Well, this is a time when people see parades on TV, football and parades, I think, after this service rank in importance among us, and food, of course, can't forget the dinner itself. The day that my wife and I remember as most glorious in our dating relationship years ago was at a Macy's Day parade in New York City. And not against parades. I'm not even against the Macy's Day parade. But you know, there are two different kinds of parades that we celebrate on this day. Two halves of America, you might say, are celebrating exclusively the kind of parade that you see at the Macy's Day Parade. And we've come to celebrate this morning a different kind of parade, and I'd like to talk about that one this morning. When you look at the Macy's Day Parade, it's full of colorful balloons, and it's marvelous to behold. You kind of get lost in the action, at least for a while. It's a beautiful spectacle, and it's not to be disparaged, But it really is about consumerism. You look at all of the balloons and what they represent. They represent a culture of consumerism. They represent major corporations. You would think that the earth is Macy's and all the fullness thereof. It's a parade of what a lot of Americans think is most important in life. And that's why the mall is often busiest on the Lord's Day, it seems. I want to talk to you this morning about another parade. A parade that's a lot more exciting, although NBC will not be covering it today. And that's the parade we're a part of, that we celebrate each Lord's Day and on special days such as this. It's a parade not of consumerism, but of thanksgiving. As you know very well, the Heidelberg Catechism is divided into guilt, grace, and gratitude. Gratitude being the third part of our catechism. As Burkauer says, grace is the essence of theology and gratitude is the essence of ethics, the Christian life. The first parade, of course, was that parade that began in creation. God created Adam to lead the procession of all of humanity, all of the creature kings, the beasts of the earth. The birds of the air, the fish of the sea, the luminaries in the heavens. To lead all of creation in a parade before the great throne of Yahweh, the great king who sits in his majesty. And all of creation was to imitate God's own enthronement as he created the world and then entered into his seventh day of everlasting rest. This parade was meant to mark a great analogy on the human side. We were meant to lead the whole creation into that same Sabbath blessing. As Psalm 8 reminds us, humanity was crowned with glory and honor. You have made Him ruler over the works of your hands. You put everything under His feet. And yet we know all too well the parody rather than the parade that this turned into. As Adam chose to lead all of creation away from the parade that led to the seventh day of everlasting blessing, the viceroy breaks away and leads the parade away from God's peace. And it became a parade of terror. You don't have to wait long in the history of those books to find out where that parade route went. It went very quickly into violence, destruction, all of the things that we see in the world so often when we turn on the news. And Psalm 2 portrays the kings of the earth breaking their bonds and shaking their fists in God's face saying we will not have this king rule over us or his anointed Messiah. And so instead of being God's analogy, instead of being God's servant leading the parade, man wanted to be the creator and the ruler. He wanted to take it his own way. And Paul vividly captures this tragedy when he speaks of our condition in this way. He says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness because what may be known about God is evident to them for God has shown them for since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that have been made even His eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse for although they knew God They did not glorify Him as God and they were not thankful. Instead, they became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. And so instead of a parade of thanksgiving, it was a parody of terror. But God still kept his parade marching as he brought Israel through the Red Sea, through the wilderness, into the earthly Canaan, a type of that everlasting Sabbath rest. And Psalm 24, our Old Testament passage this morning, is one of those psalms of ascent that Israel, now as a small scale copy of what the whole creation was meant to be and will one day become, is highlighted. Psalm 24, one of the Psalms of Ascent. It was one of the Psalms, probably, that would be sung as the people had finally ascended the hill of the Lord and called for the doors to be opened so that they could enter the sanctuary. The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it. For he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters. Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart. Who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false. He will receive blessing from the Lord. And righteousness from God his Savior. Such is the generation of those who seek him. Who seek your face. O God of Jacob see the first announcement here as the choir, the people of God are told why they ought to worship God in the first place is that their God, Yahweh is not the prince of a fiefdom he's not like the other so-called gods who rule one part of the cosmos the God of the heavens or the God of fire or the God of harvest. Israel's Redeemer God who brought Israel out of Egypt is no less than the Creator God, the one who made all things, not out of lack, not out of conflict, not out of cosmic battles, but out of His goodness in order to begin a parade that would lead to the everlasting rest that he himself enjoys. But who may ascend this hill of the Lord? The whole earth belongs to God, but this is the special place where the worshipers come to dwell with God in his presence. Who can do that? You can imagine as they're singing this, yes, indeed. Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who dares to stand in his holy place? And we're told. We're told what the qualifications are. The stipulations of the covenant are that one has clean hands and a pure heart. Clean hands and a pure heart does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false, but does everything, not only that God has commanded, but from the purest motivations, from the wellspring of his heart. He must be a true worshiper, one who worships God in spirit and in truth, one who worships God according to the law that he has set forth. And what are the sanctions of this covenant, the blessings of this covenant? He will receive a blessing from the Lord, righteousness or vindication from the God of his salvation. So this person who has clean hands and a pure heart, this person who ascends the hill of the Lord, this person who stands in His holy place and leads His people behind Him in His train, this one, whoever this is, alone is worthy to stand in God's holy place because he receives blessing and righteousness and vindication from his God. Not long ago, I read a sermon on this passage that stopped at that verse. And so, understandably, the sermon went on to mention how it is that we are to have clean hands and a pure heart. But you notice the next verse actually doesn't allow us to go there. Look at what is said here. This is really striking. Just when our thoughts wander toward ourselves, we read, Lift up your heads, O you gates, be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. It's kind of odd. The King of glory is the one to whom we're coming. He's already there. Why are we now switching the camera angle from the great God enfroned in majesty to the King of glory who enters in and commands the doors to open? Well, we read further. Who is this King of glory? The Lord, Yahweh, strong and mighty. The Lord, mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O you gates. Lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. See, this is a psalm of royal entrance, of royal procession. He's come back from battle. The Lord, mighty in battle, and He's commanding His own doors to throw themselves to open widely for His entrance. This is the entrance of the King of glory into the everlasting Sabbath rest. Who is He, this King of glory? The Lord Almighty. He is the King of glory. In fact, He says this is the true Jacob. This is the true Israel, just as He will be the true Adam who will lead the new humanity and all of creation with Him in his train into the seventh day rest, finally fulfilling what Adam forfeited for us, will also be the true Israel. Because Israel itself was given a pleasant paradise and followed the same course, led its own parade away from the root that God had set down for it. And as we read in Hosea 6-7, like Adam, Israel, my people, have broken my covenant. but this speaks of the King of glory Himself, one who is no less than God, and yet our representative entering into God's presence for us, with us in His train. Yahweh Himself will descend to us, providing in His own flesh a sacrifice of atonement, So that we can be not only forgiven, but be transformed into a sacrifice of thanksgiving ourselves. And so that brings us, thirdly, to the third parade. The first parade in creation, the second parade in Israel, and now the third parade. The true Adam and faithful Israel who descends the hill of Golgotha in order to take us with him in his train into his ascension glory. This is a U-turn. Think of it as a U. He comes down in humiliation in His six days of labor and returns in His Sabbath glory to enter into that rest, taking us with Him so that we have a place prepared for us in God's Sabbath day. Christ ascended in humility and death and ascended in glory and immortality, but He did this not only for Himself, He did it for us. But what I especially want to point out today on Thanksgiving is the argument that is drawn from this kind of psalm and psalms like it, especially in the book of Hebrews. And before I do that, I just want to mention, I know you already know this, but to remind you, in Leviticus, the first five chapters, you have two different kinds of sacrifices. You have sacrifices of atonement and sacrifices of thanksgiving. Sacrifices of atonement are the kinds of sacrifices you bring in order to remit your guilt. Now, even these couldn't really take away sin. But at least when the worshiper brought these dead sacrifices, laid them on the altar, he or she was claiming the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Recognizing that this was a type, this was a shadow that itself could not take away sin. But then there were the sacrifices of thanksgiving. These sacrifices were not an attempt to atone. They were not an attempt to cover guilt. But to render praise and thanksgiving for what God had already done. Because the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. And He is provided from His bounty. We give back to him only a fraction of that which he has given to us. Not out of debt, but out of gratitude. In the institution of the Lord's Supper, we see both of these kinds of sacrifices come together. At the beginning of the meal, it's a normal, ordinary meal. And Jesus offers up thanks, just as we do at our Thanksgiving table today. He renders God thanks for the cup and for the food. And yet later, after this, he inaugurates a different kind of meal. He inaugurates the Lord's Supper. And here, you have not only the sacrifice of thanksgiving, which Christ has already been his whole life, Answering back to God's command faithfully as the covenant servant. Here I am to do your will. Now, the Lord's Supper is instituted as a sacrament of His atoning sacrifice. See, the animal sacrifices for human fault could never replace the thankful life of the worshiper. That's the point that's being made here, and it will become clearer here in just a moment. Sacrifices are good. There is no salvation without atoning sacrifices that point forward ultimately to the atoning sacrifice that does take away sin, that of our Savior Jesus Christ. But if you go back and you think about why we were created in the first place, When you go back and think about the parade for which we were created. Sacrifices of atonement are the means, not the end. God's joy is in a life of gratitude. Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving. Enter into His courts with thanksgiving. Give thanks to Him. Bless His holy name. this is what God delights in. This is the worship that swells His heart with joy. Thank the Lord for His steadfast love, says Psalm 107, for His wonderful works and let them offer Thanksgiving sacrifices and tell of His deeds with songs of joy. In fact, the psalmist could even declare sacrifice and offering you do not desire. Sacrifice and offering you don't even desire. But you have given me an open ear to listen and obey. