SAINT LUKE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH OF WATERTOWN
Thanksgiving
Eve/Day November 21 + 22, 2001
Habakkuk
3:17-19
Though
the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the
olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in
the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be
joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet
like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.
People of God, precious
in His sight for Jesus’ sake:
It’s scary! A United
Airlines jet landed at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport the other day
under tight security. Local police as
well as airport security met the airplane on the tarmac—out on the runway—far
from the terminal. They had discovered a suspicious object on board and they
were taking no chances! The suspicious object? A package—covered with Arabic
script—wires poking through—a ticking noise coming from inside? No… A piece of
luggage with a pipe inside—capped on both ends? No… Early reports said it was a
cardboard cutter—the kind grocery store workers use to open cases of chicken noodle soup or boxes of
frozen pizzas! Over reacting? Maybe—and then again—maybe not. Such an ordinary
every day tool could in the hands of a fanatical self-destructive evildoer
bring a whole plane down. There is danger all around! Not just danger from what
looks like doughnut powdered sugar on your junk mail to weapons in carry on luggage
on airplanes. There is danger to heart and soul. The danger that comes from the
devil is painfully real. The danger from sin existed long before September
eleventh. And the danger from sin will exist long after the war against
terrorism has finished. We can gather here in God’s house with joyful thankful
hearts—because Jesus has overcome sin for us! Jesus died on a cross made of
blood and sweat stained splintered wood. Jesus died on the cross to set us
eternally free from fear—free from the fear of death itself. The grave cannot
frighten us—because death for the child of God is but the gate to eternal
safety—forever peace—never ending rest—complete protection from every kind of
hurt! This Thanksgiving Day we give thanks to Jesus for the most blessing of
all—eternal life! Today the very last verses of the scroll of the Prophet
Habakkuk encourage us:
Give
Thanks to the LORD My Savior
1. He
gives us every blessing
2. He
is our strength
It’s not fair! It’s just
not fair! Three years ago—a guy named Peter—this really rich art guy was
driving in this pickup truck with his wife—when the police say—he
crashed—deliberately—on purpose—intentionally drove/crashed through this
guardrail. His wife was killed! Peter—however—conveniently jumped out of the
truck to safety—just before it went over the cliff! Well, the police weren’t
fooled. They arrested him. The DA wasn’t fooled. He prosecuted Peter. And the
jury wasn’t fooled—either—except for one member of the jury. This one person
has the whole jury deadlocked. And you want to know why? Because this juror
figures—if Peter is really guilty—God will punish him. It’s not fair. It’s just
not fair! And you know—that’s not a new problem—the violence and the injustice
in this world. Hundreds of years before baby Jesus was born the prophet
Habakkuk asked God—why is it—that this world is full of so much violence—so
much injustice. The LORD told Habakkuk and he tell us—wait. Be patient—watch
and wait. At just the right time the LORD will settle all accounts.
The scroll of the prophet
Habakkuk is just three chapters long. We had a sermon from Habakkuk just a few
weeks ago. Remember? The oracle—the burden—the heavy message that
Habakkuk the prophet received. How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you
do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? Why do you
make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence
are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. There would be
horrible violence when the LORD would use the gross and godless Babylonians to
discipline God’s people. It would be horrible. That discipline might have begun
in the verses just before the ones we are concentrating on. Habakkuk wrote, I
heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones,
and my legs trembled… This is not the warm fuzzy feeling you get from
coming home to grandma’s house—scuffing through the golden leaves on the
sidewalk. Into the home that smells of spicy pumpkin pie baking—the smell of
herbs in the stuffing—the sweet white wine and the flavored coffee brewing. The
feeling you get from eating snacks and watching football on a big screen. This
is the feeling of decay in your bones—knees that grow weak and wobbly because
of our sins. Have you felt that lately? The prophet Habakkuk talked about a
couple of sins. He wrote, “Has not the LORD Almighty determined that the
people’s labor is only fuel for the fire, that the nations exhaust themselves
for nothing?” Laboring ‘til you exhaust yourself for nothing? What is that?
