Newsletter

Throughout his epistles and his preaching recorded in the Book of Acts, St. Paul refers, in one way or another, to thanksgiving and thankfulness nearly 50 times.  Whether vertically toward God, or horizontally toward the neighbor, thanksgiving is a major theme within St. Paul’s body of work.

What does this mean?  It means thankfulness is intrinsic to the life of those baptized into Christ. In other words, giving thanks is what Christians do as they live out their lives in this world.

The problem is that we often forget this.  Consider your average, run-of-the-mill, normal day. When you get home, and your parents, your spouse or your children ask about your day, what first comes to your mind?  After 99 percent of things went right, went exactly as planned, were enjoyable and blessings, we tend to focus on and remember the 1 percent of things that went poorly, that didn’t go as planned, and that were nuisances.

We remember the bad things.  We focus on discontent.  And we fail to give thanks in all circumstances for everything (Eph. 5:20) and to rejoice in the Lord always (Phil. 4:4).

Thankfulness and contentment go together.  We are content with things for which we are thankful.  St. Paul could be content with having plenty or when in need because He gave thanks to the Lord for all things.  He thanked the Lord for those who had prayed for him and listened to his proclamation of the Gospel.  He gave thanks for their good works in and for the Church of Christ. He gave thanks for the grace of God in Christ Jesus and found that God’s grace was sufficient for him.

So, give thanks for all things and in all circumstances dear brothers and sisters in Christ.  For you have been saved from sin, death, and hell by the death and resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ. You have been added to the very family of God in an adoption of grace through Holy Baptism. God is your Father.  Our Lord, Jesus Christ is your brother.

But He not only provides for your spiritual well-being, He cares also for this body and life.  Your Father in heaven provides food and clothes, house and home, husband, wife, and children.  He gives you reason and all your senses.  He has given you the raw talents that you have developed into careers.  Everything you are and everything that you have is a gift from His fatherly divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in you.

Give thanks for these things.  Make a list – every morning if you must.  Say them out loud.  Sing about them within the congregation of the saints.  And remember this: God has given you these things so that you may be of service to those around you – your family, your neighbors, your brothers and sisters in Christ.  For to whom much is given; much shall be required (Luke 12:48).

Why do we give?  Is it simply because God commands us to?  Or is there more to it?  To be sure, the instruction and Word of God in the Bible says we should give, and this is sufficient to encourage us to give (Luke 6:38; Acts 20:35; 1 Cor. 16:2; 2 Cor. 8:7; Gal 6:6).

But there’s more to it than just obligation.  We’re not just trying to fulfill a work of the Law. We are bearing fruits of the Spirit given to us by our Father in heaven through His Son our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, we’re not just doing what our Father said, we’re also doing what He did.

Children emulate their parents.  When they grow up they often carry many of the same mannerisms and characteristics as their parents, but there is more to it than that.  Children copy their parents even on a more mundane level. They watch how their parents cross their legs, how they fold their hands, how they stand and sit and walk, how they do and say most everything.

And children try to copy it, which can be quite humorous when parents wish they wouldn’t.  It can be uncomfortable and embarrassing if a child copies or repeats something less than polite that they learned from a parent.  Sitcoms thrive on these situations.  It only happens because children emulate their parents because they want to be like them.

We are the children of God, by grace, through faith. In Holy Baptism, God the Father declares of us what He declared of Jesus at His Baptism in the Jordan: “You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  God the Father claims us as His own.  He takes away all our sins, and in exchange He gives us His righteousness, His purity, His holiness, and His Spirit, by which we cry out, “Abba, Father.”

We are born again, born from above, born of water and the Spirit, to a new life in Christ as His children.  We are sons of God in Christ, through Baptism.  And since we are sons, we are heirs – heirs who share in the glory of the Son of God.  The inheritance is ours because of the Father’s grace and mercy, His generosity in sending His Son in time to save us for all eternity.

And this is why we give generously of our income to the work of the church.  We want to be like our heavenly Father.  We want to emulate His generosity by being generous ourselves.  We give to the work of the Church because we have witnessed the generous giving of our Father in heaven.

More than that, we are recipients of it.  It is because we have received God our Father’s gifts that we desire to give ourselves.  And His gifts are not just spiritual.  They are temporal and earthly as well.  As the Small Catechism teaches in the Fourth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer:

“Give us this day our daily bread.”  What does this mean?  God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.  What is meant by daily bread?  Daily bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.”

In other words, God gives us everything we need for the care of both body and soul. His generosity knows no bounds.  Therefore, we sit down at the beginning of the year, the beginning of the month, or the beginning of the week to set aside a generous portion of God’s daily bread for His work in the Church. We don’t do this simply because He has commanded us so to do; it is because we, as His children by grace, want to emulate His generosity in our own lives. He is our Father; we are His children. And children want to be like their parents.