Thanksgiving
Worship
WORSHIP RESOURCES FOR SPECIAL SUNDAYS
Welcome and Announcements
Prelude
Call to Worship
Leader: The Lord is clothed with honor and majesty,
People: Wrapped in light as with a garment.
Leader: He makes the clouds his chariot,
People: And rides on the wings of the wind.
Leader: God set the earth on its foundations,
People: So that it shall never be shaken.
Leader: Let us worship God.
People: Let us worship him indeed!
- adapted from Psalm 104
*Hymn "We Gather Together"
*Opening Prayer
Almighty God, we gather together to worship you, believing that somehow the assembling of ourselves in joint worship pleases you and helps us grow in our faith individually. Together we praise your name and ask you to make your will known to us. Help us in this service to set aside the things that distract us from listening for your word. Enable the things we say and do in these moments to become channels for your word of truth to come to us. Through Jesus we pray. Amen.
Choruses
"Fill My Cup, Lord"
"He Is Lord"
Giving Thanks
[Here invite anyone who wishes to stand and express thanks for some blessing that has come to them]
Prayer of Thanksgiving
God of all blessings, we thank you for the riches of your love that you have showered upon us this year past. And thank you for the richness of your presence that was with us even when we passed through dark valleys and deep troughs. Accept now our thanksgiving and our praise, from our lips and from our hearts. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Chorus "Alleluia"
Presentation of Tithes and Offerings
Offertory
*Doxology
Men's Chorus "Now Thank We All Our God"
[Just use the regular arrangement from your hymnbook; this hymn is very effective when sung by male voices]
Scripture Isaiah 41:8--10; 43:1--7
Sermon A Solid Place To Stand
*Hymn "How Firm A Foundation"
[Verses are sung, interspersed in sermon, but sing first verse again now]
*Benediction
Postlude
A Solid Place To Stand
Isaiah 41:8--10; 43:1--7
Of all the holidays of the year, Thanksgiving is my favorite. One thing I like is that is comes quietly, without a lot of hoopla. There is none of the hurry and scurry of preparation as there is at Christmas. There is no decking out in new clothes as we sometimes do for Easter. Generally speaking, unless you're a turkey farmer, you probably do not arrive at Thanksgiving all exhausted from weeks of preparation.
I also like it that the day is a time for families to gather and spend time together.
The history of Thanksgiving also interests me. I am impressed by the fact that the first Thanksgiving was held by people (the ones we call Pilgrims) who had first gone through a terrible winter and suffered appalling losses. Despite this, by the time they got to the end of their first growing season, they gathered to thank God for being with them throughout it all.
The fact is, the Pilgrims arrived in the new world at the wrong time of year and in the wrong place. They were heading for the area we now call Virginia, but instead landed at what is now Provincetown, Massachusetts, on November 21, 1620. It was the beginning of winter and they faced that harsh season without adequate supplies. Half their number died that first winter, including thirteen out of the eighteen wives who came on the Mayflower. Many more would have died except that they found some caches of food stored by the Indians, and helped themselves.
At one point, only six of the settlers were well enough to nurse the others. And when people died, their comrades buried them in unmarked graves so that the Indians would not know how few of them were left.
Things got a little better the following year. Crops were planted, homes were improved, and when the harvest was in, there was a time of giving thanks to God for what they had, and more remarkably, for being with them through the ordeal.
Actually, the promise of God's presence is a consistent theme in the Bible, and certainly one that scripture for today emphasizes.
Do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.
- Isaiah 41:10
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. - Isaiah 43:2
Along with some verses from Hebrews and 2 Timothy, these words from Isaiah were part of the inspiration for one of our best hymns, "How Firm A Foundation." The hymn first appeared in 1787 in a hymnbook published in London by John Rippon, a Baptist pastor, but we don't know for sure who the author was. He is identified only as "K," and some historians think it may have been a man named Thomas Keen, who was the music director in Rippon's church.
Let's sing verse 1. [All sing]
Note that this first verse says that this firm foundation has been laid down for us "in his excellent word," that is, the Bible. Let's look at how that is true.
