Offer your sacrifices of Thanksgiving

Sermon for Thanksgiving Eve

Luke 10:38-42 + Hebrews 13:10-16

You’ve all probably celebrated Thanksgiving since you were little children. It’s a national holiday, not a church holiday, so Christians find themselves celebrating it right alongside their non-Christian fellow countrymen. We have a shared national history in our country (for those who still care to acknowledge it). We share similar customs and menus for our Thanksgiving Day feasts. But the most important part of Thanksgiving is celebrated only by Christians in this country. Unlike our non-Christian neighbors, we Christians include Thanksgiving among the sacrifices that we alone can offer to the true God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—sacrifices that are pleasing in God’s sight, because they are offered through and by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. As Peter wrote in his first epistle, As you come to the Lord Jesus, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Let’s take a moment this evening and consider what these sacrifices of Thanksgiving include, and what they don’t include, based on the Scripture Lessons you heard a moment ago.

We’ll start with what they don’t include. No Christian would dare to offer God a sacrifice for sins. As we heard in the Lesson from Hebrews this evening, Jesus suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. We know very well that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. It was His precious blood, shed on the cross, that made complete atonement for all sins. He is the One who sanctifies us and makes us holy through His own blood, not through any sacrifice we could offer. Nothing you or I could ever offer to God could make up for even one trespass, for a single offense against God. It’s impossible for us to atone for our own sins. It’s impossible for us to redeem ourselves. And it’s blasphemy against Christ if we should try. Jesus has already offered to God the only sacrifice for sin that was acceptable in His sight. So never try to do anything for God or to sacrifice anything to God in order to earn His favor or make up for your sins. That is not why we have come together on this Thanksgiving Eve.

But we have come together to offer another kind of sacrifice, a sacrifice of thanksgiving in the form of gladly hearing and learning what God has to say to us, and, of course, also believing it. That’s what we saw Mary doing in the Lesson from Luke 10, isn’t it? Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were brother and sisters, and Jesus visited their home in Bethany from time to time. Martha wanted to offer Jesus a nice meal and a tidy house, as a little sacrifice of her time, a way of giving thanks to Him for the salvation He had brought to their family. There was nothing wrong with that. But Mary offered a different sacrifice, and on this occasion, Jesus says it was a better one. Mary offered the simple sacrifice of sitting there by Jesus and eagerly listening to the things that Jesus wanted to teach. Yes, there are things we can do for Jesus to show our thanks to Him, as Martha was doing. But none of those things are needed for our salvation. The only thing needed for our salvation is to hear His Word by which the Holy Spirit creates and strengthens faith in our hearts. When we gladly hear His Word, we’re not really “giving” anything to God. Instead, we’re coming to Him with open ears and believing hearts in order to receive the good things He wants to give. That sacrifice of setting aside all the other things you could be doing in order to listen intently to the Word of God—that’s one of the things we’ve intentionally gathered here to do. First and foremost, to listen. You’re offering God that sacrifice right now.

But there’s more to the Christian’s sacrifices. The words you heard from Hebrews 13 mention two others. Therefore through Jesus let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. Since God did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, since God has given You His Word and Sacraments and a church in which you can receive them, since God has given you your life, and all you need for it, and so many things in abundance, you come back to Him, regularly, with the sacrifice of praise on your lips.

Have you thought about Thanksgiving that way? As a sacrifice to God? You’ve been offering this sacrifice all throughout the service this evening, in every prayer you spoke in faith, in every hymn stanza, in every Psalm. You have been offering to God the fruit of your lips as a sacrifice to Him, a sacrifice of praise, an offering of Thanksgiving. Is that something you can do at home, alone and by yourself? Of course. And God accepts those sacrifices, too. But the combined sacrifices of Christians as they are gathered together, offering up their thanks to God the Father, through the Lord Jesus Christ, are a public testimony to God’s goodness. It’s an act of faith in which we all say together, before the world, I am not afraid to acknowledge the name of God, because He is good and His mercy endures forever.

There’s one more sacrifice Christians offer to God. As you heard in Hebrews 13, But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Anyone can “do good and share” in an external sense. Christians aren’t the only ones who try to share with the poor and needy and who do good things for their communities. But understand that when the unbeliever does these things, it isn’t a sacrifice to God—certainly not one that He accepts or looks upon with favor. Apart from Christ, God looks upon sinners with wrath and anger, no matter how much good they do or how many things they share. But for those who are in Christ Jesus, every good deed is a sacrifice that God accepts. Every act of sharing is an offering made to our Father in heaven, upon which He smiles and with which He is satisfied. Your kind words to one another, your friendly greetings, your willingness to help, your intercessory prayers, your expressions of thanks and appreciation and concern, your willingness to put up with things that may annoy you but that don’t really matter—all these things that you do for one another, or for your family at home, or for Christians in other parts of the world, or for your neighbor in general—are sacrifices offered upon the altar that is Christ, who alone makes these sacrifices of ours acceptable and pleasing in the Father’s sight.

So let this Thanksgiving be added to the rest of your holy sacrifices, as you continue to listen, to speak and to sing words of praise for our God, and to do good and share. Remember that you do these things, not to please yourself, but to please the God who has given you everything by grace and has sanctified you through faith in the blood of His Son. Let your thanksgiving always be intentional, and your praise ever sincere. Because God has been good to you and to us all. He is worthy of our thanks, and of all the sacrifices we bring. Amen.