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The Day
Before Giving Thanks
By
Art Hend=
ela
Given at=
November=
21,
2007
The text for today's sermon,
meditation is the epistle lesson that we heard a little bit ago. I'll read a few selected verses fr=
om 2
Corinthians 9: 6-11.
6 Remember this: Who=
ever
sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will a=
lso
reap generously. 7 Each man should give what he has
decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God
loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make =
all
grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times; having all that you
need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it =
is
written: "He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteous=
ness
endures forever." 10 Now he who supplies seed=
to
the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of se=
ed
and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 =
span>You
will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasio=
n,
and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
What =
have
you been doing on this day before Thanksgiving? Were you worried about day to day
responsibilities? Were you
shopping? How many of you hav=
e been
cleaning the house? Cutting the vegetables? Were you so busy preparing the tur=
key
that you didn’t take any time to prepare yourself to give thanks?
How d=
o you
prepare yourself to give thanks? Do
you bow your head and take a little time to think about life. Do you say a =
prayer
for your friends and think about the blessings you have received? Do you think about what others hav=
e gone
through in the past year? All=
of
these are great ways to start the holidays and to remember that God is the
source of all of our blessings. Our biggest blessing this holiday season is=
the
birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God’s son.
Today=
’s
sermon text is telling us that being generous is the way to be blessed. It’s not something we can fa=
ke. Verse
7 tells us that you should give according to what is in your heart without
being reluctant or because someone made you give it. The next part of that verse certai=
nly
shows that we were made in the image of God. It reads, “God loves a
cheerful giver”. Don=
217;t
we all?
The o=
ne
thing I think gets lost a lot of times with the generosity of God is brough=
t up
in Verse 8. “And God is=
able
to make all grace abound to you”.&nb=
sp;
God is so generous that not only does he bless the believer, but abu=
ndantly
supplies the needs of everyone believer and unbeliever alike. Why does God do that? Verse 8 clarifies it itself. “In all things at all times =
having
all that you need you will abound in every good work.” God wants all of us to come to Him=
. Will that happen? Not while Satan works his evil, bu=
t we
must try.
Verse=
9
encourages us to try. “And God provides the tools for us to be kind a=
nd
generous to the rest of the world. <=
/span>He
has scattered his gifts to the poor, his righteousness endures forever.R=
21; A lot of the year we focus on gett=
ing
ahead. We have work pressures; try to attain sports or academic achievement=
s,
and we vie for higher social standing.&nbs=
p;
All these things take precedence over what God is really looking for=
us
to do.
We are
promised to be supplied with what we need.=
These supplies aren’t just for our own needs, but for us to su=
pply
those in need. We’re pr=
omised
a reward also. Verse 10 says,=
“Now he who supplies seed=
to
the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of se=
ed
and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.” Who supplies this seed? God does, of course. He grants us breath for our lungs =
and
bread for our tables. Not onl=
y for
ourselves but for those who are in need.&n=
bsp;
Mathew 25: 40 says “The king will repay, I tell you the truth,
whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for
me.” When you feed the
hungry; when you give an encouraging word to someone who is down; when you =
see
a problem and you volunteer to help fix it, you are not doing it just for t=
he
hungry person, or the lonely person, or for the person who can not work wit=
h a
hammer. You are feeding and
encouraging and working to fix things for Jesus Christ, Himself.
This is not the time of year to=
only worry
about ourselves. We all know =
what
tomorrow means. For some it w=
ill
mean going to see the big balloons in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Par=
ade. For others it means a day of loung=
ing
around and watching football games.
For many of us it means leaving church and finishing the cleaning and
doing the cooking. For others=
it
means a time of deep depression and sadness at broken families, physical
frailties, and unending loneliness.
The happiness of Thanksgivings from our youth have yielded to only
bitter memories of a close knit family now spread apart. It is these people, the homeless, =
the
bitter, and the hurting that we need to share not only our tables and gifts=
but
something more precious, our faith in Jesus Christ. The two go hand in hand, the food =
and
the faith. We have the challe=
nge to
do this straight from the Bible.
In James 2:16-18, we =
read,
16
If
one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well
fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompa=
nied
by action, is dead.
18
But
someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your fa=
ith
without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.
When you have true faith, you c=
annot
help yourself but to share your blessings with others. It’s an outward sign that yo=
ur
faith is alive.
When I worked at the
I’d ask Bill, “How =
can
you take this abuse?”
He said, “Some people giv=
e me
money, some people give me food, and some people give me abuse”. I’m thankful for all of them=
.
“Thankful?!”, I ask=
ed,
“Are you kidding me, Bill?”&nb=
sp;
Bill told me, “Look, Art.=
The people who are generous help ke=
ep me
alive. Those who aren’t
generous, I can’t concern myself with.”
“My situation was my own
fault. I was hooked on booze.=
I couldn’t keep a job. My wife did the bulk of the suppor=
t for
the family. When my wife died=
, my
children turned against me and threw me out of my own house onto the
streets. I can’t go to =
the
men’s shelter. It isn=
8217;t
safe. I’m too afraid. I live in an abandoned diner along=
Route
1/9 in
I caught those words, “Da=
ily Bread”
I said, “Bill do you mean=
‘Daily
Bread’ as in The Lord’s Prayer “Daily Bread”.
“Yeah”, he said.
“Like that.”
Here’s a man that his fam=
ily had
abandoned. People passed by a=
ll day
and all but spit on him. I su=
ppose
some did. Here he is witnessi=
ng to
the Lord supplying his “Daily Bread”!
As it turns out Bill was raised
Lutheran and attended the
That Thanksgiving, after dinner=
, Vega
and I took a plate of our feast and brought it to Bill down in
Verse 11 tells us of the reward=
that
awaits us for these works that show our faith. “You will be made rich=
in
every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your
generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”
I don’t know what ever ha=
ppened
to Bill. It’s a rare occasion when I travel through
Happy Thanksgiving.
And n=
ow may
the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ preserve you and keep you unto
life everlasting. Amen.
The Prayer=
Dear
Lord, Heavenly Father. We come
before you blessed beyond measure on this day before Thanksgiving. We ask that you weigh on our heart=
s to
share those blessings with those around us. We remember especially the homeles=
s,
like Bill, the nameless and faceless people of this country that we pass on=
our
city streets. These people are so hungry and so cold, and yet can still wit=
ness
to your supplying of our daily bread despite a desperate situation. Give us a generous heart to help t=
hose
in need, to speak a kind word of encouragement to those who are down, and to
spend time with those who feel so lonely even in the midst of so many peopl=
e. Amen.
&nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; Page 1 of 10 = 11/29/2007