+ Day of Thanksgiving – November 28th. 2024 +
Deuteronomy 8:1-10; 1 Timothy 2:1-4; 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.
A few years back there was a Superbowl commercial that featured the voice of the famous radio host, Paul Harvey. The commercial stood out because it wasn’t trying to sell you anything. It wasn’t trying to get you to buy the latest truck, or beer, or home insurance. There were no geckos or Clydesdales or celebrities. The commercial simply thanked ordinary, hardworking farmers by quoting Paul Harvey’s famous speech…So God made a farmer.
And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker." So God made a farmer.
God said, "I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper and then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board." So God made a farmer.
"I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild. Somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait lunch until his wife's done feeding visiting ladies and tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon -- and mean it." … Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week's work with a five-mile drive to church. …So God made a farmer.
The speech goes, but you get the idea. As Paul Harvey would say in his signature line…And now for the rest of the story. There’s a whole lot more to this story.
What Paul Harvey said so memorably in that speech is what Lutheran theologians, like Martin Luther, call the doctrine of vocation. That word means more than a job; it means a “calling”. As in God calls you to faith in Jesus. Adopts you as his child. Saves you. Forgives you. Justifies you. Gives you his righteousness. And calls you his own. That’s Jesus’ calling: to be your redeemer and savior.
But God also gives you other vocations – or callings in life – in the home, at church, in the workplace. Husband. Father. Wife. Mother. Sister. Brother. Grandma and grandpa. Altar Guild. Elder. Usher. Greeter. Brother and sister in Christ. Bible study attender. Church member. You all have callings in life in the world as well: engineers, cashiers, teachers, doctors, nurses, physical therapists, machinist, foresters, soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, civil servants, and the list could go on and on for each of you.
This is what Scripture teaches us time and again…God certainly can and is powerful enough to zap a loaf of bread on our tables or rain quail and manna from heaven right outside our doorstep or pour our water from a rock– he’s done that before. And yet, more often when God wants something done, he works through means. He works through ordinary people doing their ordinary every day jobs to bless each of us with the things we need for ordinary, daily life. This is why Paul instructs Pastor Timothy and all Christians (in his letter to Timothy) to pray for those in authority…
First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
This is also what we pray for when we pray the 4th petition of the Lord’s Prayer. “Give us this day our daily bread.” Luther explains it this way in the Small Catechism…
What is meant by daily bread? Everything that belongs to the support and wants of the body, such as meat, drink, clothing, shoes, house, homestead, field, cattle, money, goods, a pious spouse, pious children, pious servants, pious and faithful magistrates, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.
God knows that you need electricity to keep your freezer running, your fridge and the food inside at the right temperature, and the hot water heater working…So God made linemen and electricians and plumbers.
God knows that you fruit and vegetables and meat to eat to supply you with strength and energy for all of your vocations in life…so yes, God made a farmer, but he also made a rancher, and a truck driver, and a grocery store shelf stocker and a cashier and a cart boy.
God knows that you need help treating your diseases from that nagging cough to that deadly cancer…and that you need good roads to get you to your appointments and someone to fill your prescriptions…and someone to fix your car when it breaks down at the worst time possible…so God made doctors and nurses and pharmacists and construction workers and mechanics.
God knows that you need daily bread, and all everything that entails…so God hides himself in the daily, ordinary, seemingly mundane things of earthly life to bless you and for you to be a blessing to others. He did the same for Israel back in the exodus. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years.
It’s easy to think that when you’re surrounded by so many blessings in life, so many gifts of daily bread…that you somehow deserved this. That you had it all coming your way. Or that you earned it. And that it all belongs to you, to do with as you please. It’s easy to think that man lives by daily bread alone. But of course, we know that’s not true. From the hat over our heads to the socks and shoes covering our feet – and everything under our feet and everything in between – all we have is a gift from God. And a gift, by definition, is something we don’t deserve, haven’t earned, and didn’t come from our hands. It comes from the hands of our Lord who does this all out of his Fatherly divine goodness and mercy without any merit or worthiness in us.
That’s our Lord’s calling. To love. Care for. Serve. Feed and forgive you. To rescue and deliver you. To watch over and give you all you need in body and soul. Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? The answer is, of course. You are of more value than the birds. You are valued and loved by our God so much that he took on ordinary human flesh, lived in a humble home, lived an ordinary daily life to live for you, die for you, and rescue you. and to deliver all of that saving, justifying, redeeming love for you in…surprise…ordinary ways: water that washes away sin. Words that forgive and heal. Bread and wine that bring you life and salvation.
So today, as you sit down to eat some turkey, ham, potatoes, or whatever your favorite dish is, and settle into the couch or your favorite chair for a little food induced nap, take a moment to see all the wonderful, extraordinary things God is doing for you right in front of you in the ordinary, daily gifts of daily bread. Thank a farmer. A trucker. The people in your life that bring you what you need. And above all, bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. For he gives it to you all freely, graciously, and abundantly…through Jesus Christ our Lord.
A blessed Thanksgiving day to each of you…
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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