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Nov 30, 2014

No Zombies Allowed

No Zombies Allowed

Passage: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Category: Holiday, Christian Walk, Thanksgiving

Keywords: thanksgiving, gratitude, history, america, zombies, abraham lincoln

Summary:

What is the key to contentment? Gratitude. Instead of being an unsatisfied all consuming zombie, practice being grateful, discipline yourself to do so.

Detail:

No Zombies Allowed

  1. National Origins of Thanksgiving

Welcome to Mosaic those who are coming in from out of town. Hope you're enjoying Spokane. Happy Thanksgiving! Everybody have a good one? What are some fun things that some of you did? I relaxed. I ate a lot and I relaxed and I slept in. How many people are willing to admit they think they ate too much? How does it feel when you eat too much? You have a lot of energy? No. You get kind of in a zombielike comatose state. Which is one definition of zombie. I've entitled this message no zombies. But I'll get to the true meaning of that later… there is a significance. One definition of zombie is

:

zom·bie noun ˈzäm-bē

: a person who moves very slowly and is not aware of what is happening especially because of being very tired.

 

That definition could apply to some of us today, no doubt, maybe this weekend can really wear you out. Maybe, if you’re a Black Friday shopper, between the holiday and the day after, you may just feel like a zombie. But that isn’t the whole reason I’m using the concept. I’ll have more on that later, it’s little more serious than a pop-culture fad.

 

Unfortunately, some of us can have a tendency to focus on the food, preparing the food, eating the food, eating more food, and then recovering from the food. There certainly are other healthier traditions to Thanksgiving like watching football, just kidding, maybe playing football, loving on family that you don’t see often throughout the year, getting some much needed time off from work. And then maybe some other unhealthier aspects like arguing with family members (there’s a reason you don’t make an effort to see your family throughout the year). or to some extent tolerating them forgetting that were there to be thankful for them. And I do hope that this is the present company excluded kind of thing. It certainly isn't the main point of my sermon on how to do "the Thanksgiving holiday."

            What I’m going to do today is give you a little history of Thanksgiving in our country, suggest a trend to observe in that, we’re going to look at what the Bible teaches about thanksgiving as a concept as well as some examples, and then I’m going to challenge you to apply this to your life tomorrow and through the week. Because if we just do Spiritual life on Sunday, we’re only giving God one seventh of our life when Jesus paid for the whole thing on the cross.

            It became an official Federal holiday in 1863. This isn’t the first one celebrated, nor the first time there was a Presidential proclamation concerning it but this is when it became officially a nationwide thing. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of "Thanksgiving” and Praise to be celebrated on the last Thursday in November. It’s different now, it’s now celebrated on the fourth Thursday which is sometimes the last and sometimes, the second to last. That happened officially in 1942. During a war.

This was Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation:

 

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth."

 

That stuff is gold. Except for the context of the Civil War, that proclamation could apply to our country today. Despite how we may feel about the moral health of our nation, we can also see God’s mercy abound to ourselves and to the country as a whole. And there is more to that story than that…I share more later.

There is a history behind Thanksgiving that goes back further than 1863. Many of you are aware. What’s Thanksgiving without references to Native Americans, corn, turkeys and Pilgrims?

The first documented thanksgiving services in territory currently belonging to the United States were conducted by Spaniards in the 16th century that would be the 1500’s in Texas Panhandle area.  French Huegonots in Florida circa 1564. Apparently, just getting across the ocean was big stinking deal back then.There were Thanksgiving services were routine in what was to become the Commonwealth of Virginia as early as 1607,[11] with the first permanent settlement of Jamestown, Virginia holding a thanksgiving in 1610.[9]

 

The event that Americans commonly call the "First Thanksgiving" was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in 1621.[3] This feast lasted three days, and it was attended by 90 Native Americans (as accounted by attendee Edward Winslow)[4] and 53 Pilgrims.[5] The New England colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating "thanksgivings"—days of prayer thanking God for blessings such as military victory or the end of a drought.[6]

 

During the American Revolutionary War the Continental Congress appointed one or more thanksgiving days each year, each time recommending to the executives of the various states the observance of these days in their states

 

So we have Thanksgiving type celebrations as early as 1607 but continuing on throughout our history especially during times of war. There's one in 1777 The Thanksgiving proclamation in 1777 had to do with the victory at Saratoga over the British. There is another proclamation in 1782 and there are official proclamations by our government. And they all are about recognizing God's provision for our country.

