Harvest Thanksgiving [Matthew 6:25-33] (1-Feb-2015)

This sermon was preached at St Mark's Lutheran Church, Mt Barker, 8.30am, 10.30am.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Prayer: Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Today in our church, we are having a special focus on thanksgiving. And thanksgiving, giving thanks to God, is right at the heart of our faith. For example, here are so many times in the bible where it says: Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love endures forever.

There’s a particularly favourite passage of mine about this topic, about thanksgiving, that comes from Romans 1. The book of Romans is a wonderful book, written by St Paul, where he gives a very detailed explanation of so many of the central parts of the Christian faith. It’s a book that is well-loved by many Christians. In Romans chapter 1, St Paul describes the world of unbelief, and of unbelievers. He says: Although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

He says that although people may have known that there was a good, even though people may be able to look at the world and all the wonderful plants and animals and the way so many things in the world and in nature are structured and ordered in a wonderful way, what was the problem? It says: they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him. Can you see how giving thanks is so important here, and how St Paul makes such a big deal out of it?

But then what’s the alternative to thanksgiving? It says: They did not honour him or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Instead of thanksgiving, they end up with futile thinking, foolish hearts which are darknened. Futility, foolishness, darkness. It’s almost like there’s this cancer that sets in, or a mold, or a rust that enters into our hearts. But with thanksgiving, the cancer, the mold and the rust is washed away. Giving thanks to God is like an antidote, like a medicine that drives the darkness away. I remember meeting someone once who said that when she couldn’t sleep, she would just go through her mind of all the things she could give thanks to God for.

But there’s one more thing that’s really wonderful about this first chapter of Romans. In verse 21, we read the verse I just read: For although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. But if we back track a few verses, right back to verse 8, which is just after Paul has written his greetings and introduced himself at the beginning of the letter, this is what we read: First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. Did you notice what he says? First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you. St Paul is about to write this wonderful letter to the Romans, and he has so much to teach them, and the Romans have so much to learn. But he doesn’t begin by saying: You lousy Romans, you’re all so stupid, and none of you know anything about anything. He says: First, I thank my God. So even though later in the chapter, he makes that wonderful statement about thanksgiving as being a kind of antidote to the diseases of foolishness, darkness, and futility, here at the beginning of the chapter, he actually models thanksgiving to us. This is so incredibly helpful for us, in our fast-paced lives—what do you have to give to God for?

Actually, Martin Luther, has some wonderful things to say about this in his Small Catechism, about the Lord’s Prayer. In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray: Give us today our daily bread. And Martin Luther explains it like this: God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realise this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. What makes Christians different from other people? Do Christian farmers get healthier and more fruitful crops than other farmers? No. Do Christians have nicer homes than other people, more money than other people, better clothes than other people? No. Are Christians healthier and less sick and less injured than other people? Once again, the answer is no. In Matthew chapter 5, it says: God makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Everyone, whether you are a Christian or not, enjoys the gifts of sunshine and rain, and the many gifts that come from it. So if there’s going to be a difference—if Christians are going to make a difference—what’s it going to be? Let’s listen to Luther’s words again: God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realise this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.

Our whole lives as Christians is one big offering of thanks. There are so many things that God has given to us—we are called to thank him, and to offer our lives back to him in thanksgiving. We are given so many things for our bodies and for our lives—food, drink, clothing, shoes, a house, a home, a family, peace, good government, protection from war, from violence, from major disease. We are so blessed in this country. Just a word about government—we have heard a lot of talk in recent years about corruption, but there are some countries that have had years of corruption that has completely crippled their country, and would take years to turn around. Also, I remember when Kevin Rudd returned to be prime-minister again after Julia Gillard, an African man said to me at the church door, that if that had happened in Africa, there would be a civil war. Don’t we have so much to be thankful for in this country? And not to mention, all the spiritual things that God gives to us, for the benefit of our souls—God’s word, the ability to read it, to ability to hear it, a wonderful church building such as this one, our church musicians, the gift of baptism, the Lord’s Supper, the opportunity and the privilege of prayer, Christian friends, and people who speak to us God’s word. And we have I remember hearing a story about an old pastor, who used to say a prayer like this: Heavenly Father, you have give me so many things in life to enjoy. Give me one thing more—a thankful heart.