* In Genesis, when God first called Abraham, he promised to be with him.
* That promise was repeated to Abraham's son Isaac (Genesis 26:3): "Reside in this land as an alien, and I will be with you, and will bless you."
* It was repeated again to Isaac's son Jacob (Genesis 28:15): "Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go."
* Later still to Moses, who, when he was called to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt, protested that he was inadequate. God said to him: "I will be with you" (Exodus 3:12).
* Moses must have found that to be true, because later, when Moses was near the end of his life and was handing over the leadership of the people to Joshua, Moses told Joshua: "It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed" (Deuteronomy 31:8).
* Psalm 23 says: "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me."
* Years later, King David repeated the promise to his son, Solomon: "Be strong and of good courage, and act. Do not be afraid or dismayed; for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you" (1 Chronicles 28:20).
* I could easily go on and give you examples where the promise of God's presence was repeated to the Psalmist, to Isaiah, to Jeremiah, to Paul, and to many others.
* Jesus himself, as he approached his death, said, "I am not alone, for the Father is with me" (John 16:32).
* And then, in the very last book of the Bible, the promise shows up again. In the vision of John of Patmos, he foresees a "new Jerusalem," and hears a loud voice that says, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them" (Revelation 21:3).
So, you see, the hymnwriter wasn't just being poetic. He was stating the reality that the Bible - "his excellent word" - lays a firm foundation for our faith that God is present with us.
You've occasionally heard claims that faithfulness to God will bring health, wealth, and happiness, but, frankly, that is not the promise of the Bible. What the Bible does promise is God himself. His presence will be with us. To which the hymn writer adds, "What more can he say?" That was the truth that the Pilgrims celebrated on the first Thanksgiving.
Let's sing verse 2. [All sing]
Let us not discount the importance of God's presence. I was reminded of that the other day when I read about a certain father who went to visit his son's preschool. It was a day when dads could come to visit. But when he got there, he was surprised to discover that only a handful of fathers had come to be with their children. Later in that morning, all the children were sitting on the floor in a circle. The teacher asked the children to tell the group something about their fathers, something that was special. One little boy said, "Well, my daddy is a lawyer. He makes a lot of money and we live in a big house." Another child said, "My father is very smart. He teaches at the college and a lot of important people know him." When it was time for this father's son to say something special about his dad, the little boy looked up at his father, then he looked around the circle of his friends, and then he just smiled and proudly said, "My dad ... my dad is here!"
Or, in the words of Cynthia Heimel, "Do not look for [God] in the heavens; he only keeps a small locker there, only goes there to change" (But Enough About You [New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986], p. 70).
Okay, you agree. God was with the faithful people of the Bible and with the Pilgrims, and because we accept the faith in Christ, the promise of God's presence is made to us as well.
But so what? What does it really mean on a nitty--gritty, everyday level that God is with us?
For one thing, it means that we cannot sin in peace. We can sometimes do things wrong and get away with them as far as other people are concerned. But the reality of God's presence means that our attitudes and deeds are open knowledge to God. In those circumstances, there may be times when we'd just as soon not have God present. But think about the times when we've benefited from someone else's knowledge of God's presence. Perhaps they've been angry with us, and inclined to do something hateful against us, but their knowledge that God was present would not let them sin against us in peace, and a reconciliation was achieved.
But God's presence also means something else. And that is the subject of verses 3 and 4 of the hymn. Let's sing them. [All sing]
In the scriptures, deep water and fire are often metaphors for serious trouble and extreme danger. Sometimes they were also literal danger for the people of Israel. When they had to cross the Red Sea with the Egyptians in hot pursuit, they faced literal deep waters. When the three Hebrew young men refused to worship the Babylonian god, they were thrown into a literal furnace of fire. In both of these cases, God was with them. When they trusted that God was with them, they handled the danger.
