. And He knows more than we do.

Now look at that next line. Here Paul tells his church - and us - what will happen when we give our worries to God in prayer: “7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” This is “the blessed result of leaving everything in God’s hands by means of prayer with thanksgiving.” [R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Paul’s Epistles to the Galatians, to the Ephesians and to the Philippians (Columbus, O.: Lutheran Book Concern, 1937), 878.]

And what is that “peace of God”? I’ll say again that I think English fails us here. The Hebrew word shalom is much more descriptive. My favorite scholar Lenski tells us that shalom means that by God’s act all is well with us. And God is absolutely the source of this peace. [Ibid.] Personally, I don’t believe you can experience that kind of peace - shalom - if God is not in your heart or in your life. And based on the numbers of unchurched people in our country, is it any wonder that peace seems like such a foreign idea in so much of our society right now? I firmly believe there’s a link there.

God’s lesson to His people has always been to remember what He’s done for us, and to be thankful for it. His logic is, of course, perfect. Think about it this way: can you stay mad at someone who you are thankful for? Sure, you can be mad for a short time, but if you’re THANKFUL for them, the anger will pass. On the other hand, if the anger doesn’t pass, the thankfulness most likely does…and that’s *not* good. So when we remember what we have to thank God for, we remember what He’s done for us, we will most likely continue to turn to Him frequently and consistently… and in doing that, we grow closer to Him and we grow in faith.

Paul tells us in verses 11-13 that he has “learned in whatever situation I am in to be content… In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.” That’s really quite a statement when you think about it. And it’s crucial to Paul’s attitude despite his being in prison while writing this. He’s THANKFUL. He’s thankful to Jesus Christ for revealing himself to Paul. He’s thankful for how God has blessed his ministry to the Philippians and how their faith has grown from the work of the Holy Spirit. And most of all he’s thankful that of all the sins and failings of God’s people, especially Paul’s own sins and failings, that Jesus Christ died and rose again on the third day to show that those sins and failings were not an eternal problem…that God had fixed the problem, and we would have that shalom for all eternity.

“Thanksgiving is a duty before it’s a feeling.” I’m don’t know who said it, but it’s absolutely true. If we practice being thankful often and consistently, we *will* feel it. And that’s the best way that we can enjoy the peace that God so deeply wants us to have. And wouldn’t that be a great way to overcome the negativity of the world, to kick off a new church year, and to begin the Christmas season?

I pray for us, as Paul prayed for his church at Philippi:

May the peace of God which passes all understanding guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus Our Lord. Amen.