The Day Of Thanksgiving
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VI, Cycle A
COMMENTARY ON THE LESSONS
Lesson 1: Deuteronomy 8:7-18 (C)
The writer tells of God's beneficence in bringing the people into an idyllic land where everything is fresh and growing, with lush vegetation, healthy cattle, and resources by which the people may acquire silver and gold. But they are to keep in mind always that none of this would have been theirs, or could have been theirs, had it not been for God. Therefore, they are not to feel proud and self-important. They are to keep God's commandments and live modestly.
Although the obvious theme for the day is Thanksgiving, this could be used as a stewardship sermon. Certainly it's a reminder to us that the good things of life are jointly owned by God and us, and we will have to give them over all too soon. Best that we also live according to God's commandments and remember gratefully from whom these things came.
Lesson 2: 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 (C)
Paul, as did the Deuteronomist, reminds his readers that God has supplied us with everything needed for an abundant life. But one reason this was done is so that we will have an excess to share with others. If we are ungenerous with what we have, the benefits which otherwise might have been ours will be small. If we are generous, those benefits will be many for us as well. And in all this, we are to be grateful to God for what we have. There's our sermon.
Gospel: Luke 17:11-19 (C)
The ten lepers were healed and only one came to thank Jesus. Though their healing was apparently accomplished in part by their appearance before the priests, it was presumably obvious that Jesus had made the healing possible. We have here nine thankless lepers and one grateful man. We also have Jesus' observation that their faith is what made them well. We also have the fact that the one grateful man was a Samaritan, a non-Israelite. It's likely that these men attributed to the priests the final authority to recognize the healing and to explain to the community which has known these men as untouchables that they are now clean.
Maybe the most striking facet to this story is the part that faith played in the healing. In our day, we know that if we have no faith, it's difficult for God to work in our lives. This raises an interesting bit of speculation. In Jesus' time there was no such thing as scientific knowledge. If a man threw a stone in the air, he expected it to come back down, but only because up to now it always had. He did not know that there was any particular reason, such as natural law, which ensured that it would come down. The lepers, likewise, had no way of knowing that there was a medical explanation for their illness (nor that hundreds of years later a cure would be found). Today we know these things, which makes it much more difficult to have faith in forces outside the known natural laws. Is it possible that healings of the time of Jesus were possible because people found it easy to believe that a man might have such powers, whereas today we think we know better? Good question. We certainly know how much our own psychological state plays a part. Suppose a man is walking on a board fifty feet long and two feet wide as it lies on the ground. Any of us with normal balance could do that easily. But if that same board were placed on the window sills of two windows across from each other on the 25th floors of two buildings, could we then? I couldn't. I don't like heights. Yet the task is the same. It's the attitude which is different and makes me unable. Faith is something like that. It makes things possible, or impossible, according to how much faith we have.
SERMON SUGGESTIONS
Title: "Thank God"
Text: Deuteronomy 8:11, 17-18; 2 Corinthians 9:15
Theme: Both passages sound essentially the same note: "Thank you, God, for all that we have." This does, of course, leave open some questions. I'd like a little credit too, thank you very much. If I have put in overtime, worked harder than the next guy and used the abilities I have been given to the best of my capacity, I'm not quite ready to assume that God did it if I make a success out of my life. What God did was give me life, supply me with certain skills and some woeful limitations, then say "go to it, friend." Of course I frequently went back to God with requests for more strength, or more wisdom, so God does get part of the credit. Also, since I live in a land rich with farm produce, and charming scenery, together with the materials I need for clothing and shelter, God deserves credit for that too. I guess what it amounts to is that we are in partnership. Call it a covenant. God has said: "Carver, if you'll do your part, I'll do mine. But don't expect me to do your work for you." I must say, however, that I often have a strange feeling that Someone is just out of view, giving me an occasional guiding hand.
1. God wants me to do my part. There's hard work to be done in this life. People who think they should get through the easy way have it wrong. The world is arranged that way. Just about everything worth having comes at the cost of hard work. Those people who receive it the easy way usually -- not always -- don't end up with much character.
