Texts:  1 Kings 17:7-16, Acts 20:32-35, Luke 6:27-36                                                       W Thanksgiving Day

Giving Thanks for the Grace of Giving

            In the name of him who loved us and gave himself for us, dear friends in Christ:  after several attempts and false starts, it was President Abraham Lincoln who in 1863 first declared the last Thursday in November a Day of Thanksgiving for all the American people.  Not all Americans, however, listened to him at the time.  Particularly those Americans then living in the Confederate states and who reckoned themselves at war with Lincoln and the nation he led were disinclined to heed his suggestion.  This was especially so because part of Lincoln’s stated rationale was to thank the Lord of heaven for the decisive Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg – something that few in the south would have felt like celebrating.  Nevertheless, after the Civil War, the idea of a national day of thanks slowly continued to gain popularity all across the country, and in 1941 a joint resolution of Congress designated from then on the fourth Thursday in November the US Day of Thanksgiving – so it happens that the national holiday as we know it today was first celebrated just a week and a half before the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan (they probably knew we’d still be sleeping off all that turkey and dressing).

            My point is that though we think of Thanksgiving as one of the oldest American traditions, the fact is that as far as holidays go, it’s a fairly recent innovation.  And I don’t know, but the way things are going I suspect that it won’t be long before someone claiming to be atheist comes along and files suit to stop Thanksgiving because, he’ll say, he’s offended by it.  After all, giving thanks implies there’s someone up there to give thanks to – which means the nation is endorsing religion and therefore his “God-given rights” are being trampled.  (And I’ll bet that I’m not the only one that sees the irony there.) He’ll probably succeed in getting the holiday stopped (especially if the Ninth Circuit Court has anything to say about it).  So in the end, if my dire prophecy is correct, not only will Thanksgiving be one of our newest holidays, it will be one of the shortest lived.

None of which should really matter that much to us. We in the Christian Church certainly do not need the urging of a President or an act of Congress to know that it is at all times and all places appropriate for us to give thanks to the God of heaven for all that he has done and continues to do for us.  Even if some of our countrymen fail to recognize it, we have no doubts that we live in a land that is truly blessed from above.  Materially we are among the wealthiest, politically among the freest, and in terms of defense and stability, we are among the most secure people who have ever lived on the face of the earth.  We know that.  And when we say it, we don’t mean it as a put down to anyone who lives in any other country. It’s just the way it is.  And for it, we can – as we should – give thanks to God whether there’s a declared holiday or not; and not Satan nor all the dark powers of hell can stop us from doing so.

            We know this with absolute certainty because not only have we been blessed in the ways I’ve already mentioned in this great land of ours, but we who gather at this altar – or any other altar that shares with it the solid confession of our Lutheran forefathers – are truly blessed in the kingdom of heaven with every spiritual gift that God gives to his church from above.  And listen: I don’t mean it as an insult to anyone when I say we have been blessed with the Christian theology that is richest in God’s Word, spiritually the freest from the bondage of the Law, and that is by far the most secure – for every facet of it is deeply rooted in Jesus Christ crucified for the sins of the world.  That solid rock of the Gospel, by the grace of God, is what we believe, confess, and proclaim more clearly than anyone.  So, what I saying is we who are confessional Lutherans in the United States of America have been blessed by God with the very best of both worlds:  the earthly and the spiritual.  And recognizing it, we are right to gather here and give thanks to God for his all surpassing mercy and grace to us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

            Now, one very good and time-honored way to do this is to count and individually name the blessings that God has given because taking the time to do so forces us to see exactly how great and generous our Lord is. But today I thought we’d take a slightly different tack.  What I’d like to do instead is spend some time reflecting on a way God has of blessing us that usually gets overlooked.  You see, usually when we count blessings, we think of ourselves being in the receiving mode:  we hold out our hands and God fills them with good things; but a common thread in the Scripture readings I selected for today are the blessing God gives us when we give to others.  That’s what I want to focus on this Thanksgiving Day: giving thanks to God for the grace he gives us to give.

            We hear this idea expressed by St. Paul in the reading we heard from Acts where he quotes words of Jesus that (surprisingly) don’t appear in any of the four Gospel accounts.  Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”  You know, we hear people say that all the time – especially if they’re asking us to give them something; but what exactly do they mean by it?  And more importantly, what did Jesus mean when he said it?  What is it about giving that blesses the giver?

Let’s start with what it doesn’t mean.  Some people say this refers to the fact that God gives even more of whatever it is to those who have it and are giving it away. For example, God has indeed promised to provide abundantly for those who share what they have with others. Perhaps you’ve heard the saying that goes:  “If you get into a giving contest with the Lord, you’ll lose every time”.  And there is a lot of truth to that; but unfortunately, it’s a principle that’s usually capitalized on by unscrupulous TV preachers who invite their viewers to get rich by sending more than they can afford to support their television ministries.  Such offerings do indeed go toward supporting “their ministries” – if you can call them that – but usually more toward supporting the lavish lifestyle of the TV preachers.  But the come on is “Give in order to get; the more you give, the more you’ll get.”  So it’s clear that people who respond are not giving per se; they are instead making a cold, calculating investment while hoping for a generous return on their dollar.  This is definitely not what the Lord meant when he said “You’re more blessed when you give than when you receive.”  No, he had in mind far richer and better blessings that are yours when you give whether you receive anything back or not.

