The Lutheran Hour
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"There is a Right Way to Live Life"
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Text: 1 Thessalonians 5:17-19
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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you in Jesus’ Name, the One who makes a thanksgiving life possible, today and forever. Amen.
Next week is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. And, for many, it is still a commemoration of the feast of harvest that the Pilgrims celebrated with the Indians 400 years ago. For others, though, it is a call not only to be reminded of that first Thanksgiving Day, to be thankful to God for your blessings, but a charge to live life a certain way in all circumstances.
But, when you gather around the Thanksgiving dinner table this year, let me ask you this: if you had been one of those first Pilgrim settlers coming to the New World, would you have been able to give thanks that first Thanksgiving Day?
Consider what they had been through. They had uprooted themselves and sailed for America, on a journey so dangerous, they were advised first “To make out thy will.” The crossing was very rough and the Mayflower was blown off course. Instead of reaching Virginia, where Englishmen had settled 13 years earlier, the Pilgrims ended up in the wilds of Massachusetts. By the time they found a place to make their new home, Plymouth, they called it, winter had set in.
The storms were frightful. Shelter was rudimentary. There was little food. Within weeks, nearly all the settlers were sick.
Governor William Bradford later recalled, “in two or three months’ time, half of their company died, especially in January and February….being infected with the scurvy and other diseases…. There died sometimes two or three of a day.”
When spring came, Indians showed them how to plant corn, but their first crops were dismal. Supplies ran out, their sponsors in London refused to send more and even when they first sent a shipment of goods to England, it was stolen by pirates.
So, if you had been there in 1621, if you had seen half of your friends die, if you had suffered through famine, malnutrition, and sickness, if you had endured a year of heartbreak and tragedy, would you have felt grateful?
In view of such things, Paul’s words, then, seem almost incredible, yet he unequivocally proclaims for those who trust in Christ, “Rejoice always! Pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances!
Who can live that kind of life? What kind of person would you have to be? I’ll tell you the truth; it sure seems like a person like that would have to be superhuman, almost too good to be true. So, is that really the secret of a thankful life, being superhuman? Or is it something as simple and as powerful as knowing the God of heaven and earth, the Lord of the cross and resurrection as your Savior in all things?
Let’s learn together today, that because we can trust in God in all things, we can, as His people, live a life of thanksgiving in this sinful world, no matter the struggle or the circumstance. Let’s learn that there is a right way to live life, resourced by faith, inspired by hope, unleashed in thanksgiving.
“Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.19
Now, if Paul is saying that this is the right way to live, why do so many, Christians and non, not live this way?
Well, first of all, many people today have a wrong view of thanksgiving. You’ll hear people recount their blessings as a means for that thankful spirit, but even then, deep in their hearts are also the realities of their sufferings, pains, disappointments, and trials. Too many people miss out on the power of a thanksgiving life because, even when they try to live this way, they falsely root their thankfulness in circumstances of the moment and not in the enduring work and word of God on their behalf.
Circumstances change, But God never changes. Other people might fail us, but God never forgets His people. Our own insecurities, even our sins, can stifle our thankfulness just when it is needed most. But God is a constant resource for our thanksgiving life, with His forgiveness, His promises, and His love always at the ready in our greatest time of need!
Many people root their thanksgiving in the temporal good fortune of the moment. Such a thanksgiving attitude is fickle and can literally change on a dime. But worse, it really saps us of our energy to live life thankfully in all circumstances too.
I was reminded of how fickle thankful feelings can be when I heard a funny story of two teachers meeting each other at a convention after several years of being apart. They spent the first break getting reacquainted, sharing news about what had happened in their lives since last they met.
One teacher said, “I got married two years ago.” “Oh, that’s good,” her friend replied.
“Well, no, not really,” the first one said. “My husband is twice as old as I am.” “Oh, that’s bad,” her friend replied.
“Well, no, not really,” she said, “he is a millionaire several times over.” “Oh, that’s good,” her friend replied.
“Well, no, not really,” she said, “he’s mean to me and he won’t give me any money.” “Oh, that’s bad,” her friend replied.
