Thanksgiving Day – November 23rd, 2023
Trinity Lutheran Church, Block, Kansas
Rev. Joshua Woelmer
Text: Deuteronomy 8:1–11
“All Things Come from God”
Theme: We give thanks to God who provides us all we need for this life and the next.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
It’s a tradition in our family to go around the table after the Thanksgiving meal and answer a simple question: what are you thankful for this year? I’m sure many of you also have similar traditions as well. This is a great question to ask because it draws you away from what you’ve earned to what you’ve been given. It’s a very Christian question, even if non-believers are forced to answer it, because at the end of the day all things come from God.
Some years, answering this question is easy and obvious. The year after we got married, you can guess what our response was. Each year we’ve had children, we give thanks to God for them as well. This year we also have much to give thanks for, as we give thanks for you welcoming us here to Block.
On years that we don’t have big things happening, thinking of things to be thankful for can seem more mundane. My response is often that I’m thankful for family, a peaceful home, and the good life. Sometimes I feel like just saying thanks to God for the food that we’ve just eaten.
Maybe you get that response on Thanksgiving. We might initially scoff at it, but it’s not a bad one, to be honest. God has indeed put that food in front of you. After all, all things come from God. But there’s a game that I like to play with my kids. It’s called the “where does it come from?” game. The idea is that you start with something that you see with your eyes and you contemplate where it came from. We just did this last night actually.
The easiest is food, right? You look at a mashed potatoes, and you ask, how did mashed potatoes get in front of you? Well, who mashed them? Mommy! Good—say thank you to mommy. Who bought the potatoes? Mommy, with daddy’s money! Good! Where did mommy get the potatoes from? Walmart or Price Chopper. Where did they get them from? This is inevitably where we stump them. But a good answer are truck drivers and those who keep the world moving its things around. They brought the potatoes from Idaho to Kansas. Ultimately, though, potatoes were dug out of the ground by farmers who planted them there. But who caused the potato plants to grow? Who gave them water? Who gave the energy and ability to store clerks, truckers, farmers, mommy, and daddy to make all this possible? The answer, of course, is God.
Thanksgiving is a great day of rest where we can contemplate these things. How do we have clothes on our body? Shoes? Land? Animals? Every single thing has a chain of questions that leads back to God. I love how Luther’s explanation to the First Article begins: “I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them.” Even though our senses begin to dull as we age, we would not enjoy any of God’s good things if he did not give us ourselves and the senses to use to interact with the world.
Even if you spend part of today watching football, consider the abilities that God has given those men to accomplish amazing plays. Consider the abilities that God has given you to do even more than just to entertain the public. Your abilities impact those around you, providing for them and encouraging them. After all, all things come from God.
In this way, the simple things of life ought to lead our minds deeper—deeper into God’s wonderful creation. This is what God is trying to lead his people to realize in our reading from Deuteronomy. God lists all the ways that he cared for them, even to the level of preserving their clothes and shoes from wearing out. He is guiding them to a good land that will provide bountifully for them. At the end, he gives them this exhortation: “And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today” (10–11). Giving thanks is the response of faith to what God does for us.
As we have gone deeper than the surface level “stuff” of this world to a God who has provided these things for us, I want to ask you one more question: how do you know that this God is good? After all, many pagans see the gods or god as capricious, sometimes giving good things out of mercy and bad things out of vengeful anger. If we saw God this way, we might actually be scared of receiving good things. After all, the pagan Greeks thought that if you got too many good things, then the gods were just getting ready to strike you back down again.
No, it is important also on this day of Thanksgiving to emphasize the grace and mercy of God that is centered on Jesus Christ. We would be dead in our trespasses and sins, we would be left as enemies of God, and we would be condemned to Hell if it were not for the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus. God the Father knew our plight, and he sent Jesus who has “redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.”
All of God’s love and mercy flow from this act of His Son. This involves his spiritual blessings and his physical blessings. Consider this for a moment: you would not have a joyous Thanksgiving dinner today if Jesus failed at his task of salvation. There would be no purpose to this life. There would be no reason for any joy or peace in this life. But of course he did accomplish our salvation. He has bought you back and claimed you as his own.
We can confess with joy that we are “His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true.” We can be thankful and happy just like that one Samaritan leper who was cleansed and came back, falling at Jesus’s feet, thankful for physical healing. There will be time for him to return home, see his family, and eat his own Thanksgiving feast. But he wouldn’t be able to do that if Jesus hadn’t healed him and restored him.
Finally, we should never forget the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. That faith that the Samaritan man had was given to him by the Holy Spirit. Jesus himself recognize this as he sends him on his way: “Your faith has made you well” (19). We should thank the Holy Spirit for calling us to faith, enlightening us, sanctifying our lives, and keeping us in the truth faith. The Holy Spirit does this for all who are in the Church, “daily and richly [forgiving] all my sins and the sins of all believers.” The Holy Spirit helps us realize that all things come from God.
So on this Thanksgiving Day, when you are going around the table asking what you are thankful for, I’ve given you quite a list. Pick any one of them! It’s fine to say that you’re thankful for the turkey. It’s great to say that you’re thankful for Jesus. You will surprise a few people if you say you’re thankful for the Holy Spirit. But why not? Pick something and run with it. After all, you don’t have the time to list everything that’s on the earth. But maybe, just maybe, I’ve given more than enough to think about as you approach that question. Remember… all things come from God.
Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
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