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Dear students and friends of Lutheran Chapel of Hope,
"Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures
forever." Ps. 106,1.
Recently I read a brief note about a godly king in Spain who lived some
centuries ago. His name was Alfonso XIX.
I thought it appropriate to comment on this as we approach another
Thanksgiving Day.
It seems as though this good king had been told that the boys who served in
his court were not saying table grace before they ate. The king was
deeply disturbed. He decided to throw a nice banquet for them. They
were all
invited to attend. About midway through the banquet, the king had
pre-arranged to have a beggar come in off the street in his unkempt clothing
and his dirty, smelly body. The beggar came in; sat down at the king's
banquet; stuffed the food down his mouth as fast as he could without saying
a word; and then got up and walked out without thanking the king.
The boys were outraged at the beggar's actions. They said: "Why that
ungrateful wretch should be taken outside and given a good whipping. He came
in, sat down, gorged himself on the king's food and never even thanked him
for it."
The king rose slowly. A hush fell over those at the table. The
king said to the boys: "Daily you have taken the rich blessings from
the hand of your Heavenly Father. You have enjoyed His sunshine.
You have breathed His air. You have eaten the food that He daily provides
for You. Yet, you do not even bother to thank Him for any of them.
Don't you realize t! hat you are more ungrateful wretches than this
beggar?"
Yes, God daily provides you and me with all that we need for our daily
existence. God does this in a kind and loving manner.
But do you and I always thank Him by saying table grace? Do we always thank
Him for the sunshine He sends; the air He provides and the food He supplies?
But even more than our physical needs, God most of all supplies us richly
and daily with the priceless gift of the forgiveness of all our sins, life
and salvation. He does this without any merit or worthiness on our part. God
doesn't owe us sinners anything. We have no merit to claim or demand
anything from God because of our sins.
Have you ever stopped to think what would happen if God were to make us pay
for every cutting, mean and sarcastic word we have spoken; if He were to
make us pay for all our sordid and unclean desires; if He were to make us
pay for all our acts of lovelessness and neglect?
You and I could easily add to that list, couldn't we? We know all too
well that the evidence is there to convict us of all the above sins and many
more. We all sin daily. We all daily fall far short of God's holy demands.
If God gave you and me what we had coming to us, we would all end up in the
eternal gloom and torment of a very real hell.
But we need not worry about hell because God, through His Word, directs us
to trust in Jesus Christ Who "did no sin, neither was any guile in
Him;" Who kept all God's commandments perfectly for us; Who hung His
head in death on the cross to offer the perfect sacrifice for all our sins;
and Who rose again from the dead to assure us that His Father in Heaven had
accepted that sacrifice for all our sins.
May our daily "give thanks" to God from hearts that have been
washed and cleansed from all our sins in Holy Baptism; from mouths that
receive the precious body and blood of Jesus Christ in Holy Communion for
the remission of all our sins and from lives that are touched and renewed
daily by the faith renewing and life transforming power of God's Word which
keeps us in true faith in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting in heaven.
We hope to see you in Divine Worship this Sunday, Nov. 24th at 5:00 PM.
Please note that we do not have a 5:00 PM worship service again until
Sunday, Dec. 8th. There is no service on Sunday, Dec. 1st since students
will be coming back later on that day from Thanksgiving break.
Our next Wednesday Bible Class will be at noon on December 4th We hope to
see both at church and at Bible Class.
God bless you and grant you a safe trip home for Thanksgiving and also a
safe trip back to Cape after Thanksgiving.
In Christ Jesus,
Rev. David V.Dissen
Interim Campus Pastor
Lutheran Chapel of Hope
Cape Girardeau, Mo.
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