Psalm 100 Thanksgiving
Pastor Ron Koehler
Grace—Tucson, AZ November 27, 2024
A THANKSGIVING RECIPE In the name of our Triune God who supplies all that we need for this life and the next, dear friends, Are you a person who follows every recipe exactly as it is written? I mean, no eyeballing a tablespoon of honey, no looking at the recipe and seeing that it requires half a teaspoon of salt and casually taking a teaspoon and scooping what looks like roughly half of it. I mean, a cup of chicken broth is a cup of chicken broth—not a cup and a splash! Is that you? I’m not that guy. Recipes are more a guide a lot of times, and some get changed every time I make them. You might imagine my wife’s response to that! But as we look at Psalm 100 as a Thanksgiving Recipe, I’m going to take a faithful approach to it—and a faith-filled approach to it. I hope you will too. We used Psalm 100 at the beginning of our service because it is a psalm of praise and thanksgiving. You can open up to that if you want that in front of you. Our nation sets aside a day each year, calling people to consider the good things in their life and perhaps celebrate somehow—and the government and schools and most businesses give people the day off—or even a four-day weekend! Maybe you have that this year. Through the psalm writer, the almighty God—the one who created the world, the universe, and everything in it—calls all people, not just those in our country, to celebrate with thanksgiving too. But instead of just a general recalling of the good things they enjoy, God calls all people to know that he is God. “All the earth”—all the people of the world—are invited to see God for who he is. He wants them to not just appreciate what they have, but to know him and give thanks to him for those things. You and I—through our baptisms or as we heard the words of the gospel—have come to know God as both the One who made us and the One who saved us. We are products of his divine, creative hand. But that’s not all we are. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Many of you know that biblical picture well—that God is a like a shepherd who cares for his sheep. He protects us from enemies, helps us when we we’re in trouble, provides food and things that we need. Jesus, our Good Shepherd, was even willing to lay down his life for us. Just as we had nothing to do with our creation, we had nothing to do with entering God’s pasture. We are born into this world as sinful creatures. But just as God created all things from nothing, so he creates people for himself out of creatures who have nothing good in them. By nature, there’s nothing for God to salvage. So, he creates his people, his sheep, solely from his love. He turns something worthless into something glorious! And he does that through Jesus. You might think that serving dry turkey on Thanksgiving is a cardinal sin or that bringing a spoiled wine for your Thanksgiving host is unforgiveable, but tonight we think of a different kind of thanksgiving failure. This is the kind that doesn’t just happen one day a year—it’s an ongoing problem. And it is on a critical, eternal level. If Jesus had to live and die only for our failures that have to do with giving proper thanks to God, he would still have a mountain of sin to atone for, wouldn’t he?!