Thanksgiving 2024 Colossians 3:1-17
Happy Thanksgiving! We are going to pause our study of the Gospel of Luke and shift our focus to the holiday just for this week.
So turn with me to Colossians 3, page 984 in the pew Bibles.
Let’s Pray.
I have some questions for you all, hopefully you paid attention in school and are familiar with your American history…
Where did the annual tradition of Thanksgiving come from, and when did it start? Pilgrims, 1620, Mayflower, Squanto…
Well, lucky for you I did pay attention in school. Just not elementary school, or middle school, or high school really…
However, when I was in the Antioch School, we studied principles and procedures for interpreting the Bible. And I can tell you about one principle that changed my view of Scripture and its application.
I’ve told you about this principle before, the principle referred to as “author’s intent.” Basically, what did the original author mean when they wrote the passage?
This question is so important because Scripture can never mean anything that the original author didn’t intend. It can never mean what it never meant.
So I would like to apply this same principle to Thanksgiving so that we can have a more accurate picture of what this holiday is for other than just bowing down to the god of gluttony.
Thanksgiving has been an annual tradition in the United States since… 1863. It was instituted by President Abraham Lincoln. I would like to read President Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation to you now so that we can find out the original intent for this holiday.
President Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.
The original intent of Thanksgiving Day was to establish a day of thanksgiving and praise to Father God, a day of repentance, and a day of prayer- for the unfortunate victims of war and the healing of the nation.
I just wanted to get that out there for you to think about. Maybe next year it would be more appropriate to talk about it before the actual day but oh well.
Now in our modern context Thanksgiving has kind of taken on a meaning of its own. The idea of thankfulness is obviously still strong, but most people are confused as to who they should be thanking for all the good things in their lives. The second strong theme in our modern thanksgiving celebrations is family.
Thankfulness and family.
Now, I’m not going to tell you to be thankful. You already know you should be thankful. I am not going to give the customary sermon on having an attitude of gratitude… On the contrary, I want to encourage you to continue to act like family.
(We can be certain that if we don’t act like a family in times of severe trial, we never will. And all of our past attempts to look like a family were false and just an act. It’s got to be real now more than ever.)
Let’s look together to Colossians 3 and look to the Lord for instructions on how to truly act like the family of God.
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
The best part about being the family of God is that we have God as our Father and Jesus as our big Brother, what more could you want!?
Look at verse 11, it doesn’t matter if you are black, white, blue, gray, or pink, if Christ is in you, you are part of us! We are loved by God as His kids no matter how old we are or where we’re from.
And as His kids we need to put on compassionate hearts towards one another, be kind to each other, be humble and put others first, be meek- meaning don’t use your strength to control others but control yourself, and be patient with one another, we are all works in progress, forgive each other as the Lord has forgiven us. Above all these, put on love which binds it all together in harmony.
In this time in the life of this family the enemy would like nothing more than to throw all of us into discord and chaos, but I say that this is the time for us to pull together in love stronger than we ever have before.
Now more than ever we must let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts, we were called as a body to that peace, let’s not let the enemy shake us up and keep us anxious and on edge.
Remember that God is our Father, He will provide what we need and Jesus is our big Brother and the Head of the church He is the Great Shepherd, He will guide us, He will protect us, we just have to trust in Him!
And finally…
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
We must not neglect the Word of God. The Way of Christ is how we are to live in this redeemed family. We are not to be subject to the wisdom and traditions of men but to the wisdom and words of Jesus according to what has been passed on to us in His holy Word by the apostles and prophets.
And now, family, let’s do my favorite part: sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in our hearts to God.
Now is the time for our family to pull together, trusting Jesus as our Chief Shepherd and get back to the original intent of this holiday giving thanks and praise to God our Father, repenting of our own sins and praying for the unfortunate victims of war and the healing of this nation.
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Amen.
