T.G.I.M. / "A Time to Gather"

The terms "friendsgiving" and "thanksgathering" in recent years have become popular around the Thanksgiving holiday season, emphasizing the importance of the gathering aspect of this tradition with friends and family: Giving thanks together. 

When we gather as Christ's church, we are instructed, I believe it's found in the Augsburg Confession, to "gather around Christ's Word and the Sacraments." This is taken from the first century church observed in Acts 2:42  "devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers."  

Meaning in our church gatherings we will position ourselves around Christ, in our prayers and singing, in the preaching of the Scriptures, and in the partaking of the Lord's Supper together in remembrance of Him as he has instructed us to do until he comes again. 

As Christians, may we carry this same pattern into our Thanksgiving holiday. 

Because we don't just have a God who says that he loves us - I mean, that's wonderful, but we have something even greater. We have a God who has demonstrated his love toward us in that while we were sinners, damned, condemned, he sent his Son, who knew no sin, to be the sacrifice for our sin, paying our debt in full. ( 2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 5:8 ) 

"It is finished." ( John 19:30 ) 

This Son is worth gathering around when we come together, not our needs or our desire for miracles, but the One who bled and died to heal our greatest need and to give us the greatest miracle of all, a new birth. Because of his atoning work we now come into his kingdom and live with Him forever. If he never did another thing for us, wouldn't that be enough? How can it not be? 

This Thursday is an opportunity to share that love with the many others who come to the table to gather with us. May Jesus Christ our Lord be the centerpiece at our Thanksgiving meal, reflected brightly through our demonstration of love, humility, and service to the many others in our lives as God has so mercifully imparted his grace to us. 

Just like the divine service at our church gatherings, our Thanksgiving meal, with the many utterances of thankfulness we each will proclaim around the table for the various blessings in our lives, is our response back to God for the life and death and resurrection of his Son. 

Joy and thanksgiving go hand in hand; they flow out of knowing the Gospel of Christ. 

Of course, following this pattern of worship at our table will look a bit different than in does in church, but it's the same spirit of the Gospel of grace that's displayed in our lives outside of the church doors. What does it look like? 

"For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me." ( Matthew 25 ) 

Physical food and spiritual meat, hot coffee and the Living Water, hospitality and Christian fellowship. 

"they flow out of knowing the Gospel of Christ" 

"Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen." ( Hebrews 13:20-21 ) 

Happy Thanksgiving! 🍗

Thanks be to God!