Peace and Thanksgiving

Preached on Lord’s Day Morning, November 23, 2008, by

 The Rev. Dr. S. Randall Toms

 At St. Paul’s Reformed Episcopal Church, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. (Col. 3:15)

During the season of Thanksgiving, we celebrate the harvest.   For countless generations, the people of God have had harvest festivals to celebrate God’s goodness to us.  The children of Israel had harvest festivals, and, in the history of Church, Christian people have had various festivals to celebrate the ingathering of the harvest, even long before that Thanksgiving of the Pilgrim Fathers that we especially remember in this month of November.    Although celebrating the fourth Thursday in November as a day of Thanksgiving is not a Scriptural command, I would say that it is almost a sin not to celebrate Thanksgiving.  It is not a sin necessarily to refuse to celebrate a certain Thursday in November, but it is a sin not to celebrate it every day of our lives.  For Thanksgiving just means that we set aside some time to thank God for all the blessings that he has given to us. 

Since we are celebrating Thanksgiving in our home this weekend, I have spent most of the week cooking.  I love this time of year when the smell of pecans, spices, pumpkin, all kinds of desserts and traditional Thanksgiving meats fill our homes.  During this season, food and the comforts of home seem to say to us, “It’s Fall.  It’s Thanksgiving.  Sit down.  Eat to your heart’s content.  Be full.  Be peaceful.”  What a wonderful thing it is just to sit in a warm house and do nothing but nibble on cake.  What a peaceful feeling it is!

There is a relationship between peace and thanksgiving.  In Colossians 3:15, Paul says, “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.”  The phrase, “and be ye thankful,” seems an offhand addition to what Paul has been teaching.  He has been telling these Christians to put on the new man that has the characteristics of our Lord Jesus Christ:  compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, longsuffering, forgiveness, love, and peace.  And then it seems that out of nowhere Paul just adds this little exhortation, “and be ye thankful.”  But this phrase is not a disconnected addendum to the list.  There is a relationship between peace and thankfulness.  The thankful person is a peaceful person.  For that reason, many of us will sit down on Thursday evening, feeling full, feeling thankful, and feeling peaceful.

I know that it might seem quite difficult to feel thankful and peaceful at a time when our nation is in such turmoil because of the financial crisis, wars and rumors of wars, and political upheaval.  There may be things that are happening in your life at the present time with family, work, or health issues that make it very difficult for you to feel peaceful and thankful.  But no matter how much difficulty you are experiencing, or how anxious you may be about the future, you still have so many reasons to give thanks.

For what are you thankful at this Thanksgiving season?  If you ask the typical American, “For what are you thankful?”, you would probably get the same general answers.  We could says things like, “I’m thankful for my spouse, my children, my home, my health, my family, my church, my friends, a job, and minor things like books, music, shrimp, and steak.  But if you ask the Christian, “For what are you thankful,” you should be prepared to sit a while and listen to a long list of items, for the Christian has an infinite number of things for which to be thankful.  Let me mention just a few this morning.

First, no matter the circumstances in our lives, we can always be thankful that God is sovereign, ruling over all things and working everything according to the counsel of his own will.   Let us never forget that even when terrible things are happening, those events do not mean that God has lost control and is no longer sovereign.  To what degree is God sovereign in this world?  Job answers that for us in Job 12:14-25:

 Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again: he shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening. Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up: also he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth. With him is strength and wisdom: the deceived and the deceiver are his.  He leadeth counsellers away spoiled, and maketh the judges fools. He looseth the bond of kings, and girdeth their loins with a girdle. He leadeth princes away spoiled, and overthroweth the mighty. He removeth away the speech of the trusty, and taketh away the understanding of the aged. He poureth contempt upon princes, and weakeneth the strength of the mighty. He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death. He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them: he enlargeth the nations, and straiteneth them again. He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way. They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man. 

As you can see, God is absolutely in control of our world.   He is in control of what nations rise in power and what leaders ascend to prominence.   In Psalm 24:1, we read, “The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.”    The Christian gives thanks that everybody on this planet is under God’s rule and authority, and he does with them as he pleases.  We live in a time when people do not give thanks for a sovereign God.  The people of our generation would curse such a God.  The only people who can be thankful for a sovereign God are those who have been born again of the Spirit of God, those know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, those who have been given new hearts to believe in the God of Scripture. 

