Title: THE WAY OF THANKSLIVING
Focus: The way of thanksliving calls for R.O.T.S.
Function: To move the people to express gratitude to God by way of active Remembrance, Obedience, Thanksgiving, and Surrender.
Text: Deuteronomy 8:1-20
Thanksgiving Day is on my list of favorite American holidays. Ever since I came to the North American continent in 1972 and learned of the story of the pilgrims and their desire to give thanks to God for bounty, prosperity and a new land, I have embraced Thanksgiving Day as an opportune time—a time to give thanks to God for family, friends, and relatives, for work and blessings of daily food and drink.
I have also come to appreciate Thanksgiving Day as a way to remind us, as Christians, that we are to live thankfully each day. After all, by sending his Son, the Lord Jesus, God has rescued us from the bondage of sin and has transferred us into the kingdom of his love. Once we were lost in sin; now, through the work of Jesus Christ, and through faith in him, we are found; we have received hope for the future, joy for the present, and forgiveness of past sins. Surely, if you are a Christian, then every day is a Thanksgiving Day. Then, thanksliving becomes a way of life.
The story of the Christian faith is the story of God revealing himself as Creator, Redeemer, and Re-Creator. God made the world and all that’s in it. And all was very good! Then sin entered the world and spoiled all that’s in it. And ever since sin entered the world, we have lived under the cloud of death.
But God so loved the world that he came to its rescue: he sent his Son. His Son died for us; rose again from the dead; and now he is exalted King, preparing a place for us, so that we may live on the renewed creation under his eternal, sovereign rule.
That’s the story of God’s covenant faithfulness—a story that we can summarize with the words: Creation—Fall—Redemption—Restoration or New creation. As we embrace this story through faith in Christ, we learn to live a new way—the way of thanksliving. And the way of thanksliving calls for R.O.T.S.
In Deuteronomy 8:1-20 we find God’s people, Israel, ready to enter the promised land of milk and honey. For 40 years they have roamed around in the wilderness, being shaped, pummeled, and disciplined into a people who learn the ways of Yahweh. They had fled from Pharaoh’s land; they wanted to go back to the promised land—the land of Canaan; the territory that God has promised to Abraham and his descendants. The Israelites, then, were coming home.
Moses, however, would not join them in their homeland. He would see, but not yet inherit the land that God had set before Moses and the Israelites. Moses knew he was about to die. So, he gives a farewell address and a number of final instructions. In fact, in this passage of scripture we find Moses reminding us to express gratitude to God by way of R.O.T.S. The way of thanksliving calls for active R-emembrance, active O-bedience, active T-hanksgiving, and active S-urrender.
But why should we bother today with Moses’ final words of instruction to God’s people more than 3400 years ago? What do you and I today have in common with the Israelites of Moses’ days? Let me give you three reasons for paying attention to Moses’ words today:
(1) Like the Israelites in Moses’
days, we are God’s people on the way to the promised land. We are pilgrims. We long to inherit the kingdom of God as it will be fully established on the restored, renewed creation. Like the Israelites in Moses’ days, Christians are on the move, living as aliens in this world, longing to find rest on the new heavens and earth. Christians are a pilgrim people.
(2) Like the Israelites in Moses’
days, we too live under the umbrella of God’s covenant faithfulness. Leaning upon God’s promise of salvation in Christ Jesus, we live a life of faith and service. As God saved his O.T. people Israel from the bondage or claws of Pharaoh, so God has saved us from the bondage of sin and death and from the claws of Satan. God sent his Son, Jesus. And ever since Jesus accomplished his work on the cross, in the tomb, and in heaven today, we live by faith and by that promise of God, which says: “I will make all things new!”
(3) Like the Israelites in Moses’
days, we too live out of the story of God’s salvation. And God’s story of salvation leads to great thanksgiving; in fact, the story of God in our midst throughout history calls for thanksliving that expresses itself in R.O.T.S—active Remembrance, Obedience, Thanksgiving, and Surrender.
Consider these insights from the scripture and take them to heart:
a. Active Remembrance:
Listen to how Moses calls us to live out the story of God’s salvation and covenant care for his people: (vs. 2) “Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years….” (vs. 11) “Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God….” (vs. 18) “But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.”
The scriptures call us to actively remember all God’s mighty works toward us. And we do so by re-enacting and re-entering the stories of faith and thus re-experiencing the power of God. Such remembering always leads to worship and it always forms and shapes us spiritually as God’s people.
