Give Thanks

This is a special time of year as the seasons change, the harvest is accounted for, and despite weaning daylight, we draw closer to one another. We celebrate Thanksgiving Day this week; in which we give thanks and praise for what we have. We’ll recount the things in life we are grateful for: our friends and family, our possessions, and our lives. The Bible contains multiple examples of people giving thanks to God for what God has done for them: Moses and the people of Israel sing to the LORD when after deliverance out of Egypt through the waters of the Red Sea (Ex 15.1-21); shepherds praised God for proclaiming the birth of the Messiah (Lk 2.8-20); and Jesus’ followers worshiped him after he had ascended to heaven, “and they were continually in the temple blessing God.” (Lk 24.52) What things are you thankful for?

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We give thanks to the God of all things who breathed life into each of us, as God did to Adam (Gen 2.7). We give thanks to the God who blesses us with what we need. We give thanks to God for the salvation we have in Christ Jesus (Jn 3.16-17) when we could do nothing to earn God’s love (Eph 2.8-10). In the Gospel according to Luke (17.11-19), we find an interesting passage about how people typically communicate to God. The passage recounts how when Jesus was traveling he was approached by a group of people with leprosy who ask Jesus to heal them from their infirmity. Jesus sends them off to show themselves to the priest. Each of them went. One of them, a Samaritan, realizes he’s been healed and turns back, “praising God with a loud voice” (15). Then Jesus wonders, to whom we don’t know exactly (maybe to us?), “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” (17-18) Jesus then says to the man to “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well” (19). We all ask for things from God; yet what Jesus lifts up in this passage is that we ought to remember to thank God as well.

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At some time or another, we all have prayed to God for something and after being answered in some kind of way forgot to thank God. How many times have we even forgotten to thank God for listening to our prayer? How often when we get to places safe from a long travel do we thank God for deliverance? Or how often when we arise in the morning or go to bed at night thank God for the life we have been given? We’ve all done this. And yet, even when we do this we can be comforted by Christ’s cry upon the cross, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk 23.34). Even in our moments of forgetfulness, our moments of sin, and moments of denial God still seeks us out to love and embrace us with grace.

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Having been blessed so much by God, could we not also thank God? May we then be strengthened in our resolve to respond to God’s love and blessing with shouts of thanks and praise. However, we gather this coming Thanksgiving, and holiday season, may we do so with a renewed awareness and thankfulness for what God has done for us. Amen.

I offer this table blessing:

“God of all creation who loves beyond our understanding. Thank You for all that You have given us: this meal, this day, indeed our very lives. We thank You for our salvation which comes through Your son Jesus Christ. Stir within our hearts a resolve to thank and praise You for all that You do for us in our lives; so that we may have a closer relationship with you. We ask this in the name of Your Son, Jesus the Christ in fellowship with You and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”