Thanksgiving

 Galatians 6:7-10

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.  For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life.  And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary.  So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.

Sermon for Thanksgiving                                       11/28/24

Thanksgiving

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday, not a church holiday.  We are having service today, as I say each year, because we have the opportunity, and we don't want the world to mistake us for those who have no gratitude to God.  But it would be a mistake is we began to think that this day was special for the fact that we give thanks on it, or that thanksgiving was accomplished the way most Americans do it.

If you were to judge by our cultural celebration, you would think that thanksgiving was accomplished by eating too much food, or watching football on TV.  Those are the modern day perks that many of us enjoy - along with family gatherings and such - but they have nothing to do with giving thanks to God.  In fact, they usually stand in the way of thanksgiving.  The question is, "What does real Thanksgiving look like?"  That is what our text for this morning is describing.  Our theme is simply, "Thanksgiving".

Every thing we have, and every moment we live, and every sense we utilize is a gift from God.  Our consciousness and our ability even to say thank-you in any way is a gift.  Heavenly beings, like the angels, pour their very being into serving the Lord.  That is how they worship and that is how they give thanks to God – by being what God created them to be and doing what God created them to do.  So the question for us mortals is: What does real thanksgiving look like?  How can we – whose breath and very being is a gift – give to God true thanks.  Simply saying "Thank-you," is not adequate.  It may work for politicians, because they want the attention of the press.  It works for hypocrites, because they want just the sound of it anyhow.  We, as God's children, want actually to give praise and thanks to God.  And the Bible says we have nothing to give to God which He hasn't first given to us, so, how do we give genuine thanks to God?

The answer is that we do it by how we live.  Angels give thanks - as I said earlier - by being who God created them to be and doing what He created them to do.  We must do the same.  Saying that is one thing, of course, and doing it is another.  It doesn't come naturally to us, since we are sinful by nature, and at our best we wrestle with temptations and sins within and without.  That is where the words of our text, and other words of Scripture come into play in our lives.

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.  These words serve as our guide as we consider how we are to live, and what sorts of thing we are to do.  If we live as though how we live does not matter, God knows that it does not matter to us.  If sin and holiness do not matter to us, for example, then clearly, neither does whether we go to heaven or to hell.  It is true that our actions do not earn us heaven, or hell for that matter.  We all deserve hell, and our hope for heaven is in Jesus and not in ourselves or our behavior.  Having said that, however, we never mean to imply that sin doesn't matter, or that holiness is unimportant.  It is just that our works and our conduct are not the cause of our salvation.  Jesus is the source and the cause of our salvation, and unbelief is the only cause of damnation.  That has been true since Jesus died on the cross in our place.

Think about it:  Jesus changed everything!  We do not naturally have the ability to be pleasing to God.  We were born fit for death and hell, and our deeds since then have further fitted us for eternal death.  But Jesus came into the world and lifted that doom from our shoulders by suffering all that we, by our sins, have earned.  Scripture says explicitly that Jesus bore our sins on the cross and nailed to that cross the handwriting of the Law which was against us.  He died our death.  He took our place, and by doing so, took us out of the equation of salvation.  Now it is the will of God that all those who look to the Son of God for their salvation and place their trust and hope in Him will rise to everlasting life in glory.

The only possible thanks we can give that means anything real is that we live in the light of that Gospel, that we live as the beings God has created us in Christ to be, and we do the things that we were created new in Christ to do.  God even says something to that effect in Ephesians 2:10, where He caused the Apostle Paul to write: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."   

On the other hand, if you live as though this world is all there is, and you gotta reach for all the gusto you can get, then, for you this world is all there is – at least all the good stuff that there is.  You will reap what you sow.  Our text says,  For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life.  If you sow to the flesh, which means that you live as if the flesh is what really matters, you will reap what the flesh earns – death and hell.  If you live in the Spirit and from the guidance of the Spirit, and you sow toward the work of the Spirit, you will reap from the Spirit eternal life – again, not because your behavior earns it, but because only the children of God are being led by the Spirit.  Everyone else always sows to the flesh.

It is this life of holiness that is true thanksgiving.  It is only by living as God's holy people that we bring glory to Him.  Thanksgiving and praise isn't just a matter of what we say, although that counts too.  It really is our lives.  Actions speak louder than words, or so they say.  If you are happy that you have been set free from sin and death, then you live a life that reflects that freedom from sin, to the best of your ability.  If you are thankful that God loves you and counts you as His own, then you live a life that shows your joy, demonstrates your trust, illustrates the hope that is yours in Jesus Christ.  A life of thanksgiving is not a life of grasping greed, but of sharing.  It is not a life of self-service and minding one's own business, but a life that cares for the welfare of others and looks out for the well-being of the other.

Of course, some people won't appreciate such attention.  Oh, they are glad to have you give them money and food and stuff like that, but care for others which includes protecting them from false teachers, and warning them against spiritual counterfeits and guiding them into the truth is not always welcomed.  They want the outward help, but there are government agencies to do those things.  Who is there to tell them the truth about God and His love?  That work is left to us!  Again, people seem to welcome political action on their behalf, but where can they find theological action on their behalf?  We who have the truth need to stand firm in the truth and show them the way of the Word of God against the errors of our age, and point the way to that narrow way of life.

