St. Luke Ev. Lutheran Church of Watertown

Sermon delivered by Pastor Anthony E. Schultz

Thanksgiving November 24, 2005 Psalm 103:1-14

Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel: The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we were formed, he remembers that we are dust.

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

384 years ago—in 1621—Pilgrims by Plymouth, Massachusetts had a harvest feast! History books say they ate outside—because they didn’t have a building big enough for all the tables and all the food and all the people! King Massasoit—and 90 of his bravest men were there. They brought 5 deer to eat along with ducks, geese--even swans—birds roasted over fires—no stuffing inside, though. If you look on the Internet you can find the actual recipes the Pilgrims used—for furmenty—a wheat pudding—cracked wheat, ground mace, milk, ground cinnamon, brown sugar, heavy cream, egg yolks, salt—and more brown sugar! Wheat pudding. Does that sound good to you? No sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top.

Could we live off the land? If there was a terrible disaster—where there was suddenly no more electricity—no cable TV—no telephones—no cars or trucks—no computers or cell phones—if you had to go hunting for meat—fishing for fish—had to grow your own fruits and vegetables or find them in forests—how would you do? Could you live like the people in Little House on the Prairie? And if you did—would you be thankful? Would you feast—and praise God for all he has given you? We live in a country that has more things and stuff than any other nation on the face of the earth! And yet—when you read the papers or watch the news or listen to our leaders in Madison and Washington—do you hear thanks and praise to our heavenly Father? When you sit around the tables in your break room or when you sit around your breakfast and supper tables—do you hear people giving thanks and praise to God—or do you hear people grumble and complain? This time of national Thanksgiving God’s Word said:

Praise the LORD, O my soul!

1. He removes our transgressions

2. He heals our diseases

3. He understands we are dust

Psalm 103 and 104 go together. Psalm 103 thanks the great I AM—the Holy One of Israel for buying us back from sin and death. Psalm 104 thanks the great I Am for creation. Psalm 103 is a Psalm pastors read to people in the hospital—when you have had a heart attack. When you suddenly find your self flat on your back in those funny little jammies—with a needle stuck in your arm—with little clear plastic bags of juice running into your veins. With a plastic tube pushing oxygen up your nose. With little stickum patches all over your chest—connected to a little i-Pod in your pocket. With a computer monitor that has little green lines—registering your heart activity. When you have had an operation—and doctors have taken pieces out of you—or have repaired or replaced or rebuilt parts inside of you. You are in the hospital and the devil is tempting you to think—why is my life so physically and mentally and emotionally painful? Does Jesus not love me? Is it going to be this painful from now on—or is it only going to get worse? Am I going to feel nauseous for the rest of my life? Here comes that nurse again—and this time the needle is even longer. I have no blood left to get! It is when life is very difficult that we are reminded by God’s Word--Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the LORD, O my soul and forget not all his benefits! This is not superficial praise—not going through the motions. This is praise from the heart and soul—from our inmost being!

We praise the LORD who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion… Do you notice when we read God’s Word—how great are God’s promises? He forgives all your sins! Not just lots of them or great amounts of them or really really bunches of them—or more than you can count or imagine. He forgives all your sins—all of them! Again—do you read the papers? Jesus died for the guy in Washington state who went into the mall and started shooting people. Lady teachers who are very beautiful on the outside and very ugly on the inside—are predators that do unspeakable harm to their students. Jesus died for terrorists who strap explosives on their bodies and explode people going about their daily lives. Jesus died for all those who committed the 112 murders that have happened on the streets of Milwaukee so far this year! Jesus died for people who bake chocolate chips for orphans—who remove every dandelion from their front yard—who rescue abandoned puppies and kittens—and pay all their bills the same day they arrive—but don’t believe that Jesus is their Savior from sin and guilt! Jesus died for people who go to air ports with knives, cardboard cutters and cigarette lighters in their carry on luggage. Jesus died for people who don’t use their turn signals—people who have one hand on their cell phone and gesture with their other—thus having no hands on the steering wheel. Jesus died for people who wish everyone else was as good a driver as they are! Jesus died for our sinful thoughts—the utterly unspeakable thoughts that flash through our minds—because we are infected through and through with sin. Jesus forgives all our sins!

