Category Archives: thanksgiving

Give thanks for the eternal goodness and mercy of God!

Posted on by
Sermon

Download Sermon
Service
[vimeo 887522974 w=540 h=360]
Download Service Download Bulletin

Sermon for Thanksgiving

Revelation 22:1-6

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. For His mercy endures forever. We chant that Psalm verse every Sunday at the close of the Eucharist, the great Thanksgiving that is the Lord’s Supper. We give thanks to God multiple times in the Sunday service. And in our regular Wednesday service. And, hopefully, you’re giving thanks to God in your hearts and in your homes every day, before every meal and throughout the day, because God is the Source and Giver of every meal, every breath, every heartbeat, every thing.

So the national holiday of Thanksgiving really shouldn’t be anything out of the ordinary for the Christian, except for the opportunity it gives to some people to take a break from work or school and gather with family or with loved ones. But we’re glad to take another opportunity to gather as Christians and to turn our hearts heavenward, toward our merciful and generous God, to say together: Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. For His mercy endures forever.

Only Christians can give thanks to God, because only Christians truly know His goodness—the goodness of the God who has not only given life and breath to all creatures, but who so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son. Only Christians, the people of God, know how to reach God with our thanks and praise in a way that He will acknowledge, in a way that He will accept. Because, as Jesus said, No one comes to the Father except through Me.

And so let us give thanks to God for all His goodness and mercy to us here in this life, first and foremost, in giving His Son into death for our sins, in finding us with His Gospel, teaching us the truth about all things in His Word, and bringing us to Baptism and faith, bringing us into His family and into His covenant of the forgiveness of sins for Jesus’ sake.

Then let us give thanks to God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—for His goodness and mercy in temporal blessings: family, food, clothing, shelter, human society, relative peace and freedom, for our church family (near and far), for a place to worship, for Word and Sacrament, and for opportunities to serve our neighbor and our fellow Christian; for all God’s promises and for the dependability of them; for God’s mercy and goodness in His works of providence and preservation.

All these things we’ve been given here in this life. But this evening we want to focus a little bit on the goodness and mercy that will follow us into the next life, in the New Jerusalem, where we will live after the Last Day and the final judgment have come.

And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

John is still describing that city of God, the New Jerusalem that will come down out of heaven from God, the city that, as we saw last week, is described as being larger than the state of Texas. In it, he sees a river. That sends us back to Psalm 46: There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, just at the break of dawn. There was never a literal river flowing inside Jerusalem. This was always a picture of the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, bringing life to the people of God from the Father and from the Son. On earth, the Spirit worked through Word and Sacrament, bringing God’s life to sinners, as Jesus promised the woman at the well. Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. But in the new city of God, the Holy Spirit will bring life directly to the inhabitants of the city. It’s pure and clear water, a picture of perfect cleansing, perfect truth, perfect sustenance, perfect providence, perfect joy, perfect life. It’s not a pond or a pool, which could dry up or not be enough, but a river continually flowing from the Father and from the Son, from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month.

The tree of life. We haven’t heard of it in the whole Bible since back in the beginning, in the Garden of Eden. There stood the tree of life, in the middle of the garden, waiting for its fruit to preserve the life of mankind on the earth forever. But the purpose of the tree of life was never realized on earth. God barred Adam and Eve and their children from the tree of life and guarded the entrance to it after they fell into sin, because, from that time on, all men were destined to die.

But all of that will be reversed in the new City of God. The trees stand both in the middle of the street and on each side of the river, life-giving trees surrounding a life-giving river. It bears twelve fruits, with each tree bearing its fruit every month, that is, twelve times a year. Twelve, again, being the number of the Church. There is plenty of life for everyone here. God will sustain the life of His people continually, forever. And all the wounds we took in this life, whether physical, or mental, or spiritual, will be healed there. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

And there shall be no more curse.

