Title: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

I have come to feel as though there is no more important date on the Christian calendar than Thanksgiving. If a person—a Christian—will not stop what he is doing, drop everything, and pay homage to his Lord Jesus Christ in thanksgiving for all that he has, body and soul, creation and salvation, in this world and the next, then what good is he?

If a Christian won’t stop and give thanks, then why would he be concerned about Christmas? Then, Christmas might as well be what it is for the increasing majority of Americans for whom Christmas is about family and spoiling ourselves with lavish gifts. It all begins tomorrow. Set your alarm early and go grab the Black Friday bargains.

If a Christian won’t stop and give thanks, then why would he be concerned about Good Friday? Then, Good Friday might as well be like any other Friday—the end of the work week, the beginning of the weekend, a time for the selfish self to have time for himself, to unwind, relax, and spend the money for which he toiled the week working.

If a Christian won’t stop and give thanks, they why would he be concerned about Easter? Then, Easter might as well be what the advertisers want us to celebrate it as—the beginning of spring, a time to shake off the rust of winter, a weekend to spoil the kids with an array of chocolates and chicks and bunnies that lay eggs.

If a Christian won’t stop and give thanks, then he might as well embrace the world in which he lives. He might as well grab onto the teaching of evolution, that we were not created in the image of the almighty, eternal, loving God, who made this world in six regular days, and who entered this world, in the person of His Son, in order to win this world from godless evolution. No, if a Christian won’t stop and give thanks, he might as well bite off, chew up, and swallow whole this godless teaching of evolution.

If evolution is true, you don’t have anyone to whom to give thanks. You might as well eat, drink, and make merry, all day long, then all weekend long, and every last chance you get, because when this pathetic life of yours is done, it’s done, baby. You go back into the ground, just like a roadkill raccoon, and that’s it for you.

If you don’t grasp the world in which you live as this profound gift of your Creator, then please stop wasting your time acting like a Christian. Because, see, being a Christian is both believing in Jesus Christ as your Savior, and believing in Jesus Christ as your Creator. Being a Christian is every bit as much appreciating your Lord’s gifts to you for enjoying this life as it is appreciating your Lord’s gifts to you so that you will enjoy eternal life.

Otherwise, what’s the point of a roasting turkey smelling so wonderful?

Where did potatoes come from? How is it that we have grain to make bread, onions and celery to fry, and a host of seasonings, all which make this amazing thing called stuffing? Whence drippings from roasted meat that, when thickened with flour, turns into gravy, which, when poured all over the turkey, the potatoes, and the stuffing touches the senses of taste and smell as deeply as they can be touched?

If that’s all just the product of chance, and evolution gets credit for it, then don’t you dare say a prayer before you eat any of it, today. But, then, don’t you dare enjoy it, either, because there is no purpose behind it. Then, turkeys were never meant to taste good. And, however grain and potatoes and spices came to be grain and potatoes and spices, so that we could make them into recipes called bread, and mash them with some milk and butter, and douse them with the thickened drippings from the dumb bird.

But, you know better. God the Holy Spirit has enlightened you with His gifts so that you know way more than simply that Jesus died for your sins, you now also know that Jesus is the reason that turkey makes your house smell so grand, today, and those potatoes will mash up so as to hold a boat-full of gravy, and that doughy lump that we call stuffing will dazzle your taste buds.

You know that Jesus created every aroma, every texture, every taste, purely for your enjoyment. He even created the sounds that go with it—the boiling water, the sizzling meat, the electric knife, the clinking of silverware on china, the burp after it’s all eaten. He created the colors—the brown of the bird, the white of the spud, the orange of the yam, the green of the beans, the red of the cranberry.

And, He did it all, not for Himself to enjoy, but for you to enjoy. That’s why He also came up with language, why He gave us laughter, why we can write songs that fill hearts with joy as we sing to express the joy that’s in our hearts. That’s why He made the touch of a loved one to translate their love to you, and eyes to display what’s in their hearts, and ears to catch even the faintest whisper, and lips to . . .

Aren’t lips amazing things? With your lips, you can smack them to taste every last morsel of goodness. With your lips, your smile makes your face come alive. With your lips, you form the letters of the alphabet to give voice to your affections. With your lips, you savor the lips of your beloved.

Why do you even have lips? Science would explain that the natural genetic mutations of evolution selected lips as commonly beneficial for the human species to have at the orifice to the eating chamber. But, Christians declare that Jesus knew how good-looking you would be if you had lips, and how much of the world we would be able to experience through them.

Am I revealing why I feel that Thanksgiving is as important of a Christian holiday as there is on the calendar?

Thanksgiving causes us to see in the entire world around us the loving hand of our Creator, Jesus. And, when we see that Jesus made this world for us—and, He made this world to be filled with wonder, and beauty, and bounty, and goodness—and, He made a million things for us to discover, and put together, and design into a million things for us to eat, and to heal us, and tools and appliances to make our lives more fun, if not easier and better—when we take a day to see, and smell, and hear, and taste, and touch this gift of our Creator, then we will love Him all the more for taking on our flesh to also be our Savior.

Then, you will marvel all the more when I have the privilege of telling you that, despite how you so often take this world for granted, how you don’t pause often enough to give credit to your Creator for all that He has given to you, how you treat yourself like a king or a queen but you don’t think twice to treat others like dirt, how you will gorge yourself on food and drink and stuff and never pay a second thought to the starving and the homeless and those caught in the death of war and flood and fire—if you really appreciate all that you have, and take stock of how you so rarely, really appreciate it, and how you use it, not how Jesus wants you to use it, but how you want to use it—if, then, when I tell you that, despite how you live for yourselves and not for your neighbor, and certainly not for your Lord in all your heart and mind and soul and strength—that, despite what lousy, miserable, sinners you are—and, I’m right there with you—that this Creator, Jesus, still loves you so much that He could do no less than take your sins, bleed your blood, and suffer your death, so that He could also be your Savior.

And, He is your Savior. Jesus, your Creator, is also your Savior. You are the saved. You are the baptized—washed in His blood, cleansed of your sins, dressed in His righteousness. You are the fed—nourished by His body, quenched by His blood, strengthened with His resurrected life . . .

. . . so that you can walk through the pilgrimage of this life and be thankful. Thankful for your daily bread, and thankful when you lose your job. Thankful for the new life of a son or a granddaughter, thankful at the death of a believing parent or child. Thankful when you are healthy enough to run five miles, and thankful when you barely have the strength to get out of bed. Thankful when you sit down to feast with your family, and thankful when you finish up leftovers in front of the TV. Thankful for the times when you live the Golden Rule and treat another person as well as you always want him to treat you, and thankful when you treat another person exactly how you don’t want him to treat you and you receive his forgiveness in the same breath that you receive Jesus’ forgiveness.

With hearts filled with thanks for the creation which Jesus has given you, you will soon celebrate the day when your Creator was born so that He could be your Savior. After you digest that He was born into your flesh, your hearts will be filled with thanks that He died in your flesh, as you sing your somber Good Friday hymns. And, after you dry your penitential tears, your hearts will be filled with thanks when He once again surprises you with His resurrection from the dead, as you set aside Easter, not as the harbinger of spring, but as the herald that as your Creator/Savior Jesus lives from the dead, so shall you live from the dead . . . to live in a Paradise of goodness of which this wonderful world is but a foretaste.

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." Amen.