“Remember God’s Faithfulness” (Deuteronomy 8:1-10) Thanksgiving Sermon Nov. 24th, 2011

1.             Please pray with me.  May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.  The message from God’s Word this Thanksgiving Day is taken from the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy 8:1-10, it’s entitled, “Remember God’s Faithfulness,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.             When we celebrate Thanksgiving Day each year we must always keep in mind that the day really is all about remembering. Turkey, stuffing, and stories get handed from person to person. While the platters and gravy boats empty, the stories get filled out with new details. Some of the stories are as old as the pilgrims; others might’ve happened just last week. You can relive the past year simply by looking down the dining room table. Where grandma or a cousin once sat, there’s now an empty chair.  Or, maybe where there was just one chair, now there are two or three and the dining room is full with new members. The gray hairs, the lined faces, the round cheeks—all tell the story in their own way.  You Can Sum Up the Day like This: Thanksgiving Is about Remembering.  The person who has no memory, who doesn’t know where he or she comes from, can’t really give thanks. That person doesn’t know what to be thankful for or whom to thank.
3.             And this thought that giving thanks in everything is all about remembering is what the Russian novelist and essayist Aleksander Solzhenitsyn gives to us to think about in his Templeton Address of 1983.  Listen to his words that still speak to us today almost 30 years later, “"I heard a number of older people offer this explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: 'Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened'…. If I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: 'Men have forgotten God.'"  "What is more, if I were called upon to identify the principal trait of the entire 20th century, I would be unable to find anything more precise than to reflect once again on how we have lost touch with our Creator." (Footnote 1: Quoted from Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, "Men Have Forgotten God" condensed by Readers Digest (September 1986), 21.)
4.             Did you notice how Solzhenitsyn pains over what the forces of atheism and secularism have wreaked upon our world: Men and women have forgotten God. Yet the Scriptures bear witness to us that forgetting God even characterizes the journey of God's own people through the ages as well. 
5.             We especially see this theme in the book of Deuteronomy, leading one commentator to say that the book "develops a theology of remembering." (Footnote 2: Colin Brown, ed., "Remember" in NIDNTT, v.3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1986), 232.) Upon giving Moses the Ten Commandments and the covenant, God declares in Deuteronomy chapter 8, "Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today" (Deut 8:11, NASB). We’re warned twice more in Deuteronomy 8 about forgetting God (see vv. 14 and 19), and elsewhere in Deuteronomy about forgetting his covenant and his gracious provision (see e.g., Deut 4: 9, 23, 31).  And the beginning of Deuteronomy 8:1-2 says, "The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers. And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.”
6.             To remember God is to remember his faithfulness.  It is to remember His "steadfast love"—and our response is to faithfully submit ourselves to him. For just as the past shapes the present, so our remembering God—and yes, our forgetting Him—shapes who we are.
7.             And so here in Deuteronomy Moses sets out to remind you who you are and where you come from, to help you remember. You hear him speak today that you belong to the Lord. This is what the Lord has done for you: He sent you a prophet greater than Moses—Jesus Christ, his Son—to deliver you by his death and resurrection. He brought you out of slavery to sin. He rescued you from the reign of death and the devil. He drowned your enemies in baptismal water and called you to be his people. He has led you year after year through the wilderness of this life, a land in which you are a pilgrim and a stranger. Remember.
8.             But Thanksgiving isn’t simply about remembering facts. The mental exercise of recalling dates and names might be good enough to pass a college exam, but it won’t do for Thanksgiving. I might know all about 1621, the Plymouth Plantation, Squanto, and William Bradford, but no one would say that I’ve in essence remembered Thanksgiving, at least not until I’ve made a Pilgrim hat out of construction paper, enjoyed a whole lot of turkey and pumpkin pie, and loosened my belt a notch or two.  Instead, an appropriate remembrance of Thanksgiving involves the whole person, not just the mind. The same goes for a wedding anniversary. There’s more to remembering an anniversary than knowing the date. Dinner and flowers are a good start.
9.             So when Moses says, “Remember,” he isn’t reciting a set of historical facts for you to know. He wants your entire life to be one of remembrance, for you to remember the Lord with your heads, your hearts, and your hands. Through Holy Baptism, you are a member of the heavenly Father’s family, and you now remember the Lord your God by living as his child.
10.             But, sometimes it’s difficult to live as God’s child.  When we hear Holy Scripture telling us, "In everything give thanks," we may find ourselves a bit confused at that statement. Reading the daily newspaper even as we celebrate a national day of Thanksgiving is so strange when we compare the great abundance of possessions that we have to the great needs and hardships of the rest of the world. Global unemployment soars. Giving to charity is at its lowest in many places. Wars and rumors of wars terrify many, and it’s a wonder that it’s even possible to give thanks for anything. But, to hear others giving thanks, particularly from those who struggle in really difficult circumstances, where we would be stretched to find any reason for praise, always lends itself to beauty and shows to us a gratefulness that goes way beyond our own personal possessions.
11.             That’s why it’s so amazing to see not only in the Old Testament, but also in the New Testament Scriptures, a spirit of thanksgiving that characterized God’s people. In the New Testament the early believers were so overjoyed at the Spirit's work among them that they shared meals, their property and possessions, and were continually praising God. The Apostle Paul even exhorted the Philippian Christians to offer their prayers and supplications, "with thanksgiving.”  In fact, the apostle Paul insists that giving thanks in everything is the will of God.
12.             It’s true that Thanksgiving doesn't always come easy as you wrestle with the difficulties and sorrows of a world with so much need. And yet when you give thanks for the faithfulness of God remembering all that He has given to you spiritually and physically, there’s no room for jealousy over what others have.  No room for complaining about what you lack.
13.             The truth is that we’re always in danger of forgetting who we are. In spiritual matters, as in the rest of life, we’re prone to be forgetful. But Thanksgiving makes us remember, and Moses here in Deuteronomy helps us to jog our memories. He reminds us who we are: the Lord’s people, purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ through His death on the cross. Remember this by receiving his gifts. Make the sign of the cross to remember your baptism. Listen to his Word preached. Come soon to this Table to eat and drink the body and blood of your Lord Jesus Christ. Remember who you are by living as one who has been redeemed by Christ the crucified. Remember it with your heads, hands, hearts, ears, and mouths. With such remembrance and thanksgiving, go forth, pick up the platter, tell your stories, pass the gravy, and enjoy all that the Lord has given you.  Remember God’s faithfulness in Jesus Christ for you. Amen.