2. God has equipped us according to our mission. As earlier discussed, we don't all have the same skills or equal abilities. God measures us by what we have to work with, and in such a complex world a myriad of skills are needed. We should not complain or feel jealous of
others. God promises it will all even out.
3. We are to work according to God's rules of life. Those who violate the law of love for others will never be truly happy or successful.
4. We are to be grateful for what we have, not resentful of our limitations. The world rewards some skills much more richly than it does others, but God will surely even that out.
5. True gratitude enriches us. When I am grateful for what I have received, it brings an inner peace and disarms any envy I have. Just this week we had dinner in the home of a highly successful surgeon who showed the rest of us his new putting green, the elaborate new landscaping of his back lawn, and while he was at it, he showed us his new home theater -- a sixty-inch projection screen, coupled with two standard-size television sets, so he could see what was on other channels. Their lower floor (can't call that a mere basement) was remodeled into an entertainment center. My first reaction to all of this was jealousy. But after I reflected, I reasoned that God has given me a loving family, good health, a vocation I love, and many friends. I have no reason to envy any other person. I discovered that my gratitude for what I have totally eradicated any envy of my friend.
Title: "The Attitude Of Gratitude"
Text: Luke 17:11-19
Theme: Jesus told the lepers that their faith had made them well. That raises another issue. Did Jesus do something to heal them? Was their faith only part of the equation, requiring some action on Jesus' part as well, or did Jesus only serve as a means to their faith in the first place? I don't know much about leprosy, whether it has psychosomatic connections or not. Frankly, every time I decide healing of that sort doesn't happen these days, I hear of some dramatic healing. Then when I begin to think "maybe," I see some thoroughly devout person whose faith I suspect is greater than mine die in pain. What I do believe is that faith can work profoundly through the human mind and insofar as emotional psychic forces heal, it is possible. I have also decided that there are purely physical elements which faith cannot overcome. But forms of healing do take place.
1. God wills our good health. There are forces in this world which can work against our health: microbes, genetic defects, accidents emotional problems. Some of these are amenable to a healthy, faith-filled attitude, and thus some forms of healing do result from faith. Some of the causes of illness can be overcome with modern medicine. Again, I thank God for medical people and for research companies. Still, there are forces we are not yet able to overcome, and these cause continued illness and death.
2. God enables us to deal with disabling conditions. Courage in the face of fear. Inner strength to deal with pain. Of great importance is the ability to grow and become better people as a result of these unpleasant realities. Faith still plays a major part in illness and other disabilities even when a cure is not likely.
3. God wants us to acknowledge the results of his healing powers with gratitude. That attitude not only offers back to God deserved praise, it also helps further prepare our minds for health and happiness.
ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS
A few years ago, I passed a bus loaded with teenagers. It had obviously broken down and two or three adults were looking at the engine. I stopped and learned they were a church youth group heading home from a work project in the southern part of this country. It was late and they were a hundred miles from home. So I chauffeured them to my church nearby and made sure they were all settled in for the night. We let them use the telephone to call home, found a store that was open and bought donuts and soft drinks, and they all found places to sleep. The next morning a mechanic was found to fix the bus. As they pulled out of our parking lot, the man in charge of the kids said to me, "We are so grateful to God for taking care of us." I must admit I wanted to say (but didn't), "What about me? I'm the one who took care of you." However, I also wonder if God had a hand in my choice of time and route to drive home as I did, thus seeing the bus.
____________
I saw a friend last week who was deemed by physicians to be in the late stages of terminal cancer four-and-a-half years ago. Today she is healthy. One Sunday back then I asked our entire congregation in worship to pray for this woman, to pray that she be healed. There were nearly 3,000 in worship that day, and we all prayed for her. A short time later she went into remission, returned to a normal life, and has not, as of now, experienced any return of her cancer.
____________
Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 65 -- "Praise is due to you, O God"
Prayer Of The Day
In gratitude we come to thee, O God. Thou hast blessed us each in
ways too numerous to know and understand. We are grateful for this and for all the blessings yet to come. Amen.