 

In 1789, following a proclamation issued by President George Washington, America celebrated its first Day of Thanksgiving to God under its new constitution. That same year, the Protestant Episcopal Church, of which President Washington was a member, announced that the first Thursday in November would become its regular day for giving thanks, “unless another day be appointed by the civil authorities.” Yet, despite these early national proclamations, official Thanksgiving observances usually occurred only at the State level.

So you have an obvious pattern of thanking God whenever there is an obvious deliverance or blessing. That is there was usually a time of turmoil or hardship and then God’s love and mercy through providence of sustenance or military victory shines through and the people give thanks.

Pattern #1: Thanking God because of good fortune.

This leads up to the situation with Abraham Lincoln and the proclamation of Thanksgiving in 1863. Now, on the surface, it would appear that this is another instance of thanking God. No. The very nature of thanksgiving involves the recognition of something good happening. But the circumstances that prompt us to give thanks aren’t always so inspirational.

When Lincoln proclaims a day of Thanksgiving, the context isn’t that wonderful. In fact it is believed that this was pivotal point in Lincoln’s spiritual life that was brought about by something rather horrifying, a climactic battle in the Civil War outside the Pennsylvanian town of Gettysburg.

During the first week of July of that year, the Battle of Gettysburg occurred, resulting in the loss of some 60,000 American lives. Four months later in November, Lincoln delivered his famous “Gettsysburg Address.” It was while Lincoln was walking among the thousands of graves there at Gettysburg that he committed his life to Christ. As he explained to a friend:

When I left Springfield [to assume the Presidency], I asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ.

There’s more to this story, I’ll get to it in a bit. There are innumerable books about the Civil War and it is an amazing thing to behold because, it did so much to shape our country’s history. At the same time, it was so catastrophically horrible. How catastrophic is suicide to an individual? That was the potential for catastrophe for our country. We were killing each other. Imagine going to war with Coeur d’Alene. So, instead of gathering up invitations and getting ready to invite people to our Christmas Eve service after church one Sunday, we gather up ammo and guns and take a 3o some odd mile march to kill our neighbors in Idaho, even our family members, maybe even those we went to school with or worked with.

This is the environment and context that Lincoln was working with for a few years at this point. His job was to bring the nation back together. In spite of all the carnage, he witnessed, the oppressive burden of his job, and having a wife who was nuts, he gives thanks and commands everybody else to do so as well.

I think when we experience times of it all going wrong, it is a healthy activity to take an inventory of what is going right. I’ll say that again. When we experience times of it all going wrong, it is a healthy activity to take an inventory of what is going right. When I say, ‘healthy’ I mean life giving.

This brings up Patterns #2 and #3:

#2: We give thanks because of bad fortune.

#3: We give thanks because we are commanded to.

I think this is the proper time to segue into what the Bible says about the subject:

1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 (NASB95)

16  Rejoice always;

17  pray without ceasing;

18  in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:4–8 (NASB95)

            4          Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!

            5          Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near.

            6          Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

            7          And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

            8          Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

So, according to the Bible, thanksgiving is not a once a year activity, it’s an, “at least once a year” activity. Another one of the aspects when looking for patterns of thanksgiving in our history is that there was a pattern. It was more common back then to look in wonder at God’s graciousness and give thanks.

Examples of thanksgiving are not hard to find in the Bible. The Book of Psalms is full of thanksgiving.

Psalm 75:1–3 (NASB95)

            1          We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks,

For Your name is near;

Men declare Your wondrous works.

            2          “When I select an appointed time,

It is I who judge with equity.

            3          “The earth and all who dwell in it melt;

It is I who have firmly set its pillars.

Selah.

We see it in the Old Testament Narratives in times of victory:

Judges 5:1–3 (NASB95)

The Song of Deborah and Barak

1  Then Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam sang on that day, saying,

2  “That the leaders led in Israel,

That the people volunteered,

Bless the Lord!

3  “Hear, O kings; give ear, O rulers!

I—to the Lord, I will sing,

I will sing praise to the Lord, the God of Israel.

Deborah then spends the next 28 verses talking about an immediate history of Israel and God’s deliverance.