What are the deep waters you face? There is a phenomenon that sometimes occurs during times of deep troubles where the most comfort comes from people who do little more than be present. Again and again, I've had people who have lost loved ones say that the people who seemed to add to their grief were those who tried to explain it, defend God, or tell them what they should do. The ones who were comforting were those who just showed up and grieved with them. God shows up.
There is yet another thing God's presence means, and verse 5 mentions it. Let's sing it. [All sing]
"That soul though all hell should endeavor to shake...." Some may take that to mean the working of a satanic power, but I think of more literal hells. Moments of true terror.
I talked once to a young woman who survived a terrible car crash. She was alone in her car when a large truck coming the other way went out of control and careened toward her. I asked her what she did. She said that in the split second when it was clear that she was going to be hit, she threw herself down on the front seat. And she added, "I think I screamed, 'Oh, my God.' "
"Oh, my God." What is that? A throwaway phrase? Mild profanity? I don't think so. In its barest form, it's a prayer. And what is there within us that causes such words to leap to our lips in moments of pure terror? For many, it is the conviction deep down that God really is present and is the only one who can confront the terror with us.
Do you know who John Dye is? He's the actor who plays Andrew, the angel of death, on the television series Touched By An Angel. (In a television interview recently he mentioned that he's noticed that when he flies on commercial airliners, some of the other passengers tend to get a little nervous.)
I've not seen that show often, but the few times I have, I've noticed that when Andrew comes to take someone out of this life, there is a recognition that this brings sadness to the person's family and friends, but not tragedy for the person. Andrew and his angel cohorts seem to understand that the death brings no interruption in the presence of God with the person.
Now I don't want to suggest that Touched By An Angel is a substitute for solid biblical theology, but I think the show has that point right, at least for those who trust God. The presence of God does not mean everything comes out as we want it to, or that God is some kind of guardian angel who snatches out of our path anything that might harm us. But it does mean that even losing our life does not deprive us of God's presence, which in its fullness, the Bible says, more than compensates for any troubles and loss in this life.
That's why the Pilgrims could celebrate and thank God despite the awful year they'd been through. And that's why we can too. The presence of God is a firm foundation - a solid place to stand.
Stan Purdum
Prelude
Call to Worship
Leader: The Lord is clothed with honor and majesty,
People: Wrapped in light as with a garment.
Leader: He makes the clouds his chariot,
People: And rides on the wings of the wind.
Leader: God set the earth on its foundations,
People: So that it shall never be shaken.
Leader: Let us worship God.
People: Let us worship him indeed!
- adapted from Psalm 104
*Hymn "We Gather Together"
*Opening Prayer
Almighty God, we gather together to worship you, believing that somehow the assembling of ourselves in joint worship pleases you and helps us grow in our faith individually. Together we praise your name and ask you to make your will known to us. Help us in this service to set aside the things that distract us from listening for your word. Enable the things we say and do in these moments to become channels for your word of truth to come to us. Through Jesus we pray. Amen.
Choruses
"Fill My Cup, Lord"
"He Is Lord"
Giving Thanks
[Here invite anyone who wishes to stand and express thanks for some blessing that has come to them]
Prayer of Thanksgiving
God of all blessings, we thank you for the riches of your love that you have showered upon us this year past. And thank you for the richness of your presence that was with us even when we passed through dark valleys and deep troughs. Accept now our thanksgiving and our praise, from our lips and from our hearts. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Chorus "Alleluia"
Presentation of Tithes and Offerings
Offertory
*Doxology
Men's Chorus "Now Thank We All Our God"
[Just use the regular arrangement from your hymnbook; this hymn is very effective when sung by male voices]
Scripture Isaiah 41:8--10; 43:1--7
Sermon A Solid Place To Stand
*Hymn "How Firm A Foundation"
[Verses are sung, interspersed in sermon, but sing first verse again now]
*Benediction
Postlude
A Solid Place To Stand
Isaiah 41:8--10; 43:1--7
Of all the holidays of the year, Thanksgiving is my favorite. One thing I like is that is comes quietly, without a lot of hoopla. There is none of the hurry and scurry of preparation as there is at Christmas. There is no decking out in new clothes as we sometimes do for Easter. Generally speaking, unless you're a turkey farmer, you probably do not arrive at Thanksgiving all exhausted from weeks of preparation.