The saints of old gave thanks for a sovereign God.  In that portion of Scripture we know as the Song of Hannah, we read,

And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart rejoiceth in the LORD, mine horn is exalted in the LORD: my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; because I rejoice in thy salvation. There is none holy as the LORD: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God. Talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogancy come out of your mouth: for the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength. They that were full have hired out themselves for bread; and they that were hungry ceased: so that the barren hath born seven; and she that hath many children is waxed feeble. The LORD killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up. The LORD maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the LORD's, and he hath set the world upon them. He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail.  The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: the LORD shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed. (I Sam. 2:1-10)

The saints of old gave thanks for a sovereign God who killed and made alive, who made poor and made rich.  The God for whom they gave thanks was a God in whose sovereign hands was life and death, wealth and poverty.    

It is an amazing thing that when we give thanks during this time of year, our thanksgiving is so man-centered.  People, especially in the media, leave God out of Thanksgiving Day altogether.  We have turned Thanksgiving day into day to give thanks to one another, or to be thankful for the luck of the draw that we just happen, entirely by accident, to live in a place where prosperity is possible and that we luckily have the health we need to achieve it. 

But the saints of old knew that health and wealth were in the hands of a sovereign God.  Let us give thanks that God is sovereign in providence, ordaining all that comes to pass in our lives.  Job believed in a God who was that sovereign.  Job loses everything.  His servants are killed with the sword, fire falls from heaven and burns the sheep and the servants, he lost all his camels, a great wind comes and strikes the four corners of the house, and it falls on his children, killing them all.   Nevertheless, Job responds to all of this by saying, “The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21).    Job knew that God had given him everything that he had, and if it was taken way, even through the instrumentality of Satan, it was still of God, and Job gave thanks by saying, “Blessed be the name of the Lord.”  When Job’s wife tells him to curse God and die, we read of Job’s response:  “But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips” (Job 2:10).  Job knew that even adversity was from the hand of God.  If you want real peace in your life, give thanks for a God who controls all events in our lives, good and bad.  Give thanks for a God who is so sovereign that even if adversity comes, he is also sovereign enough to make it work out for the good of his people.

We give thanks for a God who so sovereign that all the nations of the world are under his sovereign authority.  The Psalmist said, “Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding. God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness. The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham: for the shields of the earth belong unto God: he is greatly exalted” (Ps 47:6-9).  God reigns over all the nations of the world.  The United States, China, Russia, Iraq, and Iran are all under his sovereign control.  If you want peace of mind when it seems that the nations of the world are carrying us toward annihilation, remember that God is sovereign over even those nations and their rulers.

Is it possible to have peace in a world where there are so many tragedies, difficulties, pains, and sorrows?  So often it seems as though the world is spinning out of control.  Is there any way we can have peace in such times.  Yes!  Give thanks for a sovereign God, and see if the peace of God doesn’t flood your souls as you rest in the truth that God rules over all.

Next, we can always be thankful for the goodness of God.  God has been good to us.  Six times in Scripture we are commanded to give thanks to God simply because he is good:

I Chron. 16:34-- O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.

Psalm 106:1-- Praise ye the LORD. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

Psalm 107:1-- O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

Psalm 118:1-- O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever.

Psalm 118:29-- O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

Psalm 136:1-- O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

It is interesting that so many of the Psalms begin with this idea that we should give thanks because God is good.  As we look back over the history of the world and the history of our own lives, we should be able to give thanks for the goodness of God.  God has been good to his people.  Actually, God has been good to everyone.

In Acts 14 we have the account of how the people of Lystra thought that Paul and Barnabas were gods because of the miracle they had done.  The people wanted to offer sacrifices to them, but Paul objects in the following manner:

And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.  Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.  (Acts 14:15-17). 