For example, reading the scriptures publicly, hearing the stories of faith preached and explained, and then celebrating God’s salvation in Christ through baptism and the Eucharist—all these are ways of actively remembering. In the O.T. era, the Israelites would have their pilgrimages and their major feasts such as the Passover and the Feast of Harvest or Thanksgiving. The psalm writers helped the Israelites and us today in remembering God’s mighty acts; the Levites then, and the pastors and worship leaders today help us to celebrate and thus remember God’s mighty acts.
This is what we do as pilgrim people on the way to the promised land: we actively remember God’s love and faithfulness and mighty acts, especially in Christ Jesus. Ah yes! Active remembrance leads to thanksliving. So does active obedience.
b. Active Obedience: Listen
(vs. 1) “Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land that the Lord promised on oath to your forefathers.” (vs. 6) “Observe the commands of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and revering him.” (vs. 11)
“Be careful that you do not forget the Lord you God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.” The obedience that is part of thanksliving is an obedience that conforms to the will of God. It means that we die to sin and self, and rise to a life of love and obedience. The pattern of dying and rising, the pattern of conformity to the image and mind of Christ—is the pattern that leads to thanksliving. Such obedience always seeks to do the will of our heavenly Father, and it leads to life and wholeness.
The way of thanksliving, then, is marked by active Remembrance and Obedience; it also has the sign of T—active thanksgiving.
c. Active Thanksgiving:
Listen to the Scriptures: (vs. 10) “When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.” If you are an atheist, who do you thank on Thanksgiving Day for daily food and drink and work? Perhaps, you thank your “lucky stars,” or yourself for your wit and strength and abilities. But active thanksgiving for Christians involves a “looking up,” a “looking away from ourselves.”
Note, for example, Moses’ words in vs. 17 “You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.”
The way of thanksliving with its active remembrance, obedience, and thanksgiving always calls us to turn away from ourselves and to acknowledge our dependence—in life and in death—upon the Lord our God.
When I grew up I had an aunt who modeled thanksgiving to us everyday. She expressed gratitude for the smallest things she received. My father was a grower, so we often shared with her some tomatoes, cucumbers, a head of lettuce, or some spinach. We thought nothing of it, but Aunt Mary always thanked us from the bottom of her heart. And I discovered that she also thanked the Lord for all these seemingly small gifts she received.
As a result of expressing her gratitude, my aunt developed humility, kindness, and a deep, devout faith that acknowledged her dependence upon the Lord each day. To me, Aunt Mary embodied thanksgiving. I still have a lot to learn when it comes to thanksgiving. But today I hear God’s call to us anew: the way of thanksliving calls for active R.O.T. and S.
d. Active Surrender: The “S”
stands for active surrender. Here we ponder our lives and circumstances lived out under the umbrella of God’s care and discipline. Each day, God shapes and forms us. Sometimes, it’s pleasant to walk in the ways of the Lord. Other times, we kick and scream and wish that we could run away from our heavenly Father’s “school of hard knocks.” For his hand may feel heavy upon us. Yet, the way of thanksliving calls for a yielding, a surrender to God’s ways with us.
Listen to Moses: (vs. 5) “Know
then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.” (vs.15,16) “He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you.”
Some of us are going through trying times. Perhaps you had difficulty this morning thinking of items to praise and thank the Lord for. Perhaps your heart is heavy, loaded with anxiety. Perhaps you find yourself in the “dark,” not able to discern God’s ways for you.
I do not wish to minimize such feelings or emotions. Nor can I explain to you God’s particular ways for you or for myself. I can only testify. And this I know—from experience and observations: God will have his ways with us. And he will never abandon us. God works out all things for the good of his children.
I agree: God’s formative, disciplining, shaping way with us calls for a deep trust that God loves us and will transform us in the image of Christ more and more. Surrendering ourselves to God’s formative, disciplining love is part of the way of thanksliving.
Here is a truth as large as a cow: sometimes, God touches us with his hand, nudging us on; sometimes, he disciplines us; always he upholds us; never will he allow anyone snatch us from his divine, embracing hands. Thus we can say with the psalmist that God is our Rock.
In the Dutch language “rock” is spelled R.O.T.S. The way of thanksliving is anchored in the Rock of Ages, our heavenly Father. And the way of thanksliving calls for R.O.T.S—active remembrance, obedience, thanksgiving, and surrender. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.