In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Have you ever been to a “white elephant” gift exchange? You know, where people bring wrapped gifts, generally of relatively low value, that they proceed to exchange, usually via some some sort of lottery or raffle. Of course, part of the fun of a white elephant exchange is to find amusing things to give to your friends. I remember, as a child, tagging along with my mother to our church's LWML Christmas party, where the ladies would always come up with odd or amusing things to exchange, often items re-gifted from other sources. One time, one prize that floated around was a plush cat, limp and flat, with almost no stuffing, and a tag that said “roadkill”. Such items, and such exchanges are amusing for a moment, but they hold no lasting blessing or value.
Or perhaps you have received a well-intentioned gift from a loved one, for which you struggled to show gratitude as you thought, “What in the world am I going to do with this?” It may have been obvious that the person genuinely meant well, and wished to give you something that would be of value and maybe have meaning, but had neither for you.
How often do we receive gifts that we would rather not accept? Or, perhaps more common, how often do we receive gifts but fail to realize the source and worth of them?
Our Heavenly Father certainly gives us many gifts. As the Small Catechism teaches us,
He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them.
He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land and animals, and all I have. He daily and richly provides me with all that I need to support this body and life (SC II.1).
All that we have is a gift from God. Every breath we take, every beat of our hearts, every blink of our eyes. And it all continues to exist and operate because He takes care of us. Just think for a moment – if our Lord were to look away for an instant, everything that we know would perish in the twinkling of an eye. But our world continues because of God's fatherly, divine goodness and mercy.
And what is our reaction to this? We take Him and His care for granted. As long as we still open our eyes every morning and have a bed to lay ourselves down upon every night, we generally keep God in the back of our minds. We assume His goodness, just as we assume that flipping the switch will turn on the lights. In fact, we often become so callous to God's gracious giving that we demand more and more. And when we see that what we have is “not enough” we strive and scheme to get what someone else might be keeping us from having, whether it be money or power or fame or possessions.
Of course, we harden our hearts to God's gifts in other ways, too. We spurn God's gifts when we look outside of the bounds of holy matrimony to fulfill the desires of the flesh. We reject His gifts when we turn from the opposite sex to find fulfillment in unions God has not sanctioned. We take for granted His gifts when we presume that human life is ours to give and to take, especially when we take that life from those most fragile given into our care, the unborn and the aged. We presume upon God's gracious giving when we assume that the gift of childbearing is ours to accept or decline at will. We take for granted the gifts God gives to us when we refuse to share those gifts with those in need.
Dear Father in heaven, save us from ourselves!
On the Cross, Jesus took upon Himself all of our selfishness and greed and doubt of God's care, and He received the full measure of the wrath of God poured out upon the sins of man. Upon that cross, Jesus shed His holy and precious blood so that we might be washed in that crimson tide and be made white in the blood of the Lamb. With the waters of Holy Baptism, all our selfish desires were drowned and died, and our hearts were washed clean. Into each heart so cleansed, God has poured His Holy Spirit, who continually calls us and keeps us in the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic faith. With that cleansing flood, our heavenly Father sundered us from the number of the heathen and unbelieving, and He joined us to Himself, so that now we might be His dear children and He is our dear Father.
Therefore, as children of the heavenly Father, we pray, “Dear Father, give us what is needful. Let Your name be hallowed upon earth, and give us those gifts You know that we need, now and for eternity.”
We pray in the Lord's Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread.” As St. Luke records it, this petition might be better understood this way: “Our bread for the coming day keep giving to us day by day” (Just 460). In this petition, we pray that God would give us everything that we need each day, in body and in soul. However, not just for this day only, but for each day of our lives. We pray that our Father would keep us in body and soul through all our appointed days on earth in this life, and that He would daily forgive our sins and keep us in the true faith until the Last Day, when our faith shall be fulfilled.
We also pray with this petition that our Father would help us to ever be mindful of all these great gifts that He gives, and that we would give Him right thanks and praise for His many blessings. And He promises to do just that – He promises to give us the Holy Spirit to work faith and love in our hearts and lives, toward God and toward our neighbors.
And so we end our prayers, saying:
Amen, that is, so shall it be.
Make strong our faith in You, that we
May doubt not but with trust believe
That what we ask we shall receive.
Thus in Your name and at Your Word
We say, “Amen, O hear us, Lord!” (LSB 766:9).
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
Rev. Ryan McDermott
St. Peter Lutheran Church
Elma, IA
Proper 12C – 25 July 2010
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