Some people have wondered why this one true and living God did not reveal himself to all people.  Paul says it is true that in time past, God allowed the nations to walk in their own ways.  In other words, God did not reveal himself to all people in the special way that he revealed himself to Israel.  God had not appeared on a mountain to all people, giving them his law in writing as he had done to Israel.  But that is not to say that God had not revealed himself to people in other ways.  He revealed himself in nature, and he revealed himself in the consciences of all people.    Paul says that even in those other nations, he had not left himself without witness.  Though God may not have given the law to the other nations in the same way he did to Israel, he did witness to the other nations.  Even before any missionaries went out into the world, even before Christ came, even before God revealed himself to Israel, in all place and in all times, God was witnessing.  God has always been telling people about himself.  Notice that Paul says that God’s chief witness to all the nations is that he has been good:  “He left not himself without witness, in that he did good.”  God is a good God, and he does good things. 

This Thanksgiving, let us celebrate the goodness of God, for when he reveals himself, he loves to reveal the fact that he is good.  His goodness is part of his glory.  When God answered Moses’ request to see his glory, the Lord said in Exodus 33:19, “I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.”  We should always be celebrating the goodness of God.  One of the first prayers many people teach their children is the simple, “God is great, God is God.”  Even if you never become a much greater theologian than understanding those two truths, if you fully comprehend that God is great and God is good, you will have surpassed the theological knowledge of most people.  The Psalmist never got over the goodness of the Lord, as he invites us, “O taste and see that the LORD is good” (Ps. 34:8).  We read in Psalm 33:5, “the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.”  This goodness of God is an inescapable fact of life.  The Psalmist said in Psalm 145:9: “The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.”  As people look around themselves and see all of this world, they should be exclaiming, “God is good.”  His universal goodness is his universal witness. 

Paul mentions just a few a ways in which God has been good to all.  For example, part of God’s goodness is that he gives us rain.  Here in South Louisiana we became very used to frequent rains, but since Gustav, we have had very little rain.  How thankful we are when God in his providence does finally send the rain.  But notice again that he sends his rain, not just to Israel, not just to Christian people.  Rain is a sign of his universal goodness.  Remember how our Lord Jesus put it in Matthew 5:44-5:  “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” Rain is God saying to the whole world, “I am a good God.”  Even the rain gives us a feeling of peace for it reminds us that God is a good God.

Then Paul says that another way in which God reveals his goodness is that he gives us fruitful seasons.  Some years ago, I took Bettyna and Rebekah to the Centroplex to hear the symphony orchestra perform Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, which is Bettyna’s favorite piece of music in the whole world.  She has it on CD, but that was her first opportunity to hear it performed live, and it was so beautiful.  I remember that before each season was performed, a narrator read the poetry connected with that particular season.  The poem for “Fall” contains the lines:

The peasant celebrates the blissful pleasure

Of a happy harvest with dances and songs.

The air, tempered by pleasure, makes

Everyone give up dances and songs.

It is the season that invites so many

To the great enjoyment of sleep.

Do you see how thankfulness for the harvest results in the peaceful “enjoyment of sleep”?

                Maybe since we are so far from the original source of production, we don’t understand the goodness of God in the harvest.  We go to the supermarket every day, and we are surrounded by food.  But think of what it meant in earlier times in history to go all the year depending on the harvest seasons.  You would have been so thankful that no locusts had destroyed the crop.  You would have been grateful that no hail, flood, or tornado had torn through your field and taken everything away. 

Every time you walk into a supermarket, you ought to engage in a little thanksgiving:  “Thank you, God, for your goodness in that you have given us fruitful seasons.”  Every time we pass a field of corn, every time we get behind one of those big trucks with sugar cane looking as if it is going to fall everywhere, we should see that abundance as God’s universal witness of his goodness.  That is God saying, “I give fruitful seasons.  I am a good God.”

                Then Paul says that all of this rain and fruitful seasons fill our heart with food and gladness.  I like the way Paul joins these things:  full, food, gladness.  It is appropriate, after all, to celebrate Thanksgiving the way we do.  It is a holiday, full of fun, laughter, and food.  Lots of food.  Lots and lots of food.  How do you feel at the end of Thanksgiving Day?  We usually filled stuffed, don’t we?  Good!  You should feel full.  God is a God who delights in a full, stuffed people. When God gave the people of Israel encouragement to keep his laws, he said,  “And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full; Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage” (Deut. 6:10-12).  God delights when his people are full, and this fullness should lead to obedience to his commandments, out of gratitude for all that he has done for us.

