Monday, November 30, 2009

THANKSGIVING
November 25/26, 2009
Pastor Timothy J. Spaude
Text: Hebrews 13:15-16

“NOW THANK WE ALL OUR GOD!”
1. With hearts.
2. With hands.
3. With voices.

Hebrews 13:15-16 (NIV) “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. 16And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”

“Now Thank We All Our God” has been a Thanksgiving favorite and standard in Christian churches for almost 500 years. There are conflicting stories, however, as to its origin, when it was composed and sung and under what circumstances. We do know it was composed by Martin Rinkart who was a pastor in the German city of Eilenberg. One story is that it was composed and sung during the Thirty Years War. Now that war was Europe wide. It lasted from 1618-1648 and included conflicts between countries or Europe, ruling houses of Europe and the religions of Europe. Eilenberg, Germany was particularly hard hit. It was in the midst of a German civil war and at the same time invaded by the Swedes and Austrians. Besides all the deaths from war a horrible plague hit the city in that time. So we have war, plague and poverty and a hymn, “Now Thank We All Our God.” The other story about the origin of this hymn is that it was composed and sung when the terms of the Peace of Westphalia were announced. The Peace of Westphalia marked the end of the Thirty Years War. No more war. The plague was over and better times were on the horizon and so a hymn, “Now Thank We All Our God.” That kind of sums it up, doesn’t it? For Christians, whether things are outward good or outwardly bad, we all get to thank our God. So how has your year been? What’s the future looking like? Outwardly good or outwardly bad? Still we get to thank our God.
Why would we do that? I believe some words of the Psalm we used today will help us. You probably recognized them from the “Thank You” prayer many Christians use at meal times. We say, “Oh give thanks unto the Lord (this is the why part) for He is good and His mercy endures forever.” Here brothers and sisters, is why we always get to thank the Lord. We know He is good! Whether our circumstances seem to be good or bad, hard or easy, we know God is being good to us. Even if we can’t see it He is working for our good. But it goes beyond that. His mercy endures forever. God’s mercy is that “I can’t help but love you love and don’t want to treat you as your sins deserve so I give you my Son Jesus,” love. It endures or lasts forever. Not only do we live this lifetime in a constant state of not being treated as our sins deserve but we will live forever that way in heaven. So we give thanks to the Lord.
How? Well the hymn and our text tell us. With hearts and hands and voices. Let’s spend a few minutes now coming up with some practical ways to do just that. How do with thank God with our hearts? In the concluding verses of the Letter to the Hebrews the writer wrote, “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. 16And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” At the time the letter to the Hebrews was written Jewish Christians were experiencing difficult times, much hard than Jews who had rejected Jesus did. They were tempted to return to life without Jesus, with ongoing Old Testament worship. One of the themes of Hebrews was helping the Christians back then see how Jesus was superior High Priest to any Old Testament High Priest. The High Priest’s job was to serve as a go between for God and His people for when they brought prayers and sacrifices. Here the writer encourages the Christians to bring the kind of sacrifices God wanted through Jesus.
And that helps us see how to thank God with our hearts. The writer encourages us to bring them. He doesn’t force us. You see to thank God with our hearts we need hearts that are willing. Probably every parent has experienced the uncomfortable and all too common occurrence when someone gives a gift to your child and there is no response and you have to say, “Now say, “Thank you.” That’s uncomfortable because it had to be compelled, cajoled, out of the child. So too God does not want empty and forced thank you’s. Like every parent He is delighted by a willing heart. What if I don’t have a willing heart? What if I’m not getting what I want? Then, brothers and sisters, repentance is in order. Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. Rebuke your own heart. Humble yourself before God. He will lift you up so you can thank Him with a heart that is willing.
Then thank God with hands that are busy. ”And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” All of us can thank our God with hands that are busy doing good and sharing with others. Have you actually ever stopped to think about ways to do that? Maybe when you are showering or riding in the car you can think about ways to do good. Kids, what good can you do? Has your life devolved into simply being served? Have you thought about your parents who make sacrifices to taxi you to all the places you want to go? Can you thank God with your hands by using them to help your parents to make their lives a little easier? Can you think of some ways to serve other people? Could your hands do good by holding the door for a senior? Could they wave to someone who looks sad? Could they be folded while you pray for someone else? Adults, you know we are not shy about looking for hands to thank God by doing good here. We provide all kinds of volunteer opportunities. Are there some other ways you can think of? Do you have a neighbor you could help out? Is someone at work struggling and you could mentor them a little bit? Is there a volunteer opportunity in the community that might also give you a chance to share the Savior with someone who has no church? Share with others. That’s what our food drive, Almoners Fund, coats for St. Peters are for. Sharing. There are many others, too, away from church. These are all ways to thank God with hands that are busy. And don’t forget the most obvious. The most meaningful way to thank the Lord is willing obedience to His commands. Daily, humble, willing obedience to God’s commands. With such sacrifices God is pleased. Now thank we all our God with hearts, with hands.
And with voices. Back to Hebrews. “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name.” With voices we can all thank our God. Obviously that’s why you came today, right? So you can thank God by singing to Him with your voice, by praying to Him with your voice. Let’s continue the thanksgiving with our voices when we leave here in the way the writer to the Hebrews encourages with lips that confess His name. In our school when there are pep rallies a class cheer that helps determine which class gets the Spirit award goes like this: the leader asks “Are you proud to be a Raider?” And then the class yells back “Yes we are!” Can we do a similar thing? Could we come up with a way of declaring we are proud to be Christians? Yes, we can. When we publicly worship the Lord it is a way of telling others we are proud to be Christians. When we hold on to our faith and declare our commitment to trust the Lord even or especially when the going gets tough in our lives we are telling others we are proud to be Christians. It’s a sacrifice of praise when we deliberately give credit to the Lord for blessings in our lives. Now thank we all our God with hearts, with hands and voices.
Let’s try to put all of those together now as we rise and sing again the last verse of 610, holding our hymnals in our hands, singing the words with our voices, letting it come from our hearts!

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