A Sermon for a National Day of Thanksgiving | Nov. 28, 2024 | Preaching text Luke 17:11-19 | by The Rev. Dr. David M. Wendel |

First Reading: Deuteronomy 8:1-20

Second Reading: Philippians 4:6-20

Luke 17:11-19 English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles

11 On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. 12 And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance 13 and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 14 When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; 16 and he fell on his face at Jesus‘ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

SERMON TITLE: “GIVING THANKS IN DIFFICULT TIMES”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.     

     It is widely reported that on May 19, 1790 in New England, the sun didn’t shine, leading to this day being known as “The Dark Day.”  The people awoke to an eerie darkness.  They went outside to do their daily chores in frightened silence.  No rooster crowed, no birds were chirping, there were none of the usual sounds of a new day.  Soon, people gathered, questioning what was taking place. By noon, every church in New England was filled to overflowing with people on their knees, crying out to God.  There were cries to God for mercy and strength, and people cried to one another begging forgiveness for past hurts and insults.  It’s said that there were few people who didn’t pray that day when the sun didn’t shine.  The churches were full late into the night.  As midnight passed, people sat quietly in their homes waiting and watching and hoping that the new day would be different.  As it neared the time for dawn’s first light, lonely individuals left their homes and gathered in crowds on the hilltops and high places near their homes and villages.  Every eye was fixed on the point where the sky touched the land, where the sun should rise.  Every eye watched, hoping to catch a glimmer of the first rays of the sun, rising, as it should.  As they waited, anxiously, in the cool, damp morning air, their spirits stirred as the sky in the east gradually lightened, and finally gave way to the sun, coming up over the horizon.  People began to shout and yell and sing–clapping and dancing and rejoicing, because the sun, shone on the land again.  With one voice, they thanked and praised God for the sun, and for the warmth and joy of God’s new day.

     To this day, in spite of studies and research and theories, no one knows how or why it happened. Some think it was from forest fires deep inland in North America. Others have suggested it was from some far distant volcanic eruption sending a huge cloud of dust and ash into the upper atmosphere—the black cloud being carried around the world by the jet stream, covering whole regions of the earth, covering the sky from horizon to horizon.  Those anxious New Englanders only knew that for one day, their world had gone dark, and they lived their lives in the shadows.  They only knew how thankful they were, that on the second day, the sun rose again, the sun shined again, and life continued on.

     Some of us know and remember what it’s like to awake to a day when it seemed the sun wasn’t shining and we lived in the shadows. Maybe a few of us remember, first hand, December 7^th, 1941, the day Pearl Harbor was attacked. Many of us remember September 11^th, 2001 and how truly, the skies over New York City were darkened from smoke and soot and debris. Some may think of October 7^th and the attack on Israel and more than a year of conflict in the middle-east, as something like that.

     And then, there are days like that in our personal lives. Days when it seems darkness has engulfed us and there’s no light in our lives. The day when our loved one was killed in a tragic car accident. The day when our beloved spouse died. The day when we were diagnosed with serious illness. There is a day in every life when everything seems blacked out and there’s barely a glimmer of hope. And those days make us wonder, “How can we gather to give thanks, in spite of the reality of illness, grief, violence and conflict?” “How can we pause to give thanks, when our world seems so unsettled and uncertain?” There’s something inside us, tonight, that wants to think happy thanksgiving thoughts.   There’s part of us that wants to celebrate the thanksgiving holiday with all the fixins’ and family and friends and football, without considering these other realities. Can’t we have a “naïve” Thanksgiving, putting aside any thought of a day when the sun doesn’t seem to shine, when the light appears to have been blacked out by illness and death, conflict and tension between nations and peoples, and within households and families! What should be said about this holiday, given the reality of darkness in our world and in our lives?

     In spite of darkness or light, in spite of the realities of human life, the one thing that we want to say is, let us never forget God!

     I’m always moved by the efforts of the one credited with having this day established as a national day of Thanksgiving.  Sarah Hale, the editor and founder of the Ladies Magazine in Boston, wrote editorials and letters to President Lincoln urging him to formally declare a day for prayer and giving thanks to God.  She had, in fact, written Presidents Fillmore, Pierce and Buchanan, and though there were as many as 29 states marking the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day, it was President Lincoln who, in 1863, made the official proclamation.  In 1863.  Think about that date.  It was in the midst of the dark days of the Civil War.  A time when our nation was embroiled in war, bloodshed and violence, on our own soil, taking the lives of our own people.  Who would have thought that President Lincoln would have considered such an act, in the midst of the Civil War?

     Previously, Lincoln had published a decree for a day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer, to be April 30^th, 1863 with Lincoln’s proclamation beginning,

“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven.  We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity.  We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power, as no other nation has ever grown.  But, we have forgotten God.  We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.”

