THANKSGIVING
November
26-27, 2025
Pastor
Timothy J. Spaude
Text:
Genesis 8:18-22 EHV
“GOD’S THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION: “I KEEP
MY PROMISES!”
So, how much of the bulletin do you
actually read? There’s this old church saying that if you want to keep
something secret, put it in the bulletin. Top secret? Put it in the newsletter!
Now I’m not chiding you about your reading habits but I do want to suggest that
when you have the chance that you do read this service’s bulletin in full, in
in particular the different Thanksgiving proclamations made by our nation’s
leaders in the past. The United States is a peculiar nation in many respects.
Some good. Some bad. But among the good I would have to list how our early
leaders, at least publicly, gave God his due. For instance, from the 1777
Thanksgiving Proclamation made by the Continental Congress:
For
as much as it is the indispensable Duty of all Men to adore the superintending
Providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with Gratitude their Obligation to
him for Benefits received, and to implore such farther Blessings as they stand
in Need of:
Then
from President George Washington in 1789:
Whereas
it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to
obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his
protection and favor,
And
finally from President Abraham Lincoln in 1863:
No
human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great
things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing
with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
To
me those are some powerful Thanksgiving proclamations. They humbly acknowledge
God dependence and every blessing an undeserved gift. But as powerful as those
Thanksgiving proclamations are, today we focus on a more powerful, yes, the
most powerful proclamation. The one made by God Himself. The one that makes our
ongoing Thanksgvings possible. Not every country celebrates a national
Thanksgiving Day. We do and its placement in our calendar is not by accident.
It comes at a time when across the nation, harvest has happened.
And
our harvests only happen because of God’s Thanksgiving Proclamation made many
years ago after the great worldwide flood.
In the book of Genesis we are told that
after Adam and Eve’s fall into sin the people of the world had gotten more and
more wicked. So wicked that to preserve the promise of the Savior God did a
reboot. A complete worldwide flood. People in the Milwaukee area learned the
power of a little flood this past summer. This one was worldwide. All the
creatures that needed land or a place to land and all the people of the world died
except those on Noah’s ark. Noah and his family, 8 in all, endured the 40 days
and 40 nights of downpouring rain (can you imagine?) and existed for a total of
370 days on the ark. Some people like cruises but that is ridiculous and it was
no cruise. It was work. 370 days of bringing food to all the animals watching precious
resources dwindle. 370 days of mucking out their pens so the smell didn’t get
too bad. 370 days when certainly they doubted their own survival despite the
promises of God. And then they settled on Mt. Ararat. And then the test birds
didn’t come home. And then God said it was safe to come out. And then the first
Thanksgiving Day happened!
“Noah went out with his sons, his
wife, and his sons’ wives along with him. 19Every animal, every
creeping thing, every bird, and whatever swarms on the earth went out of the
ship, species by species. 20Noah built an altar to the Lord and took
from every clean animal and every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the
altar. “ (Genesis 8:18-20) True or false? “Noah took just two of every
animal on to the ark as God commanded.” FALSE! While God had Noah take two of
must kinds of animals, He also had Noah take 7 of the “clean” animals, those
that could be eaten and sacrificed. In thanksgiving to God Noah sacrificed only
the clean animals. Can you imagine the consequences of an accidental sacrifice?
“Shem, I said sacrifice the calf not the cat!” Be a different world we’d live
in. No lions or tigers, but still Bears. Oh my!
Noah’s sacrifice of thanksgiving was
pleasing to the Lord. But as is always the case, more important than what
people do for God is what God does for His people. “The Lord
smelled the pleasant aroma. The Lord said in his heart, “I will never again
curse the soil anymore because of man, for the thoughts he forms in his heart
are evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike every living thing,
as I have done. 22While the earth remains, seedtime and
harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” (Genesis
8:21-22) Did you pick out God’s powerful proclamation? He made a promise. Until
He ends the world on Judgement Day the normal cycles of weather will continue.
Day and night. Summer and Winter. Planting and Harvesting Time. Sorry to
disappoint all the sci fi and conspiracy fans. Global nuclear winter can’t happen.
Deadly meteor strike that makes earth a dead planet. Nope. Not even a zombie
apocalypse! Oi! All propositions run smack into the promise of God and fall
flat. There is no mother nature or mother earth. There is God and God has made
a promise. Planting and harvesting will continue. And God keeps His promises.
That leads us up to our Thanksgiving.
In our country Thanksgiving was carefully planned in an agrarian society to
give people a chance, when the hard work was done, to thank God for His
provision. For us the people of God in America then each harvest and subsequent
Thanksgiving stand as proof. God keeps His promises! Every time harvest happens
again, as it does every year, hear the voice of the Lord. “I keep my promises!”
Every Thanksgiving we get to celebrate after another harvest, hear God’s voice.
“I keep my promises!” Read a little further of the Noah saga and you will find
out that every rainbow in the sky you see is another loud visible sign from God
“I keep my promises!”
And how good it is to know this. The
Flood happened, the saving of Noah and his family happened because God was
keeping His greatest promise, the promise of a Savior from sin. The Savior was
promised first in the Garden of Eden and that promise was repeated over and
over again in the Old Testament. And then when the time was right God kept that
promise. Jesus our Savior was born. Starting next week we will prepare
ourselves to celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus with the Advent season. We
will have a Christmas focused on Christ because we have a God who keeps His
promises. And because He kept that most important promise of a Savior we have
more promises that Thanksgiving proclaims our God will keep. Look outside, the
trees look dead, not quite yet, but soon with the cold, the grass will be dead.
But then as the seasons endure as God promised He will bring them back to life.
All of us have had loved ones die, their earthly life end. We will miss them at
our Thanksgiving table. But God keeps His promises. They live, even though they
have physically died. We will too and we will be with them again enjoying the
heavenly feast that will make our Thanksgiving feasts and gatherings seem
pitiful in comparison. How do we know? God keeps His promises.
Which brings us full circle to our
founding fathers and our own Thanksgiving. Enjoy your turkey or whatever you
like to eat. These are blessings from God. Watch some football or take a nap if
that is what you like to do. But in all things give thanks to God and let this
Thanksgiving and all others fill you with confidence and peace for your future
because you belong to the God whose Thanksgiving proclamation declares, “I keep
my promises!” Amen.
