"NEED TO KNOW"
Thanksgiving Eve
November 22, 2017
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
Know that the Lord, He is God! It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.
Psalm 100:3 (NIV)
If you've been in any of my Bible Classes or engaged me in informal conversation, you may have noticed that one of my pet peeves in recent years is the abundance of so-called "Christian" teaching and commentary on the airwaves and in print that is not really Christian at all in that it makes no mention of Law and Gospel, sin and grace, or anything else that lets people know what they need to know in order to have the hope of heaven. We hear about the terrible condition of our society but instead of hearing about the need for repentance and the Good News of forgiveness made possible through the blood of Christ, we hear instead about who needs to be elected to office and what laws need to be passed and enforced. But Jesus Himself said, "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36). It seems that in Christian broadcasting and in many of the volumes offered in Christian bookstores we hear and read a lot of stuff that may be very true and may very much need to be said, but nevertheless is not the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I must confess that for many years I used to feel that way at Thanksgiving time also. As a child it seemed to me that my beloved church, which all year long preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified as the only way to heaven, on Thanksgiving talked instead about some kind of otherworldly God whose major contribution seemed to be making the corn grow and keeping us out of war. I had been taught all along that the message that we have to share with our dying world is the Good News that God Himself has made atonement for human sin in the Person of His Son so that sinners need no longer be enemies of God, hiding from Him in fear. Because of what Christ has done for us, forgiveness is a reality and sinners can know that they are loved and accepted by their God. But I didn't seem to be hearing any of this at Thanksgiving and I feared that those who needed this Good News the most would not hear it if this was their only exposure to Christian worship. The sermon text for this evening tells us that what we need to know is that the Lord is God. It then elaborates on this so that we can see this Lord God as the Three Persons in which He has revealed Himself.
Elsewhere the psalmist says: "The Lord [is] our Maker" (Psalm 95:6). It is the gifts of creation that we hear and talk about the most at Thanksgiving. I suppose that's because Thanksgiving comes at the time of the year when we are most mindful of the annual harvest. I'm sure I'm not the first person to make this observation, but I'm afraid that our prosperity has become something of a curse to us--at least spiritually. What I mean by that is that because most of us have never really been in want, most of us don't have a real appreciation for the countless blessings that our Creator daily lavishes on us. We don't really appreciate our next meal because we've never been in the position of not knowing for sure that that next meal would be there. We don't really appreciate shelter because we've never been in the position of not knowing where we would sleep tonight. We don't really appreciate clothing because we've never been in the position of having to brave the elements for any length of time. Even life itself has become cheap among us, as we can see all too clearly from the violence that surrounds us as well as the selfish attitudes that predominate the decades-old national debate over abortion and euthanasia--in which people at both ends of life are threatened for no reason other than that they are weak and vulnerable. The God who has made us is the One to whom we belong--the One to whom we must answer. He has endowed us not only with life itself, but with everything that our life needs in order to survive and grow. For this we are thankful--or at least we should be.
The psalmist alludes to the Savior also. He writes: "We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture." When Jesus referred to Himself as "the Good Shepherd" (John 10:11), He used a very powerful image--and a very appropriate one. He is the One who saves and protects us from every spiritual danger. Like a shepherd, more than anything else He protects us from ourselves because, like sheep, we have a tendency to wander into danger--particularly the danger of sin. Our Good Shepherd is the One who seeks and saves the lost--the One who delivers and rescues those in danger--the One who takes upon Himself the consequences of our wandering. Isaiah the prophet, writing centuries before the coming of the Savior, put it this way: "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one--to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6). These somber words found their fulfillment when the Son of God came and was rejected by the very people who He came to save. But their rejection of Him turned out to be His salvation of them, for it was His suffering and death on the cross at the hands of sinners that made atonement for sinners so that they might find forgiveness and reconciliation with God in Him. This is God's greatest gift--the gift that spares us from the condemnation and punishment that we so richly deserve. If there is anything at all for which we need to give thanks, it is the forgiveness of sins and the assurance of everlasting life that are ours through the life and ministry of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
But there is still more. Not only have we been redeemed from sin and death; we have also been claimed as the Lord's own: "We are His people," the psalmist says. God the Holy Spirit has made us the people of God in Jesus Christ through the means of grace: the Word and the Sacraments. Through the Law of God the Spirit convinces us that we are sinners with no spiritual resources of our own--sinners who stand under the judgment of God--sinners who have no hope to escape the punishment that our sin merits. Through the Gospel the same Spirit comforts us with the Good News that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has taken our place under the Law, perfectly obeying it and suffering its just punishment for sin. This Gospel, which the Spirit speaks to us in Word and Sacrament, creates faith in our hearts so that the perfect righteousness of Christ is credited to us through that faith. This means that on the day of judgment God will look on us and see not our sin but the perfect righteousness of Christ with which we are clothed. That certainly is something for us to be thankful for.
The God who we worship--the God to whom we give thanks on this special holiday--is not some generic deity who can mean different things to different people. He is the One God who has revealed Himself in three distinct Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is the One who has created us out of nothing and continually provides for us--the One who became human and redeemed us from sin and death with His own blood--the One who through Word and Sacrament has called us to be His own and keeps us faithful to Him. There is so much that He has given us--more than we can even begin to know. Because of Him we are alive. Because of Him we are forgiven. Because of Him we are able to benefit from all His blessings. This knowledge is our greatest joy today and every day.
Amen.
May the Lord bless your hearing of His Word, using it to accomplish in you those things for which He gave it. May you be enriched and strengthened in faith that you may leave here today to go out into our world armed with the whole armor of God, prepared to be able ambassadors of your Savior Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.