THANKSGIVING

When Thanksgiving approaches I receive in the mail a catalogue from the New Braunfels Smokehouse in Texas. We used to enjoy eating in their restaurant and buying goods from their shop when we lived in San Antonio. In fact the owners were members of my congregation. I browse through the catalogue and order a hamper.

I love good food and am grateful for the meals I can enjoy. I was raised in a family which did not give thanks, say grace or ask the blessing before we ate. It was all taken for granted. But nothing can be taken for granted. Life and its sustenance cannot be taken for granted.

“Who has ever given to God that God should repay him? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever! Amen.” (Rom.11:35,36) “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth…and he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else… For in him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:24-28)

Billy Graham says that “a spirit of thankfulness is one of the most distinctive marks of a Christian whose heart is attuned to the Lord. Thank God in the midst of trials and every persecution.”

But how can you be thankful in the midst of troubles and difficulties? Each of us has enough troubles and difficulties in our lives that can rob us of our joy. As Thanksgiving approaches how can we give thanks? Revelation 14 & 15 gives us a picture of Christians who have been going through troubles and difficulties. They were being oppressed and opposed by evil powers. But they had stayed faithful to Jesus, had patiently endured suffering, and had kept God’s commands. They were true to their calling. John was encouraging the members of his churches to take the long point of view and to see beyond the difficulties of their situation.

He shared with them a future vision when they would be part of a heavenly chorus and orchestra, playing harps, given them by God. They were singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb. This was the song of thanksgiving sung after the people of Israel were rescued from slavery in Egypt and the army of Pharoah which pursued them to the edge of the Red Sea.  They passed through the waters of death and came to the other side where there was freedom, safety, security and rest. So the Christians of the first century sing a song similar to the Song of Moses (Exodus 15:1-18 and Deut.32) celebrating their great deliverance.

For us, and those early Christians, we can celebrate and give thanks for the triumph of our risen Lord over his enemies in securing spiritual deliverance for those who follow him. We share in his victory.

“Great and marvelous are your deeds,

Lord God Almighty.

Just and true are your ways,

King of the ages.

Who will not fear you, O Lord,

and bring glory to your name?

For you alone are holy.

All nations will come and worship before you,

for your righteous acts have been revealed.” (Rev.15:3,4)

Our present circumstances may appear dire. The world around us may trouble us. Political differences may divide us. Inflation and pandemics may worry us. The culture may upset us. Our families and friends may disappoint us. We may be pursued by threatening circumstances as we struggle to survive and reach safety. Our bodies may be protesting and breaking down. Our resources may be shrinking. The future is scary. Yet we must believe in the plan and provision of God for us. He has triumphed over all troubles and difficulties, and secures deliverance for those who follow the Lamb.

He promises us his blessing: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.” (Rev.14:13) I say those words over everyone whose funeral or memorial service I celebrate. No matter what turmoil our lives may have endured, or are experiencing, God promises us the blessing of his rest, his completion, his wholeness, his peace. Jesus promises this to all who follow him, “Come to me all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matt. 11:28,29)

Now, we must be realistic and honest, even when it is hard to hear. For not everyone can sing this song of thanksgiving. Not everyone dies in the Lord. Not everyone has the name of the Lamb and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. Not everyone is sealed with the Spirit. Not everyone follows the Lamb. Not everyone loves God and worships him who made the heavens and the earth. There are those who choose to worship the creature rather than the Creator. They follow their selfish desires and do not acknowledge God or give him glory. “There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name.” (Rev.14:11) They will be tormented in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb by regret and remorse for the choices they have made in the time God has given them on earth.

The scoffers and mockers will, one day, have to face ultimate reality. When St. Paul discoursed on the judgment to come Governor Felix became afraid and ended the conversation. (Acts 24:25) Take seriously the claims of Christ when you hear them rather than putting off having to make a decision about them. The prospect of finding no rest day or night for eternity, and being tormented by failure to follow Christ, makes the stakes too high to ignore. Do you have a song of thankfulness in your heart? Share in Christ’s victory over all your troubles and difficulties. Enjoy the blessing of resting from your labor.

At the end of time there will be a harvest. (Rev.14:14-20) There will be a separation of the wheat from the tares.

 For the Lord our God shall come

And take his final harvest home;

From his field shall in that day

All offenses purge away;

Give his angels charge at last

In the fire the tares to cast,

But the fruitful ears to store

In his garner evermore.

 

Even so, Lord, quickly come

To thy final harvest-home;

Gather Thou Thy people in,

Free from sorrow, free from sin;

There, forever purified,

In Thy presence to abide:

Come, with all Thine angels, come –

Raise the glorious harvest-home.

(Henry Alford)

Charles Spurgeon recalls being in London to visit the sick and dying in the cholera epidemic of 1854.

“One Monday morning, I was awakened, about three o’clock, by a sharp ring of the door-bell. I was urged, without delay, to visit a house not very far from London Bridge. I went; and up two pairs of stairs I was shown into a room, the only occupants of which were a nurse and a dying man. ‘Oh, sir!’ exclaimed the nurse, as I entered, ‘about half-an-hour ago, Mr. So-and-so begged me to send for you.’ ‘What does he want?’ I asked. ‘He is dying, sir,’ she replied. I said, ‘Yes, I see that he is; what sort of a man was he?’ The nurse answered, ‘He came home from Brighton, last night, sir; he had been out all day. I looked for a Bible, sir, but there is not one in the house; I hope you have brought one with you.’ ‘Oh,’ I said, ‘a Bible would be no use to him now. If he could understand me, I could tell him the way of salvation in the very words of Scripture.’ I stood by his side, and spoke to him, but he gave me no answer. I spoke again, but the only consciousness he had was a foreboding of terror, mingled with the stupor of approaching death. Soon, even that was gone, for sense had fled, and I stood there a few minutes, sighing with the poor woman who had watched over him, and altogether hopeless about his soul. Gazing at his face, I perceived that he was dead, and that his soul had departed.

That man, in his lifetime, had been wont to jeer at me. In strong language, he had often denounced me as a hypocrite. Yet he was no sooner smitten by the darts of death than he sought my presence and counsel, no doubt feeling in his heart that I was a servant of God, though he did not care to own it with his lips. There I stood, unable to help him. Promptly as I had responded to his call, what could I do but look at his corpse, and mourn over a lost soul? He had, when in health, wickedly refused Christ, yet in his death-agony he had superstitiously sent for me. Too late, he sighed for the ministry of reconciliation, and sought to enter in at the closed door, but he was not able. There was no space left him then for repentance, for he had wasted the opportunities which God had long granted to him. I went home, and was soon called away again; that time to see a young woman. She was also in the last extremity, but it was a fair, fair sight. She was singing – though she knew she was dying – and talking to those round about her, telling her brothers and sisters to follow her to Heaven, bidding goodbye to her father, and all the while smiling as if it had been her marriage day. She was happy and blessed. I never saw more conspicuously in my life, than I did that morning, the difference there is between one who feareth God and one who feareth Him not.”

(C.H. Spurgeon, Autobiography: Volume 1, p.273f.)