11/23/2022: Thanksgiving Eve Worship

Every Good and Perfect Gift Comes from God

Historically, Thanksgiving has been celebrated as a secular festival.  Originally suggested by George Washington, it was sporadically celebrated until Abraham Lincoln set aside the fourth Thursday in November to be dedicated to giving thanks.

Christians make a point of being thankful all year long.  Thanksgiving often zeroes in on the harvest, food and abundance elements of being thankful.  Christians realize that every good gift comes from our heavenly Father.  The plentiful harvests, the houses and family we enjoy are not only ours one day a year.  God graciously gives them to us year round.  Our first reading teaches that God always provides even in the most extreme conditions.

Only Christians can be thankful for the spiritual blessings they receive from God.  The certainty of our forgiveness and the confidence of a final resurrection to heaven is built into our Christmas, Epiphany, Lent and Easter worship.  Jesus' audience with Zacchaeus teaches us that thanksgiving is much more than football games, pumpkin pie and a tryptophan-induced nap.  Thanksgiving is every-day attitude.  It is our mind, our thought-process, our behavior, our generosity, our actions, our smile, our perspective, our optimism, our hopefulness, our trust.  It is how we think, it is who we are every day.

You've received the same thing Zacchaeus has.  Let the people in your world see how genuinely thankful you are, and let them see it every day.

God bless your worship.

Vicar Micah Otto will preach on Psalm 100, “Malaise to Praise”

View the service folder.

Watch the livestream November 23 / 4:30p MST