Thanksgiving Eve, ??06 (11/22) Luke 17: 11-19
Emmanuel, Ashville, NC 
Sir, we would see JESUS!
In the name of Jesus!

?¨Giving Thanks to our Merciful God?Æ
by Rev. Frederick A. Stiemke, DD

Beloved, please pray with me: Gracious God and Father, Your mercies are new unto us every morning. Indeed great is Your faithfulness ?± so faithful that You sent Your only Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to seek and to save the lost. You even grant us so very many earthly gifts and pleasures. For all Your love and kindness we praise and adore Your holy name. Through the gift of Your Holy Spirit grant us such sincere gratitude that we thank You not only with our lips, but also with our lives; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

In the name of our glorious God and Savior, beloved children of the heavenly Father:

For anyone who loves and follows Jesus, not just Thanksgiving Day, but everyday should be one of thanksgiving. St. Paul knew this when he wrote, ?¨Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father through Him.?Æ [Colossians 3: 17] Centuries before that, the Psalmist urged the people of the living God, ?¨Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good; His mercy lasts forever.?Æ Psalm 136: 1] With those entreaties these men of God confronted a major problem in our sinful nature. We are very inclined to take God??s gracious gifts for granted. Therefore, it is right and proper that we pause again this Thanksgiving Eve to see that we have every reason to give thanks to the Lord with genuine gratitude. 

Admittedly in trouble and danger, when needs press on us, most people turn to God. Back in WWII a common saying was, ?¨There are no atheists in foxholes.?Æ That??s quite true of life. When down, we are forced to look up. That was certainly true of the 10 lepers in Jesus?? day on earth. They had a serious disease that often led to death. In the ritual law given to Moses, because leprosy then was highly contagious, God commanded that anyone with this illness had to be excluded from the community. Thus, in their isolation these men came together in an attempt to find strength and support from one another. No wonder, once they heard that traveling through their area was Jesus, who had healed others with leprosy, they hastened to seek Him and His help, crying out, ?¨Jesus, Master, have mercy on us! [Luke 17: 13]

I see a parallel to this in what a reporter penned the Sunday following the great San Francisco earthquake, ?¨All that is left of San Francisco attended religious services today. Never in the history of the city has there been such an outpouring to divine services. All San Francisco was on its knees. Men who have never been to church in their lives were among the most devout worshippers today.?Æ That devastating earthquake was a powerful persuader that people needed the Lord and His blessing. That??s as it should be, for our gracious God encourages His people through the Psalmist, ?¨Call upon Me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will glorify Me.?Æ [Psalm 50: 15]

Unfortunately, as already indicated, when trouble leaves, the natural, sinful reaction of people is to forget rather quickly our dependence upon God. Often people fail to continue to thank the Lord for being their Deliverer and Helper. That certainly was true of 9 of the 10 lepers Jesus healed. Only one returned to give Jesus his thanks, with the result that our Savior laments, ?¨Where are the other nine??Æ [Luke 17: 17] The prophet, seeing this same human response in his contemporaries, likewise wrote, ?¨The ox knows his owner and the donkey his master??s crib, but Israel does not know; my people do not understand.?Æ [Isaiah 1: 3]

How about us? Are there times when we take our earthly blessings for granted? When is the last time you thanked our heavenly Father for the gift of your body and all that its various parts can do? I trust that we all begin our meals with a prayer of thanks, but are there times when the words merely come without our hearts and minds also being genuinely thankful? Our gracious God has provided much more than food for our bodies. Just to name a few: Do any of us lack safe drinking water? The Lord has given most of us family to love, and we in turn are loved by them. I personally do not know of anyone sitting here tonight who does not have true and loyal friends. The Lord has provided us with health and resources, so that none of us lacks adequate clothing and shelter. We do have quality schools for our children. Why, Emmanuel has even been blessed with its own excellent Christian Day School. 

In spite of all the threats to the United States, we are still a free country with all its many freedoms and blessings. We are gathered here this evening without the threat of being arrested and hauled off to jail for our Christian faith and practice. Look again at the magnificent mountains in which we live with its multitude of plant and animal life. We have again experienced good weather with adequate sun and rain in the past year. Listing all these blessings from our Lord, we have barely touched the surface of the many material blessings our loving Lord showers upon us every day.

Yet bundle all our earthly blessings together and they are so very small compared to the spiritual blessings the Lord freely gives us, His children. God has not in just judgment for our sins taken His Word, the Bible, away from us. You know that Jesus has done everything necessary that you might have forgiveness and peace with our holy, sinless God. Day by day our Lord increases our joys and happiness. In days of trouble and testing, the Lord is with us to grant us His grace sufficient for all needs and His strength even made perfect in the midst of our weakness. In our life together our Lord gives us many opportunities to serve Him and one another. In the bond of faith in Christ Jesus, our merciful God transforms our daily labors and toil into another means of serving Him and others. He reaches out through the power of His Spirit to bind us to Himself and to one another in love. Why, through the saving love of Jesus, our Lord even promises us a place in the heavenly mansions where in great joy and glory we will be able to serve our glorious God in perfection of beauty forevermore! 

With a clear vision of God??s immeasurable grace and gifts in our minds, let us return once again to the account of the healing of the 10 lepers. Who returned to Jesus to give Him thanks and praise for the healing? It was the stranger, the Samaritan! Hopefully that will help us to remind us that many times we have been among the 9, rather those who walk in the footsteps of the Samaritan. Surely we have cause to confess humbly that far too often we fall short of the glory of God, not being the grateful folks we should be. Hopefully we see again the leprosy of our own sin, which strives to destroy us by separating us from the love of God. 

Yet I pray that our loving Father through the gift of the Holy Spirit enables you to look beyond your failings and sin to the Divine Healer to whom that healed Samaritan returned ?± Jesus Christ. He is not only the Great Physician who has the power to heal and cleanse the leprosy of sin. Jesus also in extraordinary grace and love does just that when we cry out, ?¨LORD, HAVE MERCY ON US!?Æ He doesn??t ignore our cries. He died on His cross long ago and rose again in triumph to wash and cleanse us from our sin and transgressions. Even now Christ sits at the right hand of His heavenly Father to intercede for us. Now as daily we turn to Him, Jesus cleanses away from the leprosy of our sin, so that we stand before Him restored and healed. Rightly Micah describes our Lord??s mercy in these words, ?¨Who is a God like You, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl our iniquities into the depths of sea.?Æ [Micah 7: 18-19]

Surely we have every reason to join the Psalmist in saying, ?¨Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good. His mercy lasts forever!?Æ [Psalm 136:1] Please join me in humble gratitude for all of God??s mercy and blessings by repeating those words of sincere gratitude: ?¨Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good. His mercy lasts forever!?Æ Gracious God and Father, as we prayed before, with Your Spirit??s power help us to thank You with both our lips and our lives! Amen.
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And now may all of God??s wondrous grace and blessings fill you with great joy and peace in believing, enabling you to show increasing gratitude to our Triune God for all His bountiful goodness until we all can do that perfectly in heaven. Amen.

© Reverend Frederick A. Stiemke, DD
Vacancy Pastor