Thanksgiving Day
Pittsburgh New Church
November 29, 2019
Text: John 4:35, Matthew 9:35
Arcana: AC 5957
"He that reapeth receiveth reward, and gathered fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together." (John 4:36)
Introduction
Good morning and welcome to the Pittsburgh New Church! Who had a good Thanksgiving? turkey? yes what else, potatoes? yes
Great! But what makes it really good? Yes we have family and friends…that is great! It is so fun to hang out together but even if you are having Thanksgiving alone,
to be grateful to the Lord, somehow this gratefulness brings the Lord’s presence and brings contentedness into our life. I want to read to you some passages from the Lord and I think you will recognize them all but I want you to think about them with the idea of thankfulness and being content.
Sermon
From most ancient times, people have recognized the fruits of the earth are a free gift from the Lord. If you’ve ever had apples growing in your back yard, it’s fantastic to watch them come out without doing anything! Every fall you have delicious fruit! Every summer, if you have a garden, you can watch the magic! Everything blooming and growing and bursting with life. And in the fall, we store what we have harvested, we thank the Lord for his delicious bounty!
It is so easy today to become disconnected with our source of food. With all the packaging and fast food we may not see the day to day miracles of plants blossoming, fruits growing and ripening on the tree. Yet, none of this growth could happen without the fertile ground, sun and rain, the wonderful balance of our environment. We have no control over these and yet the Lord gives these to us according to His Will. In fact, every thought we have, the labor we give to make the produce are from the Divine, although they feel they are our own. Our produce harvest then, is truly a miracle, an example of how the Divine Presence of the Lord, through His love and wisdom, sustains our lives and keeps our bodies alive. But in the Lord’s sight, the real harvest is not the fruits, grains, and vegetables, and produce from the earth, but the spirit we carry within us! This is because the Lord looks to what is eternal. Just as we can be disconnected from our food source we can get so wrapped up in our life that we disconnect from our spiritual source where our life and happiness come from. Gratitude and thankfulness for this spiritual life get us back on track! They are essential for the nourishment of our soul and this is the true Thanksgiving!
We read:
“Thanksgiving and its accompanying gratitude” cause people to turn to the Lord and be separated, at least temporarily, from the love of self and its evils which are obstacles to the Lord's inflowing good (AC 5957).[1]
Gratitude opens our mind and heart for the reception of eternal blessings. “Thankfulness” inspires love, and with it, gives us the desire to make a return for the benefits we have received. When this love is directed to the Lord it drives us to inquire how we may truly serve the Him. This enables the Lord to feed us with the bread of heaven, providing that spiritual harvest to which He referred when He said to His disciples:
"He that reapeth receiveth reward, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together."
In the Word, we find traditions of “thanksgiving”way before the Pilgrims. There is the feast of weeks and the feast of tabernacles celebrated by the Children of Israel—these were all commanded by the Lord!
When we look at children today, are they grateful without being taught and trained to feel and express gratitude? If parents do not teach gratitude to their children, and no one else teaches them to express it, will the children themselves ever think of it? Experience teaches us that they will not! Parents know they must begin very early in a child's life teaching them to say "please" and "thank you." Think of how an ungrateful person affects you?
The Heavenly Doctrines equate ungrateful with love of self and self-centered behavior. When we develop the skill of being grateful, we are building a truly noble character! An ungrateful child is utterly selfish, and selfishness is destructive of all human connections. It’s destructive of all contentment and happiness, and it’s not just true for children! Thankful and grateful adults carry a heavenly trait!
We may be sure people would never have thought of giving thanks to the Lord for His blessings, unless He had taught them to do so, unless He had required it of them, not for His own sake, that He might glory in it, but for our sake, as a means of making us unselfish, humble, and content with our lot.
What are you grateful for? what do you have in your life that you can’t imagine not having? Now here comes the hard part—have you told that person how grateful you are to know them and to have them in your life? Being grateful is like a muscle we can develop and strengthen. Many people have a grateful list, they write down in their journal 5 things they are grateful for each day and not surprisingly this brings contentment. We are told that gratefulness comes from the Divine truth we receive from the Lord. It is the presence of the Lord with us that causes us to “give thanks” to Him. It is by His continual presence that we are grateful (AR 372).[2]
“Thanksgiving” signifies -all worship of the Lord is from the Lord. In other words, we can worship the Lord only from those things which we receive from Him. We are to worship Him only from the things of good and truth He has given us through His Word (AR 249).[3]
In fact, the word “thanksgiving” in the original tongue means “confession”; confession not only of our own unworthiness but of the Lord's goodness, of His unceasing mercy—a confession that His truth is eternal.[4] Think of the humility involved with this confession!
Music starts
Short meditation on “thankfulness.”
In this state of appreciation, what do we want to do? We want to give to others! We want to love everyone! We are so grateful, we want to share that gratefulness in a life of use and charity with others!
Your challenge for the day is to keep this gratefulness alive all day and bring it to others throughout the day.
1 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31)
Amen. Let us pray.