And so now, I’d like to come to our Gospel reading for today, which is from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6. And this is a well-known passage, where Jesus teaches us about the relationship between our spiritual life to the needs of our body. He says: Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Just before this, Jesus says: No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

After this, then our reading begins where Jesus says: Therefore, do not be anxious about your life. On one hand, the worship that we offer to God is thanksgiving. On the other hand, the worship we offer to an idol, to a false good, is anxiety. Jesus says: You cannot serve God and money. If we serve God, we do with thankfulness. If we serve money, we do it with anxiety.

In the broad scheme of history, and in comparison to the rest of the world, we are very wealthy people. And yet, there’s many people who are constantly anxious about all kinds of things—about their finances, about the future, and all kinds of things like that. Many parents today are especially anxious about their children. But our Christian life should not be directed in such a way to simply alleviate their anxiety. Some people are anxious and they don’t even know why they are anxious. And then they jump from one thing to the next, from one novelty to the next, looking for a fix. But people don’t become closer to God by offering little sacrifices to their false gods through anxiety. There’s no use saying: My prayers to God don’t seem to be working, I think I’ll pray to the devil instead. Of course not!

Let’s listen to what Jesus has to say. Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? Think about it, Jesus says: what has anxiety ever really done for you, except make your life a misery?

Jesus says: And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’

Let’s just stop for a minute—do we really worry about what we’re going to eat or drink or wear? In Australia, we really don’t have to worry at all about famine, or going without clothes. But then, we like to have variety in our food and diet—I’m not talking about the fact that a varied diet is a good thing, but we get bored with the same old thing. So we worry: what are we going to eat? We can’t eat lasagne tonight! Why? Because we had it last night. All this is anxiety about food and drink.

Or what about clothing? Many of us are not overly anxious about not having anything to wear. But then, there’s the whole question of variety again. Many people can’t bear to be seen wearing the same clothes to two different occasions. People say: I can’t wear that outfit, or that tie, or that jacket, or that dress, to that wedding, because people will remember it from some other occasion. All of this is anxiety over clothing. When I was at high-school, I remember that over a third of the school used to stay home on casual clothes day because they couldn’t face the shame of being judged on what they were wearing. We might think that we have to live in this kind of luxury in order to survive in our society, but if that’s the case—fine, then you have to know that we’ll be anxious. And this anxiety is simply the offering we make to a false god.

Don’t you know how valuable God thinks we are? Don’t you know that he values us so much more highly than anyone in our life who we think might value us and appreciate us the most? Jesus says: Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Jesus says: For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and you heavenly Father knows that you need them all. You see—here Jesus points out the fact that our anxiety about our life doesn’t make us different from anyone else. Gentiles can be anxious too. Unbelievers will be anxious too—they don’t honour God or give thanks to him, and so as St Paul says, they become futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts are darkened.

So what then? Jesus says: But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own evil.

Seek first the kingdom of God. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. Build your life and your faith with a thankful heart. And seek his righteousness. God’s righteousness comes from the forgiveness of sins, which Jesus has won for us on the cross through his suffering and death and through his resurrection. Seek this. Trust in it. Put your anxieties into the hands of this man who shed his blood for you. St Peter says in his first letter: Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. St Paul also says in Philippians: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving (notice that: with thanksgiving!) let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

A pastor once said to me, that God provides everything we need for any given day. If we find that we are not coping with what needs to be done, if we think that God hasn’t provided the strength and the capacity for us to cope, maybe we are doing something and dedicating our hearts to something that we don’t need to. God is constantly our teacher, and he knows in his wisdom how to alleviate our hearts from all of our burdens.

So, to conclude our sermon today, I’d like to read a couple of verses from the book of Acts, by way of encouragement, about the first Christians after the day of Pentecost. It says: And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favour with all the people. May the Holy Spirit give us the same gladness and generosity of heart, and above everything, a thankful heart!

Amen.

Dear Jesus, you have given us so many things to enjoy, both for our bodies and for our souls. Give us one thing more, a thankful heart. Amen.