No more curse. A curse was pronounced on the earth after the fall into sin. Death and decay were part of it. No longer walking with God visibly and openly, as Adam and Eve did before the fall, was another part of it. Then there were all the curses of the Law of Moses, spoken against Israel under the Old Testament. When they entered the promised land of Canaan, both blessings and curses were pronounced. Blessings dependent on their obedience to the covenant, and curses in the event of their disobedience. In the new Promised Land, the new Garden of Eden, it will be much different. There will be no more curse. No death or decay, no punishment, no disobedience, no separation from God. The throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.

They shall see His face.

God said to Moses on Mt. Sinai, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” That will all change in the new city of God. Everyone there will be able to see God’s face—not that we can even imagine what that will be like. We will get to know God in a way we can’t know Him here on earth. And His name shall be on their foreheads, God will proudly claim the citizens of that city as His own, and they will gladly carry around the name of their God.

There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light.

Now, night itself isn’t evil, and darkness itself isn’t bad. It was part of God’s good creation. But night, after sin entered the world, is when people stumble because of the darkness, when people get lost because they can’t see. Night is when sinners like to use the cover of darkness to indulge in sin. Night is the time of danger, when the innocent are the most vulnerable. But not in the new City of God. There will be no night nor lack of light. No more time of danger, no more time of ignorance and being unable to see. Because God will be the light of the city, driving out all danger, all evil, all sin, and all ignorance, shining with a light that does no harm, but that only heals.

And they shall reign forever and ever, as kings and queens of the new creation.

Then he said to me, “These words are faithful and true.” And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things which must shortly take place.

That’s why we can give thanks for it, even though we haven’t yet entered the new city in the new creation, because these words are faithful and true. All the good things promised here are guaranteed by the word of the God who cannot lie and who never deceives. All of this is really waiting for you in the city of God just on the other side of Christ’s coming.

And so let us give thanks to God for all His goodness and mercy here, and for the goodness and mercy that He has promised in the new creation to all who remain faithful unto death, the goodness and the mercy that will accompany us forever and ever and ever. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. Amen.

Source: Sermons

Thanksgiving flows from sins forgiven

Posted on by

Sermon for the Eve of Thanksgiving

Colossians 2:6-15  +  Luke 7:36-50

Just like every other time we gather together here around Word and Sacrament, we’re here for Thanksgiving. Now, there are many ways to give thanks to God. You can say a prayer of thanks by yourself, of course. You can say a prayer or sing a song of praise with your family or here in your church, or you can confess the one true God, as you just did in the Nicene Creed. You can make a list of all the things you’re thankful for, all the things you recognize, with gratitude, as coming from your Father’s bountiful goodness: food, clothing, shelter, family, friends, and on and on and on.

Deeds of love for your neighbor can be an act of thanksgiving to God. True obedience to God’s commandments is always an act of thankfulness. Your whole life, in fact, can be one great giving of thanks, in all you do, in all you say, in every godly vocation that you hold.

But the starting point of all true thankfulness is love for God. It all begins with love. And love begins with faith. And faith rests upon God’s promise to forgive sins for the sake of Christ. Thanksgiving flows, ultimately, from sins forgiven, which is why only Christians can truly celebrate Thanksgiving Day.

That’s what the apostle Paul emphasized in the Epistle from Colossians: As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

Even more directly, that’s what Jesus teaches in this evening’s Gospel. An unnamed sinful woman—that is, a woman well-known for her sins, probably a prostitute—heard that Jesus was dining at a Pharisee’s house, so she went to see Him. The Western Church has traditionally identified her with Mary Magdalene, who has also been identified in Western tradition with Mary, the sister of Martha and of Lazarus. Whether or not they’re all the same woman, the lesson remains the same.

She spoke not a word of thanks to Jesus in our Gospel—no prayers, no praises. In fact, she said nothing at all. Instead, she brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.

The woman said nothing. But her every action, her every tear, was a thanksgiving—a thanksgiving that flowed from love that flowed from faith that rested upon the forgiveness of sins—the Gospel that she had already heard and believed.

