Sermon Illustrations for Thanksgiving Day (2025)
Illustration
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
According to Martin Luther our thanksgiving is brought about only by justification by grace:
But bringing of tithes denotes that we are wholly given to the service of the neighbor through love… This, however, does not happen unless, being first justified by faith. (Luther’s Works, Vol.9, p.255)
The Reformer also wants us to be happy, what with all the generous gifts we have been given. He wrote:
God wants us to be cheerful, and He hates sadness. For had He wanted us to be sad, He would not have given us the sun, the moon, and the various fruits of the earth. All these He gave for our good cheer. (What Luther Says, p.689)
Regarding such gratitude John Calvin further comments:
Gratitude of mind for the favorable outcome of things, patience in adversity, and also incredible freedom from worry about the future all necessarily follow from this knowledge. (Institutes [Westminster Press ed.], p.219)
Modern French Catholic theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin eloguently describes Christ’s Kingship in terms of His permeation of the cosmos. As he put it:
All things individually and collectively are penetrated and flooded by it [the Word], from the inmost core of the tiniest atom to the mighty sweep of the most universal laws of being; so naturally as it flooded every element, every energy, every connecting-link in the unity of our cosmos; that one might suppose the cosmos to have burst spontaneously into flame. (Hymn of the Universe, pp.23-24)
Mark E.
* * *
Psalm 100
On this Thanksgiving holiday it is well to note how when commenting on this text John Calvin observed:
To say God made us is a very generally acknowledged truth; but not to advert to the ingratitude so usual among men, that scarcely one among a hundred seriously acknowledges that he holds his existence from God… yet every man makes a god of himself and virtually worships himself, when he ascribes to his own power what God declares to him alone. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.VI/1, p.84)
Centuries earlier St. Augustine had elaborated on what praising and thanking God does to you. He wrote:
“For the Lord is pleasant” (verse 4). Think not that ye faint in praising Him. Your praise of Him is like food; the more ye praise Him, the more ye acquire strength, and He whom ye praise becometh more sweet. (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol.8, p.491)
Mark E.
* * *
Deuteronomy 26:1-11 and Psalm 100
Biblically and as Americans we are reminded that we and our ancestors were outsiders at one time. We all came from somewhere else. Moses is at pains to remind the people that this is the Biblical origin story. In the context of the story from Deuteronomy the people have not come into the land yet, but Moses is giving them instructions about how they are to observe it. Everyone is to take a basket full of the first fruits of the season and setting it down in front of the altar they are to make the following declaration:
A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation….
The story of their enslavement follows, and the intervention by the Lord, God’s power displayed in the Exodus, and it concludes, tellingly,
Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and your house.
Reminder. God’s story is to be shared with those living in the land, including those who are not citizens per se. They are part of the family, and are sharing in the Thanksgiving. This is surprisingly similar to the founding of the American story. We came as economic refugees from the four corners of the earth. We struggled to live with each other as did those who came to the Promised Land at various times in the history. There were tensions and failures in the relationship, but at its heart, the dream is one of a people who identity is bound up with being the freed slaves – actual slavery, racial prejudice, economic slavery. It’s all a part of the story of Israel and Judea, culminating in the dream of all nations coming to the Old and New Jerusalem, whether we’re talking about Isaiah 2 and Micah 4, or Revelation 21-22.
Frank R.
* * *
Philippians 4:4-9
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to read these verses when the family gathers around the Thanksgiving table, or when the community gathers at your church table if yours is a congregation that hosts a community Thanksgiving meal. Philippi is not a dream church. Euodia and Suntyche, two women who may well be each the head of their own house church, are quarrelling and it greatly pains the apostle Paul. We all know what it’s like when the family, whether our family or the family of God, is quarrelling with each other. Let us not forget that the Lord is near! Near in both senses – on the way, and already close to us in our midst. The Greek word allows both meanings and I’m sure that’s what the apostle meant. So think on the good things, “whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise!” It’s easy, easier than ever, in the social media age to immerse ourselves in our phones, finding fault with others, and spreading that fault like wildfire. But cultivating the peace of God creates the harmony we are so lacking.
Frank R.
* * *
Philippians 4:4-9
I am a fan of the Peanuts comic strip. I came across one not long ago. In one cartoon Lucy says to Charlie Brown, “I hate everything. I hate everybody. I hate the whole wide world!”
Charlie says, “But I thought you had inner peace.”
Lucy replies, “I do have inner peace. But I still have outer obnoxiousness.”
