{"id":11035,"date":"2025-11-11T05:42:29","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T12:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=11035"},"modified":"2025-11-11T05:44:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T12:44:09","slug":"his-unspeakable-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=11035","title":{"rendered":"His unspeakable gift"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Select here for a pdf version.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psalm 51:10; 2 Corinthians 9:15<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Sermon for the end of the Season of Pentecost<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the final phase of the church year, harvest season, when we celebrate the bringing in of the crops and giving thanks for the bounty of the earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are glorious hymns for this season: \u201cPraise and Thanksgiving,\u201d \u201cCome, You Thankful People, Come,\u201d \u2018Now Thank We All our God,\u201d and many more which direct our hearts and minds to giving thanks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which raises the question for today: How can we produce a thankful heart?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us count the ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, the first way to have a thankful heart is to count your blessings. Make a list of all the things you are thankful for. An older woman who has a lot of conflict in her family, also has a battle plan. In her sewing room, on the wall above her sewing machine, are yellow post-it notes stuck on the wall. When she thinks of something she is grateful for, she writes it on a post-it note and sticks it on the wall. She says that doing that keeps her from ruminating on problems she can\u2019t fix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bounty in which we all live is remarkable when we start to think about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, there are times when even counting one\u2019s blessings doesn\u2019t work to produce a thankful heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, even when we pray: \u201cThy kingdom come, thy will be done,\u201d in our heart of hearts we think: \u201cMy kingdom come, my will be done.\u201d The heart wants what it wants, and as Jeremiah 17:9 says: \u201cThe heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, in this liturgical year as we have gone through the Gospel of Luke, we note many texts that deal with thankfulness. The best known one is in Luke 17 about the ten lepers and only leper turned around to say \u201cThank you.\u201d  The story is called a parabolic miracle, and it\u2019s really the same as the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. In fact, instead of calling the leper account the story of the ten lepers, we really should call it the story of the Thankful Samaritan. Ten were healed. Only the Samaritan turned to say \u201cThank you.\u201d Thus, in Luke we have the stories of the Good Samaritan and the Thankful Samaritan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We who come to church regularly think that the churches should be overflowing every Sunday because people should be thankful for all that God has given them. But the fact is that most are content to enjoy the bounty of this world without ever saying \u201cThank you\u201d to the Lord of all creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can fall into the problem of the Pharisee in the account of the Pharisee and the publican (tax collector), a story which is also in Luke (18). Remember two men go to the temple to pray, The Pharisee prays: \u201cI thank thee, Lord, that I am not like other men, extortioners, adulterers, and even that tax collector over there! I tithe; I volunteer . . .\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whereas the tax collector prays: \u201cLord, I am a sinner. Forgive me. Have mercy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are the good ones who show up on Sunday morning, and all those people who didn\u2019t come to church today, they\u2019re not. We can be caught in pride, rather than grateful that we are here where there is the Word, the water, and the foretaste of the feast to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also true that having a thankful heart is about remembering to say: \u201cThank you.\u201d We all need to be mindful of that. Children need to learn to say \u201cThank you.\u201d When a child receives a present from someone, there is often a parent in the background who whispers to the child: \u201cRemember to say, \u2018Thank you.\u2019\u201d Kids need to be coached.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A grown man tells of how grateful he was that before his father died, he, the son, had the opportunity to thank his dad for all that he had done for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what about table prayers for every day and especially Thanksgiving? One family has the Thanksgiving tradition that before eating, every person places a kernel of corn on the table and names one thing they are grateful for. Then they sing the Benediction together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can we get a thankful heart?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That brings us to a third way. If you want to mindful of your blessings, no matter what your situation is, go to the children\u2019s hospital, and there you will see these little ones who because of illness or accident are in terrible situations, and yet they rejoice at little things and are thankful for their families, nurses, and doctors who take care of them. I suspect that for most of us, our troubles don\u2019t begin to compare with theirs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same, regardless of our circumstances, we are struggling, too, each with our own troubles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And we\u2019re not innocent either. There\u2019s a dark passage in the Book of Proverbs, Proverbs 30:16 about greed and envy as a fire which never says \u2018Enough\u2019\u2014it always wants more. We, too, always want more. We never have enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be sure, there are times we, too, are awestruck at the good that comes our way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a preacher\u2019s story, and it goes like this: In a little town on a Saturday afternoon a young couple showed up at the pastor\u2019s house, wanting to be married. They had a marriage license. They need witnesses. The pastor said: \u201cSure,\u201d and called over some neighboring parishioners, and the young couple were married right there and then. The groom said to the pastor: \u201cHow much do I owe you?\u201d And the pastor said: \u201cHow much is it worth to you?\u201d And the groom said, \u201cI could never pay you that much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew 7:7 goes: \u201cAsk and it will be given you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. . . . What man of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him? How much more?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Romans 8:32 says: \u201cHe who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all [good] things with him?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul then gives a list of seven things that might separate us from the love of Christ: Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and the sword.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To his list we can add pain and loneliness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then Paul answers with an emphatic NO: \u201cNo, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us\u201d (Romans 8:37).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means that it\u2019s not up to us to produce a thankful heart or have \u201cthe right feelings.\u201d He does it. He carries us in faith even when we feel flat or don\u2019t feel anything at all. That\u2019s what salvation is about, how the Lord conquers sin and death, what the Lord gives, not what we have to produce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Psalmist says: \u201cCreate in me a clean heart and give me a new and right spirit\u201d (Psalm 51:10). He does it. He will take care of that, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2 Cor 9:15 Paul writes: \u201cThanks be to God for his unspeakable gift\u201d \u2013 that is, the gift which is beyond all that we ask for think. That\u2019s how it is translated in the King James Version, but this is changed in the RSV to: \u201cThanks be to God for his inexpressible gift.\u201d  That\u2019s an acceptable translation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the beauty of the KJV\u2019s version: \u201cThanks be to God for his unspeakable gift\u201d \u2013 is that it captures the awe of being caught up in his holiness, of being rendered speechless at the sheer glory and joy of his victory and kingdom to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Psalm 51:10; 2 Corinthians 9:15<\/p>\n

A Sermon for the end of the Season of Pentecost<\/p>\n

We are in the final phase of the church year, harvest season, when we celebrate the bringing in of the crops and giving thanks for the bounty of the earth. <\/p>\n

There are glorious hymns for this season: \u201cPraise and Thanksgiving,\u201d \u201cCome, You Thankful People, Come,\u201d \u2018<\/p>\n

Now Thank We All our God,\u201d and many more which direct our hearts and minds to giving thanks.<\/p>\n

Which raises the question for today: How can we produce a thankful heart?<\/p>\n

Select here<\/a> to read more or here <\/a> for a pdf version.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11035"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11041,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11035\/revisions\/11041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}