The Pharisee who invited Jesus—Simon was his name—didn’t appreciate her act of thanksgiving. Nor did he think very highly of Jesus for letting her do this to Him. He thought to himself, This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.

Now those are the thoughts of a truly thankless man, and Jesus tells him a little story to illustrate his thanklessness. Two debtors owed money to the same man. One owed 500 denarii, the other owed just 50. The creditor forgave both debts. Which of them will love him more? I suppose the one whom he forgave more. And He said to him, You have judged rightly.

Then Jesus explains the story to Simon. You see this woman? I came to your house and you did nothing for Me. You didn’t even offer me the common hospitality of a foot-washing or a bit of cheap oil for my head, much less greet me with the customary kiss of friendship. But this woman has washed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair and kissed them and anointed them with costly perfume. And she did it, not to make up for her sin and not to purchase My favor, but she did it out of her great love for Me, because she knows her sins are great, but she also believes that I am great, and that I have come to forgive sinners their great and terrible debts of sin. She loved much because she has been forgiven much. Your sins are forgiven, Jesus told the woman. Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.

But you, Simon, you should take her actions as a grave warning. Because your lack of love for Me, your lack of thanksgiving to Me, is a sure and certain sign of a deadly disease: To whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.

It’s not that Simon actually had little that needed forgiving. It’s not that you or I or anyone actually has little that needs forgiving, compared to all those “really wicked” people out there. The difference between Simon and the sinful woman wasn’t in how much forgiveness each one needed from Jesus. It was in how much forgiveness each one sought from Jesus, how much forgiveness each one admitted that he or she needed from Jesus. That’s why the woman was so grateful and Simon so ungrateful. She was penitent; he was impenitent. She was honest about herself; he was delusional about himself. She was astounded by the grace and mercy of Jesus, while Simon was bored with it.

So it is that thanksgiving can only flow from love, and love can only flow from faith, and faith is only true faith when it rests upon God’s promise to forgive sins for the sake of Christ alone. This is where thanksgiving begins and ends.

And so tonight, we go back to this source of thanksgiving, this Christian faith, this recognition of how badly we need the blood of Jesus to pay our debts, and how great Jesus truly is for willingly shedding His blood, just so that He could say to each of us on the day of our Baptism, Now your sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you. Baptism has saved you. I have saved you. Go in peace.

That brings us here to the Lord’s Supper itself, the “Eucharist,” the great Thanksgiving in which we poor sinners, penitent, baptized and forgiven, come to offer this “sacrifice” to Jesus. Not a sacrifice to pay for sins anymore, but a sacrifice of thanksgiving—our grateful acknowledgement that Jesus is the friend of sinners and has given His body and blood for us, and now to us, as a seal of the forgiveness He won for us by His death on the cross. The Eucharist is our as-often-as-you-drink-it opportunity to come into the presence of Jesus, to express our love for Jesus, even as the sinful woman did in the Gospel, and at the same time it’s our opportunity to receive from Jesus much more love than we ourselves can give, just as the sinful woman herself received absolution from Jesus again that day.

From here, let your love for Christ be nourished and grow into an every-day, every-hour, every-minute kind of thanksgiving. After all, it is truly meet, right, and salutary that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to our merciful God, with words of praise, with prayers of thanksgiving for all that He has given, with lives of obedience to His commandments, with lives of service to your neighbor.

There are many reasons to give thanks to God, but they all begin with the forgiveness of sins. There are many ways to give thanks to God, but they all begin with love—love for the God who made us alive together with Christ, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us. Any Thanksgiving that does not begin and end with that is empty and useless. But, as we’ve seen in the Gospel, every Thanksgiving that flows from love that flows from faith that rests upon the forgiveness of sins is pleasing and acceptable in the sight of Christ. A blessed Thanksgiving to you. Amen.

 

 

 

 

Source: Sermons