The Fullness of Gratitude: Remembering, Rejoicing, and Resting
We are gathered here— all seeking to give thanks—in this place two days before Thanksgiving. It is so easy to see Thanksgiving Day as merely about the food, the football, or the break from work. But when we look at our scripture readings today, we realize that
Thanksgiving is not just a holiday; it is a sacred posture, a disciplined way of life.
What we heard from the Law, an Epistle, and the Gospel give us a framework to embrace this disciplined posture. Let’s look at gratitude as a three-part journey:
Remembering, Rejoicing, and Resting.
1. Gratitude is Remembering: The Offering of the First Fruits
We start in Deuteronomy (26:1-11), where the Lord instructs the Israelite on how to present their offering of the first fruits. It's a gorgeous and deeply humble ritual. You bring the best of the harvest—the absolute first—and before you can offer it, you must recite your family history.
And the first line of that recitation is a punch to the gut:
“My father was a wandering Aramean.”
Stop and think about that. You are standing in the Promised Land, successful, holding your greatest bounty, and you must begin your praise by confessing that your roots are in wandering, slavery, and oppression. It is the ultimate underdog narrative.
We love the underdog story, don’t we? That’s why we cheer for the unexpected sports team, and why we listen to the musical Hamilton, whose hero's drive is rooted entirely in his past as an "orphan, immigrant, bastard." The energy comes from remembering where you started.
This is the challenge of the first fruit: You cannot appreciate the "milk and honey" without acknowledging the "wandering Aramean." True thanksgiving isn't just praising God for the blessing; it’s praising God for the deliverance—for getting you out of the wandering, through the wilderness, and into the place of abundance. As Deuteronomy 26:8-10 says:
"The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm... He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And now, I bring the first of the produce of the soil that you, Lord, have given me.”
What is the wandering Aramean in your own story? Let us not forget that struggle; it is the very foundation of our present thankfulness.
2. Gratitude is Rejoicing: The Antidote to Anxiety
If Deuteronomy anchors us in the past, the next text anchors us in the urgent present.
But how do we maintain our connection to gratitude when our world is full of negativity? The headlines are heavy, the trials are real, and the anxiety is palpable?
Paul, writing from prison to the Philippians (4:4-7), gives us the counter-intuitive answer:
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ... Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
Notice the mechanism here. He doesn't say, "Solve your problems and then be thankful." He says, "Be thankful while you are presenting your requests." It is the spiritual discipline of inserting thanksgiving into your worries.
Let’s call this the "sandwich of peace." When you pray about a fear, first offer thanks for the blessings you already have, then present your need, and then immediately offer thanks again, trusting that God is already at work. This act of gratitude interrupts the cycle of worry. It is the spiritual equivalent of the mindfulness and pause button we all seek in our stress-filled world. When you choose gratitude in the midst of the chaos, the "peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
3. Gratitude is Resting: The Easy Yoke
The ultimate act of spiritual maturity is not running faster or working harder; it is accepting the gift of rest. This is what Jesus offers us in Matthew 11:25-30.
Before the famous invitation, Jesus offers his own prayer of thanks:
“I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.”Again, it is the humble and the infants—the ones who know they cannot carry the weight alone—who receive the truth.
Then, the invitation:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
This passage is a direct confrontation with the modern “hustle culture” that defines our worth by our exhaustion and our relentless striving. We are constantly pressured to carry heavy, self-imposed burdens of perfectionism, endless productivity, and financial worry. We often feel guilty for resting.
But Jesus is saying:
I do not want your fatigue; I want your surrender.
To put on the "easy yoke" is to thank God by trusting Him with the weight. It is the realization that your identity is not tied up in how much you achieve, but in how much you are loved. The ultimate act of Thanksgiving is to receive this profound invitation, to stop striving, and to find the quiet, restorative peace that only comes from resting your soul in His care.
Conclusion
So, as we prepare for a day of feasting, may our hearts feast first.
- Remembering the journey, so we appreciate the abundance.
- Rejoicing in the now, so we bypass anxiety into thanksgiving.
- Resting in the easy yoke, so we live in the grace we have been given.
Let us be filled with gratitude and thanksgiving: May the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, guard our hearts and minds today and always. – Amen.
