Where's the Thanks?

Yes, another preacher ranting on about how Thanksgiving is being squeezed out by American Pop culture. Read at your own risk.
It's been a problem for awhile. Consumerism taking over the nationally appointed day to give thanks for the fruits of the field and of our labor. What has become most important about Thanksgiving is what happens the day after - Black Friday. But recently, I have noticed an even greater "squeezing out" of the feast day. Commercials depicting families around a table celebrating thanksgiving with the house ALREADY decorated for Christmas. Friends welcomed in the door decorated with a Christmas wreath and a Christmas tree in the background. Stores advertising that they will be open on Thanksgiving Day. So is Christmas really now celebrated on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday? Are those days the pinaacle of the season? Than what becomes of December 24th/25th? And what has become of the season of preparation - Advent? "What's that?"
Another problem with the celebrating a feast of Thanksgiving: if the day is to be a day of being thankful, that means you have to have someone or something to which you direct your thanks. If we are going to be thankful "for" something, there must have been a provider of that something. In today's culture of narcicissm and secularism and growing atheism, there really is no need for a day of thanks. A day of thanks in its very nature aknowledges the providence of God or a god. If there is none, no need to give thanks.
I urge you who are within the pale of Christianity to reserve the day of Thanks to give thanks to our Triune God who has richly blessed us, materially and spiritually, and enjoy the fruits of his Creation, just as He intended (and maybe a little football as well.) Keep your Christmas decorations in the attic for a few more days as a witness to a world that has no need to thank anyone.

They Just Do It

This morning's writing in Treasury of Daily Prayer was an excellent quote from C.F.W. Walther - 1st President of the LCMS. Enjoy:

(Luther) taught that good works do not save a person, but only faith, without good works...He did not say that, to be saved, a person must have faith and, in addition to that, good works, or love; but he did teach that those who would be saved must have a faith that produces love spontaneously and is fruitful in good works. That does not mean that faith saves on account of love which springs from it, but that the faith which the Holy Spirit creates and which cannot but do good works justifies because it clings to the gracious promises of Christ and because it lays hold of Christ. It is active in good works because it is genuine faith. The believer need not at all be exhorted to do good works; his faith does them automatically. The believer engages in good works, not from a sense of duty, in return for the forgiveness of his sins, but chiefly because he cannot help doing them. It is altogether impossible that genuine faith should not break forth from the believer's heart in works of love.

- C.F.W. Walther

Some may ask, "Where does it say that in the Bible?" The one that immediately comes to my mind is one of my favorites:

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." - 2 Corinthians 5:17.