Our Life Group had Thanksgiving dinner last night. No, we didn’t get mixed up and think February was November. We just had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, centered around a roast turkey and ending with thanksgiving for what God has given us individually.
I’ve been thinking about this. I like turkey just fine, but it really wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without all those side dishes, those accompaniments.
I guess every family has its traditional favorite side dishes. I made the same orange sherbet salad I’ve made for the last fifty or so years. Our Susie made homemade hot rolls that cannot be adequately praised. And Crissy made a sweet potato casserole. I caught my grandson-in-law afterwards scraping the last morsel from her baking dish. We also had dressing, green beans, tossed salad, macaroni and cheese, stuffed celery and devilled eggs and …. As with any feast, side dishes were a big part of it. (Oh, I forgot Lloyd’s brownies. )
Now thanksgiving is a centerpiece of Christian life, like turkey on the holiday menu. But when I started looking at it, I found that even Bible thanksgiving most often comes with side dishes.
One that’s mentioned often is prayer, as in Col. 4:2: "Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving,” and a favorite, Phil. 4:6, "In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."
Then there’s singing: “Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving” (Ps. 147:7a). Col. 3:16 adds, “…singing with thanksgiving in your hearts to God" and Ps. 28:7 echoes: “…with my song I shall thank Him."
Entering God’s presence happens with thanksgiving: “Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving" (Ps. 95:2). Again: “Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise" (Ps. 100:4).
Thanksgiving is a stellar feature of the Lord’s Supper. Jesus preceded both the breaking of bread and passing of the cup with the giving of thanks in Mt. 26:26-27.
Assuming that Jesus led the way in how to take the Supper, that is with thanksgiving, I deduce that taking it without thanksgiving constitutes “an unworthy manner,” and ends with guilt for the body and blood of Christ.
Gratitude is closely tied to the Christian walk: "let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service” (Heb. 12:28), and Col. 2:6, 7: “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him… overflowing with gratitude."
James 1:17 says that every good and perfect gift comes from above. The danger is that we won’t acknowledge the source of our blessings: "Your heart becomes proud and you forget the Lord Your God” (Deut. 8:14). The One who dispenses these great blessings says to Moses when he warns the Israelites, "It is not because of your righteousness that the Lord you God is giving you this good land to possess" (Deut. 9:5).
If our prayer, our worship, and our Christian walk are bound together with thankfulness, what a feast of righteousness we may enjoy! It doesn’t have to be turkey. Beans and cornbread will do just fine.