 Jesus elaborates what the statement means in the reading from Luke’s Gospel.  There he explains that by giving freely from the heart the things we have, we show ourselves to be the children of our heavenly Father.  Think of it this way:  no one would deny that of all the beings in the universe, God himself is most blessed of all – yet he never really receives anything.  All he does is give.  He is always giving freely from his generous and loving heart.  And looking around his wonderful Creation with all the pleasures and sights he designed expressly for our enjoyment, you cannot help but be awed with the thought: here is a God who delights in coming up with extraordinary ways to please and benefit others.  That’s the way he is.  We show ourselves to be his children – chips off the old block, so to speak – when we display in our lives his gracious and giving character; and being like the Lord is its own reward.

Now, someone might say, “Well of course, God gives generously; but then, he can afford to, can’t he?  He has the ability to create whatever he gives, so it never really costs him anything.  I could afford to be generous too if there were no expense to me.”  But this is nonsense.  As Christians we know that God spared no expense in redeeming us from sin. He made the ultimate sacrifice when he gave up his Son to suffer and die for us.  And, of course, our Lord Jesus gave up his freedom, his body, and his life to a horrible death on a cross.  Together they are prices higher than any of us can imagine.  God knows what it is to hurt to give – and yet he gives anyway.  And when we give sacrificially, that is, when it hurts to give, we are like him.  And there can be no higher blessing for us than that.

This is why Jesus enjoins us to give not just to friends and family:  the people we like and who do things for us in exchange.  No, Jesus tells us to give also to our enemies, to our detractors, to those who mean us harm and who would take from us without asking.  God gave his Son for us when we were his enemies, and he is good and giving to the wicked as well as the just.  He’s not stingy to anyone.  He gives to whoever has need.  Jesus wants us to give the same way so that we will reflect his Father’s own goodness.

And this is particularly incumbent upon us who have received so much from the Lord.  To whom much is given, we are told, much is required. But we shouldn’t think of this as a terrible burden:  “Oh no! God has been so generous to me! Now he’ll punish me unless I give it all away!”  No. Rather having received much means that we have that much greater opportunity and reason to give—and not just our leftovers, our excess, our worn out old junk that’s overflowing in our closets and cluttering our attics.  And sure, if there’re are people who can good make use of that stuff, by all means, give it; but give also from your first fruits, from your livelihood, from what you think you need for your security.  It shouldn’t be, “I have ten and you have none. I suppose I can let you have one of mine.”  No, it’s more like, ”I have one and if we share it, we’ll both have enough to get by.”

            But of course, you don’t need to have much to give generously.  We see this in the Old Testament lesson in which the poor widow at Zarephath shares what she believes to be her last meal with the prophet Elijah.  She’s completely run out of food and money in a land suffering from a terrible famine. After this last bit of food there is none for her and her son and no way for them to get any more.  Everyone is hoarding what little they have for fear of starving to death.  And yet this woman, as she faces what seems to be certain starvation, shares the little she has with the prophet – and in so freely giving she is three times blessed. First, she is blessed by being like God in her generosity.  Second, she’s blessed by being miraculously preserved by the Lord who ensures that her food never runs out.  And she is blessed in yet a third way:  She is blessed with a strong and steadfast faith in God’s gracious provision.  This is key:  the act of giving is a way to exercise and grow faith because giving away what we think we need to get by shows that we trust the Lord to supply us.  It forces us to look to him with expectation that he will take care of us and all our needs.  To possess this sort of faith is a true blessing – and it is as well one of the best ways possible to give thanks to God.  We thank God by trusting him.

            Now, up to this point I’ve been speaking about how we are blessed by giving principally our physical goods and possessions – and please understand those include things like our time that we could spend with a person who’s lonely, or our experience that we might use to teach someone a skill or do some job for someone that they can’t do for themselves. The grace of giving involves so much more than just our money.  But if such giving is a blessing for us, how much more is it a blessing when we share the spiritual gifts we have received?  To share Christ with someone who does not know him, to share his forgiveness with someone oppressed by guilt and sin, and to help lead to eternal life someone who is utterly lost in spiritual darkness …what greater gifts can you give?  And yes, though you don’t lose these things by giving them, there is a cost involved:  for those who confess Christ before the world can count on being persecuted for it.  But again, it is through such sacrificial giving that we are blessed to be like him who was persecuted for us.

Okay, so maybe you’re thinking that you can see how all this being blessed through the grace of giving is a good thing – but you’re also thinking “the trouble is, none of sounds very much like me.  I’m not that generous with my possessions.  I tend to hold on pretty hard to what I’ve accumulated.  I worry if I’ll have enough for later.  And I really haven’t much of a track record for generosity in sharing my spiritual wealth either.”  If so, then let me suggest this:  you are letting your sinful, selfish nature rob you of far great blessings the Lord wants you to have.  It’s high time to examine yourself carefully and repent of this sin of being reluctant to give; and then, receiving Christ’s forgiveness and the power of his Spirit to amend your life, you will be changed.  Your heart will be made more like his:  holding to what is valuable and true like the virtues of love and generosity that endure forever, and willing to let go of possessions that can be put to good use for others in the here and now.  Then I guarantee you will have even more blessings to add to your list for which to be thankful today.  And in this way may our gracious heavenly Father grant you a happy and truly blessed Thanks-Giving.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!