Thanksgiving
Eve at Epiphany on
Grace, mercy and peace to you through God our Father who provides us with mercies which are new every morning.
Deuteronomy 8:3-4
He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither
you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone
but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4 Your clothes
did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.
Tomorrow we celebrate Thanksgiving. But it is not normal, it's not natural, for
a sinner to say thanks. Contrary to popular opinion, the first Thanksgiving in what
would become the
A moment
ago I mentioned the Pilgrims. Their first winter was devastating as they buried
46 of the 102 who had landed at Plymouth Rock. Fortunately, the harvest of 1621
was plentiful and the survivors celebrated with a feast to which they invited 91
Native Americans who had helped them survive. The feast, which may, or may not have
included wild turkey, did have venison and boiled pumpkin. Since there were no domestic
cattle there was no butter or milk; and since most people considered potatoes to
be poisonous, they probably didn't show up on the table. The feast lasted three
days and was not repeated the following year. It's not natural; it's not normal
for sinners to be thankful.
Of course,
you don't have to examine
The Children
of Israel should have been thankful. They had a God who, through mighty miracles
and powerful plagues, managed to secure their release from the slavery of
In spite
of these daily and numerous examples of divine intervention the Children of Israel
didn't learn thankfulness. When they reached the place God had promised, after they
had investigated the wonderful land, a land flowing with milk and honey, but also
filled with giant inhabitants, they continued complaining. Scripture records their
whining words: "Would that we had died in the
As this
new generation stood poised to take possession of the land of promise, God stopped
them and gave them a reminder. He said: "When you get to where I'm taking you, I
want you to remember all that I've done for you. I want you to be thankful for the
daily food and water I've provided. I want you to be appreciative of the clothes
that haven't worn out. I want you to be grateful for the fact that during the last
40 years your feet haven't swelled up." How's that for a list? Be appreciative of
water? Just water? No Starbucks, no Miller Lite, Diet Coke, Mountain Dew, or Gatorade?
Be thankful for 40 years of quail? In most homes, three days of turkey leftovers
have people complaining. And how about manna? How long would your table prayers
sound sincere if, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, for four decades, you had
manna for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? You probably would have had manna baked,
boiled, breaded, and broiled; there would have been pickled manna, barbecued manna,
stuffed manna, manna shish kabobs, and manna fondue. How long can a person be thankful
for manna? And do you know anyone who can be thankful for clothes that didn't wear
out? I don't. Forty years of wearing the same robes that come in a one-size-fits-all
is not going to make anyone in my family thankful. When your wife says, "Oh, this
old thing?" she would really mean it. Did the Lord really expect people to be thankful
to Him because their feet hadn't swollen up like watermelons? That's got to be one
of the most unusual verses in all of Scripture.
God must
have known better. He must have known that as soon as His people were in possession
of the land of promise they would forget He had given it to them. The Lord must
have known that their unthankful hearts would turn away from Him and follow after
other gods. He must have known that when Jesus healed ten lepers, nine would forget
to say thank You. He must have known the priests of Jesus' time would be jealous
of Him, not thankful for Him. God must have known that it's not natural; it's not
normal for sinful people to give thanks.
The answer
to all of those obvious questions is: "Of course God knows." On this day of national
Thanksgiving the Lord knows that many people, people whom He has slathered in stuff,
whom He has inundated with blessings beyond counting, will remain ungrateful. He
knows they will disavow His existence; He knows they will disavow their dependency;
and He knows they will deny any need to show Him any gratitude. That's why, for
many, this Thanksgiving Day will be nothing more than Turkey Day. That’s why, for
many, this holiday is nothing more than sitting in the easy chair watching football.
That's why this Thanksgiving will be nothing more than people getting together to
drink, talk, eat, and go home, better known as giggle, gabble, gobble, and git!"
