“THANKSGIVING EVE 2024”
Saint Luke 17: 11-19
Eve of a Day of General Thanksgiving: November 27 Anno Domini 2024
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
Your “old Adams” would not have been thankful that Christ passed through the midst of Galilee and entered a Samaritan village. You would have been like the “12” and looked down on those second-class half-breeds. And it comes to pass this evening that you still have a triumphal and superior attitude towards many others; others who belong to The Good Shepherd, made in His image.
But The Lord was thankful for another opportunity to show Who He was and what He had come to do.
Only God, The One Who made nature and Who is above nature—supranatural—can cure leprosy with but His Word. As to why? Well that is the reason to always give thanks: “He saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” [Mk. 2.17]. We all give thanks that it appears those leprous men knew that Christ was The God/Physician sent to miserable men such as themselves. For they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus (i.e., Savior), Master (i.e., Rabbi/Teacher/Lord) have mercy on us.” This is akin to the famous “Jesus prayer” made famous by the Eastern Orthodox but now used in the West my Lutheran such as we: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
All ten former lepers gave thanksgiving no doubt in their hearts, but one, a Samaritan, came back to God in the flesh and glorified Him with his physical acts of thanksgiving—prostrating himself at Christ’s feet and “giving Him thanks.” Do you do, likewise?
Sure, some of the times. If your loved one recovers from a serious illness you thank The Lord. If you are saved from some physical accident or calamity, you also, usually, give thanks to God. But do you thank Jesus even for the trials and temptations. He tempts no one to sin but He indeed “tries” you and exercises your faith in hardships setbacks, so as to make you firm and bold and resolute in your faith. Do you thank Him for all things that happen to you? You should. You must. You do—in Him, by faith.
The Saints of old gave thanks constantly. Sometimes this is recorded but myriads of times you know it was there. Adam and Eve thanked God that they were no obliterated immediately after the “Fall.” They thanked God for clothing them and feeding them—if even, in the sweat of their brows. And through their tears at the dead of Abel, they still thanked God that there would be more sons—a son who would be the lineal ancestor of “The Seed” of the woman. The Old Testament is an ocean of thanksgiving to The coming Messias. Noah thanked God for divine and miraculous rescue by building an altar and sacrificing bloody animals after departing from the Ark; Sarah, Rebecca, and Rachel thanked God for opening their wombs—and I submit that even in their prior bareness they still thanked God for His care and protection. Do you thank God when things are going badly that you still have time to be drawn closer to Him and His love? You need to. Both Moses and Miriam thanked The Lord after delivering them and the Israelites through the Red Sea. They thanked Him not just in speaking but in gratefully singing. This is why you sing all the hymns in the liturgy with thankful hearts—sometime even through tears. There is not enough time this evening to recount all the thanksgiving in Hebrew Scripture. But certainly, the greatest and purest exposition of thanksgiving is found in The Blessed Virgins “Magnificat.”
No, Americans, well, modern Americans are not thankful to God the way they need to be. Oh, they are thankful for mammon, stuff, filthy lucre, when the flood-gates of possessions flow upon them. But they need to be thankful, Like the Apostle, in all circumstances. For “rejoicing in The Lord” is akin to giving Him thanks: “be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” [Php. 4.6]. And again, Paul says: “for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content” [Php. 4.11]. That contentment, is The Peace that passes all understanding; The Peace of Christ that overflows in thanksgiving. That is a gift that The Holy Ghost pours into your hearts as well.
Saint Stephen was thankful to Jesus that he too was permitted to suffer and be martyred for Jesus and The Truth of The Gospel. You too be thankful that you are permitted to suffer for The Faith. In the Book of Acts, the Apostles after they had been beaten: “they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name” [Acts. 5.41]. Even in chains and in a filthy prison: “at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them” [Acts 16.25]. Those songs were of thanksgiving. It was and is wonderful, and yes, it makes us hang our head in shame.
For all our un-thankfulness and un-gratefulness, our Lord Christ was always thankful. He thanked His Father that He was “The Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world—your sin.”
King David wrote 150 Psalms (or, at least the majority of them) and they too overflow with thanksgiving—for David had much to be thankful for in his hard, sorrowful, and sinful life. 2 Samuel does not say that David gave thanks after his infant son died, but it does have him doing what the Samaritan leper did—worshipping God. One cannot worship Jesus without giving thanks as well…as you are doing this evening.
We are going to celebrate The Mass, the Holy Communion, the Sacrament of The Altar. It is also called The Eucharist. This means the good gift (The Gospel) but is usually translated as thanksgiving.
And there, you have it. You thank Jesus secondly, after He first thanks His Father for you, and for the joy of giving all of you Himself. “And He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is My blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” [Mt. 26.27].
Thanksgiving.
In The Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
Email the webmaster.Contact Augsburg Lutheran Church: (913) 403-6194