A very blessed national day of Thanksgiving to you and yours!
In many ways the celebration of National Thanksgiving is kind of like New Year’s Eve. It is true that quite often people spend both days getting food and drink prepared, socialize, maybe watch football, and don’t really think about these days with any significance. However, for those who actually talk about it or think about it, on both days people can look back on the previous year, even as they look forward to the new. For Thanksgiving people generally try to look at the good that has happened to them or that they have accomplished and they take a moment to be “thankful” or “grateful”… to whom or what really depends on their confession of faith. For New Years, people may look at what has happened and worked in the previous year and what has not and proceed to make resolutions and goals going forward.
For us in the church, this year as in many years, we actually have both dates in one. How so? Because last Sunday was the last Sunday of the Church Year. This Sunday begins a new year in the life of the church. So for a church that celebrates the national day of Thanksgiving, it’s kind of like a New Year’s Eve reflection.
St. Paul said in today’s epistle: “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
That last line has become popular over the years among athletes and others who see this as an inspirational text for being able to set goals and achieve those goals, perhaps by God’s grace, but quite often they see it as mostly their own grit and determination that brings these things to pass. But does this text really mean that? Does it even say how it is often translated: “13I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” What if you did not meet your goals? What if you failed? What if bad things came upon you? Can you still be grateful and thankful to God?…then again if you are relying upon yourself and setting your own earth bound goals, can God be held responsible for your failures or the failure to attain them? Had He agreed to support them? Perhaps there was and is a better way and better goals that we should focus upon.
St. Paul in Philippians is writing from jail in Rome. He knows that more likely than not, he will soon be executed for the confession of Jesus Christ. When people quote Phil. 4:13, they often ignore this context. He speaks of the hardships that He has endured. He says: “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.” He has grown. He has learned. He is grateful. He has learned to be content, to survive, and overcome all adversity by God’s strength. In fact, the Greek verbs in verse 13, should not be translated as they so often are. It could and probably should be translated as: “For all things, I have strength, in the One who is empowering me.” Let me repeat that: “For all things, I have strength, in the One who is empowering me.”
How and why is that important for Thanksgiving Day or any other day? It means that God is the one who empowers you, who blesses you, who brings you into contentment, freed from anxiety regardless of your past, current, or future earthly circumstances. Whether you have had a year of disappointments and failures, or bountiful blessings and rousing successes according to worldly reckonings. Whether are able to gather with our loved ones tomorrow around a grand feast, with good health, and money in the bank or we are separated from loved ones, have very little food, and no money in the bank. Let us remember what God has done for us. Let us remember with what He empowers us and repent of those times when we have not appreciated His gifts, but taken credit for them and blamed Him for our disappointments.
Dear friends, God has brought you through this year redeemed from your sin. He has kept you by His empowering grace by the forgiveness of sins won by Jesus Christ crucified and raised. He has called you into saving faith and He continues to provide for the strengthening of that faith as you hear His Word, as you remember your Heavenly Father’s promise to you in your baptism. You belong to Him. He has eternity and a perfect life prepared for you with Him forever. He provides for you a feast of fine wine and meat spread before you in the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist: the true eternal and international Thanksgiving feast. We celebrate it now and today in the physical presence of only some of our family and loved ones, looking forward to and hastening on the day when we can celebrate this feast with all the heavenly hosts and all the faithful family of God from all time in paradise in God’s perfect glory. Then we shall no longer have to face hunger or want, physical or emotional pain and disappointments. So looking to the future, be comforted for the present. Know in all stations and all conditions, God gives you and I more than we deserve. Rejoice in all the bountiful gifts that God has given you that you need for salvation here, but then think upon and rejoice in all the earthly blessings that He grants you for your current life. God loves you immensely. Try to count them all and you will lose count. Neither you nor I can remember nor account for or are aware of all the good that God has worked for us, nor all the evils that He has prevented from befalling us. As St. Paul said: “God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
Indeed. In Jesus Christ we are all rich. We are all able to be satisfied and contented in Him. And when you do feel need. When you are weakened and tempted to despair, remember: “For all things, I have strength, in the One who is empowering me.” And “in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Amen. Now let us stand and sing the offertory.
Pastor Aaron Kangas