ST. LUKE EV. LUTHERAN CHURCH, WATERTOWN

Sermon delivered by Pastor Anthony E. Schultz

Thanksgiving Eve/Day November 27 + 28, 2002

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!

Dear people of God—rescued from the flaming lake of fire in hell by the innocent blood of the very Lamb of God:

I can’t believe it’s Thanksgiving already. Where did the year go? I was at the grocery store the other day. I was gonna get some barbecued pork—you know shredded pork with this tangy dark sweet barbecue sauce on it. But I didn’t see that little bin anywhere. Right where the barbecued pork was supposed to be—next to the barbecued beef and the ham salad—was this tub of cranberries! You know it’s the holidays—when they get out the cranberries. Not the cranberry jelly—the almost purple little tube of cranberry jelly that slides out of the soup size can—and retains those little rings about a half-inch in from both ends. I mean real cranberries—crimson red—crushed berries—some so tangy and tart—they almost give you dimples in your cheeks—when you don’t usually have dimples! By God’s grace alone—Wisconsin produces zillions and zillions of barrels of cranberries. Researches have suggested that the juice of the cranberry just might help prevent cancer—just might help prevent heart troubles. And so people are drinking lots more cranberry juice. Straight cranberry—cran-raspberry; cran-apple; cran-grape and more! So many people are growing so many cranberries—the price plummeted. They say it might be 3 or 4 years yet—before the price goes up. Only in America do we have so much—so much of even the lowly cranberry—that sometimes it almost seems we have too much! It’s kind of sad—I think—that what started out as a day to recall little pilgrims who came to America seeking freedom to worship Jesus according to their conscience. That these little pilgrims shared their food with the people who were already living here—when the pilgrims landed. That this day of giving thanks to our Heavenly Father—has been reduced to a day of eating too much, drinking too much, watching football, shooting white tailed deer and shopping for Christmas presents. Somewhere in all this food—people have forgotten the ultimate Giver. Today again—the Holy Spirit will comfort and encourage and empower us to:

Give Thanks Under All Circumstances

1. Give thanks for all physical blessings

2. Give thanks for all forever blessings

The part of God’s Word we are concentrating on is the very last part of the scroll of the prophet Habakkuk. When you saw in the bulletin—the prophet Habakkuk—what came to mind? Habakkuk—not easy to pronounce—impossible to spell? This paragraph in the sermon—you would expect the preacher to remind you in a nutshell--of all the background information that we learned in the Seminary. All the background information that you find in all those books in the pastor’s library. But the truth is—we don’t know much about Habakkuk. He doesn’t tell us where he is from. Doesn’t tell us who his father was. Doesn’t tell us who the King was. Doesn’t tell us all the little personal things we would like to know about him. That’s ok. If we needed to know any of that stuff—the Holy Spirit would have put it down. And the Holy Spirit would have made sure we didn’t lose it. The apostle Paul understood—what matters is the Gospel—not the person who is preaching. Paul told the Corinthians, “We have this treasure in jars of clay—to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us.” Preachers are the Tupperware. The Gospel is the treasure. The Gospel is all that matters—all that counts. The whole scroll of Habakkuk is very short. Many years later it was divided up into just 3 chapters—only 56 verses. Today—after you are all done feasting—when you are resting—open up your Bible and in only a few minutes—you could read the whole scroll of Habakkuk. The pattern—the outline is really very simple. Habakkuk’s name means embrace—like a warm hug—like a comforter. Habakkuk was inspired by the Holy Spirit to lay out two complaints. The LORD—because he wants to—not because he owes us an explanation—but because he wants to—the LORD answers Habakkuk’s complaints. The 3^rd chapter—the one where our text comes from—is a prayer—a song of thanksgiving and praise.

Habakkuk’s first complaint says, “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. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.” Habakkuk 1:2-4 There is violence and injustice everywhere. All you have to do is read the papers. There was a little Grandpa named Taswell—Taswell Baird Jr. This little Grandpa was a jazz musician—singing the blues. Taswell was 80 years old—sitting in a wheel chair outside his retirement home when three attackers threw him from his wheelchair and beat on him. They beat on him and robbed him. Taswell’s injuries were so terrible he actually died. The three guys that beat him got and got away with $80! What is that? $80? It’s one or two video games? Three sacks of groceries? Four tanks of gas? For that someone lost their life? This was reported in Monday’s paper—the 25^th—20 days after Taswell was attacked the police in Oakland still have made no arrests. That’s maybe understandable—being as Taswell was the 100^th homicide there—this year! There is violence on Sunday afternoon—one football player weighing over 300 pounds blindsides another player—putting him in the hospital—and then gloats. And when someone tells him, “What you did was wrong!”—that same man says—put on a football shirt if you’re so tough! What is that? Meet me on the playground and I’ll punch your lights out?