These theological sorts of things are the good deeds that no one else is doing, no government agencies, no public charities, and precious few churches.  And, frankly, people don't necessarily want to hear it.  They will freely bite the hand that feeds them the spiritual food they need.  That is why Paul writes,  And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary.  It is easy to grow weary, but we are encouraged not to lose heart, but to continue on in doing good.

And - what so few recognize even though it is a common proverb - our good works and our charity ought to begin at home.  It is so inviting to look at the charities of the world, and get caught up in the unending needs of the world around us, and overlook the brother or sister in Christ who needs our time, or our compassion, or even our help.  It is a fine thing to help others, the poor, the homeless, without regard for who they may be.  It is a very American thing.  But our text reminds us that as God's people, we take care of one another first.  I'm not talking about blood family taking care of blood family first – that seems to come naturally.  I am talking about brothers and sisters in Christ – understanding that the Church is our family, and taking care of our family in Christ before we take care of the world.

So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.  To love others and do good in every situation is vocation of the children of God, who are to live in imitation of their heavenly Father, who makes the sun to shine on the just and the unjust and the rain to fall on the righteous and the unrighteous alike.  But the other children of God come first for us, just as they also do for God.  The world will hate us, so we must love one another all the more.

Besides, if we only clothe and feed an unbeliever, we have only preserved him for the fires to come.  But if we rescue and encourage, feed and support a fellow believer, we help one of God's children hang on and hold fast and stand faithful unto life everlasting.  The best way to thank God for all His goodness to us is to share it with another soul, helping them hold fast to faith and salvation.

But this is not an either / or.  This is a both – and.  We are not to neglect those who need to hear about Jesus in favor those who already have, nor do we turn our backs on those who believe in order to reach out to those who do not.  We do both.  We sow to the Spirit among those who have not yet believed – out of gratitude for God's grace to us, and we sow to the Spirit by fellowship and encouragement, by sound doctrine and the witness of a faithful life among those who share the burden of the cross of Christ with us.  

This is true thanksgiving.  It is a life of service and love.  It is a life of holiness and faithfulness.  It is a life given to God's truth, and God's people, and God's mission.  It isn't simply a day.  It is our entire life; a life of discipleship, of holiness, of love, and – yes – of thanksgiving, lived deliberately and consciously, aware that we are strangers and aliens to the world, and fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God.  With eyes wide open, and our attention fixed on Jesus, we live in this world as ambassadors to the truth, and fellow travelers with the whole household of God.  That is thanksgiving!

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
(Let the people say Amen)

Be On the Alert!

 Matthew 25:1-13

"Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps, and went out to meet the bridegroom.  And five of them were foolish, and five were prudent.  For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps.

"Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep.  But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Behold, the bridegroom!  Come out to meet him.'  Then all those virgins rose, and trimmed their lamps.  And the foolish said to the prudent, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.'  But the prudent answered, saying, ‘No, there will not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.'  And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut.

"And later the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open up for us.'  But he answered and said, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you.'  Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour."

Sermon for the Last Sunday in the Church Year                     11/24/24

Be On the Alert!

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

On the Last Sunday in the Church Year we look at the Judgment, but we don't look at the formal Judgment Day scene.  The judgment scene that we want you to consider this morning, in the light of the text, is the one each one of you will face immediately upon leaving this world and the body you now inhabit.  They are the same judgment, at least in consequence, but one is seen as the judgment of all mankind, and the other is deliberately very personal.  Our theme is Be on the Alert!

The Gospel lesson is the Parable of the Ten Virgins.  In it, five were wise - our translation says that they were prudent - and five were foolish.  We could take every element of the parable and tie it to something and make quite a story out of it, but that would actually do a disservice to the words of Jesus.  He told a simple story with a very simple message, "Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour."  In other words, be prepared.

The problem the foolish young women had in our Gospel is that they were not prepared for the wait.  They did not appear to have thought beyond the moment, and they did not anticipate what they might need.

I suspect that the parable was heard differently when Jesus spoke it, and in the early Church than it might be today.  Back then, they were looking for the quick return of Jesus.  The disciples were already eager and impatient for the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth.  The early Church harbored the anticipation that Christ was going to return soon, and so they sold their property and they often quit their jobs and they hung out together to be ready, waiting and watching for the soon return.  Obviously, their eschatological expectations were not accurate.  They needed this parable to teach them to be prepared for a wait that is going to be somewhat longer than they expected.

The hope was so deeply entrenched in the early Church that when people began to die, physically, some of the earliest Christians began to mourn, fearing that their loved ones had missed out on salvation.  I know, it seems foolish, given the promise of the resurrection of all flesh.  Apparently they had not paid a great deal of attention to that teaching because they were so fixed on the expectation of the end.  So, they needed to hear this parable as a remedy to their impatience, and understand that the return of Jesus - the Bridegroom - might be delayed until the midnight hour. 

