Thanksgiving Eve
Dear friends in Christ. This is a very joyous time of year. The crops are harvested. We have been blessed once again with one of the great and most necessary and basic blessings from the Lord—food. That’s really the foundation of our celebration of a day of Thanksgiving—going all the way back to the pilgrims. They had barely survived their first winter in the New World enduring much hardship and death. But by God’s grace in sending them the Roman Catholic Indian, Squanto, who taught them how and what to plant and how to hunt and in God blessing their efforts they had an abundant harvest the following year.
This background of crops and harvest and the Lord’s blessing on them is a vital reminder to us today lest we think our most basic needs are supplied by the local supermarket. Then we lift up our eyes all around us and see and are reminded of all the other blessings from the Lord that we enjoy in personal life and family life, in our church and in our nation. We then see that we are surrounded by blessings like we are surrounded by the air, which, too, is a blessing from the Lord.
But let us not think that Thanksgiving is a one day/ once a year event and that once tomorrow is over with that we’re set for another year. Let us also not think that our thanksgiving is just a general feeling of thankfulness. Instead a true and right thanksgiving is giving thanks to the One who has given us these blessings for which we are to be truly thankful—the holy Triune God. And although throughout the year—but especially now—the advertisers are bombarding us with ads trying to make us think that there are so many things that we are lacking, missing out on, that we need—trying to create in us discontentment and envy, so that we go out and buy what we think we need to fill that void—let us not forget that we, in our various situations, are really blessed beyond measure in material things. We would certainly be the rich in this present age that St. Paul talks about in our text. And that’s why for us, especially, tomorrow’s day of Thanksgiving is especially vital. It is a call to us to live lives of thanksgiving every day. We do so as we put our trust in the holy Triune God and live generously.
1. As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. Here St. Paul points out that thanksgiving keeps us from two particular sins of the rich: the sin of pride and the sin of putting our trust in wealth. It is a special temptation of the rich to have that haughty confidence in the power and prestige of wealth. “I have the money so I can do it.” –That’s pride/ arrogance. Notice that emphasis on “I”. Everything is meant to serve me; “I” become the center and focus. That’s why earthly wealth is such a temptation. It plays right into the hands of our natural corruption, our natural selfishness, our natural placing self first. The wealthier we are/ the more blessed we are by God, the more we need to be on guard against this sin; the more we need to examine our heart and life for this sin to repent and root it out. The moment we say/ think: “I’m not that wealthy/ not that wealthy” or “others are much better off than me” we convict ourselves of this sin because we are saying that we “have to catch up, keep up with the Joneses” and if we “have to catch up” wealth has become our standard because we want its power and prestige—the very thing we think we are lacking.
What happens as we set our hopes on the uncertainty of riches? It is wealth, the uncertainty of riches, that becomes our God because as Luther rightly defines god: A god means that from which we are to expect all good and in which we are to take refuge in all distress. So to have a god is nothing other than trusting and believing Him with the heart [LC I, 2]. Setting our hopes on the uncertainty of riches makes us guilty then of the sin of idolatry.
But that’s why thanksgiving is so vital. Let thanksgiving start now with this year’s Thanksgiving Day and flow throughout the whole year so that everyday becomes for us a day to give the Lord thanks. Thanksgiving does what? It turns our attention away from the things/ wealth and to the Giver; it turns our attention away from ourselves and to the Lord; it keeps us from being prideful because of the things we have. Why? Because in the act of thanksgiving, we are confessing that we are not worthy of the things we have. Even if we have, by the world’s standards, not much, we do recognize that what we have is purely out of God’s fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me.
If God gives me earthly blessings and wealth without any merit or worthiness in me, how can I think I’m better than another? How can I become prideful because God seemingly gave me more wealth than someone else—after all none of us have any more merit or worthiness than another? We are all poor miserable sinners who deserve nothing but God’s eternal wrath and condemnation. But as Jesus tells us [Mt. 5.45]: [God] makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. What does living a life of thanksgiving every day mean for us? It means recognizing the grace of God who does not deal with us as we deserve but in grace! As we gather around the turkey tomorrow and are reminded of all our blessings, let our attention be turned to God’s grace to us all.
As we live everyday lives of thanksgiving long past tomorrow’s feast, we live putting our trust in God. That’s what thanksgiving means—not just recognizing that God is the One who gives us the blessings and wealth we enjoy but trusting Him to do so! Thanksgiving means not set[ting our] hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. Notice the order that the blessed Apostle writes—our trust/ confidence is not in the things/ the wealth that God, the Giver, provides but our trust/ confidence is on the God, who richly provides us. We see the Giver behind the gift. We recognize God’s wisdom and care as He pours out good things upon us. We see that although we buy our food from the store—He gave us the ability to get money to buy it; He blessed the work of the farmer or rancher; He gave the rain and sun; He provided through the trucks and drivers and highways, etc. As Solomon writes in the psalm [127.1]: Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.