Moses in

Exodus 15:1–21 (NASB95)

The Song of Moses and Israel

1  Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to the Lord, and said,

“I will sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted;

The horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea.

2  “The Lord is my strength and song,

And He has become my salvation;

This is my God, and I will praise Him;

My father’s God, and I will extol Him.

3  “The Lord is a warrior;

The Lord is His name.

4  “Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has cast into the sea;

And the choicest of his officers are drowned in the Red Sea.

Moses spends another 15 verses after this talking about the great things God had done in delivering Israel from the hand of Pharaoh and after that, his older sister kicks in with the chorus:

Exodus 15:21 (NASB95)

            21        Miriam answered them,

“Sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted;

The horse and his rider He has hurled into the sea.”

Moses gets back up singers. And Moses like Lincoln, is bigger than life. Charlton Heston, Burt Lancaster and Christian Bale get to play him on the big screen and Lincoln gets Daniel Day Lewis.

We’ve seen examples of spontaneous thanksgivings in reaction to the great things God has done. That’s natural. 

What about the regular setting aside of a day of Thanksgiving and Praise. Is that Biblical? Is that commanded? Well, more by example than by command. God does command the Israelites to do so. The first and foremost time of a festival or feast to the Lord is Passover, celebrating God’s deliverance of Israel from the bondage of slavery.

Festivals in the Old Testament. They followed seven cycles each of seven years. Not only were the festivals as a whole arranged with the referenced the cycle of the week (Sabbath), two of them (the feast of unleavened bread Passover and the feast of Tabernacles) lasted for seven days each.

 

New Moon Festival it only happened when there was a new moon which was monthly.

 

Passover annually celebrating a dark time being over. Never mind the true rich symbolic forward-looking to Jesus Christ and his sacrifice. The common man may or may not have understood that. What they did understand is they're celebrating God's goodness. There is a special meal, didn’t include Turkey that I know of.

 

The Feast of Weeks another annual festival also called the feast of Pentecost. This occurred 50 days after Passover. It's a harvest celebration. There is eating.

.

The Day of Atonement, third annual Festival, characterized by resting and sacrifice.

 

The Feast of Tabernacles, the fourth annual Festival. It was a feast of the Lord. In gathering of the labor of the field, the fruit of the earth, the ingathering of the threshing floor and the winepress. And the dwelling in of booths Tabernacles which were due to joyful reminders to Israel. This was another type of Thanksgiving Festival. This festival took place 15 days after The Day of Atonement. So, the day of atonement was a little more somber, serious but they get party again two weeks afterwards.

 

There were other festivals beyond the scope of Mosaic law.

 

Rosh Hashanah Or the Feast of Trumpets commemorates when Ezra read the law after the exile.

 

Purim commemorated the deliverance of the Jews from genocide to the efforts of Esther.

 

Hanukkah also called the feast of lights because the candle was lit each successive day until a total of eight was reached. It commemorates the victories of Judas Maccabeus in 167 BC. Usually these festivals are referred to as feasts.

 

The upshot is that all these were celebrations of thankfulness to God for some deliverance or some provision or some atonement. It wasn't a once a year thing and neither are our festivals. We celebrate the independence of our country. We celebrate the people who fought in wars. We celebrate the people who died in wars. We celebrate our fathers, our mother's and our presidents. I think some of these festivals are probably lesser festivals than described in the Bible because they don't all necessarily point back to God but doesn't mean we can't use those festivals as opportunities to give thanks in celebration to God. And maybe you want to write the President and ask him to mandate making our current festivals more God honoring in form. You could be like Sarah Joseph Hale who wrote the Presidents of our country for thirty years asking for a federal Thanksgiving Holiday. Lincoln finally responded in 1863.

 

Or maybe you can just make sure your celebration of various festivals during the year really do honor God and recognize his goodness in the provision of independence, family, patriotic heroes, good presidents, and abundant food. And if you want to take holidays of worldly origin and use them to celebrate the birth of Christ and his subsequent death and resurrection, that’s good, too. It’s not commanded nor prohibited. It is commanded to give thanks and praise God. I think God smiles on our efforts to find creative ways to do that.

 

 Thanksgiving isn’t just about epic bigger than life individuals and activities. And this brings us to that second pattern of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving during hardship. How is that exemplified in the Bible? First of all, like I said before, we might not be inclined to THANK God for the hardship but we should recognize his goodness in spite of it and thank him for what is good besides the hardship. Maybe later we can thank him for the actual hardship.