I also like it that the day is a time for families to gather and spend time together.
The history of Thanksgiving also interests me. I am impressed by the fact that the first Thanksgiving was held by people (the ones we call Pilgrims) who had first gone through a terrible winter and suffered appalling losses. Despite this, by the time they got to the end of their first growing season, they gathered to thank God for being with them throughout it all.
The fact is, the Pilgrims arrived in the new world at the wrong time of year and in the wrong place. They were heading for the area we now call Virginia, but instead landed at what is now Provincetown, Massachusetts, on November 21, 1620. It was the beginning of winter and they faced that harsh season without adequate supplies. Half their number died that first winter, including thirteen out of the eighteen wives who came on the Mayflower. Many more would have died except that they found some caches of food stored by the Indians, and helped themselves.
At one point, only six of the settlers were well enough to nurse the others. And when people died, their comrades buried them in unmarked graves so that the Indians would not know how few of them were left.
Things got a little better the following year. Crops were planted, homes were improved, and when the harvest was in, there was a time of giving thanks to God for what they had, and more remarkably, for being with them through the ordeal.
Actually, the promise of God's presence is a consistent theme in the Bible, and certainly one that scripture for today emphasizes.
Do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.
- Isaiah 41:10
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. - Isaiah 43:2
Along with some verses from Hebrews and 2 Timothy, these words from Isaiah were part of the inspiration for one of our best hymns, "How Firm A Foundation." The hymn first appeared in 1787 in a hymnbook published in London by John Rippon, a Baptist pastor, but we don't know for sure who the author was. He is identified only as "K," and some historians think it may have been a man named Thomas Keen, who was the music director in Rippon's church.
Let's sing verse 1. [All sing]
Note that this first verse says that this firm foundation has been laid down for us "in his excellent word," that is, the Bible. Let's look at how that is true.
* In Genesis, when God first called Abraham, he promised to be with him.
* That promise was repeated to Abraham's son Isaac (Genesis 26:3): "Reside in this land as an alien, and I will be with you, and will bless you."
* It was repeated again to Isaac's son Jacob (Genesis 28:15): "Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go."
* Later still to Moses, who, when he was called to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt, protested that he was inadequate. God said to him: "I will be with you" (Exodus 3:12).
* Moses must have found that to be true, because later, when Moses was near the end of his life and was handing over the leadership of the people to Joshua, Moses told Joshua: "It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed" (Deuteronomy 31:8).
* Psalm 23 says: "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me."
* Years later, King David repeated the promise to his son, Solomon: "Be strong and of good courage, and act. Do not be afraid or dismayed; for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you" (1 Chronicles 28:20).
* I could easily go on and give you examples where the promise of God's presence was repeated to the Psalmist, to Isaiah, to Jeremiah, to Paul, and to many others.
* Jesus himself, as he approached his death, said, "I am not alone, for the Father is with me" (John 16:32).
* And then, in the very last book of the Bible, the promise shows up again. In the vision of John of Patmos, he foresees a "new Jerusalem," and hears a loud voice that says, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them" (Revelation 21:3).
So, you see, the hymnwriter wasn't just being poetic. He was stating the reality that the Bible - "his excellent word" - lays a firm foundation for our faith that God is present with us.
You've occasionally heard claims that faithfulness to God will bring health, wealth, and happiness, but, frankly, that is not the promise of the Bible. What the Bible does promise is God himself. His presence will be with us. To which the hymn writer adds, "What more can he say?" That was the truth that the Pilgrims celebrated on the first Thanksgiving.