“Well, no, not really,” she said. “He did build us a $400,000 house.” “Oh, that’s good,” her friend replied.
“Well, no, not really,” she said. “It burned down last month.” “Oh, that’s bad,” her friend replied.
“Well, no, not really,” she said. “He was in the house when it burned down.” “Oh, that’s….good?”
Well, no, it’s not. Her perspective sure was skewed and her thankfulness misplaced, don’t you think? But many people are just as confused about how or why to be thankful in this world.
And that’s what finally makes the Christian life of thankfulness unique. It is not merely the desire to give thanks or to be thankful when the circumstances warrant it, it’s knowing to whom to give thanks and why!
But there’s another reason why people fail to live a life of thanksgiving. They not only don’t know God or have a relationship with God; they often have a wrong view of God, as well.
People have a skewed view of God today. I see it, even in the questions people have about God, about life, about suffering. For example, people will often ask me the question, “Pastor, why do bad things happen to good people?” But inherent in the question is the charge, “Why is God so fickle that He allows bad people to be blessed and good people to suffer?” It’s almost like folks think they’ve got God in a box on that one, smugly demanding that He answer the question correctly or else.
But that’s the wrong question from the Bible’s point of view. In full view of the reality of life, the real question that should puzzle us is, “Why do good things happen to bad people?”
People have got it all wrong today. They think that the suffering problem is God’s problem, that He is the eternal kill-joy of the party, the One who seeks to take His pound of flesh from His subjects. When, in reality, it is we who have rebelled against Him, purposely separated ourselves from Him, the font and source of all of life and salvation. The truth is, no one of us deserves any blessing from God. And the question at the heart of a thankful life is, “Why do so many good things happen to a bad person like me?”
The answer is clear: God chooses to be merciful to sinners on Christ’s behalf, sinners who don’t deserve anything good but receive it because of the Person and work of Jesus for them.
The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ reveals the very heart of God the Father to the world. Once you see clearly how much God loves you, the life that He desires for you, even the life that He makes possible for you; once you see what He was willing to pay so that all this might be possible for you again, today, right now, that roots thankfulness in God; in God’s actions, in God’s will, God’s resources in your life!
What makes a thankful life in Christ unique is that you cannot only truly know who to give thanks to you can know why!
Martin Luther was a man who literally reformed the Christian Church because he rediscovered the grace of God in Jesus Christ and the power and joy of faith that trusts in Him alone. As a pastor, Luther wrote a catechism that not only proclaimed this very heart of God in the work of Jesus, but also gave Christians practical ways that they could reflect this new way of living in their daily lives. With this view of God, listen to how Luther tells people to pray.
In his morning prayer, he says: In the morning, when you rise, you shall make the sign of the holy cross, and you shall say: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Then, kneeling or standing, you shall say the Apostles’ Creed and the Lord’s Prayer and then you may say this prayer: I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray You to protect me this day from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please You. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the wicked foe may have no power over me. Amen. And then you should go to work with joy.
But the evening prayer closes the day in the same spirit as well. He says, “In the evening, when you go to bed, make the sign of the holy cross, and you say:” ‘In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.’ Then, kneeling or standing, say the Apostles’ Creed and the Lord’s Prayer. Then you may say this prayer: I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that You have graciously kept me this day; and I pray You to forgive me all my sins where I have done wrong, and graciously keep me this night. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the wicked foe may have no power over me. Amen. And then, he says, lie down in peace, and sleep.
Thanksgiving permeated everyday in Luther’s prayers, because everyday, “The God who loved Him and redeemed Him was on the job, caring for Him.” When Jesus says, “Lo, I will be with you always to the end of the age,” He meant it. God never stops caring, watching over, protecting, and blessing His people.
That’s the power of a life of thanksgiving no matter the circumstance. It is a life that knows who God is by faith, knows what God has done for us and can trust Him even when things seem uncertain for the moment. It is a life of faith that can boldly proclaim; I will, “Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for me in Christ Jesus.”
So, during this Thanksgiving Season and all throughout the year, put the specific grace of God to work in your life.