                Thanksgiving should be a time of total contentment.   Going back to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons for a moment, the Winter movement has to be one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written.  The poem for the Winter movement goes like this:

Before the fire to pass peaceful,

Contented while the rain outside pours down.

To walk on the ice and, at slow pace

(For fear of falling), move carefully.

To make a bold turn, slip, fall down.

To go on the ice once more and run hard

Until the ice crack and breaks up.

To hear the Sirocco, Boreas, and all

The winds at war, leave their iron gates.

That is winter, but, even so, what joy it brings.

I especially like the lines, “Before the fire to pass peaceful,/Contented days while the rain outside pours down.”  The days of harvest should bring us contentment as we rest in the knowledge that we are full because God has given us fruitful seasons, and now, through the winter months, we can sit by the fire and enjoy the fruit of our labors, full and glad.

                One of the great sins that we commit against God is the sin of not being thankful.  In Romans 1: 18-21, Paul wrote,

 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Forsaking the true and living God for dumb idols is a horrible sin, but in the midst of that description of terrible iniquity, Paul throws in the sin of not being thankful.  Not being thankful is a form of idolatry, for it says that we believe that someone or something other than God is the source of our blessings.  One of the interesting things about the day of judgment is that people who lived their lives in rebellion against God will appear before him as plum, well-fed sinners who had enormous pleasures in this life, but were never thankful to God.

                Rain, fruitful seasons, and fullness are abundant proof that God is good.  All nations have always had this evidence that God was good.  But since the coming of Christ, God has shown his goodness in another way.  He has sent his Son, and he has sent his people into all the world to tell them the good news that a Savior has come.  It is in the sending of Jesus Christ, that the goodness of God has been displayed in its greatest glory.  Paul said in II  Thess 2:11-12,  “Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power: That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”  Don’t you just love that phrase, “the good pleasure of his goodness” ?  The good pleasure of his goodness is that Christ would be glorified in us. 

                The ultimate reason for Thanksgiving is that God sent his Son to die on the cross for our sins so that he might be glorified in us.  As you know, the word for Eucharist means “thanksgiving.”  Every communion service is a Thanksgiving service.  In the Prayer of Oblation, we remember our Lord’s death, resurrection, and ascension, and in this sacrament we are “rendering most hearty thanks for the innumerable benefits procured unto us by the same” (BCP 81).  We  pray that God would “accept this our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving” (81).  And then in words that should sound very familiar in the light of today’s sermon, when the cup is given to you, those who serve say, “The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life.  Drink this in remembrance that Christ’s blood was shed for thee, and be thankful.”  “And be thankful.”  That phrase sounds almost like it is just tacked on much as this phrase in Col. 3:15.  But these words are not just rhetorical flourishes.  “And be thankful.”  Be thankful that Christ’s blood was shed for you, and be thankful that by the merits and death of Jesus Christ, by virtue of his blood, you will be preserved, body, and soul, unto everlasting life.  As you kneel here, let those words ring in your ears:  “and be thankful.”  Though we only take a small piece of bread and a sip of wine, we should leave feeling full for all the blessings of this life and the life to come have been granted to us by the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

                As you can see, we should be thankful, and therefore, peaceful.  God is sovereign.  He has been good to us.  Christ died for us.  As we enter upon this Thanksgiving season, I ask you to think about this question, “When was the last time you meditated on God’s goodness to you?”  In all of our hectic and pressure-filled days, when we are so filed with murmuring and complaining about our wants and lacks, have you ever really considered how good God has been to you?  If we ever really thought about the goodness of God, how he has been good to us all our days, how would we ever be able to complain again? God is good to all, and he proclaims his goodness in all the earth every single day of our lives.    If you are troubled or anxious in any way, give thanks, and see if the peace of Christ doesn’t rule in your hearts.  If you really want peace of mind and heart, replace your complaining and murmuring with thankfulness for the sovereignty of God and the goodness of God.  Being thankful is the surest path to peace.