Sermon 27th May 2018
Text: John 3:1-17 – Thanksgiving
From an early age we are taught to
say “please” and “thankyou”.
We might hold something out before a
child and say – “what do you say” and we wait until they say “please”.
And as soon as we then give it to
them the next question comes – “now what do you say” – hoping they will say
thank you.
Hopefully over the years those please
and thankyous will come more naturally rather than as a response to a
directive.
And even though we at times give
something to someone from the goodness of our hearts without expecting anything
in return, if they don’t say “thank you” we might reconsider giving them
something again.
God is not dependant on our thanks
before he gives us anything.
In fact, as we hear in the bible – it
was while we were sinners that Christ died for us.
It was while we didn’t deserve
anything that God gave us everything.
So why is it good – perhaps even
important – for us to give thanks to God?
Is it for God’s sake that we learn to
thank God?
No!
It’s for ours.
And that’s because of our human
tendency is to become complacent about what God has gifted us with.
We see it so often in society that
instead of being thankful for what we have received we become ungrateful and
complain about what we have not received.
Even those that receive welfare come
to expect it as their right rather than a generosity.
It’s human nature that goes right
back to Adam and Eve who while they had everything given to them from God, they
looked for the one thing God asked them to leave alone.
Instead of being thankful for the
life and all the gifts God gave to them they believe the temptation of the
devil that there was still more that God owed them.
The bible shows that even the most
loved and dedicated servants of God easily fall back into the same ways of
greed when they stop giving thanks to God.
King David, the benchmark of all
Kings in the Old Testament – loved and favoured by God – even he allowed his
greed to replace his thankfulness:
When David took another man’s wife -
the Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him he told David a story:
He said, “There were two men in a
certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number
of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he
had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared
his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter
to him.
“Now a traveller came to the rich
man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to
prepare a meal for the traveller who had come to him.
Instead, he took the ewe lamb that
belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”
David burned with anger against the
man.
He couldn’t see that he was the one
being described in the story.
He said to Nathan, “As surely as the
Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times
over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”
Then Nathan said to David, “You are
the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king
over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s
house to you. I gave your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel
and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even
more.
Notice the character of God in that
rebuke of Nathan to David.
I gave you your master’s house.
I gave you all Israel and Judah.
I would have given you even more.
And that is the nature of God – to
give.
Just as he gave Adam and Eve life and
gave them all that they needed for life – we hear in our Gospel reading that
giving continues despite our rebellion.
God loved the world so much that he
gave us his one and only Son.
When we come to Holy Communion today
for the first time they will hear the invitation and response:
Let us give thanks to Lord –
And the response – for that is
fitting and right.
It is truly fitting and right that we
should at all times and in all places give thanks to you O Lord, Holy Father,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Giving thanks helps us to remember
that all that we have, even if we’ve worked hard and long hours for it, is
still a gift from God.
As Martin Luther explained in the Apostles’
Creed – I believe that God has created me and all that exists. He has given me
and still preserves my body and soul with all their powers. He provides me with
food and clothing, home and family, daily work and all I need from day to day.
All this he does out of fatherly and
divine goodness and mercy though I do not deserve it. Therefore I surely ought
to thank and praise, serve and obey him.
How easy it is to slip back into the
understanding that everything I have comes from the sweat of MY brow – so why
should I thank anyone for it.
And that’s when we begin to lose the
joy of everything.
We don’t see what we have as
blessings from God but things I’ve earnt and deserved.
And then we begin to see all of life
like that we and believe we deserve more.
And when we see others blessed by God
we aren’t thankful but resentful.
What did they do to deserve that?
But what did we do to deserve Jesus
dying for OUR sins?
Giving thanks is an important part of
our children’s development but we must never forget to give thanks as we
mature.
Because it reminds us that God is the
giver of all that we have.
And even in times where we think that
we have not much to be thankful for, we can join with King David and his Psalm
of thanksgiving, Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures
forever.
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