Thank God for His kingdom and righteousness.

 

Sermon for Thanksgiving, November 23, 2022

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.  Amen.

Matthew 6:25-34  For this reason I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  ²⁶Look at the birds of the air.  They do not sow or reap or gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not worth much more than they?  ²⁷Which of you can add a single moment to his lifespan by worrying?  ²⁸Why do you worry about clothing?  Consider how the lilies of the field grow.  They do not labor or spin, ²⁹but I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was dressed like one of these.  ³⁰If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will he not clothe you even more, you of little faith?  ³¹So do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?”  ³²For the unbelievers chase after all these things.  Certainly your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  ³³But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  ³⁴So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own. (EHV)

Thank God for His kingdom and righteousness.

Dear blest children of the heavenly Father,

            At thanksgiving, we take a day to give thanks to God for all the blessings He has poured out on us over the last year.  Now, some people might well wonder why we deem it necessary to set aside a day to thank God.  The sceptic and unbelievers hold that opinion, because they deny God’s glory and kindness.  However, even the honest believer might wonder because the faithful should be thanking God every moment of every day.  Truly, God blesses us at all times far more than we often realize.

However, I am becoming convinced that we need this special Thanksgiving Day in order to give thanks to God for taking away all my moments of unthankfulness, and that’s why this day is set aside so that we might especially Thank God for His kingdom and righteousness.

It is well and good that we take a day to remind ourselves of all the ways God has blessed us in the past year, a day to focus particularly on giving praise to God for His goodness to us.  At the same time, our text reminds us of how often we fail to trust and thank God for His goodness.  Jesus teaches us here that we truly should not be worrying about anything.  Worry about food?  Why should we?  God will provide, and if He doesn’t, what truly are we out?  Heaven is our home.

Worried about clothing or shelter or any of a thousand other worries of our time?  Why should we?  Every worry is simply a lack of trust in God and His providence.

However, who among us hasn’t worried about the political situation in our world?  Who among us hasn’t wondered why God allows certain troubles, hardships, disasters, and sorrows to come our way?  In fact, who among us hasn’t worried about a wide variety of things in advance?  Even though many of our worries never even come to pass. 

We live in a culture and time when much of what we hear in the media is little more than the rantings of professional worriers and the ravings of those who despise the God who created all things.  The voices shout out, “Take from the rich because they might be stealing from us all.”  “Look out for this danger!” and “Curses on that idea!”  “Beware the climate change; if we don’t fix it, the world will end in 3 or 5 or 12 or 50 years.”  Don’t you dare burn a piece of wood or coal, lest the ice of Antarctica will soon be gone.  Of course, I am exaggerating a bit, and truly we do want to be responsible stewards of the world God has blessed us to live in.  Yet, why so much fear?  Why so much acrimony against those other guys who do it differently than we?

Yes, it would be easy to accuse all kinds of people about sins against the environment, or more to the point sins of worry, but what about you and me?  In this past year, did we worry whether we would get enough rain?  Did we grumble about how the wind seemed to blow every day?  Was it too hot some days to suit us, or too cold?  Were the prices too high at the store or too low at the markets?  Did I have to go without some minor item for a little while?  Did I complain that I had to go to two or three stores to find what I was looking for?

Of course, it gets just as sticky when I think about my personal life.  How often did I complain about my spouse?  How often were my words unkind or thoughtless?  How often did I neglect to tell those I claim to love of how richly God has blessed me in them?  How often did I stew in grumpiness about being lonely instead of reaching out to another who might be just as lonely?  How often did I find the actions of others irritating, instead of putting the best construction on everything?  When I look at my seemingly unending list of faults, I can only plead, Lord have mercy on me, a sinner.

Jesus said, “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  We live in a broken world corrupted by the curse of sin and the sinful nature that infects every person on earth.  With death and evil and temptations hanging over everyone and everything, how could we expect not to have troubles? 