      Following that, President Lincoln then issued a proclamation for a Day of Thanksgiving, Praise and Prayer, to be held the last Thursday in November—which officially set the National Day of Thanksgiving, wherein Lincoln again cites “the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies, yet to these bounties,” Lincoln says, “we are prone to forget the source from which they come, Almighty God.” So, in 1863, in the midst of a bloody conflict; in the midst of violence between neighbors and friends, at a time when no one was quite sure whether the sun would ever shine again on a peaceful nation—at such a time, President Lincoln called for days of thanksgiving, fasting and prayer—so that all Americans would remember–God.  And that, it seems, ought to be the proper purpose for Thanksgiving Day, this year and every year.  As a day to remember– God.

     Our first reading describes a time when Israel was warned against forgetting God. The Hebrews, wandering in the wilderness for forty years, after deliverance from bondage in Egypt, were about to enter the Promised Land. Moses wouldn’t be going with them, so he’s giving them “marching orders,” so to speak. And his instruction is,

“as you enter into this good land, this land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills, this land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, this land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper; take heed lest you forget the Lord your God… lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built goodly houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna which your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end.”

“Beware,” cautions Moses,

“lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth; that he may confirm his covenant which he swore to your fathers, as at this day. And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you this day that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.”

     That was Moses’ warning to the wandering Hebrews, as they prepared to enter the Promised Land of Israel. And did they heed the warning? No so much, it seems!

     Sadly, our human tendency to forget God is reflected in our Gospel reading, as well, as the Lord heals ten lepers, cleanses them of their leprosy, transforming their lives, really, resurrecting them to new lives, restored lives, as they could now return to homes and families and synagogues and lives that would be full and free. And did they all remember and return, to give thanks? Did all ten fall on their knees in heartfelt gratitude, to Jesus, their Savior? We know the account well. One returned to give thanks, the other nine forgot as they went on their way!

     And worth noting, there was no punishment. Moses tells the Israelites that there would be a price to pay, if they would forget the Lord their God, in their new land of prosperity and promise. Jesus says no such thing. He heals the ten and all ten remain healed and cleansed, in spite of the ungratefulness of the nine. But Jesus makes it clear: physical healing is one thing. A faithful, grateful heart is quite another, as gratitude makes you well—or as it may be translated, gratitude makes you “whole.”

     This is why we have a Thanksgiving Day, to remind us, if by some chance we have forgotten. To remind us of God the Father who created us, and provides for us;  to remind us of the Son, who came down from heaven to give life to the world; to remind us of the Spirit, who is at work in us, and in the world, to end illness and grief, to put a stop to violence and hatred, to transform and recreate all of humanity, from the inside out, one person at a time.  It’s one thing to remember God in some kind of general way, praying that He will protect and guide us and bring justice and peace.  It’s quite another, to remember God, as the Son, Jesus Christ, who died on another dark day, when the sun was blotted out, yet rose, to bring life and resurrection to light, to give us a sure and certain hope—to give us a hope that will endure through even the darkest days, and the bleakest nights. To give us a hope that will carry us through, even the darkness of death, to awake at the trumpet call to dwell in the heavenly city New Jerusalem, where there is no night and no tears and no darkness, for the Lamb will be our Light!

     The truth is, God sent His only begotten Son, to win for us new life–abundant, meaningful, joyful life here and eternal life, hereafter.  And it is that Son and that life, specifically, that we remember, especially, this Thanksgiving Holiday.  It is that Son and that life, that we remember, not just when life is dark and dismal; not only in the trials and difficulties of life—but especially in the times of peace and prosperity; especially in the times when life is good, and our bellies are full.  Because it is that Son and that life, which gives us the courage, not just to remember and give thanks, but to remember, and go on.  It is that Son and that life, that gives us the strength and the fortitude, to, as St. Paul bids us, “Rejoice—not worry—come to God with our prayers and supplications and thanksgivings—to keep our minds on whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable—to keep on doing the things that we have learned, and received—so that, the God of peace will be with us—so that, the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will keep our hearts and our minds, in Christ Jesus.

     Martin Luther wrote a prayer in July 1530, which said, “God grant that we follow His Word to praise and thank our dear Lord for His precious blood, which He so freely offered for us.  And may God keep us from the terrible vice of ingratitude and the forgetfulness of His blessings.  Amen.”

     This Thanksgiving Day and every day, let us not forget God, but remember Him, and remember His Son, who rose, as surely, as the day dawns bright, every morning.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

—

©The Rev. Dr. David M. Wendel

   d.wendel@grace43081.org

   Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

   Westerville, Ohio USA