With thanksgiving for your relationships, approach them all with a new perspective, a new vision of what people mean in your life! Do you know how the apostle Paul began every letter he wrote to the churches, except Galatians? Yes, he began them with thanks and a reference to grace! To the church in Rome he wrote. “First, I thank my God for all of you.” (Romans 1:8) To the church in Corinth. “I always thank God for you (1 Corinthians 1:4).To the church in Ephesus, “I have not stopped giving thanks for you; remembering you in my prayers.” (Ephesians 1:16). It was a thankful heart rooted in God’s grace in his life that could look at the people of those churches with thankfulness, no matter the struggle of the moment, (and there were struggles in serving those churches too!) Thankful lives approach others then assuming that God will strengthen our relationship to each other or at least show us again the depth of His love for us as we seek to share Him with those entrusted to our care!
During this Thanksgiving Season and all throughout the year put the specific grace of God to work in your life; with a rejoicing heart because God never stops looking out for you, because God Himself is making a way through the troubles that you are experiencing. And even if you are facing the reality of death this holiday season, He is merely setting the stage for your glorious healing and restoration. Rejoice always by faith in Christ, you are always in the Father’s caring hands.
Finally, during this Thanksgiving Season, put the specific grace of God to work in your life by praying without ceasing. Why? Because God hears your prayers no matter the answer. You know, God always answers, either “Yes, No, or wait,” never maybe, because there is no maybe with God and His gracious love. He didn’t go to the cross for you and rise again from the dead for you to offer you a maybe answer to prayer. No, He answers. And those answers are always meant to keep us close to Him in faith.
And open your heart up to the fact that God can use all circumstances in this world to draw you closer to Him, to draw others to Himself through you, or even to deepen your relationships to one another through trial.
I’ve never been a fan of the theology of Robert Schuller and the Crystal Cathedral, but as he got older and suffered through some trials and illnesses, his teaching tended to move away, at least at times, from the power of positive thinking, closer to a biblical joy in all circumstances power of the cross. He talked about a time when thankfulness in trial shook him to his core.
He was to speak at a seminar in Korea. The day before he was supposed to speak, he received a phone call from Iowa that his daughter had been in a serious accident and had been taken to the hospital and was in critical condition.
Immediately he called the seminar host pastor and said that he had to get back to the States and would be unable to speak. The host pastor, Dr. Cho, told him, “You and your wife, pack your suitcases and meet me at the airport, we will arrange transportation for you back to Iowa.”
Sure enough, Schuller and his wife meet Cho at the airport where they joined in prayer. But, before the Schullers boarded the flight home, Cho asked, “Have you thanked God for this yet?”
Schuller says, “I thought to myself how can I give thanks to God for this? Doesn’t he know my daughter might be dying? How can I thank God for this?”
Yet as the long flight made its way back to the States, Schuller could not forget Cho’s question, “Have you thanked God for this?” So he went into the lavatory, not to freshen up, but really to cry out for his daughter. He started praying, “I thank you Lord my daughter is not alone, but that family has come alongside her to support her. I thank you Lord that my daughter is still alive.” He continued to pray for his daughter with thanks.
When they got to Iowa, he discovered that his daughter had been hurt in an accident and had one of her legs amputated. Again he found it difficult to give thanks, but was confronted by a daughter, in trial, who did not. She gave thanks even then for her life, for her family, for her God. Schuller said he learned from her and Cho to take your scars and, in Christ, turn them into stars.
You see, when the impotent power of positive thinking gives way to the power of the cross and resurrection, that literally brings joy in the midst of all circumstances, in the midst of tragedy and trial, that’s the power of thanksgiving that endures forever and ever!
So, Christians, you don’t live generically thankful lives, you live lives of incredibly specific thankfulness because you know the specific grace-work of Jesus Christ to love you, to forgive you, and to give you His abundant, eternal life, now and forever.
And because of Him, dear friend, you can put the power of rejoicing and thanksgiving to work in your life today. Let the troubles and the successes of each day be merely opportunities to give thanks to God who promises through it all, to be faithful to you. Live your life in Christ, be resourced by faith, inspired by hope, unleashed in thanksgiving.
Now that’s the right way to live life, don’t you think?