Having the peace of God in our lives matters. C.S. Lewis once said, “God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.” The peace of God is available to all who come to him in prayer (vs. 6). In the middle of a chaotic and often confusing world, will you find the peace that God offers?
Bill T.
* * *
John 6:25-35
In an article entitled, “Bread: The Most Important Thing in Human History,” Grant’s Bakery in England notes, “Bread has been part of human history for centuries. It plays an integral role in our daily life and is a symbol of culture, history, hunger, wealth, war, and peace. It is indispensable and has been key in human survival. Bread created the structure of modern-day society and gave order to our way of living. Without this seemingly simple food, civilization wouldn’t exist in the way we know it today.”
The article notes that bread is the oldest food in the world that is not a product of foraging or hunting. It also states that bread is a universal food that is found in every country. The main point of the article is that everyone needs bread.
That is an important observation and maybe even more so when connected to the Bread of Life. Jesus notes, in this text, that it is the Father who gives the true bread from heaven (vs. 32). He also notes that the only way to never really get hungry again is to have the Bread of Life. He concludes by saying, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (vs. 35) Bread is vital and the Bread of Life is essential. Will you partake?
Bill T.
* * *
John 6:25-36
Unthankfulness, because we are so hung up on gaining the things of the world, was at epidemic proportions in Martin Luther’s day. His analysis, noting how this pertains to this text, is still relevant today:
There is no earning thanks from the world. Indeed, God Himself cannot earn any thanks with the sun, nay, with heaven and earth or even with the death of His own Son. (What Luther Says, p.1412)
To this point he adds:
Day and night everybody’s concern is how to make a living. This stimulates greed to the point where no one is content with what God provides and bestows… Everyone wants to get on better and have more… With this sermon the Lord endeavored to put a brake on such attitude and conduct. (Complete Sermons, Vol.7, p.16)
Indeed, the Reformer, laments, we are so messed up that even when we feel God’s Presence and gifts in our lives, we soon forget it:
For we know from experience that God has under His regimen people who no matter how God treats them, be it good or evil, whether He scourges them or brings them good news, forget about it almost instantly. The condition of the human heart is so desperately wicked that it immediately forgets what is past and keeps on badgering God to provide novel miracles and punishments when we ought to be stouthearted and remember His blessings; but they immediately forget His benefactions. (Complete Sermons, Vol.5, p.145)
Mark E.
According to Martin Luther our thanksgiving is brought about only by justification by grace:
But bringing of tithes denotes that we are wholly given to the service of the neighbor through love… This, however, does not happen unless, being first justified by faith. (Luther’s Works, Vol.9, p.255)
The Reformer also wants us to be happy, what with all the generous gifts we have been given. He wrote:
God wants us to be cheerful, and He hates sadness. For had He wanted us to be sad, He would not have given us the sun, the moon, and the various fruits of the earth. All these He gave for our good cheer. (What Luther Says, p.689)
Regarding such gratitude John Calvin further comments:
Gratitude of mind for the favorable outcome of things, patience in adversity, and also incredible freedom from worry about the future all necessarily follow from this knowledge. (Institutes [Westminster Press ed.], p.219)
Modern French Catholic theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin eloguently describes Christ’s Kingship in terms of His permeation of the cosmos. As he put it:
All things individually and collectively are penetrated and flooded by it [the Word], from the inmost core of the tiniest atom to the mighty sweep of the most universal laws of being; so naturally as it flooded every element, every energy, every connecting-link in the unity of our cosmos; that one might suppose the cosmos to have burst spontaneously into flame. (Hymn of the Universe, pp.23-24)
Mark E.
* * *
Psalm 100
On this Thanksgiving holiday it is well to note how when commenting on this text John Calvin observed:
To say God made us is a very generally acknowledged truth; but not to advert to the ingratitude so usual among men, that scarcely one among a hundred seriously acknowledges that he holds his existence from God… yet every man makes a god of himself and virtually worships himself, when he ascribes to his own power what God declares to him alone. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.VI/1, p.84)
Centuries earlier St. Augustine had elaborated on what praising and thanking God does to you. He wrote:
“For the Lord is pleasant” (verse 4). Think not that ye faint in praising Him. Your praise of Him is like food; the more ye praise Him, the more ye acquire strength, and He whom ye praise becometh more sweet. (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol.8, p.491)
Mark E.
* * *
Deuteronomy 26:1-11 and Psalm 100
Biblically and as Americans we are reminded that we and our ancestors were outsiders at one time. We all came from somewhere else. Moses is at pains to remind the people that this is the Biblical origin story. In the context of the story from Deuteronomy the people have not come into the land yet, but Moses is giving them instructions about how they are to observe it. Everyone is to take a basket full of the first fruits of the season and setting it down in front of the altar they are to make the following declaration:
A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation….
