+ Thanksgiving Day - November 27th, 2025 +
Deuteronomy 8:1-10; Philippians 4:6-20; Luke 17:11-19
Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church
Milton, WA
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Holidays are full of rituals. Thanksgiving is no different. Growing up in our family, the big Schuldheisz family thanksgiving day was full of ritual. The mad hustle and bustle to get to church. The greeting of family members outside the church. Greeting family members inside the church. Greeting family members in the pews. When your dad is the youngest of seven, there’s a lot of greeting to do.
Eventually, we’d move to someone’s house - or church fellowship hall when we outgrew the house. Snacks appeared on the table. Drinks filled glasses. Soon enough, the parents and older cousins' table and kids’ table overflowed with food. We prayed. Laughed. Ate. Those who didn’t nap went outside to burn some calories. Came back inside for desert and more food and more stories and laughter.
Your family, no doubt, has a few traditions of your own, passed down from generation to generation. Thanksgiving is a day of ritual. That’s what tradition is, in part, a familiar pattern. A lively dance that everyone knows. A rhythm. A heartbeat. Pumping with life.
When we turn to God’s Word we find the same rhythm and pattern. Wherever we receive God’s rescue and redemption, we find the ritual of rejoicing. We call it thanksgiving.
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!
There’s a ritual, a pattern: God gives, bestows, blesses. Not a little. Not in moderation. Not in halves, quarters, or eights. But in whole. In fullness. In abundance. Generosity without limit. Grace overflowing. Free. Full. And more than we desire or deserve.
God gives and then we receive. We rejoice. We give thanks.
Our Lord speaks and we listen. His Word bestows what it says. Faith that is born from what is heard acknowledges the gifts received with eager thankfulness and praise.
Turn to any part of Scripture and you’ll find this ritual of redemption on full display. Wherever you find God’s people, you’ll find them giving thanks to God for his abundant mercy, gratuitous grace, and steadfast love and faithfulness.
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!
After God rescued Noah and his family in the ark, through the water. Through the deluge and downpour. Noah gave thanks. An altar. Sacrifice. Thanksgiving. Ritual.
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!
After God rescued Israel out of slavery in Egypt, Moses and Miriam and Israel gave thanks by the shores of the Red Sea. They sang. Prayed. Praised. Gave thanks.
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!
After God placed the ark of his presence in the tent of meeting for David. And after David was saved time and time again from his own sin and countless enemies. He sang. Prayed. Wrote psalms. Gave thanks to God.
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!
After God blessed barren Hannah with a son, she too joined the ritual of the redeemed and rescued. She sang. Her heart exalted in the Lord. She rejoiced in YHWH’s salvation.
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!
After God sent Paul as his chosen apostle criss-crossing the Mediterranean proclaiming Christ crucified, Paul - in a beautiful ritual - writes thanksgiving after thanksgiving in his epistles. He hands down the ritual. but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!
After God incarnate healed the 10 lepers, one of them - the unlikely Samaritan - understood the ritual. He received restoration from the Redeemer. He returned. Praised God. Fell at Jesus’ feet. And gave thanks. Thanksgiving is the ritual of the redeemed.
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!
Wherever you find God’s people, you’ll find them giving thanks to God for his abundant mercy, gratuitous grace, and steadfast love and faithfulness.
And what about us? How do we respond? Truth be told, giving thanks to God - or anyone else for that matter - doesn’t come naturally to sinners like you and me. We feign gratitude but deep down we think we’re deserving. Entitled. That we’ve earned it. Owed it. Or that we’ve done it all by the callouses of our hands and our worn out bootstraps and our bloody knuckles and our labors.
Thanksgiving calls us outside of us and away from ourselves. And this is no small thing. This means our death. But also our life. For in this hard truth, in this bitter pill to swallow, there is good news that is sweeter than the sweetest honey-ham and richer than the most brown-sugar, marshmallow coated sweet-potatoes. The gifts - all of them in body and soul - come from the good and gracious giver himself. The God who redeems, rescues, declares righteous, and restores you.
Everyone who has ever received anything from God in the Scriptures - and that’s everyone - from Noah to Israel, Hannah to David, the Samaritan leper to Paul - everyone receives everything we have by grace in Jesus. Free. Abundant. Without measure. God holds nothing back, not even his own Son. Who also holds nothing back. Not even his own flesh and blood or his back and hands and feet. He gives his all for you on the cross.
Jesus becomes the sacrifice. The lamb slain. The blood spilled. Jesus gives. Bestows. Blesses. Not in part, half, or quarter. But in full. Paid by his blood. Redeemed. Rescued. Declared righteous. And what’s there left to do? Nothing but receive the gifts. Rejoice. And join the ritual of the redeemed.
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!
A blessed Thanksgiving to each of you…
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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