Thanksgiving in the Small Catechism

and Giving Thanks for the Small Catechism

Every year Thanksgiving rolls around again, and we make our preparations for the feast. Of course, along with the cranberries, turkey, smoked salmon and stuffing, this holiday also presents us with an open invitation to consider our specific reasons for thanks-giving. As I think of Thanksgivings past, I recall those years when my own sense of gratitude was especially clear to me—as a boy when Dad was able to be with us again at home for Thanksgiving, or as a young man, introducing Ann, who would become my future wife, to my extended family at Thanksgiving as we gathered around Grandma's table (we even got to sit at the “grown-up table” that year for the first time!). But I must confess that there have been other years when I would grub around a bit to think of the things for which I should give thanks.

When I was asked to write this article, the topic was to be about giving thanks as it is found in the Small Catechism. There are several clear references in this little book, and they bear my mentioning them and your looking them up to refresh yourself with the Good News that they contain.

Starting with the explanation of the Second Commandment, we are to “...pray, praise and give thanks.” In the First Article of the Creed, we are advised that “I am in duty bound to thank and praise...” In the Fourth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer, we are reminded to “receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.” Then there’s the example of our Lord who, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread and the cup and gave thanks in giving us His Supper. Our Morning and Evening Prayers have us start and end our days with the words, “I thank You, my heavenly Father...” And during the day, after every meal in the Prayer after Eating, we say, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord...” And finally, in the Table of Duties, as citizens and as Christians we are exhorted to give thanks for all men and particularly our leaders.

Yes, the Small Catechism indeed does cover the subject of giving thanks in several places, but this year I find myself especially giving thanks for the Catechism itself.

Recently I attended a funeral at another church for a family member. Though I listened carefully, I heard nothing about our Lord Jesus. There was no mention of His saving grace earned at the cross and no application of His grace in the watery Word of Holy Baptism. No images of the cross or crucifix were there to remind us of the ransom which Jesus paid, nor even a reading from God’s Word. Indeed, nothing particularly Christian at all was heard throughout the funeral. In the end we were reminded that the lady we were there to bury had been an avid home canner and always kept track of what she had stored in her pantry (true enough!), and so we ought to take inventory of our ‘spiritual pantry’ to see whether we ought to stock up some more on God (as though He were like so many cans of green beans and jam!). Oh, it truly gave one reason for mourning! For if this was all we had to go by, none of us surely has a glimmer of hope!

The next day, thinking about what I’d just seen and heard at this funeral caused me to consider what a treasure of truth we have in our Catechism, for it continually points us to our predicament in sin and then to Jesus, who alone gained for us forgiveness, life and salvation from the power of sin, our flesh, this world and the devil.

The Small Catechism, this prayer book par excellence, forms and focuses us on God’s Holy Word to show us the Cross and our rescue from eternal death, freely given us just where our Lord has promised His saving grace would be available to us—in the Word and the Means of Grace. The simple Scriptural teachings contained in the Small Catechism are a wellspring of life for us, and for this I am glad to give thanks and praise to our Lord for providing it to His Church!

James Wilson is pastor of Resurrection Lutheran Church in North Bend, Oregon.