GIVING THANKS
Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>
GIVING THANKS
November 8, 2009
Text: Deuteronomy 8:1-10
Between the increasing commercialization of Halloween and the annual commercialization of Christmas lies the celebration of Thanksgiving. I always hear a number of folks comment about how Thanksgiving gets the short end of the stick. For quite a few weeks, the count down to Christmas has been underway. There are no major countdowns to Thanksgiving that I know of. Well, let me back up; there is the Macys Thanksgiving Day parade. Some folks are counting down to that, I suspect.
Still, the purpose of the Thanksgiving celebration has become diminished amidst all the other hoopla. This year, I want to stem the tide of forgetting Thanksgiving a bit by making the attitude of thanksgiving my topic for this morning and next Sunday. Were not going to forget Thanksgiving at First Baptist Church.
There are a lot of reasons to like Thanksgiving. One of mine is that, as with the Fourth of July, it offers me the natural opportunity to reflect upon one aspect of our nations heritage. I really like doing that. As a Christian, I can study our nations history not just to be able to lay claim to some zealous nationalism. Studying our history demonstrates the extent to which some of our spiritual forebears went in order to simply provide a safe haven to worship God.
The winter of 1620 through 1621 proved to be the most difficult time imaginable for the group of New England settlers known as the Pilgrims. Having debarked from the Mayflower in November, 1620, the settlers faced the hostile, forbidding winter of New England without shelter; without food; without friends. They faced a new land which was rugged, harsh, and untamed. Indeed, over half of the band of 102 settlers died before the first signs of spring.
Even as the spring birds and flowers began to appear, though, the settlers knew they were far from safe. How do we live in this land? they must have thought. What grows here? What is safe to eat? What animals will live? Among other events, the Providential appearance of two English-speaking natives - Samoset and Squanto - helped to solve some of the settlers' concerns. They showed the settlers how to plant and cultivate corn, and they acted as interpreters with neighboring tribes.
With this help, the Pilgrims began to shake off those effects of the first winter. Still, the growing season was short, and they did not have that much. Yet when the harvest came, the dominant idea in their minds was to give thanks to God for what they had. They had a celebration, a time of thanksgiving for God's blessing. The first Thanksgiving in America was a sacred day.
Elements of this heritage have always come to mind at the time of Thanksgiving. I am awed and inspired by these accounts of bravery and faith. How could they have sustained themselves as they faced that first winter? Were they not wrought with dismay and grief as they watched loved ones succumb to disease and exposure? Did they have much to look forward to as they entered that second winter with a small crop and poor shelter?
In spite of these hardships and bleak outlook, the Pilgrims were not afraid to express their thanksgiving and praise to God. They were not afraid to worship God. They were not afraid to expect God to deliver them.
I look at my life during this season and recognize that I have never been without shelter. I have never faced the prospect of starvation. I have never been inflicted with a life-threatening disease. For what, then, can I claim to be thankful? Should I dare to share this celebration in the company of those who suffered mightily for their faith?
My answer is yes! For they did not pause to give thanks for their own lifesaving efforts; rather, they paused to give thanks to God who sustained and led them in their wilderness. When considered in this light, I recognize that I have undergone the same spiritual crises which even the Pilgrims faced. I have faced life inadequately sheltered from the temptations of demons and the world. I have faced life as one who is starving from a lack of spiritual nourishment. And I have faced life as one who has been threatened with the most life threatening disease which can be known - willful separation from God's saving love. What can all of us give thanks for during this Thanksgiving celebration? We can give worshipful thanks for God's Scripture, God's Church, and God's Love.
I give thanks for Scripture. Verses 1 and 2 of Deuteronomy 8 read: "Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land that the Lord promised on oath to your forefathers. Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands." Also, in verse 6: "Observe the commands of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and revering him."
The emphasis of these verses is on the observance of God's commands and on remembering the actions of God. I am thankful for the revealed Word of God which has been passed down through generations so that I might know Him.
The testaments which we have today are much more than just a few books tossed together in one binding. A mere tallying of book sales over the years attests to more than that! Year after year, the Bible leads the book market in sales. What is so special about this book, then?
