Sermon for Thanksgiving Eve
Deuteronomy 26:1-11 + Luke 12:13-21
You’ve come to the Lord’s house tonight to give Him thanks, to recognize His goodness to you, to acknowledge Him as the Source and Provider of all you have. That’s the way it should be. Christians should celebrate Thanksgiving differently than the rest of the country. Millions of Americans view Thanksgiving as nothing more than extra vacation days, extra family time, a traditional meal, or, at best, a time to feel grateful to some generic, unknown god who only barely resembles the God of the true Christian religion. Thanksgiving Day is mostly a day filled with idolatry, just like Christmas has become.
But God has made Himself known to you in the person of Jesus Christ, in the word of the Gospel. You’ve come to worship God in the only way He can be worshiped—through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. So worship Him this evening, not only with your prayers and praises, but also by hearing and heeding His word as the Lord Jesus repeats a warning to you in the Gospel. Don’t be a fool! You didn’t build that.
That has become a common slogan in our country by a certain political party and its leader. Whether it’s a home or a business or wealth that’s built up over a lifetime, we are told, “You didn’t build that. That wasn’t your doing. It was only made possible by your fellow countrymen helping you along, every step of the way, and ultimately, the government gets credit for all that you think you built.” Well, that’s not only ridiculous. It’s sacrilegious. The credit for all that you have goes, not to the government, not to your fellow countrymen, not even to you. It all goes to God. Let’s turn to the parable to see what Jesus is talking about.
What a tragedy it was, when that man from the crowd approached Jesus and said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” Oh my. The Son of God comes to earth, takes on human flesh, and walks among us for a short moment in human history in order to reconcile sinners with God and hand out the forgiveness of sins and eternal life as a free gift, and all this man has on his mind is the money he thinks his brother is cheating him out of. He’s mad. He’s angry. Maybe Jesus can finally do something useful and be a referee for their family squabble. Maybe Jesus can create some social justice here on earth and get the wealth out of the hands of those evil rich people who are cheating the poor people out of their well-deserved happiness.
“Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?” Jesus asked. Jesus was actually angry that someone would look to Him to institute social justice or to enforce income equality. That is not why He came; that is not the Christian Gospel. On the contrary, He came to warn sinners about God’s wrath and condemnation for their sinful fixation on themselves and their rights and their money and their property. Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses. And so He tells a parable that strikes at rich and poor alike, because the rich can be corrupted by their possession of wealth, and the poor can be corrupted by their longing for wealth. Greed and selfishness are a human problem, transcending all social classes.
The parable is about a rich man who gets even richer. A superabundant harvest gives him so much extra wealth that he decides to tear down his storage barns and build even bigger ones. He congratulates himself on how rich he has become, and he makes plans with himself to make an early retirement so that he can enjoy all his money. He’s very happy with himself, so happy that no one else gets even a moment of thought or care or recognition: not his neighbor, and certainly not God.
“You fool!” God said. This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided? The rich man reasoned, I built all this. I worked hard and my hard work paid off. So now I’m going to sit back and enjoy the well-deserved fruits of my labors. But what did he forget? He forgot that God brought his ancestors into this land after redeeming them from slavery in Egypt. He forgot that it was God who gave his ancestors the land, God who saw to it that he was born just where and when he was so that he could inherit the land from his ancestors, God who gave him the ability and the skill to work that land, God who made the crops grow, and God who sustained every cell in his body, granting him life and breath until God should see fit to pay out to him the wages of sin, which is death.
What a stark contrast between the rich fool in Jesus’ parable and the commandment of God to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 26, our first lesson this evening. With each and every harvest in the Promised Land of Israel, they were to remember—and confess again publicly—all the things that the rich man in the parable forgot. And they were to worship God with the firstfruits of their harvest as an acknowledgement before God that, I didn’t built that, O Lord. You did. You brought me here. You get the credit for all that I have. And I give you thanks! Because You have rescued me from sin, death, and the devil, without any work on my part. You have brought me into Your house and washed away all my sins and have promised to sustain me through this life into eternal life. Having You for my God, whether I am rich or poor, whether I have plenty or barely enough, I have all that I need. Indeed, I am rich, because You have given me Yourself and have promised me an eternal inheritance at Your side in heaven.
That’s what it means to be “rich toward God,” as Jesus says, or maybe a better translation, “rich in God.” It’s not about how big of an offering you bring to church, and it’s not about how charitable you are toward your neighbor. It’s about not living for money and stuff, but living for God. It’s about finding your contentment, not in money and stuff, but in God—the God who gave His Son into death for your sins, and in addition, richly and daily provides you with clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and yard, wife and children, land, cattle, and all that you have—with all that you need to nourish and support this body and life.
Don’t be a fool. You didn’t build that. You didn’t accumulate any goods or wealth for yourself that God didn’t allow you to accumulate and use for His purposes, and it could all be gone tomorrow anyway. Your life on earth could end tonight. So be rich in God. Trust in Him, and give thanks to the Him, today and every day, and take this opportunity at Thanksgiving time to rededicate yourself to using all the good things God has given you for His honor and glory and for your neighbor’s benefit. Worship God with the things He’s given you, with the things He has built. Worship Him in the only way He can be worshiped—through faith in His Son Jesus Christ. Amen.
