As November arrives and our thoughts turn toward Thanksgiving dinner tables on our national day of gratitude, it is fitting to remember that the Christian Church is a community of thankfulness. In fact, in Martin Luther’s 1539 treatise On the Councils and the Church, Luther uplifts the “seven marks” by which Christians can recognize the Church of Jesus Christ, and he highlights God’s graciousness and our thankfulness as central to the identity and life of the Church.
Rather than obsessing over numerical growth, impressive programs, cultural relevance, or beautiful buildings, Martin Luther’s seven marks of the Church identify the places where Christ himself is graciously present and active for the salvation of sinners through his good gifts. So, the Church exists whenever and wherever the pure Gospel of Christ is proclaimed and the Sacraments of Christ are rightly administered. Therefore, the Church of Jesus Christ is defined by the following seven marks of the Church…
[1] Proclamation of the Word of God (both Law and Gospel)
[2] Administration of Holy Baptism
[3] Administration of Holy Communion
[4] Confession of Sins and Absolution
[5] The Office of Ordained Ministry
[6] Prayer, Praise, and Thanksgiving
[7] Bearing the Cross of Christ
Notice that the sixth mark of the Church explicitly includes giving thanks. The Sunday Divine Worship Service is not an optional religious activity; it is the very place where all seven marks converge together for us each week in a spirit of thanksgiving. At weekly worship on the Lord’s Day, the Word (both Law and Gospel) is preached, the Sacraments of Christ are given, confession of sins is spoken and absolution declared, duly ordained pastors rightly administer Holy Communion, and the people of God thankfully respond in prayer and praise. Therefore, our worship liturgy is theology in action. When we gather, we are not primarily offering something to God; we are receiving from him. And the natural, Spirit-wrought response to those gifts is a grateful and thankful heart.
Certainly, a general cultural gratitude can be found almost anywhere in America. People of many faiths (and none) can feel thankful for harvest, family, health, and our shared Constitutional freedoms as citizens of the United States of America. But Christian thanksgiving is deeper, for it flows from our sins forgiven in, with and through Jesus Christ our Savior. Therefore, the greatest thanksgiving meal is not the one on the last Thursday in November each year; rather, it’s the Holy Communion Meal, the Eucharist (literally meaning “thanksgiving”). Every single Sunday of the year, the Church of Jesus Christ already celebrates a Divine Thanksgiving. We come empty-handed, confess our sins, hear God’s forgiveness declared, receive the Word, then eat and drink the mystical presence of the crucified and risen Messiah. Then, and only then, do we go forth to serve our neighbors with the concrete acts of love that flow from a set-free and grateful heart.
Even the seventh mark — Bearing the Cross — belongs to this Divine Thanksgiving. The Church is recognized not by worldly prowess and earthly standards of success but by the willingness to suffer for the sake of the world by taking up the Cross of the Truth of Jesus Christ. Yet because we possess the Gospel of our salvation, we can also (by God’s grace) give thanks even in the midst of the many hardships of truly bearing the Cross of Christ within this fallen and sinful world. For Philippians 2:5-8 states: “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though existing in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be wielded, but emptied himself… and he became obedient to the point of death — even death on a cross.” And Colossians 2:6-7 states: “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”
This November, as we prepare for Thanksgiving Day on November 26th, let us give special attention to Luther’s sixth and seventh marks of the Church. So, come to the Divine Worship Service, receive God’s good gifts that make true gratitude possible, and then carry that thanksgiving out into your daily lives and vocations. The Church is not hard to find when we know what to look for: the people of God gathered together in Divine Thanksgiving and sent out to bear the Cross of Christ in their lives by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Together in Christ, Pastor Tim
