
Happy November, everyone!
This month we celebrate together with family and friends the holiday of Thanksgiving. So, for my article this month, I wanted to take a minute to think about what giving thanks means for us as people of faith.
We are all most likely taught from a young age that giving thanks means to say thank you, to be grateful, and to celebrate the various and different gifts and blessings that God has given to us. And this approach is an absolutely beautiful way to do this. I remember as a kid we would each go around the table and say something(s) we were thankful for and before he died, my grandfather would lead us all in a prayer or a hymn (he had a spectacular tenor voice).
Giving thanks to God and showing our appreciation for what God has done for us is a perfect way to celebrate God’s goodness, grace, and mercy bestowed upon us in Jesus Christ.
However, I also wonder if we shouldn’t also take Thanksgiving a different way: We GIVE because of our THANKS. Because we are thankful to God, we want nothing more than to live in reflection of God’s love for us and to attempt, as best as we can, to embody our Christ who is the source of our life and hope.
Here at Church of the Cross, I think we’re already living this posture of thanksgiving, whether we have connected the dots or not.
Think of it this way: God has blessed us with family, love, a job (or a nice retirement), etc. And so, in response, we want to share this blessing with as many people as we can. So…we raise $14,000+ for the CROP Walk; we gather thousands of diapers and wipes and gallons of cleaning products for the women and children of the Mercy Center for Women; we fill a shopping bag with a yummy Thanksgiving meal kit so that another family in our community can sit down like us with their family and friends; we go out or grab from our closets blankets so that our homeless sisters and brothers will have something warm this winter; we will go shopping with joy to put toys under trees of little angels who may not have a Christmas otherwise; we sell our beloved leftovers at the Rummage Sale for Mission; we find needs and try our best to meet them.
All of the acts I listed above are not done because we’re perfect or holy or righteous. Instead, they are acts of giving thanks to God who has given so much to us.
The first question of the Larger Catechism shows us this pattern for our lives of faith:
Q: What is the chief and highest end of humanity?
A: Humanity’s chief and highest end is to glorify God and enjoy God forever
Our highest end is not to earn or work for or beg for or battle for our own salvation. It is not to put stars in our crown or make others gasp at our righteousness. Instead, our chief and highest purpose is to worship God in glory, thanks, and awe forever.
And thus, the pattern of our lives becomes this: God has blessed us with new life in Christ and adopted us to be one of God’s family before we were even born. In baptism, the world sees by action of the Holy Spirit what God has already done. We, at the right time, respond in faith, hope, and love to what God has already done by giving thanks. Our thanks takes the shape of worship, devotion, and love for God and serving God in the wider world as acts of thanks for God’s love for us.
And we do this forever.
I don’t know about you, but I think that’s a pretty ok deal—God loves us, we love God and others in return, and do that day in and day out.
Could be worse and could be a lot more complicated.
As we gather together with family and friends, let us give thanks to God and let us give thanks in ways that demonstrate to God, to ourselves, and to the world our love.
Happy November and a Blessed Thanksgiving to you all!