Worse yet, however, every time I worry, I am actually judging God to be unfaithful or uncaring.  Every time I cast judgment about the state of the world, I am placing myself in the judgment seat over both God and our neighbors.  Whenever I am worried or fearful, I am not loving God with all my heart and soul and mind.  And, every time I don’t put others’ needs above my own, I am failing to love as God commands us to love our neighbor. 

Thanks be to God, He has determined to save even wretched sinners like me, and like you.  Therefore, Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Thus, today, I certainly do want to thank God for giving me life, and love, and children, and food, and shelter, and the means to make a living, for the clothes He provides in abundance (just check my closet), the entertainments, and the kindness of friends and neighbors that God has placed around me.  I also thank God for the freedoms we still enjoy in our country, and the relative peace through which He protects me from harm.  I thank God for amazing us with weather and six inches of dirt that produces food for most everyone and everything on earth, for a solar system, oceans, lakes, rivers, and clouds by which God provides the rain and seasons.  I thank God for sunshine, air to breath, water to sustain my body, medical care, and restful sleep at the end of the day. 

However, first and foremost every day, Thank God for His kingdom and righteousness.  You see, all those bad things I do, all the worries and fears, all the hundreds and thousands of ways I fall short of perfectly loving my God and my neighbor, God doesn’t hold against me, because in His kingdom, all my sins and the sins of the world are forgiven because God’s Son Jesus (Who never once worried or doubted His Father’s plan) was willing to carry the guilt for us all to the cross and pay the penalty for you and me with His holy, innocent blood.  And though I am often troubled by the difficulties and sorrows of this world, Jesus assured us, “I have told you these things, so that you may have peace in me.  In this world you are going to have trouble.  But be courageous!  I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

Because I am often mystified about how crazy our world seems to be, I need regular reminding to wait patiently for God and to trust God’s plan, because He has declared, “Certainly my plans are not your plans, and your ways are not my ways, declares the Lord.  Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my plans are higher than your plans.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)  Though I am often tempted to judge others more harshly than myself, I am ever grateful that “God made him, who did not know sin, to become sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) 

God’s way of punishing sin doesn’t make sense to a world that wants justice for any fault, as long as the fault is someone else’s.  However, Jesus declared, “No one has greater love than this: that someone lays down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)  Then, “Having loved those who were his own in the world, [Jesus] loved them to the end.” (John 13:1)  Thank God that “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

Therefore, dear friends, as we give thanks to God tonight and tomorrow for the multitude blessings He pours out on us day after day, I pray that you will join with me just as much in giving thanks for all the things God takes away.  Because He has loved us with an everlasting love, the Lord took away our sins and counted our guilt as His own so that He would bear in our place the due penalty.  Because death is the just punishment for sinning against God, God’s Son took the death we deserved so that we could live—and live with Him forever in the glory, joy, and peace of heaven. 

Because the sinner always fears death, Jesus took away that need for fear by rising from the dead and promising, “Because I live, you also will live.” (John 14:19)  Furthermore, because of His love for you and me, “God our Savior,…wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:3-4)  Therefore, He made that happen in us by Word and Sacrament, washing us clean and connecting us with Christ’s life, death, and resurrection in Baptism so that through faith in Jesus forgiveness and everlasting life is ours.

Jesus took away any need to be afraid for our future by opening the gates of heaven to all who believe and inviting us in.  Jesus took away loneliness by promising to be with us always and never abandoning us to face the trials and sorrows of this world alone.

Jesus took away any reason to be afraid of what the world can do to us, or even what death might take away, because Jesus rose from the grave on the third day just as He had foretold.  Therefore, you can be confident in Jesus’ promise, “You believe in God; believe also in me.  In my Father’s house are many mansions.  If it were not so, I would have told you.  I am going to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that you may also be where I am.” (John 14:1-3)

As you give thanks to God this Thanksgiving, remember that God always knows exactly what you need and provides it.  First and foremost, you and I need His kingdom and His righteousness, because that is our ticket to forgiveness of all sins, and our sure and certain hope of life everlasting in heaven.  Today and every day, Thank God for His kingdom and righteousness.  Amen.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.  As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, forevermore.  Amen.