Lesson 1: Deuteronomy 8:7-18 (C)
The writer tells of God's beneficence in bringing the people into an idyllic land where everything is fresh and growing, with lush vegetation, healthy cattle, and resources by which the people may acquire silver and gold. But they are to keep in mind always that none of this would have been theirs, or could have been theirs, had it not been for God. Therefore, they are not to feel proud and self-important. They are to keep God's commandments and live modestly.
Although the obvious theme for the day is Thanksgiving, this could be used as a stewardship sermon. Certainly it's a reminder to us that the good things of life are jointly owned by God and us, and we will have to give them over all too soon. Best that we also live according to God's commandments and remember gratefully from whom these things came.
Lesson 2: 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 (C)
Paul, as did the Deuteronomist, reminds his readers that God has supplied us with everything needed for an abundant life. But one reason this was done is so that we will have an excess to share with others. If we are ungenerous with what we have, the benefits which otherwise might have been ours will be small. If we are generous, those benefits will be many for us as well. And in all this, we are to be grateful to God for what we have. There's our sermon.
Gospel: Luke 17:11-19 (C)
The ten lepers were healed and only one came to thank Jesus. Though their healing was apparently accomplished in part by their appearance before the priests, it was presumably obvious that Jesus had made the healing possible. We have here nine thankless lepers and one grateful man. We also have Jesus' observation that their faith is what made them well. We also have the fact that the one grateful man was a Samaritan, a non-Israelite. It's likely that these men attributed to the priests the final authority to recognize the healing and to explain to the community which has known these men as untouchables that they are now clean.
Maybe the most striking facet to this story is the part that faith played in the healing. In our day, we know that if we have no faith, it's difficult for God to work in our lives. This raises an interesting bit of speculation. In Jesus' time there was no such thing as scientific knowledge. If a man threw a stone in the air, he expected it to come back down, but only because up to now it always had. He did not know that there was any particular reason, such as natural law, which ensured that it would come down. The lepers, likewise, had no way of knowing that there was a medical explanation for their illness (nor that hundreds of years later a cure would be found). Today we know these things, which makes it much more difficult to have faith in forces outside the known natural laws. Is it possible that healings of the time of Jesus were possible because people found it easy to believe that a man might have such powers, whereas today we think we know better? Good question. We certainly know how much our own psychological state plays a part. Suppose a man is walking on a board fifty feet long and two feet wide as it lies on the ground. Any of us with normal balance could do that easily. But if that same board were placed on the window sills of two windows across from each other on the 25th floors of two buildings, could we then? I couldn't. I don't like heights. Yet the task is the same. It's the attitude which is different and makes me unable. Faith is something like that. It makes things possible, or impossible, according to how much faith we have.
SERMON SUGGESTIONS
Title: "Thank God"
Text: Deuteronomy 8:11, 17-18; 2 Corinthians 9:15
Theme: Both passages sound essentially the same note: "Thank you, God, for all that we have." This does, of course, leave open some questions. I'd like a little credit too, thank you very much. If I have put in overtime, worked harder than the next guy and used the abilities I have been given to the best of my capacity, I'm not quite ready to assume that God did it if I make a success out of my life. What God did was give me life, supply me with certain skills and some woeful limitations, then say "go to it, friend." Of course I frequently went back to God with requests for more strength, or more wisdom, so God does get part of the credit. Also, since I live in a land rich with farm produce, and charming scenery, together with the materials I need for clothing and shelter, God deserves credit for that too. I guess what it amounts to is that we are in partnership. Call it a covenant. God has said: "Carver, if you'll do your part, I'll do mine. But don't expect me to do your work for you." I must say, however, that I often have a strange feeling that Someone is just out of view, giving me an occasional guiding hand.
1. God wants me to do my part. There's hard work to be done in this life. People who think they should get through the easy way have it wrong. The world is arranged that way. Just about everything worth having comes at the cost of hard work. Those people who receive it the easy way usually -- not always -- don't end up with much character.
