Sermon - Thanksgiving 2019

“You shall remember the Lord your God.” “The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, ... And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you.” The Lord our God has given us His Word and He alone cares for us through His Word. When we remember the Lord our God, we both repent of our failure to keep His Word, and we rejoice and give thanks to God for giving it to us.

Today is the last day when we as a church shall gather during this church year. Historically, a service was held on the last Friday of the church year, before Advent, in order to hold a service of repentance. As we think back on the past church year, instead of just recalling our many successes and joys and happy moments, we also recall our many sins, failures, and sorrows. We recall that we haven’t kept the commandments, we haven’t feared and loved God, and we haven’t kept God’s Word pure; we have sinned and for this we must repent. 

When we recall all of God’s Word which we’ve heard read here in this sanctuary over the past church year, we hear all of His promises to us which have been made in Christ Jesus. Yet, if we take a long hard look at that Word of God, we soon see we’ve not been careful to do as God commands us. 

If you look at our congregation, has not our zeal to read the Holy Scriptures and other edifying books almost completely died out? Many of us neglect the worship at home, few fathers consider how important their job is as the bishop of their homes, many children don’t know even one prayer by heart, many of us dread a church service which lasts over an hour, and few make it their habit to study the Bible regularly. What shall come of our laziness to hear the Word? False preachers shall arise, and have already, and lead us into false belief because we don’t know the scriptures nor the power therein! Many shall continue to fall away. Confession and Absolution will continue to be neglected. There will be fewer resources available to keep churches open. Many in our own communities will die never having the opportunity to hear the truth of God’s Word.

For all of this our failure to hear the Word of God with joy and zeal, we must repent. As we look back on our past year, we must with sorrowful hearts plead to almighty God to forgive our many tresspasses and failures. We must kneel down, fall to our faces like the leper, and plead with Him to have mercy upon us. Before we enter into the new church year, we would be wise to reflect upon our sin and ask for forgiveness. Only then can we go forward in the mercy of Christ as new creations, starting this new church year as renewed people of God. 

And once we’ve wholeheartedly repented of our failure to keep the Word of God pure and unadulterated in our hearts and homes, let us also remember the Lord our God by giving thanks to Him for His Word that He so lavishly bestows upon us. So let us now consider how God brings His Word to us, by first considering how the Lord brought His Word to the Israelites in the wilderness. 

Throughout those forty years in the wilderness, He tested them by humbling them. He let them hunger and then He fed them with manna. He didn’t give them new clothing or shoes, but what they had never wore out and their feet never swelled up from walking. He let them thirst, and then He brought water to flow from a rock and wet their dried tongues. In all of this, God permitted them to suffer but also gave them all that they needed to live.

Likewise, the Lord our God permits us to at times to hunger and thirst, to go without and suffer, to be humbled, so that we might learn to rely not only upon ourselves or even the things of this world, but “that He might make us know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” 

Indeed, the Lord our God looks upon this, His whole creation, and nourishes it with all that it needs to thrive and grow. Yet the greatest growth from the Lord doesn’t come about because of our material goods, but because of the Word of God. The Lord God spoke His Word in Genesis, and all was created. The Lord God made His Word take on human flesh in the virgin birth, in the person of Jesus Christ. This Word made flesh took upon Himself the sins of all people, suffered and was crucified for us, so that all may be forgiven. 

All of our sins, all of our failures to keep the Word of God purely are forgiven by the Word of God made flesh in Jesus Christ. You have every reason to rejoice and be glad because your God does indeed forgive you completely. For all of our lack of zeal and laziness, God forgives. For failing to read the scriptures in our worship at home, He forgives us. For failing to hold fast to the Word in conversations with others, He forgives us. For failing to lead our families in the Gospel, He forgives us. All is now forgiven by the Word of God.

For all of this forgiveness through the Word made flesh, let us rejoice and be glad! Let us thank our God for His Word which makes us new and heals us from our sin. Let us enter into the new church year giving thanks to God for all of His blessings to us. Let us give thanks to God by remembering the Lord our God, and let us remember the Lord by listening to His Word throughout this next church year, starting with Sunday.

And then, as we put an end to this church year, let me take a page out of St. Paul’s book, and give thanks to my God for all of you. You have shown concern for the Word of God by being that one leper and returning to the Lord your God today. It is kind of you to share in the Gospel by supporting a pastor to preach to you the pure Word of God. Though I, John, am but a poor lowly broken miserable servant who deserves nothing, the Lord has thought it wise to speak His Word through even such a man as I. Just as He speaks His Word through broken men, so does He proclaim it to us broken sin-sick lepers in order to forgive us and make us whole again. 

Like St. Paul, I have received full payment and more. I am well supplied having received the gifts you send, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. “And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. To Our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.” Dear Christians, having knelt to repent of your sins, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”