The story of their enslavement follows, and the intervention by the Lord, God’s power displayed in the Exodus, and it concludes, tellingly,
Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and your house.
Reminder. God’s story is to be shared with those living in the land, including those who are not citizens per se. They are part of the family, and are sharing in the Thanksgiving. This is surprisingly similar to the founding of the American story. We came as economic refugees from the four corners of the earth. We struggled to live with each other as did those who came to the Promised Land at various times in the history. There were tensions and failures in the relationship, but at its heart, the dream is one of a people who identity is bound up with being the freed slaves – actual slavery, racial prejudice, economic slavery. It’s all a part of the story of Israel and Judea, culminating in the dream of all nations coming to the Old and New Jerusalem, whether we’re talking about Isaiah 2 and Micah 4, or Revelation 21-22.
Frank R.
* * *
Philippians 4:4-9
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to read these verses when the family gathers around the Thanksgiving table, or when the community gathers at your church table if yours is a congregation that hosts a community Thanksgiving meal. Philippi is not a dream church. Euodia and Suntyche, two women who may well be each the head of their own house church, are quarrelling and it greatly pains the apostle Paul. We all know what it’s like when the family, whether our family or the family of God, is quarrelling with each other. Let us not forget that the Lord is near! Near in both senses – on the way, and already close to us in our midst. The Greek word allows both meanings and I’m sure that’s what the apostle meant. So think on the good things, “whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise!” It’s easy, easier than ever, in the social media age to immerse ourselves in our phones, finding fault with others, and spreading that fault like wildfire. But cultivating the peace of God creates the harmony we are so lacking.
Frank R.
* * *
Philippians 4:4-9
I am a fan of the Peanuts comic strip. I came across one not long ago. In one cartoon Lucy says to Charlie Brown, “I hate everything. I hate everybody. I hate the whole wide world!”
Charlie says, “But I thought you had inner peace.”
Lucy replies, “I do have inner peace. But I still have outer obnoxiousness.”
Having the peace of God in our lives matters. C.S. Lewis once said, “God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.” The peace of God is available to all who come to him in prayer (vs. 6). In the middle of a chaotic and often confusing world, will you find the peace that God offers?
Bill T.
* * *
John 6:25-35
In an article entitled, “Bread: The Most Important Thing in Human History,” Grant’s Bakery in England notes, “Bread has been part of human history for centuries. It plays an integral role in our daily life and is a symbol of culture, history, hunger, wealth, war, and peace. It is indispensable and has been key in human survival. Bread created the structure of modern-day society and gave order to our way of living. Without this seemingly simple food, civilization wouldn’t exist in the way we know it today.”
The article notes that bread is the oldest food in the world that is not a product of foraging or hunting. It also states that bread is a universal food that is found in every country. The main point of the article is that everyone needs bread.
That is an important observation and maybe even more so when connected to the Bread of Life. Jesus notes, in this text, that it is the Father who gives the true bread from heaven (vs. 32). He also notes that the only way to never really get hungry again is to have the Bread of Life. He concludes by saying, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (vs. 35) Bread is vital and the Bread of Life is essential. Will you partake?
Bill T.
* * *
John 6:25-36
Unthankfulness, because we are so hung up on gaining the things of the world, was at epidemic proportions in Martin Luther’s day. His analysis, noting how this pertains to this text, is still relevant today:
There is no earning thanks from the world. Indeed, God Himself cannot earn any thanks with the sun, nay, with heaven and earth or even with the death of His own Son. (What Luther Says, p.1412)
To this point he adds:
Day and night everybody’s concern is how to make a living. This stimulates greed to the point where no one is content with what God provides and bestows… Everyone wants to get on better and have more… With this sermon the Lord endeavored to put a brake on such attitude and conduct. (Complete Sermons, Vol.7, p.16)
Indeed, the Reformer, laments, we are so messed up that even when we feel God’s Presence and gifts in our lives, we soon forget it:
For we know from experience that God has under His regimen people who no matter how God treats them, be it good or evil, whether He scourges them or brings them good news, forget about it almost instantly. The condition of the human heart is so desperately wicked that it immediately forgets what is past and keeps on badgering God to provide novel miracles and punishments when we ought to be stouthearted and remember His blessings; but they immediately forget His benefactions. (Complete Sermons, Vol.5, p.145)
Mark E.
