A THANKSGIVING RECIPE
In the name of our Triune God who supplies all that we need for this life and the next, dear friends,
Are you a person who follows every recipe exactly as it is written? I mean, no eyeballing a tablespoon of honey, no looking at the recipe and seeing that it requires halfa teaspoon of salt and casually taking a teaspoon and scooping what looks like roughly half of it. I mean, a cup of chicken broth is a cup of chicken broth not a cup and a splash! Is that you?
I’m not that guy. Recipes are more a guide a lot of times, and some get changed every time I make them. You might imagine my wife’s response to that! But as we look at Psalm 100 as a Thanksgiving Recipe, I’m going to take a faithful approach to it and a faith-filled approach to it. I hope you will too. We used Psalm 100 at the beginning of our service because it is a psalm of praise and thanksgiving. You can open up to that if you want that in front of you.
Our nation sets aside a day each year, calling people to consider the good things in their life and perhaps celebrate somehow and the government and schools and most businesses give people the day off or even a four-day weekend! Maybe you have that this year. Through the psalm writer, the almighty God the one who created the world, the universe, and everything in it calls allpeople, not just those in our country, to celebrate with thanksgiving too. But instead of just a general recalling of the good things they enjoy, God calls all people to know that he is God. “All the earth”—all the people of the world—are invited to see God for who he is. He wants them to not just appreciate what they have, but to know him and give thanks to him for those things.
You and I through our baptisms or as we heard the words of the gospel have come to know God as both the One who made us and the One who saved us. We are products of his divine, creative hand. But that’s not all we are. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Many of you know that biblical picture well that God is a like a shepherd who cares for his sheep. He protects us from enemies, helps us when we we’re in trouble, provides food and things that we need. Jesus, our Good Shepherd, was even willing to lay down his life for us.
Just as we had nothing to do with our creation, we had nothing to do with entering God’s pasture. We are born into this world as sinful creatures. But just as God created all things from nothing, so he creates people for himself out of creatures who have nothing good in them. By nature, there’s nothing for God to salvage. So, he creates his people, his sheep, solely from his love. He turns something worthless into something glorious! And he does that through Jesus.
You might think that serving dry turkey on Thanksgiving is a cardinal sin or that bringing a spoiled wine for your Thanksgiving host is unforgiveable, but tonight we think of a different kind of thanksgiving failure. This is the kind that doesn’t just happen one day a year it’s an ongoing problem. And it is on a critical, eternal level. If Jesus had to live and die only for our failures that have to do with giving proper thanks to God, he would still have a mountain of sin to atone for, wouldn’t he?!
For instance,
• It happens sometimes that we take the credit for “earning” our paycheck or our monthly retirement income, and don’t think much or at all about the fact that God gave us the ability to work and that he’s the reason for us having a job in the first place and that he’s the one who has protected and increased our retirement savings.
• Or we are stressed about how we are going to make ends meet and forget that God promises that he will provide for us.
• Or we complain that we should have more than what we have as if God doesn’t know what he’s doing and as if these things we have are not gracious gifts from him.
• Or we look at what other people have, and our hearts aren’t feeling thankful for what wehave we can only think about what theyhave.
• Or our offerings to God do not reflect a grateful heart a fearful one maybe…or a selfish one instead.
• Could massive credit card and other debt be an indication that we think we should have more than what God has provided us the means to have? Maybe.
You won’t find any of that when you consider Jesus’ life. He never had those feelings. What you hear is a thankful heartbeat pulsing through his prayers. He acknowledged his Father as his provider and sustainer while here in this world. He thanked God before he ate his meals. He went off to be alone so he could talk to him in prayer. Jesus lived perfect human contentment. And then he took that perfectly content, perfectly thankful life to the cross and he gave it up for you and for me. That’s what paid for our imperfect thanksgiving and all our other failures.
I’ve learned from a certain celebrity chef that there are very good reasons to add ingredients in a certain order sometimes "sciency” kinds of reasons. Just as that is true, this knowledge, this understanding, this acknowledging that God is our Creator and Savior is both the most important ingredient in this Thanksgiving Recipe and the first ingredient. The rest need to follow after this one.
Our joy over that love of God is one of those ingredients that follows.
It’s pretty common to think that joy and happiness are the same thing, but they’re a little different for a Christian. We might say that happiness is dependent on our everyday circumstances. I’m happy when my puppy finally learns to go outside for certain things. I’m happy when I have a night free to do whatever I want. I’m happy at 5:00 pm on Friday. I’m happy when they remember that it’s my birthday. That’s all fine, but Christian joy is different. Joy for us is the ongoing, continual gladness we have once we know and believe what Jesus has done for us and that it means that when our time in this world is done, we will be with him in heaven.
You see how that’s different? Happiness comes and goes; joy is there all the time. Underneath all the things going on on the surface of our lives, we have joy a confident gladness that we have the most important thing the love and promises of God. We have this joy in the cupboard of our faith. We reach for it when the psalmist encourages us to Shout to the LORD with joy and to Come before him with joyful songs.
The psalmist’s Thanksgiving Recipe calls for us to stir in some songs, pour in some praise, throw in some thanks, and blend in some blessing of the Lord! What all this cooks up is pleasing to God! The One who reads our hearts can see where this comes from. He can see the genuine nature of our expressions of thanks. And he loves to hear that joyful praise, just like you love to hear someone say to you, “Youmakemehappy,”or “Iloveyou ,”or“Thankyou somuch! We have lots of opportunities to do this for God:
• We praise and thank and bless God when we sit and home by ourselves and pray. We may not be shouting or singing during those quiet moments, but then again, maybe sometimes we do!
• We praise and thank and bless God when we are touched by his Word in Bible study, and it makes our understanding and appreciation for God rise like yeast does for dough more appreciative, more thankful, more praise.
• We praise and thank and bless God in worship as we join our voices with those of our friends in Christ. We enter his gates, his courtyards to thank and praise him sometimes it is loud praises that fill this space.
• We praise and thank and bless God for everyday things, like the vehicle we have instead of complaining about the repair bill. When we thank God for our children instead of complaining that they act, well, like children do. When we think of the friends and family who help us and not just our challenges that cause us to need their help. When we think of the time and prosperity we’ve been given and not the inconvenience of using those to bless others in need.
• We praise and thank and bless God when we share with others that God gives us all we have and need and that that includes his Son and the forgiveness and salvation he won for us all.
We’re going to have some opportunities to do that real soon, aren’t we? Any way we can share what the birth of Jesus means for us and for the world is an opportunity to praise him before others. So, it’s a holiday conversation, an invitation to Christmas services that you offer, the Christ-centered Christmas card you give. Your thankful heart is on display not just to the people around you, but to God.
Our thanks and praise go on for our entire lives because God’s love and blessings go on for our entire lives. The psalmist knew that: For the LORD is good. His mercy endures forever. His faithfulness continues through all generations. God’s people have used these words for a very long time thousands of years and we continue to use them today, because we know God’s love and his faithfulness to us—and we are grateful.
There are not a lot of ingredients to this Thanksgiving Recipe, but each one is so important!
• Understanding that God is our Creator and Savior
• Joy over his love for us
• Praise to him
• Thanks for his love and blessing
These are the things that make for a proper Thanksgiving!
This is a recipe we make over and over and over. And when our lives of continuous thanks and praise to God here in this world are over, we will enter his eternal gates with thanksgiving, his heavenly courtyards with praise. Amen.
Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.