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. And then I said, here I am in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do your will. Your law is within my heart. And it's this line of thought that the writer to the Hebrews is exploring in Hebrews chapter 10. If you turn there now, Hebrews chapter 10. As we finally consider this passage rich in its interpretation of these Psalms. Beginning at verse 1, the law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming. Not the realities themselves, for this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices, repeated endlessly, year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshippers would have been cleansed once and for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins because it's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said, Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me. With burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, Here I am. It is written about me in the scroll. I have come to do your will, O God. And then here's how the writer to the Hebrews interprets that psalm. First, he said, Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings, you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them, although the law required them to be made. Then he said, Here I am. I have come to do your will. He sets aside the first, the atoning sacrifices, to establish the second, the sacrifice of thanksgiving. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. You see, what he's saying here is that we not only have in Jesus Christ, a greater guilt offering than all of the bulls and goats sacrificed on Israel's altars. But in Christ, we have something greater than the atoning sacrifice itself as a category. In Christ, finally, we have the atoning sacrifice who has also rendered to God that perfect life that is a fragrant offering in which his soul delights. For as the psalmist said, every time the family packed up the kids in the minivan and went off to Jerusalem to slaughter the animals, it was a constant reminder of their guilt. It wasn't a happy time. It wasn't a party. They had a sense of heaviness, the weight of their sins. The cost of someone or something else's life for what they have done. What a better trip it's going to be, says the writer to the Hebrews, when you can finally pack up the family in the minivan and head off to offer yourselves as a living sacrifice. And so the goal, really, of our salvation is to transcend the economy of debt and enter into the economy of thanksgiving. Because Christ has provided the offering for debt. And he has also richly provided a life of thanksgiving to the Father that more than covers the sins clinging to our best works. Forgiveness is good, but obedience is better. And God has both, from us, representatively in Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ, He has not only a perfect sacrifice, He has a perfect human life lived from beginning to end for no other purpose than to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Therefore, it's not simply that Jesus has transcended the temporary sacrifices of the Old Covenant, but that He has transcended now that debt economy altogether. And He's not only fulfilled the debt economy, but He's established a thanksgiving economy on the basis of His own perfect sacrifice of thanksgiving throughout His life and His perfect offering of Himself as an atoning sacrifice. on the cross. And that's why the writer to the Hebrews says that it's on that basis that we are sanctified, that we ourselves are made holy. That we ourselves are now taken with Jesus as He descends and then carries us along through the six days and then ascends and carries us with Him up into heaven on the seventh day. And we are as good, says Paul, as right now seated with Jesus Christ in heavenly places. This Thanksgiving Day. Together, offering a life of thanksgiving and a life of sacrifice to His Father on our behalf, He has become, says Paul in Ephesians 5.2, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to our God. Well, what about you? What about me? Have we joined this Thanksgiving parade? This is great that Jesus was the leader. Jesus, we now know, is the King of glory who leads the parade. The procession arrives at its appointed goal and destination because Jesus is its leader. He is the one who has triumphed. He is the second Adam. He is the faithful Israel. He has clean hands and a pure heart and is able to stand in the presence of the Lord our God. He has received blessing and righteousness. He has been vindicated by our God. But what about you? What about me? Are we in that train? Are we in that procession? Christ did what He did by Himself, but not for Himself. And not without us in his train. That's why he says earlier in Hebrews, he announces as he bursts open those doors. Here I am and the children you have given me. Now that's reason for Thanksgiving. Christ, as the new Adam, leads his covenant people in a triumphant procession into the promised shalom that Adam and Israel failed to do. and that's why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2 but thanks be to God who in Christ Jesus always leads us now in triumphal procession and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him for we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one, a fragrance of death to death. To the other, a fragrance from life to life. No wonder, Paul says then, who is sufficient for all these things? While we ourselves can't render an adequate sacrifice of thanksgiving any more than we can render an adequate sacrifice of guilt, the perfume of Christ's living and dying runs down his face to the extremities of his whole body, the church, so that not one member is left without its fragrance. Even the stench of sin clinging to our best works is overpowered by this scent. And brothers and sisters, what that means is now get out of debt. Stop thinking in the debt economy and think in the Thanksgiving economy. Love God and serve your neighbor now not out of