"Giving Thanks vs. Giving Up"
I Timothy 2:1-4
11/23/06
As I preach this sermon today I realize that for
some of you this could be the last Thanksgiving that youll ever
celebrate. It could be the last Thanksgiving that I ever
celebrate. None of us are promised tomorrow, after all.
Every Thanksgiving thus far has been a gift to us from God. But
one of these years each us will celebrate our last Thanksgiving, our
last Christmas, our last New Year, our last birthday. Which tends
to turn the holidays into somewhat more somber occasions. In
fact, it might make us outright depressed. Right now you might be
thinking, Thanks a lot, pastor! Way to throw a wet blanket on a
joyful celebration! Just what I wanted to think about on
Thanksgiving - death! And yet death doesnt take a holiday.
There are reminders of it all around us. Why, it was just two
weeks ago while I was on my vacation that two of our members
experienced strokes. And before that a couple more members were
in the hospital. Before that there were two funerals in two
weeks. Add to that the fact that we still face the threat of
terrorist attacks in this world and that wars, fires, floods,
earthquakes, and tornadoes are taking out people on a daily basis,
suddenly death begins to loom large, so large that it gets our eyes off
of our Savior and His gifts, and we grow anxious, nervous, and afraid
as we wonder when its going to hit us. Instead of giving thanks,
we give up as we consider that all that we have is going to be taken
away from us someday.
And yet it was on the eve of having everything taken
away from Him that our Savior, Jesus celebrated a thanksgiving meal
with His disciples. As the Scriptures say, On the night He was
betrayed, He took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and
gave it to His disciples saying, Take, eat. This is my body which
is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And when He
had taken the cup after the supper, He gave thanks again and gave it to
them saying, Drink of it all of you. This cup is the New
Testament in my blood, which is shed for you for the remission of
sins. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of
me. Jesus was about to be betrayed by Judas, one of His own
disciples, into the hands of the Jewish leaders and the Romans to be
crucified on a cross. And yet, He still gave thanks to God,
teaching us to do the same in the face of our own death.
Why? Why give thanks when it seems theres
nothing to give thanks for? Why give thanks when it seems like
everything is being taken from you, even your life? I mean, its
easy, isnt it, to give thanks to God when things are going well for
you. Its easy to give thanks when youre sitting in a nice warm
house full of friends and family members gathered around all that
delicious food. But do we give up giving thanks when things are
going bad, when were lying in a hospital bed, when we or someone we
love is suffering some incurable disease, when weve lost our job, or
when weve got all kinds of problems going on in our homes? Do we
stop giving thanks at those times and throw up our hands in
hopelessness and despair, or do we give thanks to God even in and for
those things? Paul tells the Ephesian Christians to give thanks
for all things, not just in all things, as if even the bad things that
happen in our lives are gifts to us from God. And if what Paul
writes to the Roman Christians is true (as indeed it is) that God
causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him,
to those who are called according to His purpose, then even if the
devil plagues you with the sufferings of Job, you can give thanks to
God that they will not hinder Gods gifts from getting to you.
Why, we can even give thanks and pray for those authorities that God
has placed over us even though they may be the most evil and corrupt
men. Look at how the Roman emperors in the first couple of
centuries persecuted and hated Christians, and yet suffer as they did,
Christians were never really harmed; they werent separated from Gods
love. And through their prayers and thanksgiving given on behalf
of those tyrannts, many people came to faith in Christ, even some of
the emperors themselves.
To give thanks in the midst of suffering reveals
that we truly believe that Gods will is still being done. When we
give thanks to God, we are confessing that we have not slipped out of
His hands, that we are still under His grace and mercy, not His wrath,
and that He is still working even through the evil that happens to us,
in order to deliver Jesus and His gifts to us. And one of those
gifts is suffering with Jesus. Jesus gave thanks to God in the
face of His suffering. He gave thanks that His Fathers will would
be done, that through His bloody sacrifice on the cross, your sins
would be paid for and you would be saved. He gave thanks, because
He knew that His death wasnt going to be the end; far from being
defeated by death, He was going to overcome death through His
resurrection. Jesus gave thanks, because He would actually lose
nothing through death, but instead gain the whole world. He
gained you. The Scripture says, For the joy set before Him [He]
endured the cross, scorning the shame, and has sat down at the right
hand of the throne of God.
We can now give thanks to God like Jesus did, even
in the face of suffering and death. When we give thanks to God in
this way, we are confessing with Jesus that we who are baptized in His
Name lose nothing through death and that the gifts of eternal life and
salvation that God gives us can never be taken away from us, no matter
what temporal things of this life we might lose, including our very
lives themselves. We have died already and die with Jesus daily
through our Baptism. And yes, we are given to suffer with Him
under the cross in this life, for which we can give thanks, because God
uses the crosses that He lays upon us to put to death the sin that
still clings to us. But we also rise daily with Jesus and will be
raised from the dead on the Last Day, for which we may also give
thanks, because we will live forever with Him face to face in the new
heaven and the new earth that Hes going to create for us.
Thanksgiving is the fruit of faith, the evidence that shows that we
truly believe Gods Word that we are extremely rich in Christ and that
He withholds no good thing from us, even when those good things come
wrapped in suffering.
And so the Psalmist writes, What shall I render to
the LORD for all His benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of
salvation and call upon the name of the LORD. What kind of
thanksgiving is pleasing to the Lord? The kind that acknowledges
that all good gifts come from Him and expects more from Him. In
our culture its often considered impolite to ask the host for more (at
least, you shouldnt ask for more than seconds; you dont want to look
like a pig). But God wants you to ask and keep asking for more
from Him. Thats what the Psalmist does; he lifts up the cup of
salvation and calls on the name of the LORD. Elsewhere, David
writes that God prepares a table before him in the presence of his
enemies, that He anoints his head with oil, and that God fills Davids
cup until it overflows. Gods throwing party for you in the midst
of your suffering, pouring His gifts of salvation into you until youre
overflowing and just cant hold anymore. Gods not stingy with His
gifts. He gives His gifts even when we dont ask, even when we
dont give thanks. As Luther writes in the Catechism concerning
the petition, Give us this day our daily bread, God gives daily bread,
indeed, without our prayer, also to all the wicked; but we pray in this
petition that He would lead us to know this, and to receive our daily
bread with thanksgiving. The tens lepers were all healed by Jesus
just the same, but it was only the one, the Samaritan, who came back to
give thanks to Jesus. And in so doing he gave Jesus the worship
due Him, and he received even more from Jesus.
And thats what worship is all about - thanking and
praising God for all the benefits Hes given us in our Savior Jesus
Christ. Today, we Christian not only have the opportunity to give
thanks to God for all the temporal blessings that God gives even to
unbelievers, but also and especially for the eternal blessings that God
gives us in Jesus - the forgiveness of all our sins, eternal life, and
the promise of the resurrection from the dead. In fact, every day
is a thanksgiving day for the Christian.
So, dont give up when suffering seems to be at its
worst and death throws up its little reminders that its on the
way. Give thanks, and bring your cups to the Lords Table today,
so that He might fill you up with His gifts of salvation until youre
overflowing. Here death meets its end in the body and blood of
Christ, the food of immortality, given and shed for you on the cross,
given you to eat and to drink at this true thanksgiving meal
today. And this will not be the last Thanksgiving that any of us
with ever celebrate. But it will be for us the foretaste of a
never-ending Thanksgiving feast to come which we will celebrate with
our Savior face to face in His kingdom of glory forever. Amen.