For Thanksgiving & Remembrance

Have you ever spent time reading about Abraham, beginning in Genesis chapter 12? One thing Abraham does quite often is build an altar to the Lord. He doesn't just build one altar in one spot and then be done with it. He builds several altars in several locations. Why? For thanksgiving and remembrance of who the Lord is and what He has done.

Why do we have an altar in the front of our sanctuary? Really, for those basic reasons. We celebrate God's presence among us, giving thanks for His amazing grace and wondrous love, remembering the once-and-for-all sacrifice of His Son Jesus and giving thanks for all of His gifts.

On Thanksgiving Day at 9 am we will have the opportunity to gather before that altar and invite others to join us to give thanks to our amazing God. But perhaps you will not be able to join us due to travel or some other reason. You can be like Abraham and build an altar where you are. Not necessarily a physical altar, but specific time set apart for thanksgiving and remembrance.

In his Small Catechism, Martin Luther explains the petition “Give us our daily bread” this way: “God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.” Blessings from the Lord include not only food and clothing, but also beautiful sunrises and sunsets, animals that bring us pleasure, people who make our life easier, music that brings so much joy, and so much more. As James writes, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights” (James 1:17).

And chief among those blessings is the Bread of Life, Jesus, who gave His all on the altar of the cross and will remember us and bring us who believe in Him as our Savior into His Kingdom where we will continue to “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever” (Psalm 136:1)