Just wait! You just wait! Judgment Day is coming—and when it does—justice will be served. There will be no plea bargaining. There will be no pleading guilty to a lesser charge. There will be no clever lawyers to get the guilty off by means of some clever technicality. There will be no escape from the white hot anger and crushing judgment of the righteous Judge. Our only hope is the amazing grace and precious mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines… Grapes are a wondrous gift from Jesus. Have you thanked Jesus for grapes lately? Did you say, “Come, Lord Jesus!”—the last time you made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich—with really chunky crunchy peanut butter—and thick really deep purple grape jelly? When I was in college we would always have Thanksgiving with my Uncle Joel. We would watch the Packers and the Lions play football. We would always have a snack before Thanksgiving dinner. We would have Swiss cheese spread with little almond slivers on these fancy little crackers—and a small glass of white wine. There are all kinds of wine. There is Chianti—that goes well with spaghetti or pizza. There is Zinfandel that is kind of pink. There is Merlot that is a very dark rich color. There is Riesling that is very crisp. There is chardonnay. You can go to the grocery store and find bottles of wine from literally around the world—French wine, Italian wine, sweet, dry, smoky. Wine can be a very sweet gift and blessing from Jesus. It is sadly true that the devil—again and again takes what God intended to be a blessing—and turn it into an opportunity for sin. If we are addicted to alcohol. If one taste leads to a whole glass. And one glass leads to another and another and still another—then that first swallow must not happen. Only Jesus can make us strong enough—to not take that first swallow. Only Jesus can make our family and our loved ones strong and wise—so they will not be enablers. They will help us and encourage us—so that Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years will not become painful times of alcohol abuse—as we remember the Son of God—come into this world to save us. We need to be very careful that we do not fall into the devil’s trap of binge drinking. That’s where we don’t drink alcohol for maybe weeks and weeks. But then comes a special day like Thanksgiving—and we are kind of nervous and kind of excited at the prospect of being with lots of people and feasting. And we barely get in the door and somebody says, “You must be thirsty from the long ride. What would you like to drink?” And they have lots of things to drink—frosty cold beers with Packer can coolers or any kind of mixed drink you could think of—or brandy slush—as red as cranberries. And you have one and it goes down real good and real fast and then it’s another and another. You host is trying to show hospitality—so they bring you drinks again and again. And before you know it—you have had too much! Too much isn’t falling down, passing out, stomach and head spinning in opposite directions—sick tomorrow morning. Too much is already when you start to say—or do—or even think—even think things that are sinful and wrong. To even think—what you wouldn’t think about if you didn’t have any alcohol. If you stop and think about it—what would be wrong with just having juice or soda or fizzy flavored water—or something like that? What would be wrong with drinking any one of the thousand wonderful things that Jesus made for us to drink?

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! We were blinking through the stations the other day—when we happened upon one of those fishing shows. Guys were going across the lake when they said, “Hey! There’s a floater!” A floater? I thought—a dead fish floating in the middle of the lake? It was a huge large mouth bass—floating upside down on the surface. But it wasn’t dead. I had this other fish stuck in its mouth—a fish it was trying to eat—that was so big it couldn’t swallow—and couldn’t spit back out either. Quite the opposite of drought and famine—we have so much. We will have turkey and stuffing, sweet corn, green beans with mushroom soup and crispy onion rings, cheesy hash browns, Wisconsin cranberries, and frosty beverages, flavored coffees and more. People will complain the plates are too small. There will be cold turkey sandwiches and chips—turkey casseroles with rice or noodles. By God’s grace we will not be like that floater fish—but rather people who eat and drink to the glory of God. Then by God’s grace we will be thankful—not just full!

Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior! They say one of the most popular ways to make a turkey is to deep-fry it. You heat up like 5 gallons of peanut oil to like 425 degrees. Then you take this 22-pound turkey—on a grappling hook and lower it into the boiling oil. I didn’t hear how long you are supposed to let it fry—because all the demonstrations they did on TV—the oil came exploding—overflowing the kettle—making this huge fire! The firemen who tried to deep fry their turkey said you dasn’t fry it in your house. You dasn’t fry it on your wooden deck. They said you should be at least twelve feet away from your house—or you could end up burning your whole house down. The fire chief said the safest thing to do was have Thanksgiving Dinner at your mom’s house—where she bakes the turkey! As terrible as all those fires were—they are nothing—absolutely nothing—compared to the horrible fires of hell. The fires of hell are not make believe. They are not pretend. They are not special effects. The fires of hell are real. They are the forever torment of those who die in sin and unbelief! People who have been in hell for millions and millions and millions of years—will never ever get out! We will be joyful in God our Savior—because Jesus has washed away all our sins. Jesus has made us children of our Heavenly Father—by adoption. We are heirs of eternal life for Jesus’ sake. Thanksgiving Day is just one day in the now and forever that we will give thanks and praise to God our Savior. Amen! To God alone all glory!