The Thanksgiving holiday, though originally and legislatively is a God-centered celebration, has become a heavily politicized, commercialized and humanized tradition. From the political demonstrations of indians in D.C. to the food and football focus in the American home, the origin and orientation of Thanksgiving is easily forgotten.

It is forgotten that the first thanksgiving was the fruit of pilgrims’ praise, in fellowship with Indians, to a God who had led them through adversity. In our land of plenty God’s provision is not recognized as the product of divine mercy, but as the well-earned product of human work. No doubt, our participation in the creation mandate is essential in harvesting our plenty, but that mandate is also a blessing secured by the mercy of God. There are many people whose work in the ruling and subduing of the earth is equal, but thier produce unequal. Nevertheless, our Thanksgiving roots are not economical, as many would have us believe of the opportunist pilgrims.

It is forgotten that Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the holiday “as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.” Started by the pligrims and sanctioned by a president, this day commemorates the faithfulness of God, not the fortitude of man. Perhaps our land of plenty dulls our sensitivities to the infinite mercies of God? Perhaps the presence of adversity would foster greater recognition of the endless reasons to thank our beneficent Father?

I am reminded of God’s faithfulness in providing for us, leading us to Austin, and giving my wife a fruitful womb. In turn, I consider not only his mercy, but also his creativity and propencity to produce life. I think of the assasination of the Prime Minister of Lebanon in the context of the killing of Jesus–for both there is the hope of the resurrection. I consider the hundreds killed or injured by blasts in Iraq today in the context of His promise to restore all things…and long for that day. I thank God for God, for being an essentially creative, life-giving, world-renewing Creator who in Christ has set the creation project back on track, destined for an eternal state of fructification and glorification.

Thank God for God.

In reading Neal Plantinga’s Engaging God’s World I came across this striking quote:

“The Bible’s big double message is creation and redemption. Sin intervenes but never as an independent theme. Thus St. Paul, the Bible’s chief theologian of sin and grace, speaks of sin in terms of what it is against.” ~ Engaging Gods World, 87

What are your thoughts? Has Plantinga correctly framed sin within redemptive history, biblical theology?

Check out this National New Churchplanting conference, with speakers like Darrin Patrick of A29, Matt Chandler of the Village, and Ed Stetzer of Missional Code fame.

I knew very little about the setting or schedule of the retreat going into it–three talks and a sermon to Yale grad students and New Haven young professionals–that’s about it. When we arrived in the Berkshire mountains of Massachusetts I was pleasantly suprised. What a wonderful setting for discussing creation, culture an our role in God’s creation project!

The talks were well-attended in the basement of the large holiday house nestled in the woods. Forty plus crammed into the basement sitting on blow-up mattresses, chairs, whatever they could find in order to consider the biblical-theological basis and a practical paradigm for participating in culture to promote human flourishing and the glory of God!

Using the heuristic of a web browser, I proposed that we all too often use different browsers to surf the Worldwide web of culture and ideas. For movies and music we use secularism, for work and commerce we use consumerism, for church and bible studies we use christianity. Our worldview and approach to culture is seriously flawed and fragmented. Therefore, my aim during the talks was to promote repentance of using multiple fallen browsers and faith in the Creation-Fall-Redemption-New Creation browser our triune God has provided. To that end, the talks were: 1) Creation and the Goodness of Culture 2) Fall and the Brokenness Culture/Work 3) Redemptively Engaging Culture: Colossians as a Test Case 4) New Creation and Culture: How Will We Glorify God Forever?

Running on about four hours sleep, I gave my first talk and stayed up discussing it and other things with a table of students until 1AM. Saturday morning things went really well. The break out groups were so good I took notes on their discussions! Saturday evening was difficult. We were all tired, but God gave me strength to get through it, presently the material fairly clearly.

Sunday was awesome. Tolivar Wills led the worship service and I preached from Revelation 21.22-27. We took communion in the basement and sensed God’s presence in Christ. This was followed by lunch and a spectacular cleaning job of the entire house (talks applied!).

Thanks for your prayers and support. I especially felt God’s presence during the sermon.