Most of us don't have that problem.  We are clear on the fact that Jesus is not likely to return in the first fifty or sixty years.  The Church today is more likely to forget about the possibility of His return than they are to grow impatient with the wait.  For us, the parable is a reminder to be on the alert.  Jesus is coming again, and we want to be among those prepared.

The oil for the lamps is whatever one needs to be prepared.  It is tempting to call it "faith" and sing, "Give me oil for my lamp, keep me burning, burning, burning".  Faith certainly is something we want not to run short of - and yet faith is the gift of God.  It is not something we can hoard or create or sustain by our own powers.  I suspect that the flame on the lamp would be a better image for faith than the oil.  In fact, I don't think we can fix whatever the oil is a symbol for too closely.  It is, instead, whatever we need to continue waiting for the Bridegroom and to be prepared when He finally comes.

One thing it certainly seems to suggest is doctrine.  The early Christians struggled with the wait because they were fixed on their own expectations and not paying much attention to the whole body of doctrine.  They thought about the return, but they forgot about all that Jesus taught concerning the wait, and they often just skipped over the teachings about the resurrection on the last day because they so ardently expected to be standing up, still alive and looking into the sky as Jesus returned.  And they will be alive, and standing, and looking into the sky - it is just that they will be alive again, not still alive.

Throughout the ages, some Christians - or rather, members of the visible Church - have lost sight of the coming of the Lord.  Some have despaired of His ever coming, and others have simply figured that it would be no time soon, and so they lost their focus and got busy living in this world as though this was all there would ever be.  Either way, the result is that when the call comes - or in many cases already came - they were not ready.

You see, the call comes when the Lord sends His holy angels to escort you into His heavenly presence.  We call that moment when the escort arrives to receive you, "death".  For the child of God it is anything but - it is death only of the body.  The saints go to live in the presence of the Lord until the moment of the resurrection, at which time they receive their bodies back, resurrected and perfected, and fit out for eternal life.  Our loved ones who die in the Lord are actually more fully alive than we are, who dwell here in this flesh.  They see and taste and know reality without the illusions and deceits of sin and of the ‘flesh'.

Those who refuse to keep these truths in mind as they wait are often among those foolish whose oil runs low, and who must run for new supply - and while they are gone, the Bridegroom comes.  Of course, they don't really run anywhere.  That is just a dramatic device for the parable to symbolize their unpreparedness when Jesus returns.  They are found without what they need.  They are absent from the company of the saints - the virgins - when the Bridegroom comes.

We cannot take the parable too far, for we are not just the attendants at the wedding, we are the bride of Christ - the Holy Church.  If we are missing, the Bride still marries, but we are not in attendance.  Jesus tells us this parable so that we might be on the alert.  That is more than merely ‘being ready' or ‘being prepared'.  It is an active state of watch.  We are to be alert, prepared, and on the watch for the coming of the Bridegroom.  The flame of faith, if you will, should be burning, no doubt.  The oil you need to bring in plenteous store is whatever it takes to wait faithfully.  I would identify it a doctrine.

You need the Word of God.  You need to build your life and your values around all that it teaches.  You cannot afford to expect only good stuff, when the Word teaches you that you will likely endure suffering.  It not for nothing that Jesus spends so much time telling His disciples that they will lose their stuff and endure persecution – but if they remain faithful, they will receive many times what they lost, and in the resurrection, eternal life.

We need to be on the alert.  The only way to do that is to take seriously what Scriptures teach concerning the life of the Christian and the life of the Church.  Is Jesus returning?  Yes!  Is He going to return today or in the next five years?  There is no way of knowing.  We should be prepared for His return in case the cry, "The Bridegroom comes, come out to meet Him" comes soon.  But we should also be prepared to wait, until death if necessary.

Jesus died for you, and it is clear that most who are Christians will also need to die for Jesus.  Some die in persecutions, and some die in bed of old age, but so far, all have died.  When death comes, the cry, "Come out to meet Him," has come for that individual.  Jesus bore the cross for our sins, and He has appointed that those who follow Him will also bear the cross.  The trials and troubles and the losses that we must endure should not shake us.  The fact that we must endure such things should not surprise us - the Bible tells us that it will be so.  If we walk by faith and not by sight or sinful human reason, we should find that one of the sorrows we must endure is not that we did not expect such things.

Be on the Alert!  Around us the world is changing.  The hour is getting late!  This is not the time to run short of patience, or lose sight of all the comforts that God has given us.

Your sins are forgiven.  They are forgiven because Jesus died on the cross in your place.  Now He invites you to share in the cross.  He isn't going to ask most of you to hang on one, nailed through hands and feet.  The cross appointed for each of you is the one that fits you.  And we have His promise that No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it.  You may find yourself wishing at times that the Lord did not have such a high estimate of what you are able to bear, but His promise is sure.

We must pass through many things, as Paul taught in Acts 14, where [Paul was] strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God."  He was proclaiming the same message as Jesus was in the parable in our Gospel lesson this morning.  Pay attention.  Take heed to all that God teaches.  Be prepared for the wait, and be on the alert, for the Bridegroom is coming - you just never know the day or the hour that He is coming for you!

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)