Job. Job was a man who lost everything but his life and his wife. And as his life started to unravel, he lost much of his property and all of his children, his first response is:

Job 1:18–22 (NKJV)

18 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 19 and suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

20 Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,

And naked shall I return there.

The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away;

Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

22 In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.

Now, things get worse for Job and his tendency to praise God in spite of his worsening condition slows down a bit. It doesn’t help that his friends are telling him it’s all his fault (which it isn’t). Job still refuses to curse God. Instead, he says:

 

Job 19:25–27 (NKJV)

25          For I know that my Redeemer lives,

And He shall stand at last on the earth;

26          And after my skin is destroyed, this I know,

That in my flesh I shall see God,

27          Whom I shall see for myself,

And my eyes shall behold, and not another.

How my heart yearns within me!

And you know the story of Job. If you don’t, read it. It’s in the Bible. We know that he ends better off than when he started. He doesn’t get his children back but he has more children and everything blessing he received after his time of difficulty dwarfed in comparison the blessings of the past. But before Job receives all that he once again recognized God’s power.

Job 42:1–2 (NKJV)

Job’s Repentance and Restoration

42 Then Job answered the Lord and said:

2           “I know that You can do everything,

And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.

Sometimes the thanksgiving just takes the form of recognizing God’s goodness, sovereignty, and RIGHTeousness. That is He is in the right in allowing your circumstances to really stink. That counts as being thankful. I had trouble finding instances where people in the Bible actually said the words, “thank you for—me being thrown into a pit by my brothers, fed to the lions, whipped with a rod 40 times minus one.” Except for Jonah, but he’s a nut. If a giant catfish swam up the Spokane river and spit out some buy into riverfront park who is all bleached from fish bile, saying, ‘repent’ would you not be inclined to comply? ‘Cuz he looks like zombie. Jonah thanks God for being swallowed by the fish BEFORE the fish spits him out. That’s the example of recognizing the good in something bad. Jonah didn’t drown.

Other examples include, Paul & Silas praising God in jail, other disciples in Acts praising God because they were being persecuted because of Jesus, R.A.A.

I would like to say I know from experience but I don't. At least I don't think I do. Not yet. What I believe is that if you get good at thanking God in all circumstances before the big storm hits you'll be better at thanking God when the big one does hit. It hits all of us eventually. And if it hasn't yet all the more reason to thank God that it hasn't. All the more reason to love the person who it has hit.

Jesus says, "in this world you will have trouble But take heart! I have overcome the world."

OK, so I still haven’t given you the reason for the zombie imagery earlier.

OK, Zombies.

zom·bie

 noun ˈzäm-bē

: a person who moves very slowly and is not aware of what is happening especially because of being very tired

: a dead person who is able to move because of magic according to some religions and in stories, movies, etc.

Zombies have been very popular the last few years. There’s a few movies, and TV series that came out: World War Z, Walking Dead, others. We even had a Zombie themed donut shop here in Spokane for a while called: I suspect it is because sci-fi/horror writers have found various ways of creating zombies from other than supernatural ways. So instead of magic, it’s a virus or radioactivity that brings the dead back to life. These newer zombies just bite you and spread their disease, whereas the zombies of the past stories wanted to what?

They wanted to eat your brains. Anyway, a few weeks ago, I saw this verse:

Romans 6:12–13 (NASB95)

 12       Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,

 13       and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

That phrase “as those alive from the dead” stuck with me. The imagery meant by the original author is probably something like this:

But in my mind, I picture something more like this:

 

 

And I thought, wow, that’s perverse. But then I decided to go there. Yes, it’s true. Our reaction to the life the Christ gives us with His resurrection should be something like joy and thanksgiving but I think too often we become a little zombie like with an insatiable appetite to devour and feed. That is instead of stopping to thank God and relish what we already have, we go on to see what else we can get from the world.

