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As everyone knows, this week we will celebrate Thanksgiving. Because we are Christians, we can take this special day to rejoice and give thanks to God for all of the wonderful things that he has done in our lives. Now, as I got to thinking about Thanksgiving and giving thanks, I took a closer look at how the people in the Bible used to give thanks. What are the biblical ways of giving thanks to God? As I researched this, most passages dealing with thanksgiving show us that biblically, there were three basic ways that people gave thanks. First, they gave thanks through singing and through music. I think that we’re doing a pretty good job of that here at Hope, especially at LIFT. Our worship is always filled with wonderful music of thanksgiving, and we have Scott, Wendell the drummer, and all these other wonderful musicians who really help lead us in our singing and music. I think we do a pretty good job of offering thanks to God by way of music and this is biblical. The second way that people in the Bible offered their thanks to God was to do animal sacrifices. Did anybody bring their cattle with them to sacrifice on our altar this evening? How about any goats or sheep out there? Or even doves? Well, I guess since nobody brought any animals to sacrifice, we can count our collection offering and our annual commitments as our thanksgiving sacrifice. I suppose chipping in a little extra cash on Thanksgiving would be the modern-day equivalent to offering up one of your animals in a thanksgiving offering. Of course, I’m just a naïve rookie pastor, but I think that Hope also does a pretty good job of this as well, at least most of the time. From what I can tell, all of you are generous when it comes to giving of yourselves in sacrifice. Finally, the third way that I found that people in the Bible offer thanksgivings to God is simply to retell the story of what God has done for you – to look back over history and remember where God has been present and what God has done. This happens many times in the Bible throughout the Old and New Testaments. Its also why we always say the Words of Institution just before Communion. We are retelling the story of Jesus and what he did for us. You see, God has been working in history from the very beginning and sometimes we forget that we are really connected to all the people in the Bible in one very important way – God was active in their lives and he continues to be active in our lives today. In the beginning when the Spirit of the Lord moved over the waters of chaos, he created the entire universe out of love. He created the stars, the moon, the sun, and the entire earth. Then he created human beings so that his creation could respond to him in love. He loved those first human beings, even after they deliberately disobeyed his single command. Eventually, humanity became so corrupt and self-centered that they were destroying the world and each other. God, out of love for creation, cleansed the earth with a great flood, and out of love, he saved one family and two of every kind of animal. He also promised never to do that again with the beautiful rainbow that we can still catch glimpses of today. Soon thereafter, God chose to bless the entire human race and he chose to do this through one faithful man. God promised this man, Abraham, that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. God gave Abraham and his wife, Sarah, a child named Isaac and despite their advanced age and incredible skepticism, God remained true to his promises. Isaac had two sons, Jacob and Esau. God was faithful and blessed Jacob with twelve sons, who eventually moved to Egypt because of a drought. God worked through the safety and protection of the Egyptian nation to multiply Jacob’s twelve sons into an entire Hebrew nation – fulfilling his promise to Abraham. As they were enslaved by the Egyptians, God worked through two men, Moses and Aaron, and went to great lengths to free his people from bondage – bringing plagues upon the Egyptians and even parting the Red Sea. No sooner did God free them as they crossed the Red Sea and made camp at Mt. Sinai, but the Hebrew people almost immediately forgot God’s wonderful deeds and began worshiping the golden calf. This generation never made it to the Promised Land. They lacked faith in God and ignored his instructions. But God didn’t give up on his people or his promises. He fed the people in the wilderness with manna, gave them water from the rock, and gave them the Torah – the scriptures - so that they could live as a blessing to God and to the rest of the world. After 40 years of wandering in the desert, God brought the next generation through to the Promised Land. Under the leadership of Joshua, and through the strength of God, the Hebrew people were victorious in securing the Promised Land. In the next 200 years, whenever God’s people would have problems with a neighboring country, God was always faithful to lift up a leader known as a judge to lead his people. Some of these judges were even women, like Deborah. But the people complained to God and asked God to make them like the rest of the nations. They asked God to give them an earthly king. God, through Samuel, anointed Israel’s first king, Saul. Like God said would happen, Saul soon forgot about God and became corrupt. And so God anointed David as king. And David was a great king, remaining faithful to God and his instructions. David’s son, Solomon, was also faithful to God, and under these two faithful kings, Israel flourished and became the blessing to the world that God had intended. But after Solomon’s death, Israel once again forgot about God and erupted into civil war, dividing into two kingdoms – the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. Both nations rebelled against, ignored, and forgot about God. This disobedience weakened themselves so that they were easily conquered – the northern kingdom by Assyria and the southern kingdom by Babylon. And even though they had forgotten about God, God remained faithful. God used a complete stranger, Cyrus of Persia, to conquer the Babylonians, releasing the Israelites so that they could return to the promised land and rebuild the Temple. Once again, God worked through the safety and protection of stronger nations like Rome to multiply his people and rebuild their nation. It was then that God completely changed history. He didn’t just act in history, he changed it. God took on our humanness, our sinfulness, our unfaithfulness, and God became human in Jesus Christ. He also took on our pain, our brokenness, and conquered our biggest enemy – death. Jesus died a human death, crucified by the very people he came to save, but then he was raised in a glorious resurrection, conquering death and making it possible for everyone, not just the Israelites, to experience God’s love and grace in a whole new way! But God’s activity didn’t end there. God sent the Holy Spirit to the people, making it possible for everyone to experience his love. Throughout the first century AD, the Holy Spirit gave the early biblical writers the inspiration to write the books of the Bible. God also gave the early Christians the strength and love to spread the gospel of Christ, even when their very lives were being threatened. The church grew and flourished, yet it also had some problems. Our sin continued to get in the way. The church had a major split in 1054, forming the Roman Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. This split still exists today. In 1095, the church entered one of its darkest periods – the Crusades. Hundreds of thousands were slaughtered in the name of Jesus Christ. We had forgotten God and misunderstood once again! Despite this unfaithfulness to the gospel of Christ, God remained faithful and active. He gave us some wonderful saints whose teachings still influence us today. Saints like St. Francis of Assisi, St. Thomas Aquinas and Martin Luther were lifted up as examples of faith and these people changed and reformed the church. Unfortunately, following the Reformation in the 1500s, God’s desire for unity among his people was once again shattered as the church split into hundreds of different denominations, constantly fighting amongst themselves and persecuting each other. But God remains faithful. God continues to work to once again bring unity to his church. In 1948, the World Council of Churches was formed. In 1962, the Second Vatican Council was convened and opened the way to dialogs between different denominations that had been separated by hundreds of years of hatred toward one another. In 1969, God working through the Lutheran Church in America sent Pastor Roger Schindel to St. Charles, Missouri in order to plant a church. On November 15, 1970 Hope Lutheran Church was chartered and began to grow. Since then, God has sent this congregation many faithful pastors and has formed hundreds of faithful disciples for his service. At some point in time, God has also brought each and every one of you to this church as well. Hopefully each of you has been able to experience God’s grace and love at this place with these fellow Christians. God has indeed been active here. And tonight, the salvation story continues. For we will each receive the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ as we gather around this table in thanksgiving. Where has God been faithful to his promises of love and grace in your life? This week, as we take a couple days off for Thanksgiving, let’s think about God and retell those stories of God’s faithfulness. Amen.
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