Make This a Thankful New Church Year!

1st Sunday in Advent, 11/27/11
1 Corinthians 1:3-9


Make This a Thankful New Church Year!
I. Thankful for the grace of God
II. Thankful for the blamelessness of God



Four weeks from now we’ll be celebrating the birth of our Lord. Days later you’ll hear talk of making New Year’s resolutions. Do you participate in that yearly ritual or not?

Those who make resolutions seize the opportunity that a new year presents. It’s a clean slate of sorts. You have 365 days ahead of you and making a resolution or two is a way of deciding to use that allotment of time wisely, to make a difference in a small or great way. And even if you find that you weren’t able to keep the resolution, at least you tried.

Those who don’t make resolutions choose not to for that very reason. They figure the chances of actually keeping any resolution they make are slim at best. Instead, they’ll try their best each day and be happy with their efforts.

Today marks the very beginning of a new church year. I realize that it’s not a Christian tradition to celebrate a new church year by making resolutions, but would you be willing to try it this year? And instead of letting you make whatever resolution you’d like, how about joining me in taking our cue from the opening words of our text from the pen of St. Paul? He writes, “I always thank God for you.” Paul was thankful, thankful for what God had accomplished in the Corinthians Christians. Believe it or not, God has accomplished the very same things in us.

So let’s join Paul in being thankful. In fact, on this first day of the new church year, let’s make that a resolution. Let’s make this a thankful new church year! Our Lord through Paul reminds us of the tremendous reasons we have for possessing that thankful spirit for the next 52 weeks and beyond.

Part I.

We’re only two days removed from observing a national holiday of thanks. For what were you thankful? In addition to having the necessities of life—food, clothing and shelter—the Lord has blessed us all with so much more, and I’m sure you were thankful for those things. He’s given you family and friends, abilities and opportunities, health and wealth, to name a few. In our Wednesday evening Thanksgiving service we also highlighted the fact that God has rescued you, redeemed you and forgiven you. You may have thanked God for all those things and more. But did you remember to thank God for his grace?

Maybe not. But that’s the one Paul highlights in our text. Again, we writes, “I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.”

You don’t find much grace outside of the Christian church. Our world has little use for it. In fact, our world operates on getting what you deserve, both positively and negatively. If you work hard and apply yourself, you deserve to be rewarded and compensated. And we even leave it up to ourselves to determine what that level of reward or compensation should be. We also expect people to get what they deserve negatively. Our system of justice depends on it. If you break the law, you should get what you deserve. Failure to do so only fosters more crime and encourages lawbreakers.

Another way of stating this is with the single word karma. I’m sure you’ve heard of it. In fact, there’s a religious aspect to it. Some people refer to karma as a divine force that eventually evens the score, giving you the good or the bad you deserve.

All these concepts have nothing to do with grace. That’s because grace is undeserved favor. It’s the saving goodness that God bestows on sinners who deserve the exact opposite. The grace we’re speaking of here comes from the heart of God and only from his heart. But it isn’t simply a divine emotion or desire.

God’s grace includes action and a person. Paul writes that this grace was given to us in Christ Jesus. There you have it. God acted on his plan to give us his divine, undeserved favor. As we’ll celebrate soon, when the time was just right, God sent his Son, born of the virgin Mary to be our Savior from sin. God’s grace comes to us in Christ and through Christ.

That activity of grace results in peace. Recall on the night of Jesus’ birth the heavenly angels sang about peace on earth. They weren’t speaking about the end of wars; they were speaking of the peace that this newborn Savior would establish between sinful people and the holy God. Jesus won that peace for us by his life and his death on the cross. He brings us that peace through faith in him. We are no longer God’s enemies and objects of his eternal wrath and punishment. We’re his dearly loved, redeemed children and heirs of eternal life with him. What tremendous blessings that peace with God brings us!