No one knows better than God that it's not normal, it's not natural, for sinful
souls and self-satisfied countries to give thanks. Even so, the Lord doesn't think
He is asking too much for us to have grateful, thankful hearts.
Indeed,
we will have these things if we truly understand that thanksgiving has very little
to do with what you have or what you own. True thanksgiving is not based on the
tonnage of your turkey, or the quarts of cranberries, or the plethora of pies, or
the pile of potatoes that have your Thanksgiving table groaning. True thanksgiving
is not based on whether the bird is unburnt, whether your favorite football team
is victorious, or whether your Christmas shopping is completed during the first
two hours of Friday morning's early-bird specials.
True thanksgiving,
real, lasting thanksgiving comes from knowing that God loves you. The Old Testament's
King David wasn't truly thankful because Samuel had anointed him to be the future
king. He became thankful when his murderous, adulterous, repentant heart was brought
to the realization that God loved him and forgave him. The Apostle Peter became
truly thankful, not when the Lord hand-picked him to be His disciple; not when the
Lord reached down and pulled him from the stormy Sea of Galilee; not when Jesus
allowed him to help feed the 5,000. Peter became truly thankful when the Holy Spirit
told his deserting, denying, repentant heart that the crucified and risen Christ
still loved him. Paul became truly grateful when the Lord told him that his life,
once dedicated to persecuting Christ's people, had been forgiven.
The list
of thankful hearts doesn't stop with the disciples and the apostles - it begins
there. Watch the joy of the jailer at
It's thanksgiving
time, which means it's time for you to know it's not things, or the people around
you, that bring forth heartfelt thanks. Thanksgiving comes with the knowledge that
God loves you. God loves you not because you're well dressed, not because you're
good looking, and not because you've tried to lead a good life. God loves you not
because you are successful, not because you are admired, not because of anything
you are or that you've done. God loves you because of what His Son has done.
True thanksgiving
comes when thankless, disobedient, degenerate sinners are brought to the realization
that God, perfect God, holy, sin-hating God has looked down from heaven and decided
to save them. True thanksgiving comes when a person knows God's innocent Son gave
Himself, completely and totally so he might be saved; it comes when an individual
acknowledges Jesus shed His blood so he might be cleansed; it comes when he believes
Jesus rose from the dead so he would never have to face or spend eternity in the
fires of hell. Thanksgiving comes when we know that when nobody could love us, Jesus
has; it comes when we know when we are at our worst, our baddest, our meanest, our
cruelest, God continues to love us. Thanksgiving comes when we pray, "God, be merciful
to me a sinner, - and we know He is.
True thanks
come in knowing that God loves you, twisted, torn, and terrified. When He has no
reason to love you, God loves you the most. That's what Paul meant when He said,
"God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for
us" (Romans 5:8). That's what John meant when he wrote: "This is love, not that
we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for
our sins" (1 John 4:10). When you know that, then, for the first time, you will
be really, truly thankful. You will be thankful for water, and food, and clothes,
and feet that don't swell. You will be thankful, because you can't help yourself.
It's not
natural or normal for sinners to be thankful. If you have any doubt about that fact,
look at your children and grandchildren. As wonderful as our children and grandchildren
are, nobody has ever had to teach them to say, "No;" nobody had ever had to teach
them to grab something and say, "Mine." No one has ever had to instruct them to
say, "That's not fair, my brother always gets what he wants, but I never..." and
you can fill in the blank. Our children, our grandchildren, we ourselves, learned
these things all on our own. It's natural for sinners to be self-centered and selfish.
Now, let
me ask, how many of your children and grandchildren learned to say "Thank you" all
on their own? How many, all by themselves remember to say a word of appreciation
for the gifts they get at Christmas or on their birthdays? How many times do you
have to urge, "What do you say to your Auntie for the nice socks?" It's not normal
for sinners to be thankful; but it's natural for Christians who have a Savior who
is worthy of our gratitude. Make this a day of undying appreciation to Him who died
for you. Amen.