With thanksgiving, God bless you all. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for November 18, 2012
Topic: What Will Happen When I Die?ANNOUNCER: Now, Pastor Gregory Seltz responds to questions. I’m Mark Eischer. Pastor, what happens when we die?
SELTZ: This is a big question, Mark. It’s especially urgent for people who feel like they are closer to their end because of age or illness. But even for the young and the healthy, this is an important question to ask.
ANNOUNCER: Because it’s something we all will face eventually.
SELTZ: Unless Jesus comes back first, yes, we all will die. But even if Jesus comes during this question and answer time…
ANNOUNCER: Which He could…
SELTZ: …the answer to the question about what will happen when we die is of the utmost importance.
ANNOUNCER: What does the Bible say about it?
SELTZ: First, the Bible lets you know that if you believe in Jesus Christ, the Savior who gave His life for you and rose from the dead to pay the price for your sins, your soul will be immediately with Him in Heaven even as your body waits for its eternal resurrection. There is no waiting, no limbo, no intermediate period of wondering. As the angels immediately took poor Lazarus to Abraham’s side in Jesus’ parable in Luke chapter 16, you, too, will be brought to the place that Jesus has prepared for you in heaven. You will join fellow believers in the caring presence of Jesus as it is described in Revelation chapter twenty-one, where there is “no more death, no more mourning, crying, or pain.”
ANNOUNCER: That’s a great message of comfort and assurance as we think about facing our own deaths. There is another side to this, isn’t there?
SELTZ: There sure is. The alternative is eternal death, hell as the Bible talks about it. For those who reject salvation in Jesus and choose to try to please a perfect God themselves under their own power and plan, hell is the immediate destination that justice demands. So it’s the place that unbelievers have been seeking all along, if you will. The place “without God.” Once again, just as the rich man in Luke 16, in that parable he goes straight to hell immediately, it’s the tragic dwelling place for the unbeliever.
ANNOUNCER: And you say that with no joy, but with a certain note of sadness.
SELTZ: Yes, a lot of sadness because God doesn’t want to lose anyone. His will is that everyone is saved. But the tragic rejection of His outstretched arm of help and forgiveness has sad and tragic results. I don’t even like to think about it honestly; it’s an incredibly terrible loss. But one of the main purposes of this program is to prevent that loss while we still have time. That is why it is so urgent for every person to hear God’s appeal, take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to heart, receive the gift of life He gives. The task we all have this side of eternity is to bring that precious gift of eternal life to everyone possible.
ANNOUNCER: That’s not just our mission here, is it?
SELTZ: No, it is the calling of every believer. I know we have many believers in Christ listening today. God places each one of His redeemed people in this world to bring the Good News to people all around them. That means your children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren. That means to your husbands and wives, friends and neighbors. This is such an incredibly precious gift, it’s important to share it.
ANNOUNCER: What would you say to someone who is afraid of death?
SELTZ: This may be the question behind the question, Mark. Eternal life is encouraging, but dying still can be very frightening. It’s scary to think about illness, pain, or a violent death. But I think that’s where Jesus’ comforting words come in for all of us, when He says, “I am with you always, until the end of the age.” We’re not alone. God never leaves us, never forsakes us. So, even as we face the reality of death, our Good Shepherd leads us and He cares for us. That’s why Psalm 23 is so comforting. It talks about the Lord when He says it this way, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” You know, Mark, Lutheran Hour Ministries has developed a wonderful Men’s Network Video Bible Study called “Death, Then What?”
ANNOUNCER: And that Bible Study can help to answer some of these questions about what happens after death. You can find that by going to the Men’s Network website. You can get to it through www.lhm.org. And for a variety of resources including Bible Studies, archived messages, and more go to www.lhm.org. Thank you, Pastor Seltz. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music Selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by Chris Bergmann. Used by permission.
“Come, Ye Thankful People, Come” From Hymns for All Saints: Adoration, Praise, Comfort (© 2004 Concordia Publishing House)
“Come, You Thankful People, Come” From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House)
“Rise, My Soul, to Watch and Pray” by J.S. Bach.