The Giving God
THANKSGIVING DAY
In this modern age, we have become impervious and inured to the reality and presence of Divine action happening all the time, in and around us. Having tamed our inner barbarism, we fancy ourselves to be "educated" and "sophisticated" citizens of the world. Rationalism, utility, and pragmatism govern how we view the world.
The scientists have pushed the philosophers and poets of old to the back of the line. In our energetic quest to explain the material world (for man is the measure of all things!), we have scientifically deduced God right out of the natural world in which we live. In fact, we've deduced to the point of non-existence. In the words of Nietzsche, "God is dead!"
Modern man has entirely explained away all the magic and mystery of day-to-day experience. Ours is a world no longer infused with magic and enchantment but a world of facts, measurements, and equations. In the name of progress, we have jettisoned the child-like notion of a Divine, transcendent, invisible Being who exists like an untamed lion, beyond our power of control. Many flat out deny the existence of the Invisible God revealed in Holy Scripture.
Sadly, many who profess to believe, who would say that God really does exist, don't actually believe that he is near; present with us in the world down here. Instead, a large portion of Christians have put the God of the Bible in a cosmic "time-out:" He's somewhere up there while we toil and spin down here on earth. And never shall Heaven and earth collide! We've bought into the secular myth, a worldview that sets hard division between and separates the material and spiritual worlds. So many Western Christians exist as functional atheists.
Yet, people have not always viewed the world this way, dividing and separating what is seen from the world we cannot see. In fact, the common man throughout the vast sweep of human history would never have conceived of such a starkly divided reality: the secular-sacred divide, the world entirely emptied of spiritual realities. Though they may not have worshipped the God of Israel, the ancient Greek philosophers would never have understood reality and human experience to occur outside or apart from the spiritual world, devoid of divine agency, transpiring within the economy of the gods.
And this was most certainly true of the ancient Israelites, the people to whom YHWH chose to reveal himself: for God chose Israel from all the various peoples of the earth to be their God: to make his presence known and that He was and is the originator and source of every good thing. You see, they lived in conscious awareness of Divine providence. For, "God made the heavens and the earth, and all that in them is."
This Israel believed: the unseen God has not departed the world of men but is at work within it. Is this not what we proclaimed this morning in the 147th Psalm, "O sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; sing praises upon the harp unto our God: who covereth the heaven with clouds, and prepareth rain for the earth; and maketh the grass to grow upon the mountains and herb for the use of men." This Psalm is one of so many songs of praise to God for his providence over all His Creation.
The sun rises and sets according to the Divine Will. Like dew from Heaven, the rains come showering down upon the righteous and the unrighteous. A grain falls into the earth, and from the dirt bursts forth life-giving bread. God himself is mysteriously at work within the material world, not technology, not science nor the will of men, but the Lord God himself bringing forth the fruits of the earth: figs from fig trees, wine from the vineyard, and bread gleaned from flowing fields of wheat.
On this Thanksgiving morning, St. James reminds us of that which has always been believed and professed by God's people, that "every good and perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights." In other words, all that is good, beneficial, and sustaining is first and foremost a gift. Our heavenly Father is the Giving God, and each and every good thing is gifted from his loving hand.
Beloved, what have you received that has not been given by Him? What earthly good he provides. First the gift of the breath in your lungs, light in your eyes, to see and enjoy all that is good. The gifts of marriage, children, and family. Chastity and contentment in solitude. The precious gift of others experienced in Christian fellowship and intimate friendships. And what about our country? This fertile and prosperous land in which we live, divinely endowed with so many natural resources and beauty, a right and broad place of liberty and freedom. The opportunity to work and acquire all the necessities of life: all of this is a gift. Bountiful dinner tables with all the trimmings and trappings, which many of us will enjoy on this Thanksgiving day, is yet another reminder that every good gift comes from the gracious hand of our Father.
Beloved, our Father bestows every "good thing" needed for use in this present life, whether for the soul or the body, because he loves us and has drawn near to His bride the church, through the indwelling Holy Spirit. The antidote for modern secularity is the willingness to see Divine action in everything, not separated but intimately woven into the fabric of reality. The material world, if we will open our eyes, continually reveals spiritual realities.
The Giving-God not only gives all that is good but also gifts us with the perfect. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of Lights." To us has been given the perfect, unalloyed, and enduring gifts, treasures that are laid up for us in eternity. Our daily bread in this life and an endless bounty in the next! What perfect and precious gifts we have been given. But dear Christian, contemplate the perfect love with which we have been loved by the Father of lights who, as St. James tells us, "begat us with the word of truth." Or put another way, through Jesus Christ, the Father has regenerated us unto new life by the power of the Word: Jesus Christ... the Perfect Word.
The good and perfect salvation we have received from the gracious hand of our Father is the greatest and most perfect Divinely affected gift we have and will ever receive this side of eternity. And friends, it is the brightest actual proof that nothing evil, but all good comes from God. The hand of the Father sent the only Son to suffer and die for your sins so that you might live. This act of holy love- the Giving of Himself- is sufficient evidence of God's goodness.
The perfect gift of Heaven descended to earth that we might become the sons and daughters of the Living God. You are being called to feast at the King's table, not merely as guests, but as the children of the Highest God. These Divine kindnesses are freely given to you from the hand of the Giving-God, who is merciful, patient, and loving. Beloved, Thanksgiving is a day to give thanks for every good gift which we enjoy in this life. But every good gift must reconnect us to the Divine, unseen reality and lead us into Thanksgiving for all the eternal gifts we have received in the Lord Jesus Christ.
In a few moments, we will offer thanks to our Father for the innumerable benefits we have received through the sacrificial death of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. And we will come to his table, to a heavenly banquet, in which we shall feast upon the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And in some mysterious way, we will receive not merely gifts, but the Giver himself; we will draw near to Him and he to us, and at the table, we shall enter into the joy of our salvation in union with Christ himself the perfect gift given for the life of the world.
Let us pray, O MOST merciful Father, who hast blessed the labors of the husbandman in the returns of the fruits of the earth; We give thee humble and hearty thanks for this thy bounty; beseeching thee to continue thy loving-kindness to us, that our land may still yield her increase, to thy glory and our comfort; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen+