fear not out of an attempt to acquire but simply join a parade that you didn't start that you didn't contribute to join something and that's why Paul says I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God in view of what he's done to present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship see because Jesus brought into the holy sanctuary through his procession a human life representing all of us a human life pleasing to God an aroma that filled God's sanctuary with pleasure and delight because he rendered that both the sacrifice of thanksgiving and the sacrifice of atonement because He did that for us, we can offer our own bodies, not as a sacrifice for sin, but as a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. Through Him then, the writer to the Hebrews goes on to say, let us continually offer a sacrifice of thanks to God. That is the fruit of lips that confess His name. So the comparison is between dead sacrifices of atonement and living sacrifices of thanksgiving. After offering both, Jesus, the writer says, sat down at the right hand of God, making the earth his footstool. Sat down at the right hand of God. Do you see how the first two verses of Psalm 24 really do relate to the rest of the psalm? The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Everything belongs to him. and now that leader of the parade our Messiah Jesus repatriated to the Father's right hand rules for us in glory he sat down at the right hand of God the place of all power and authority as the last Adam as the faithful Israel the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof Nothing belongs to you. Isn't that wonderful? The world thinks that that's horrible. We like autonomy. We like to be in control. We like to own our own things. Be in charge. They don't know the freedom, the liberty, the wonder, the sheer joy of living in a world that's not ours. Nothing belongs to us. There's nothing to be acquired. Neither heaven nor earth. For all things are in the Lord's hands. We can desire without anxiety. We can hope without pain. A fearing that our autonomy will be lost because of illness or because of some tragedy in our business. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. In a debt economy, we ask, how can I acquire health, wealth, security, happiness, salvation? And we'll turn Psalm 24 into a paradigm for our ascending, the hill of the Lord. But in a Thanksgiving economy, we just get lost in the wonder of the parade itself and the meal at the end. You know, that's how it is today at Thanksgiving. You don't think about how you can get the wing, how you can acquire a fun day today. If you do, it's not a great Thanksgiving. The best Thanksgiving is when you lose yourself around the table in other people. You're just lost in the moment in enjoying each other. That's what an economy of Thanksgiving finally brings to us, where there's nothing to buy. There's nothing left to do. Nothing left to acquire because it's all been given. Leif Grain, a Lutheran theologian, had this to say on this matter, the world is neither mine nor the government's, nor is it merely the result of the working together of its different laws, but it is God's, which includes these laws and institutions and me and whatever may be the decisive person or thing in our world and time, for we are being oriented by God's being the owner of ourselves as well as of the whole world. As to the features of reality, one may put it sloppily this way, because God is the owner of our reality. The inconsistencies are God's problem and not ours. And if there's anybody at all able to solve this inconsistency, then it is God alone. Therefore, we leave it to Him. And now we're free to realize our callings and tasks in the world without fear. In this way, the question of my own freedom and my own independence has become secondary. Hands, channels, and means, even dictators and CEOs, all have to execute willy-nilly God's will, which includes my salvation. Sounds like Heidelberg, doesn't it? Therefore, he concludes, whatever they connive at or do, it will work together for good. And listen to this. Therefore, nothing is allowed to bind me or free me. I am a free person, at least with regard to creatures. For we all have this in common. We all together are the Lord's. And brothers and sisters, because this is true, the parade route that the Lord has charted will be realized. No matter how we like sheep have gone astray, have tried to take the parade in different directions, God is still on track. All things must work together for our salvation. Anxiety loses its rationale, whether it's anxiety for material things or for our own salvation. This is God's parade, And he has the right man leading it, who has already led it into that seventh day of everlasting rest. And the procession leads to a lavish feast. There we will fully enjoy God and each other at a table that we didn't set, presided over by a Father who pours with a very liberal wrist. Let's pray. Our great God and Heavenly Father, all of the striving, all of the attempts that we take, all of the routes that we seek to make ourselves happy, to make our families happy, to bring about comfort, to bring about security, to satisfy our desires, not in themselves even wrong, but the anxiety with which we go about things in this life so often point up our lack of gratitude, our lack of thanksgiving. And yet not even that will keep us from joining your thanksgiving parade because we know that we are part of it not because of how thankful we are but how fully and completely our Savior was thankful and obedient and offered Himself as an atoning sacrifice for us. Help us now, Father, to join that parade to recognize that we are inserted into Jesus and because of that we bear His fragrance and are an aroma to the world, an aroma that covers up our sins so that we can now serve you in gladness and cheerfulness rather than anxiety. Help us, Father, to long for that day even as we enjoy friends and family today around your table with your common gifts. We pray that you would raise our eyes to heaven in gratitude and hope, longing for that day when we will end that procession at that great banquet hall and celebrate with you and each other for all of eternity because of Jesus our Savior in whose name we pray. Amen.