As we gear up for this Holiday Season, I would want to encourage you refrain from zombie like behavior. I could list those but it’s more of a principle of monitoring your consumption. Your consumption/acquisition of:

  • Food
  • Property/Material Things
  • Media
  • Pleasure
  • Mood Altering Substances (coffee, alcohol, non-prescription drugs, tobacco)

 

I’d like to replace some of those items with alternative behaviors like

  • Instead of consuming food, fast/pray OR buy someone or serve someone a meal besides your family
  • Property/Material Things, go without or delay purchases, give what you have away
  • Media-fast OR if you’re artistic, produce media
  • Pleasure—refrain or find some appropriate away to give pleasure or provide that opportunity for someone else. An example of this could be buying someone a gift certificate for a massage, manicure, nice dinner at a nice restaurant.
  • Mood Altering Substances (coffee, alcohol, non-prescription drugs, tobacco)—take a break for a set period of time and count how many times you need to cry out to God

 

Now, as I bring this message to a close, the expected response to something like this is to have a time of prayerful thanksgiving where as many of you that can give thanks, do so. Maybe not. Because then you might feel that you did it. You had a cathartic thanking God experience and maybe that feeling spurs you to continue to do so or maybe not. Gratitude, like worship shouldn’t merely be about when we feel like it. Instead, I would like you to take this home. At the end of each day, I would have you write down things that you are thankful for. Just two or three things every day. Different things each day.

A middle-aged man named Nicholas was very down and discouraged so he went to his minister. “Nothing in my life is going right,” he said. “I have no reason to be excited, no reason to be thankful.” “All right, let’s do a little exercise,” the minister said. He took out a legal pad and drew a line right down the middle.

“Let’s list all your assets on this side, all the things that are right in your life,” the minister said. “On the other side we’ll list all your challenges, all the things that are bothering you.” Nicholas laughed. “I have nothing on my asset side,” he said, hanging his head. “That’s fine, but let’s just go through the exercise,” said the minister , adding, “I’m so sorry to hear that your wife has passed away.” Nicholas looked up abruptly. “What are you talking about? My wife didn’t pass away. She’s alive and healthy.” The minister calmly said, “Oh,” and then wrote down under assets “Healthy wife.” Next the minister said, “Nicholas, I’m so sorry to hear your house burned down.” “My house didn’t burn down,” said Nicholas. Again, the minister calmly said, “Oh,” and added “Place to live” to the list of assets. The minister was on a roll.

“Nicholas, I’m so sorry to hear that you were laid off from work.” “Pastor, where are you getting all this nonsense?” he said. “I have a good job.” The minister wrote “A good job” on the list of assets. “Can I see that list ?” Nicholas asked, finally catching on. After looking it over, he added a dozen more assets that he’d been taking for granted instead of being grateful for them. Nicholas left the minister’s office with a much different attitude.

 

Another way I've heard it expressed is think of the things that are bothering you in general. And I mean those everyday things that just get under your skin like how much money they take out of your paycheck. Or that you have to take a day off from work because you're sick with a nasty cold. Or anytime you bump your head, twist your ankle, or accidentally cut yourself when you're making food. Those little things can be turned around to praise God. At least you have a paycheck for the government to take taxes out of. At least you don't have to work and have cancer at the same time. As far as the pain things when you hurt a limb, you actually have feeling to feel the pain. I know this is silly and I'm not implying that you shouldn't grieve the loss of little things. But I think the problem is or can come as we stay bitter about things. These things pile up during the day and you get grumpy. Don't get grumpy. That's easier said than done but if you're thanking God while these things happen and can lessen your chances of them stockpiling and being angry by the end of the day. Chances are if you're angry at the end of the day you take it out on whoever is with you on the end of that day. I do this too often, my family bears witness.

 

So, failure to express gratitude bears bad fruit. Success in expressing gratitude can produce really good fruit.

 

There was a single mother who was really having a time of it raising her two year old son. He wasn’t a bad kid but he did like to run around blowing the ashes out of her ashtrays. One day after a particularly difficult day on the job, she saw her son into something he shouldn’t have been doing. So she got up and slapped that child and knocked him off his feet. The boy got up and without crying said, ‘thank em Jesus. That woman gave her life to Christ soon afterwards. The boy grew up and gave his life to the Lord as well, still serves the Lord. True story. One of more the people in that story are in this room.

 

My point is, instead of being an all consuming zombie, become a fruit producing child of God as one alive from the dead. That fruit doesn’t have to start with a faith pledge, volunteering, or even sacrifice. It can start with thanksgiving.

 

Let do so as well as we celebrate Communion.