But there’s more! Paul tells us, “For in him you have been enriched in every way—in all your speaking and in all your knowledge.” Paul is likely referring to the gifts that God has given to you to be able to speak his word to others, to confess what you believe before others, to explain God’s truths to others, to stand with your fellow Christians and declare, “Thus says the Lord.” You share those truths with young and old alike. What a tremendous change our God has worked in you through his grace. That grace has accomplished his eternal, saving purpose in you.

Make this a thankful new church year—thankful for the grace of God.

No one wants to be labeled “ungrateful,” especially since we’re coming off of our national Thanksgiving holiday weekend. In fact, if we had to rate ourselves privately, I would imagine every one of us would spot ourselves well past the middle on a continuum from ungrateful on one end to grateful on the other. But aren’t our moments of whining and complaining about the various aspects of our lives evidence to the contrary? And don’t we, as Christians, have the highest reasons to be thankful? Indeed we do! For we live every day under the grace of our God, a grace which covers our sins with the blood of Christ and assures us of our peace with God. We live each day knowing that Jesus died and rose again for us so that we will live in eternal glory with him. Those blessings of God’s grace will be ours every day of this new church year. So make this a thankful new church year—thankful for the grace of God!

Part II.

Imagine me beginning my sermon this morning by telling you that I am sorry but I don’t have a sermon to share with you today. I got a little busy over the holiday and I also didn’t make the best use of my time. So I didn’t prepare a sermon. You’d be a little embarrassed, wouldn’t you? In fact, you would be a little ashamed of me and all the more so because of the visitors here this morning. I’m not prepared?! What’s that all about? And I would agree. I should be ashamed if that were the case.

My being unprepared to preach to you today would fill me with shame and embarrassment. But there’s a far greater shame. It’s being unprepared for Christ’s return.

Many Christians miss the fact that we aren’t only looking back at what Jesus did for us as our Savior; we’re also looking forward to his return to this earth. We do that because he repeatedly promised to return on the Last Day.

And so, as we prepare our hearts during this Advent season to celebrate his first coming to this earth, our thoughts and desires also naturally turn to his second coming to the earth. As you know, that day will be the great day of judgment for every person. How eternally dreadful and shameful to be unprepared for that day!

So let’s not get caught unprepared. Readiness comes by faith in Jesus. On the Last Day, as Jesus tells us in his word, he will return with all his holy angels and those angels will separate those who trust in Jesus as their Savior from those who don’t. And then Jesus will say to those who trust in him, “Come and inherit the kingdom I prepared for you.”

But how can that be? Aren’t we sinners just like everyone else? True, indeed. But listen to Paul’s comforting words, “[Jesus] will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Blameless. Don’t just imagine that; believe it! Satan will throw every one of his accusations against us, but none of them will stand because Jesus paid for every one of our sins and he declares us to be fully forgiven, blameless, holy in his sight. That’s the greatest news any sinner can hear. Our God assures us of that saving truth every time we hear the good news of our Savior and receive our Savior’s body and blood with the bread and wine of Holy Communion.

Through that word and sacrament Jesus will keep us strong to the end. He will nurture and strengthen our faith in him so that it withstands every attack of Satan. He will be our mighty fortress in our present, evil world. He will stand with us, guarding us with his almighty power, until that day when he brings us safely into his heavenly kingdom. And when he raises us from the dead on the Last Day, he will declare before everyone that we are his, blameless and holy.

Make this a thankful new church year—thankful for the blamelessness of God.

If you haven’t noticed it yet, the busyness of the season has already begun. In fact, you may already consider yourself to be behind in getting ready for it. Can we just pause for a moment right now and remind ourselves of what really matters? Jesus might return before Dec. 24 arrives. So make sure you’re ready for him! Focus on his holy life and his death for your sins. Rejoice in his resurrection. Be convinced that, because of what he did, you are ready, you are blameless. You’re good to go—to go to be with him.

So be thankful, not stressed out. In fact, make this a thankful new church year. Amen.