Let's sing verse 2. [All sing]
Let us not discount the importance of God's presence. I was reminded of that the other day when I read about a certain father who went to visit his son's preschool. It was a day when dads could come to visit. But when he got there, he was surprised to discover that only a handful of fathers had come to be with their children. Later in that morning, all the children were sitting on the floor in a circle. The teacher asked the children to tell the group something about their fathers, something that was special. One little boy said, "Well, my daddy is a lawyer. He makes a lot of money and we live in a big house." Another child said, "My father is very smart. He teaches at the college and a lot of important people know him." When it was time for this father's son to say something special about his dad, the little boy looked up at his father, then he looked around the circle of his friends, and then he just smiled and proudly said, "My dad ... my dad is here!"
Or, in the words of Cynthia Heimel, "Do not look for [God] in the heavens; he only keeps a small locker there, only goes there to change" (But Enough About You [New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986], p. 70).
Okay, you agree. God was with the faithful people of the Bible and with the Pilgrims, and because we accept the faith in Christ, the promise of God's presence is made to us as well.
But so what? What does it really mean on a nitty--gritty, everyday level that God is with us?
For one thing, it means that we cannot sin in peace. We can sometimes do things wrong and get away with them as far as other people are concerned. But the reality of God's presence means that our attitudes and deeds are open knowledge to God. In those circumstances, there may be times when we'd just as soon not have God present. But think about the times when we've benefited from someone else's knowledge of God's presence. Perhaps they've been angry with us, and inclined to do something hateful against us, but their knowledge that God was present would not let them sin against us in peace, and a reconciliation was achieved.
But God's presence also means something else. And that is the subject of verses 3 and 4 of the hymn. Let's sing them. [All sing]
In the scriptures, deep water and fire are often metaphors for serious trouble and extreme danger. Sometimes they were also literal danger for the people of Israel. When they had to cross the Red Sea with the Egyptians in hot pursuit, they faced literal deep waters. When the three Hebrew young men refused to worship the Babylonian god, they were thrown into a literal furnace of fire. In both of these cases, God was with them. When they trusted that God was with them, they handled the danger.
What are the deep waters you face? There is a phenomenon that sometimes occurs during times of deep troubles where the most comfort comes from people who do little more than be present. Again and again, I've had people who have lost loved ones say that the people who seemed to add to their grief were those who tried to explain it, defend God, or tell them what they should do. The ones who were comforting were those who just showed up and grieved with them. God shows up.
There is yet another thing God's presence means, and verse 5 mentions it. Let's sing it. [All sing]
"That soul though all hell should endeavor to shake...." Some may take that to mean the working of a satanic power, but I think of more literal hells. Moments of true terror.
I talked once to a young woman who survived a terrible car crash. She was alone in her car when a large truck coming the other way went out of control and careened toward her. I asked her what she did. She said that in the split second when it was clear that she was going to be hit, she threw herself down on the front seat. And she added, "I think I screamed, 'Oh, my God.' "
"Oh, my God." What is that? A throwaway phrase? Mild profanity? I don't think so. In its barest form, it's a prayer. And what is there within us that causes such words to leap to our lips in moments of pure terror? For many, it is the conviction deep down that God really is present and is the only one who can confront the terror with us.
Do you know who John Dye is? He's the actor who plays Andrew, the angel of death, on the television series Touched By An Angel. (In a television interview recently he mentioned that he's noticed that when he flies on commercial airliners, some of the other passengers tend to get a little nervous.)
I've not seen that show often, but the few times I have, I've noticed that when Andrew comes to take someone out of this life, there is a recognition that this brings sadness to the person's family and friends, but not tragedy for the person. Andrew and his angel cohorts seem to understand that the death brings no interruption in the presence of God with the person.
Now I don't want to suggest that Touched By An Angel is a substitute for solid biblical theology, but I think the show has that point right, at least for those who trust God. The presence of God does not mean everything comes out as we want it to, or that God is some kind of guardian angel who snatches out of our path anything that might harm us. But it does mean that even losing our life does not deprive us of God's presence, which in its fullness, the Bible says, more than compensates for any troubles and loss in this life.
That's why the Pilgrims could celebrate and thank God despite the awful year they'd been through. And that's why we can too. The presence of God is a firm foundation - a solid place to stand.
Stan Purdum