It is the Living Word! It continues to reveal the heart and mind of the Living God! These words which are given to us are not dead words or thoughts. They are not morals or ideas of past civilizations. They are a reflection of the Living One who is even today continuing to make His presence known to His world! God's revelation helps to keep us from facing spiritual starvation by showing us how to "observe the commands of the Lord" and to remember how the Lord our God is leading us.
Have we not all at one time or another been in a distraught state or sought an answer for direction and, turning to the Bible, found an answer or guidance or comfort from a well-known passage? We may have read the passage dozens of times - might even know it by heart - but suddenly at just the right time, it has now become alive! This is not the mark of a mere book; it is the Living Word of the Living God. Martin Luther expressed one of his thoughts on the Bible by saying, "Wherever the Word of God is, there the Holy Spirit, faith, and other gifts of the Spirit must necessarily be." His comment is so true. In Scripture, we are confronted by more than a collection of words, essays, or other thoughts. We are confronted by the Holy Spirit and by faith. We read in Romans 10:17: So, then, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. In the Scriptures, we are confronted by God Himself.
I give thanks for God's Church. Once again, the admonitions to follow every command that God has given and to remember His works come to mind. For centuries, this has been the work of the Church. Christ's Church has been calling people to confession and repentance ever since its beginning.
The Church has been doing this in the presence of all sorts of strife and persecution. I am amazed at the incredible suffering that people have had to endure just because they caught the vision of Christ - just because they chose to "follow every command" and remember the Lord our God. Because of the faithfulness of so many people we will never know, we, too, can join the same faith, the same vision, and the same conviction.
God does not want us to forget His works. He continues to call us to worship Him, to praise Him, and to adore Him. His Church has remained faithful to this call throughout the ages. It not been without trouble or division, but it has continued to be the body through which we can enter into the presence of God. That was one of the visions of the Pilgrims. They rightfully sought to inject new life and new purity into the church they knew. And rather than give up their vision and purpose, they chose to endure the hardships of the New World. In no small part, this is our heritage as well.
I assume that all of us here today have been touched in some way by the Church. And I also assume that each of us could probably point to some person or persons within the Church as significant to us. Maybe it has been a Sunday school teacher; maybe a pastor; maybe the fellowship of others in the Church. Whatever your particular experience might be, it is at those points that the meaning of Christianity becomes alive. I give thanks for God's Church.
I give thanks for God's love. Without His love for us there would be nothing for which any of us could be thankful. Had God withdrawn His presence from His creation at the first sign of rebellion, there would be no Scripture and there would be no Church. Yet, God has been pleased to provide us with His care, compassion, and love.
God showed His love to the descendants of Abraham time and again. Verses 7 through 9 speak of the mercies of God: "For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land - a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and the hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills."
This is the love which God had for His people. He did not intend for them to perish at the hands of the Egyptians. He saw to it that they did not waste away in the wilderness. He did not allow them to be destroyed by their enemies after they arrived in the Promised Land. No! He sustained them, and He led them.
He does the same for us! His love for us has not failed. What the Old Testament writers could not imagine was the depth of love that God reserved for His creation. Look at the love which God gave us in His Son Jesus. Look at the love displayed on the cross by one who could have called down legions of angels. Look at the love given by His willingness to give up His glory and to suffer at the hands of His creation!
When we look at this love, then we can find our own purpose for giving thanks. We can rejoice with the Pilgrims even if the harvest is small and the winter is bitter. We can give thanks to God for His miracle of love. We can give thanks to God for not leading us to starvation by removing His presence. We can give thanks to God for continuing to bring us "into a good land." We give thanks for God's love.
Giving thanks is what Thanksgiving is all about. The Pilgrims recognized this just as they recognized the object of their thankfulness. The Pilgrims believed that Almighty God who created them was over all and that men, women, and children were dependent upon Him. And so must we believe; for when we do, we can rejoice with Moses as it is written in verse 10: "When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you."
Rev. Charles A. Layne
First Baptist Church
PO Box 515
179 W. Broadway
Bunker Hill, IN 46914
765-689-7987
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