2. God has equipped us according to our mission. As earlier discussed, we don't all have the same skills or equal abilities. God measures us by what we have to work with, and in such a complex world a myriad of skills are needed. We should not complain or feel jealous of
others. God promises it will all even out.
3. We are to work according to God's rules of life. Those who violate the law of love for others will never be truly happy or successful.
4. We are to be grateful for what we have, not resentful of our limitations. The world rewards some skills much more richly than it does others, but God will surely even that out.
5. True gratitude enriches us. When I am grateful for what I have received, it brings an inner peace and disarms any envy I have. Just this week we had dinner in the home of a highly successful surgeon who showed the rest of us his new putting green, the elaborate new landscaping of his back lawn, and while he was at it, he showed us his new home theater -- a sixty-inch projection screen, coupled with two standard-size television sets, so he could see what was on other channels. Their lower floor (can't call that a mere basement) was remodeled into an entertainment center. My first reaction to all of this was jealousy. But after I reflected, I reasoned that God has given me a loving family, good health, a vocation I love, and many friends. I have no reason to envy any other person. I discovered that my gratitude for what I have totally eradicated any envy of my friend.
Title: "The Attitude Of Gratitude"
Text: Luke 17:11-19
Theme: Jesus told the lepers that their faith had made them well. That raises another issue. Did Jesus do something to heal them? Was their faith only part of the equation, requiring some action on Jesus' part as well, or did Jesus only serve as a means to their faith in the first place? I don't know much about leprosy, whether it has psychosomatic connections or not. Frankly, every time I decide healing of that sort doesn't happen these days, I hear of some dramatic healing. Then when I begin to think "maybe," I see some thoroughly devout person whose faith I suspect is greater than mine die in pain. What I do believe is that faith can work profoundly through the human mind and insofar as emotional psychic forces heal, it is possible. I have also decided that there are purely physical elements which faith cannot overcome. But forms of healing do take place.
1. God wills our good health. There are forces in this world which can work against our health: microbes, genetic defects, accidents emotional problems. Some of these are amenable to a healthy, faith-filled attitude, and thus some forms of healing do result from faith. Some of the causes of illness can be overcome with modern medicine. Again, I thank God for medical people and for research companies. Still, there are forces we are not yet able to overcome, and these cause continued illness and death.
2. God enables us to deal with disabling conditions. Courage in the face of fear. Inner strength to deal with pain. Of great importance is the ability to grow and become better people as a result of these unpleasant realities. Faith still plays a major part in illness and other disabilities even when a cure is not likely.
3. God wants us to acknowledge the results of his healing powers with gratitude. That attitude not only offers back to God deserved praise, it also helps further prepare our minds for health and happiness.
ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS
A few years ago, I passed a bus loaded with teenagers. It had obviously broken down and two or three adults were looking at the engine. I stopped and learned they were a church youth group heading home from a work project in the southern part of this country. It was late and they were a hundred miles from home. So I chauffeured them to my church nearby and made sure they were all settled in for the night. We let them use the telephone to call home, found a store that was open and bought donuts and soft drinks, and they all found places to sleep. The next morning a mechanic was found to fix the bus. As they pulled out of our parking lot, the man in charge of the kids said to me, "We are so grateful to God for taking care of us." I must admit I wanted to say (but didn't), "What about me? I'm the one who took care of you." However, I also wonder if God had a hand in my choice of time and route to drive home as I did, thus seeing the bus.
____________
I saw a friend last week who was deemed by physicians to be in the late stages of terminal cancer four-and-a-half years ago. Today she is healthy. One Sunday back then I asked our entire congregation in worship to pray for this woman, to pray that she be healed. There were nearly 3,000 in worship that day, and we all prayed for her. A short time later she went into remission, returned to a normal life, and has not, as of now, experienced any return of her cancer.
____________
Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 65 -- "Praise is due to you, O God"
Prayer Of The Day
In gratitude we come to thee, O God. Thou hast blessed us each in
ways too numerous to know and understand. We are grateful for this and for all the blessings yet to come. Amen.