At Thanksgiving, yes, we recognize that all the blessings we have come from the Lord; but our everyday lives of Thanksgiving are lived trusting in the Lord to provide for us in the way that He sees fit is the best for us. God… richly provides us. That’s a life of faith! Thanksgiving is living a life of faith in the Lord and His grace and mercy to us. Very often we will not like how God provides for us. Our old sinful nature balks, thinking God owes us more or better. Our old sinful self—since it wants nothing to do with faith—looks at the outward and sets its hope on what it can see/ touch/ etc. But the Christian lives by faith and in living a life of Thanksgiving doesn’t look at the material blessings the Lord gives but on the God who gives them to us in the first place, who distributes them, who richly provides us.
Let us use this Thanksgiving to examine our hearts lest we put our trust in the things themselves and not in the Lord. If our trust is in the wealth/ things then they are not in the Lord and that is an uncertain and deceitful foundation which can’t help us after this life; and in this life God may grant them to us only briefly.
2. As we live everyday lives of Thanksgiving in faith, not putting our trust in the things but in God, who richly provides us, we have great peace and contentment. We recognize, in faith, why God…richly provides us with everything. [T]o enjoy! God wants us to enjoy His gifts and blessings. Think back to the original creation. God richly provided everything in abundance to Adam and Eve. Yes, He had Adam tend and keep the Garden of Eden [Gn. 2.15] but God blessed that work and provided for them through that work. God created the world for us to enjoy. He gives us the blessings He has for us to enjoy: God… richly provides us with everything to enjoy. It is sin and the results of sin that make life wretched; it is sin/ our corrupted sinful nature that lead us to look at the things/ blessings/ wealth we enjoy and not to the Lord God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. What does Thanksgiving Day tomorrow do? It reminds us that all that God has created is inherently good and to receive His gifts and blessings with thanksgiving. As we live our lives of everyday Thanksgiving we don’t strive after the things and wealth; but if good things/ material blessings come to us, we recognize them as coming from the Lord and His grace and we receive them from His hand, give Him thanks and enjoy.
Here we see our everyday lives of Thanksgiving—if we strive after more earthly wealth, if we strive to heap it up, if it becomes our object in life—how can we enjoy it—what the Lord has given us? We can’t! How can we enjoy it if we are worried about losing it and fret over it? We can’t! Do you see here what peace and contentment we have as we live our lives of thanksgiving? Then we simply receive it from the Lord, knowing He has given it to us; if He takes it away, we say with Job [1.21]: The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.
Dear Christian, as we live our everyday lives of thanksgiving, receiving from the Lord one grace and blessing after another providing us with everything to enjoy, we are Christians—and what does that mean? Our greatest delight is not in serving self but in serving the Lord, wanting to do His will! He is our gracious Lord who is also our Savior who rescued us from sin, death, devil and hell; who has given us and preserves in us a new, spiritual life; who has opened to us the gates of heaven. As we live our everyday lives of thanksgiving, yes we receive with thanks the blessings the Lord gives us and we use them to provide for our needs and to enjoy. Our greatest enjoyment of His gifts is in proving ourselves to be faithful stewards/ caretakers of the earthly wealth and blessings the Lord has given us. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. For us as Christians, there’s no joy if we use our wealth for sin or for selfish purposes. Instead, we mirror the Lord’s generosity to us. That’s why we Christians live generous lives. Our everyday lives of thanksgiving are lives of generosity because they flow from faith. We receive God’s richest blessings to us in Christ—forgiveness of sin, eternal life, peace with Him, heaven, etc. And we want others to experience and have the same gifts we do so we are generous supporting our church locally and the spread of the Gospel throughout the world.
We are moved by compassion because we see others suffering and in bodily need so we use our wealth and generously help those in need. We don’t squander the treasures the Lord has given us, but our greatest delight is in reflecting God’s generosity to us first. Here, as we by God’s grace, are led and empowered by the Holy Spirit not to serve self but others in their need—be it spiritual or physical—we are living our Christian lives of thankfulness. As we do so, the Lord Himself treasures and, in grace, rewards the good we do because He is generous.
Tomorrow and everyday live a life of Thanksgiving—that is, put your trust in the Lord who gives you every blessing and use those blessings to live generously. INJ