Jesus heals all your diseases. When we are sick, Jesus makes us better. It’s easy to take good health for granted. To roll out of bed in the morning—and take a shower—to wash and condition our hair with soft water. To have a nourishing breakfast—to brush our teeth—fighting plaque and whitening your teeth. Then it’s off to work or off to school or busy watching babies and working to make your house into a home! Do we grumble and complain—I don’t want to get up and do what needs to be done. And then—because people are exceedingly breakable—we get sick and just can’t! We have a fever—our whole face is plugged up—our head throbs and our stomach is going around and around. We are undeniably sick. Our loved ones ask us, “Are you ok? You look terrible!” We tell ourselves—it’s mind over matter. I can do this. I can do this! No I can’t! Medication! That’s what I need! We get a whole paper bag full of medicine—some prescription—some over the counter. Did you ever read the possible side effects? The ten thousand things that can go wrong—when you take the medicine. And when do we want to be better? Yesterday! Jesus heals all your diseases. He heals them according to his perfect timing—not when we expect to be all better—but when he knows it is best! And what about people that don’t get better? What about those who have sicknesses—that doctors cannot cure! What about people who have radiation treatments—until they pass away—and miss their last appointment? What about them? I thought Jesus heals all your diseases? Jesus does. Jesus either makes you better—or Jesus makes you perfect! That’s why we don’t need to be afraid—whatever our earthly doctors tell us! Ultimately earthly physicians fail. Ultimately the doctors in the ER at the Mayo Clinic—the doctors at Johns Hopkins—the doctors at the trauma center at the UW Hospital in Madison will fail. But Jesus never ever fails us. The day will come when Jesus will say it’s time to come home to heaven where he will make everything new! Everything—our hearts will never ever attack again. Our brains will never ever bleed. Our minds will never ever be confused again. Jesus will fix our livers and kidneys—our large and small intestines—our joints will have no arthritis—no disks will bulge in our backs. Our heads will never ache—our stomachs will never turn. We will never ever get sick again!

Who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. We live in a country where we have so much. We have oatmeal—instant—or cooked—with all kinds of fruits. We have milk—whole milk, 1%, 2 %, skim. We have orange juice—fresh squeezed, frozen, concentrated, a little pulp, lots of pulp, pulp like on the farm, calcium added and more. You can have fruit juice in all kinds of combinations. There is bread for toast—all kinds of combinations of grain—all the way to bread with bird seed that almost makes you want to whistle. We have bacon and eggs and waffles and pancakes with all kinds of jam or jelly or syrup! All these blessings are just the tip of the ice berg for us to say, “Come Lord Jesus” and “Oh, give thanks unto the LORD!” It is the Lord’s love that will teach us to be content with all the blessings we have. To enjoy cold cereal—rather than complain that we don’t have crepe’s. To enjoy our toast without complaining that we don’t have sweet rolls. To be content with all that Jesus has given us.

As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we were formed, he remembers that we are dust. About 100 miles south of Katmandu, Nepal, there is a teenage boy—about 15 years old—who has been sitting there cross-legged for the last 6 months. There is a roped off area so you can’t get any closer than 80 feet from this young man from sun up until sun down. When the sun goes down—his followers put a screen in front of this young man so you can’t see what he is doing. The say this young man hasn’t had anything to eat or drink for the past 6 months. Some people say he is Buddha back from the dead! How many people are Buddhists? Do you know? Some 325 million people—mostly in Asia—who think that right thinking and self-control can enable people to achieve a divine state of peace and release from desire! The fact is—we are dust and ashes—deserving eternal destruction. We are forgiven because Jesus lived for us—then died on the cross to wash away every painful and hurtful mistake.

Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits— Do you listen to the radio? Do you listen to people visiting on the radio? I have been impressed this year—more than ever—that our world is full of people who do not believe in Jesus. They will spend Thanksgiving—without giving thanks to God! They have little children—1^st graders—who think the original pilgrims gave thanks to the native Americans—who taught them about deer hunting and growing maize! And the native Americans were thankful because they learned about stuff from the pilgrims! So there are people everywhere—celebrating turkey day! They will eat cranberries—sweet potatoes with marshmallows—pumpkin pie. They will watch football and plan to go shopping—to buy lots of things and stuff to give to people they love. But they will not think about Jesus who loves them very much! What can we do about that? We can pray for our neighbor. We need to talk to our nearest neighbors—our own family—our children and grandchildren. We can encourage them—with the purest love and the most profound concern—to remain close to Jesus. We can encourage them by our powerful example to love Jesus more and more. We can encourage the people we love—to give thanks to Jesus for all his blessings—especially the forgiveness of all our sins—so one day we will celebrate at the forever feast in Heaven. Amen!

To God alone all glory!

Rev. Anthony E. Schultz