Being a workaholic? Workaholic. I
thought the spell check would put one of those red squiggly lines under that
word—workaholic. But it didn’t! Why would a person work and work and work until
they make themselves sick? Why would a person do that? The devil has all kinds
of reasons for people to work too much! You can work and work and
work in order to avoid confronting problems like a marriage that isn’t
strong—communications broken down between you and your spouse. If you aren’t
even home—you can’t have poor communications—you don’t have any communications
at all. You don’t have companionship either—which is one of the basic and
essential purposes that God invented marriage to be! Working too much might be
because the more you work the more you get paid—the more money you have. And
one of the devil’s most time worn lies is that if you have enough money you can
buy happiness or at least rent it! That’s just not true. Sometimes the devil
tricks people into working too much in order to find self worth and self-esteem
in their work—all they accomplish—all that they make—all that they do. And
sometimes the devil tricks people into thinking—if they work lots and lots they
can afford to buy their children that they love dearly lots of things and stuff
for Christmas—when what Christmas is really about is the birth of the Christ
child—the Savior of the world. And what their children really want are their
father and their mother—not lots of things and stuff from their father and
mother—but their father and their mother!
Working too much isn’t a
new problem. Nor is the abuse of alcohol a new problem. Habakkuk—hundreds of
years before baby Jesus was born wrote, “Woe to him who gives drink to his
neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk, so that he can gaze
on their naked bodies.” There is a very real danger—that beginning with
Thanksgiving and going all through New Years—the devil will tempt us to drink
too much. Again it is one of the devil’s best tricks to make us think we don’t
have a drinking problem. We couldn’t have a drinking problem because what we
drink is very expensive single malt scotch! Tempting to think we don’t have a
drinking problem because we just drink beers! Beers are German—beers are
American—beers are Wisconsin. Beers are just beers—not like the hard stuff—not
like scotch or martinis that are so dry they are just big iced glasses of gin.
It’s tempting to think—I can’t have a drinking problem—because I either drink
very expensive scotch or micro brewed dark beers—while people with drinking
problems are people who live in New York and Chicago—in alleys drinking cheap
sweet thick wines! That’s not me! The devil likes people to think if they only
drink during the holidays—only drink on the weekends—only drink once in a while
that they don’t have a problem—when they very well might be binge drinkers.
They drink those first 1,2,3,4 real fast—then the rest of the night—one every
little bit. If you drink too much---then the next temptation is as old as
Habakkuk—to have hugs and kisses that are unfaithful and sinful and wrong! It
is by grace alone that Jesus died on the cross for all our sins. The love of
money—the love of that warm feeling from alcohol—the terrible hurt of stolen
hugs and kisses. Jesus died and rose again so that instead of wicked and sinful
hurt—we might be like the deer. The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes
my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights. The
deer in Israel have feet that can take them to the mountain heights without
falling. The LORD makes us strong so we can resist temptation and be
strong—following Jesus—not falling into the same old sins again and again!
For a long time
now—Martha Stewart has been demonstrating all the things you are supposed to do
for Thanksgiving. She did this thing about how to fold and iron your starched
linen table napkins so they look really swell on your plate or sticking out of
a crystal wine glass. She did this thing about making cranberry sauce with
whole fresh cranberries and apples—Granny Smith apples because they don’t turn
to mush—to applesauce when you cook them. She put in onions! I would never
think of onions with my cranberries—and brown sugar and then cider vinegar and
little red pepper flakes. Onions and red peppers and then nutmeg—grated—fresh
grated from a real nutmeg nut. I never saw one of those before either. You cook
this with dried apricots and more and it’s supposed to serve 20 people. I
wonder how much each person would eat—if they knew there were onions in it.
Then Martha Stewart’s mom showed how to make stuffed peppers for vegetarians.
Grandma Stewart kind of snuck in there—when she made it—she always put meat in
her peppers. You know—you can do all that stuff—the napkins and the cranberries
and the peppers and the dried flowers and the perfect moist turkey. You can
even have the family crafts—making little dolls out of dried cornhusks—just
like the Native Americans made for the pilgrims. But if Jesus is not the center
of your Thanksgiving—then this day is just one more day to eat too much. Thanksgiving
for a child of God is one more day to say our thank you prayers. It is one more
day to open our eyes to see all of God’s goodness—his grace—his undeserved
kindness and goodness to wretched sinners like us. Thanksgiving is one more day
to watch for the opportunities for everyone to know we are Jesus’ students,
followers, imitators by how we love one another. Thanksgiving is a day to thank
Jesus for our nation—for the freedoms we have in this country. It’s a day to
pray for those who are engaged in war—actual hand-to-hand combat in defense of
our nation. To thank Jesus that we are blood bought children of God—adopted by
our Heavenly Father and heirs of Heaven. When you remember that—then even if
the fig tree has no buds—no grapes on the vines—no food in the fields—no sheep
in the pen—no cattle in the stalls—yet we will rejoice in the LORD—we will be
joyful in God our Savior. Amen!