Thanksgiving Service

Pastor Phillips’ Sermon

 Thanksgiving Service, November 22, 2007

 Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

It’s always amazed me when I hear a story about a life that’s been changed. It fascinates me to think, “What was it? What was the contributing factor? What was the event that caused that dramatic change?” And recently, a friend of mine told me a story of his life and it involved growing up in a very difficult circumstance and living a life that didn’t include God but, later, things changed for him. He told me about how he’d been born into a blended family and you know what that means. It means that his mom had been married previously and had children from a previous husband and when he was born into that family, it was a little bit different, a little bit complicated. At 5 years old, his mother and father divorced. Imagine the impact on him at that time. He was living with his mother. His father went off and married someone else who had children. Life continued to be difficult. He said at that point of the divorce, sort of like a carousel began of different men coming into their household dating their mom.

After a while, one would come and move in with his kids and he didn’t know how he fit into that situation. There were just all these strange people in his house and that man would leave and another one would come and spend a few months or a year. Until he was about 12 years old and, under pressure from his father, he was being forced to decide whether he wanted to live with his mother or his father. What a difficult decision to be in, 12 years old, having to choose whether to live with your biological father or your biological mother. And after a great deal of pressure and in view of the chaos that he was living in with his mom, he chose to move in with his dad.

Well, he moved in with his dad and things were not a lot better. His stepmom was a career woman that didn’t have any time for him and just made it feel like he was extra and not included in most of what was going on. She clearly favored her children over him and so he kind of withdrew from life. He poured his heart into the study of sciences, was fascinated by all the theories and they captivated him. And he had a dream in his heart of one day becoming an astronaut. It’s not a bad dream but listen to how the pain of his early childhood impacted his dream. He dreamed that the ultimate existence would be living in a space station all by himself far away from all of humanity conducting his scientific experiments.

Well, that didn’t quite work out. It ended up he joined the navy and he served in submarines for a number of years. And all the while, he wondered, “Is this all there is to life? If this is all there is, life is miserable.” He wrestled with the question, “Does God exist?” Scientific dogma told him, “No, God’s not part of the answer.” But his heart wasn’t satisfied with that answer and he searched for more. One day, he went to chapel on base. An older couple befriended him and invited him to their home and, through their love and kindness, he began to learn about God. He’d never gone to church before. This was his first experience and, through that couple, he began to get an impression of what it meant to trust in God, to have a relationship with God.

Some years later, he describes how, after the navy, he was visiting with his sister and he was all alone by himself. And he just called out to God and he said, “God, if you’re really there, show me.” Little by little, God did show him. He dated a girl who was the daughter of a pastor and she helped him learn a little bit about God. Along the way, little by little, he grew in his faith to the point where he trusted in God and then, he grew so much that he desired to be a pastor. He wanted to give his life to be a pastor. So he went to college and seminary and graduated and, along the way, God blessed him with a wonderful life and children and now he serves a small congregation.

He describes his life as being changed from one of hopelessness and despair to one that now had purpose and love. It’s amazing to me when I hear about that kind of a transformation, that change that took place. What were the contributing factors? How did it happen? Well, there are also stories in the bible about lives and hearts that were changed. Many, many people in the bible went through transformations and different experiences. But a very dramatic one was part of our Old Testament lesson a little bit earlier and Pastor Meyer read from Exodus Chapters 35 and 36. We hear this wonderful story about people pouring out their gifts to God. Now these are the people of Israel who are wandering in the wilderness and they were going to build a tabernacle, basically a portable temple where they could offer sacrifices and worship God and hear from God and all those kinds of things. And they were collecting items, precious metals and wood and cloth and things like that to build this wonderful tabernacle. And Moses said, “If anyone is willing, let him bring an offering.” The amazing thing was the response. Morning after morning, they brought everything they had, all their gold, all their silver, all their bronze, all their beautiful cloth, all their precious wood to construct this tabernacle.

Finally, it got to the point where Moses had to restrain them and he sent word throughout the camp. “No one should bring any more.” Can you imagine us doing that here at Gloria Dei? “We will not take an offering today. We did last week. You gave too much. We don’t need it.” It’s hard to conceive, isn’t it? That these people’s hearts were just so filled with joy and love that they were giving everything they had. It’s even harder to conceive when you know the rest of the story because this isn’t the beginning of the story. This is like the climax of the story. These are the same people who lived for 400 years in slavery in Egypt. These are the same people who lived under those terrible burdens and hardships and their groans and cries went out to God. And the bible says that He heard them and was concerned about them. And so He sent His servant, Moses, to deliver them. You know the great story of the Exodus. It’s a huge moment in the Old Testament history. The Exodus. Moses was God’s instrument. He spoke face to face with Pharaoh and, ultimately, with the instrument by which the ten plagues came against the Egyptians and finally the worst and greatest plague was the death of the firstborn and that impacted every household in Egypt, even the household of Pharaoh and finally, after that terrible plague, the Pharaoh relented and he released his grip on the people of Israel and they went with joy out of Egypt.

