Thanksgiving Day, 2002
James 1:16-17
16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
Give Thanks to our Heavenly Father
1. For good and perfect gifts
2. For a good and perfect Savior
A couple hundred years ago, do you know what the first thing was that a farmer did when he went outside in the morning? He looked up at the sky.
He looked at the sky because he knew that the condition of the sky would tell him what he might expect the weather to be. Knowing what the weather was going to be was important because the weather, which was sent by God, determined the success of his crops.
He knew that he could plant all the crops he wanted, he knew that he could give them loving attention throughout the summer, he knew that he could use the best equipment and put in the most hours, but he knew that none of it mattered if the right things didn’t come down from above.
If rain and sunshine didn’t come down from the sky in the proper amounts, no amount of planning and hard work on his part could make a difference.
James reminds us of the same thing this morning. He reminds us that any successes we have, any thing that we might call perfect, any gifts we might have, they all came from God. SO on this Thanksgiving Day, Give Thanks to our Heavenly Father, For good and perfect gifts and for a good and perfect Savior.
Generally speaking, that’s the reminder that most people need today. For the most part, as Americans sit down for their Thanksgiving feasts this afternoon, they don’t need to be reminded that 2002 has been a good year--a year in which they had more than they needed--far more than they needed.
In a day and age when CNN beams a variety of different cultures into our homes, most of us are especially conscious of the fact that we have far and away the best and the most perfect material blessings of any nation on earth.
But we may need to be reminded of where they came from. If we’ve been getting up every morning and looking in the business section, we might be inclined to think that the source of such gifts was the success of our tech stocks. But that would be as foolish as the farmer crediting the rich crop to the fact that he hit some winners when it came to the seeds he planted in the spring. Or if we’ve been getting up every morning and looking at how hard we worked the day before and how hard we are going to work today, we might be inclined to look at the dedication and the long hours that we’ve put in on our job. But that would be as foolish as the farmer attributing his abundant harvest solely to the fact that he is very skilled in reaping and harvesting.
No, the farmer knows that it was the sun and the rain that produced such a harvest and James knows that it is God who has produced such a harvest this year for us. The apostle says, "Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights."
As I have been driving around recently I have been totally amazed at the mountains of corn I have seen at the local elevators. I mean literally mountains of corn – piled up next to the dryers. I heard that right here in Wood Lake the elevator had to refuse to take any more because they were so full. As I drove by the elevator in Clara City, the mountain of corn was at least as high as the dryer it was piled next to. The same was true in every town I went through. God has blessed every one with an abundant crop this year. If your crops were abundant this year, thank the Father who sent the rain and sun from above.
The same is true for people who are not farmers. If you were able to advance at your job this year, thank the Father who sent down the ability for you to excel, and the economy that’s not as bad as the doom and gloomers say it is.
If your stocks benefited you this year, thank the Father who controls all things, who sends all good and perfect gifts.
And what if they didn’t? That is, what your stocks didn’t benefit you this year, what if your company downsized you this year to nothing, what if your "crops" weren’t so abundant this year? What if it seems that, in addition to giving you some "good and perfect" gifts this year, God has also given you some "not so good and quite flawed" gifts this year? What if it seems that "gifts" is hardly the word to use for those things? What if it seems that in addition to occasionally sending productive sunshine and gentle rain, God also sent destructive hailstones and lightning bolts from above?
On one level, it shouldn’t surprise us. After all, it is what we deserve. It is the way we treat God. Occasionally we are sunny and pleasant people to be around, occasionally we give God the obedience and the honor and the thanks that he deserves, but then suddenly our attitude and our actions darken, and the rumbling thunder of frustrated grumbling is coming out of our mouths. One moment we are being the patient parents that he wants us to be, and the next moment lightning bolts of anger are coming out of our mouths. One moment our actions continue to shine through the clouds of temptation, and the next moment we cave in to a torrential downpour of sin.
It shouldn’t surprise us if God were to have made his care for us in the past year dependent on our care for him. But that’s not how God operates. James reminds us that God "does not change like shifting shadows." No, God continues to give good and perfect gifts no matter what.
That why we can be confident that whatever has happened in this past year, no matter how imperfect it may have seemed, it was exactly what we needed. It was a good and perfect gift from God. And it will continue to be that way. The God who does not change like shifting shadows is the God who will continue to give us good and perfect gifts because he tells us that he works out all things for the good of those who love him.
After all let us remember the greatest gift God has given us that we can thank him for; he has given us eternal life in Jesus Christ our only Savior from sin. Let us remember and give thanks that “God will meet all your needs according to his glorious in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). Let us remember and give thanks as the Old Testament lesson for today reminds us :“remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:18).
Let us remember and give thanks that our God does not change like shifting shadows but always keeps his promises. Because he keeps his promises, we know that we can look to him for good and perfect physical blessings, but we know that we can also look to him for a good and perfect Savior.
As we sit down to reflect on our blessings today start with the biggest and best blessing God has given you; the good and perfect gift from above, the gift that we call the Christ-child.
Let us remember what it is that makes him such a good and perfect gift—not that he was such a cute baby, not that he himself was good and perfect—for that’s no surprise—after all he was God. No, the thing that makes Jesus such a good and perfect gift is that he actually made you and me good and perfect.
He did so by obeying God’s unchanging, unshifting law in our place. He did so on the cross by paying God’s unchanging penalty for sin in our place. And by doing so, he kept God’s unchanging promise to save us.
Because he did this, we know that God is going to send one final good and perfect gift from above. He is going to send his Son to earth once more to take us to be with him, to take us to the best and greatest gift of all--our home in heaven.
As a farmer would look to the sky and pray that God would give him the gift of good growing weather so that the crops would grow and flourish, so also let us look to the sky this morning in thanksgiving to our good and perfect God for his good and perfect physical blessings. Look to the sky waiting for more good and perfect gifts from above, trusting that our unchanging God will continue to shower us with such gifts.
Look to the sky this morning in thanksgiving to our good and perfect God for our good and perfect Savior. And look to the sky for that good and perfect Savior to return.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good and his mercy endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord that he has provided all that you need. But most of all give thanks to the Lord for the gift of salvation that we have in Christ Jesus our Lord - Amen.
