Jeff Adams

I trust you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are focused on the many things for which we can be eternally thankful.  For many people Thanksgiving is the unofficial beginning of the Christmas season.

You probably have heard Christmas called Advent, taken from the Latin adventus meaning coming or arrival. Sometimes Bible teachers speak of the first and second comings of the Christ as the first or second advent.

The seasonal tradition called Advent has been observed in virtually every branch of Christianity since the early centuries. In most Western churches, Advent Season consists of the four Sundays before Christmas in which the emphasis is placed on remembering the biblical significance of the Incarnation of Christ and the promise of his Second Coming.

There are many beautiful traditions surrounding the Christmas season that have not much if anything to do with the biblical significance of Christ’s birth.  Traditions are not bad in themselves, as long as they do not distract from the significance of the season.The celebration of Advent is designed to be a reminder of the theological significance of Jesus Christ’s birth, despite the fact that historical evidence for a December birth of Jesus is slim to say the least.

Rather than simply decry the materialism that often engulfs Christmas, we are going to reintroduce the tradition of Advent season to remember the centrality to our faith of Christ’s Incarnation and the promise of his coming again. At the same time we are going to have some fun, borrowing from the famous Christmas movie Miracle on 34th Street and call these next four Sundays Miracle on 55th Street.

Fittingly, tomorrow is also what we call a Fabulous Fifth Sunday, a KCBT tradition to set aside fifth Sundays for baptisms and the Lord’s Supper to remember the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ and his promise to return. I’m looking forward to it – the next four week AND Christ’s return.

Do you recognize this picture? Or, does it simply embody a traditional image of a Thanksgiving meal? Actually, this well-known work is by Norman Rockwell and was the cover of the Saturday Evening Post, not on Thanksgiving, but in March of 1943. The cover was to illustrate what President Franklin D. Roosevelt had said in an address the previous January 6, 1941 when he spoke of four freedoms: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of religion, freedom from want and freedom from fear. This picture was to portray the American value of freedom from want. Actually, the last two freedoms were quite controversial at the time and labeled as being socialistic or opening the door for more government intervention, because only the first two are guaranteed under the US Constitution. Aren’t you thankful that ours is not the only generation embroiled in political controversy?

Regardless of the historical context, this painting has become for many people the symbol of what Thanksgiving and the traditional turkey should look like. Does this fit your image? I’d be curious to know what Thanksgiving means to you. Not necessarily what you are thankful for (though it is certainly important to know that for which you are thankful), but what is it that this holiday has come to mean to you? My brother-in-law always says that this is his favorite holiday. Is it yours? Why or why not?

Here is an interesting statement from the New Practical Reference Library published in 1903, so that we can get an idea of what Thanksgiving meant to folks over 100 year ago.

Thanksgiving is to Americans what Christmas is to those in England. For the wealthy, elaborate displays of fine foods are often part of the celebrations, while more simple fare is enjoyed elsewhere. It began as a harvest festival, but has also become a day set aside to give thanks for peace and prosperity and general blessings bestowed by the Divine Being.

Another interesting quote is attributed to George Herbert.

Thou hast given so much to me,

Give one thing more, – a grateful heart;

Not thankful when it pleaseth me,

As if Thy blessings had spare days,

But such a heart whose pulse may be Thy praise.

Yet one more worthwhile thought comes from President John F. Kennedy.

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and count your many blessings. To my many friends outside of the United States, I realize that this is a purely American holiday steeped in American tradition. However, I invite you to join with me in setting aside some time today to reflect on what it means to have a grateful heart and what it means to express that gratitude by the way we live our lives.

It seems that there is great competition today about who is the greater victim. We are all victimized by others, and many clamor for victims’ rights.

David had it right when he confessed in Psalm 51:4 that against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight. He was referring to his sin with Bathsheba.  David had clearly victimized both Bathsheba and her husband in his order to arrange Uriah’s death to cover his adultery with Bathsheba, but in essence he was saying that God is the ultimate victim.

I was reading the story of Jesus at dinner in the home of Simon the Pharisee when a sinful woman washed his feet with her hair and tears.

And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also? And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace. (Luke 7:48-50)

The Pharisees correctly identified the basic issue. Who can forgive sins but God? We can forgive the people who sin against us, but we cannot forgive sins. Only God can do that.

Now, think about what happened in the home of Simon the Pharisee that night. What had this woman done to offend Jesus? If he is not God – nothing. If he is not God, can he forgive sin? No way!

The ultimate victim paid the ultimate price to offer to us the ultimate forgiveness of sin. The are plenty of examples where Jesus claimed to be God in human form, but this reminds me that Jesus displayed and confirmed his deity in other ways as well.

Here’s a question for you! Are some people more lost than others?

The Bible says that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. There is a theological sense, of course, in which all who do not know God through his Son Jesus Christ are lost – equally lost. In this sense there is no difference between someone who sings in a church choir and does not genuinely know God and another who does not know God and lives in Central Asia never having heard the name of Jesus.

Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:22-23)

There is, however, another dimension to the state of lostness. Some are lost while surrounded by people and resources that witness of Christ the Savior. Despite the surrounding witness, they choose to remain without Christ.

Over 40% of the world’s population has no contact with believers in Christ. There is no church they can attend and no friend, neighbor or family member who can share the Gospel with them. They cannot refuse to put their faith in Christ, because they have no knowledge of him. They will not have knowledge of him until someone crosses barriers of language and culture to give them the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Of the two circumstances described above, people who live in which circumstance are more lost circumstantially, even though they are equally lost theologically? What should this say about our priorities?

But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
(2 Corinthians 4:3)

This is an amazing thing having just returned from Amsterdam, but I have discovered that I have Dutch roots. I can remember my maternal grandfather saying many times that he was a Dutchman, but I never understood much of the history. I had heard that his family had migrated to America in the mid 1800′s from NW Germany from around Tecklenburg. I can also remember my grandfather quoting his ancestors as saying, “If I thought I had a single drop of German blood in my veins I would cut it out!” I could never figure out how to resolve that apparent contradiction. Another mystery I never understand was the strange spelling of the family name – Kuck, but pronounced as Cook.

Now I know the rest of the story. Since my father died, Cheryl has been going through some boxes in our basement that we stored for my parents. In one of those boxes today she found a genealogical study my grandfather worked on during the final years of his life. I can remember seeing him work on this, but had never read the finished result.

It seems the family was originally English and had come to Protestant faith at a time when religious dissidents were under great persecution in England. They were among numerous English believers who immigrated to Holland in the early 1600′s because of the historical tolerance afforded to different religious groups. My family settled in Friesland, a province in the north of what today is The Netherlands. The local folks had trouble with their English surname and so they changed Cook to Kuck, more easily recognizable to the Dutch while retaining the phonetic Cook.

In time, some of the Kucks moved back to England when conditions improved, while others migrated to America. Those who remained in Friesland (my family) became totally Dutch in their identity. Some found their way to the vicinity of Tecklenburg, today in Germany, and eventually some of them  moved to America. One of them founded the small village of Kuckville, NY near Niagara Falls.

In his family history my grandfather wrote, “I remember Grandma Kuck, a rather small, busy woman who always kept her wooden shoes by the back door and she would put them on when she went to the garden and when she scrubbed the brick walks in the yard … These are the characteristics of the Dutch people.”

I found all sorts of interesting tidbits of information about my family and I’ll not bore you with them. However, I did think it interesting that my affinity for Holland my have something to do with my DNA!