As they were leaving, the Pharaoh had a different change of heart and he decided, “How can I let go all this free labor? These people are my possession. How can I let them go?” So he rallied his army, one of the most powerful armies in the world at that time and he sent his chariots and horsemen after the people of Israel and he had them cornered up against the Red Sea and it says that, “God, through Moses, opened the Red Sea and the people of Israel walked through on dry ground. Then the army of the Pharaoh, one of the most powerful armies in the world, tried to follow and was destroyed.”

You would think that people witnessing that event would be convinced of God’s power and love and care and everything else and they’d just be so dedicated and devoted to God, they’d never be one step off of the path on which God was leading them. But it wasn’t long after they got onto the other shore, they began to wonder, “Was this such a good idea? We need food. We need water. What are we going to do?” And they began to think about Egypt and they’d say, “Oh, we had it good in Egypt. We sat around food, banquets, pots of meat and all kinds of vegetables, everything. We had it good in Egypt.” Somehow, they had forgotten the terrible slavery of making bricks without straw and their babies being taken from them and thrown into the Nile. Somehow they had forgotten and now they were complaining. But God provided, didn’t He? Water from Iraq. Manna from heaven. Quail. God provided all their needs and He led them through the wilderness.

And finally, they arrived at the foot of the holy mountain, Mount Sinai, and it was an awesome experience. The ground was trembling. They heard sounds like thunder and flashes of lightening and the whole mountain looked like it was on fire with a dark cloud covering it. They were before the presence of God and Moses went up to God on the mountain and spoke with Him and then came back and spoke to the people. And again, he went up on the mountain and spoke with God. And he was there a long time. And the people began to complain. Hum. Can you imagine? God’s providing everything they need and they’re complaining? “Where is Moses? We don’t see him. What’s happened to him? Maybe he died or maybe something happened on the mountain. We should leave. Let’s go. Forget about him.” Aaron, trying to take control of the situation, said, “No, no, no. Let’s have a festival. Let’s have a feast. Let’s worship. Give me all your gold rings. So they all took their gold rings and handed them to him and he formed out of the gold an idol just like the one, oh I guess we don’t have one of those around here. A golden calf. A golden calf. What do God’s people have to do with a golden calf? How does that fit into our belief system? It doesn’t, does it. But it does fit into the belief system of Egyptians or other pagan people around them.

Aaron was leading them to worship as the pagans worshiped and as their celebration continued and their feast continued, they began to worship like pagans. And if you know that culture and that time, that means their worship was like an orgy. The people God were doing this. It was at that point that Moses returned from talking to God on the mountain. You know the story. He’s coming down the mountain. Joshua, his apprentice, is with him and he said, “It sounds like war in the camp.” And Moses said, “No, it sounds like singing.” And as they got closer, it was very clear what was happening in the camp and Moses got angry. You can imagine how he felt. He was angry. He took the two stone tablets with the Ten Commandments on them that God had written for him and he threw them down on the ground and they shattered into pieces. He was so angry with those people.

After a little while, he caught himself and thought, “If I’m angry, God’s angry. If God’s angry, he might kill them all.” So he went back up on the mountain and he pleaded with God and he said, “If you’re going to destroy them, destroy me instead.” The people repented. God relented and restored them.

Three chapters later, these same fickle and stiff-necked people, as it says in scripture, are the ones who are pouring out their hearts with all their possessions giving to the building of the tabernacle, all their gold, all their silver, all their bronze, all their fine cloth and precious wood. It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it? The same people who were doing all those foolish things are now fully focused on God. What was it that compelled them to thank God like that? What was it that caused them to abandon all those things they had formerly treasured and turn them over to God? They realized that a relationship with God was more wonderful than the accumulation of wealth.

What was it that led my friend to trust in God after so many years of pain and confusion? What led him to give his life to be a pastor? I believe that it’s encounters with God, with our loving and living God that make the difference. Whether we hear God speak in this awesome and powerful voice to correct us and direct us back to His ways or we experience the loving presence of God at our life’s most difficult crisis. Or enjoy some wonderful mountaintop moment where we experience God in a new and wonderful way. It is these encounters with our awesome God that touch our hearts and urge us to trust in Him.

This is Thanksgiving and very often at this time year, we kind of take inventory and we count our blessings which is a great thing to do. Isn’t it wonderful that our whole nation has a day to do this? To thank God, to think about all that we’ve been blessed with? So let’s think today about all the people God has scattered along your life’s path and through whom you have encountered God, people who spoke the truth to you, people who supported and encouraged you, people who sacrificed for you and provided for you and people who have inspired you. As you think of them, include them in your celebration today and consider the form of your response to these blessings.

Think of the generosity of the Israelites bringing so much to God that Moses had to tell them to stop. Think of the young man who gave his life to be a pastor. Think of how you could be someone through whom people encounter God. May God bless you this Thanksgiving with a heart filled with joy, joy from the awareness of his loving presence in your life. Amen.

Copyright 2007 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church