The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - The Ultimate Thanksgiving

Episode Date: November 21, 2018

Everyone who finds himself in a dilemma intuitively turns to God and makes promises whether they are empty or sincere. When we discover that we are fine, we often ignore our promises and may even come to blame God as the cause in the first place. Today, Jeff dives into Scripture and shares the prescribed way to give God thanks for all that he has given us, especially when he has helped us through a perilous time. Maybe you are going through a great trial right now and the last thing on your mind is Thanksgiving. Take 30 minutes to listen and discover the ultimate thanksgiving that has stood the test of time. Your holiday season may become a little bit brighter. Snippet from the Show: We offer up thanksgiving to God in the Mass and celebrate the victory of our risen Lord. This victory is our victory as we are joined with him as his body. And everytime we enter into the Mass with a sense of plight, we should exit with praise and thanksgiving in our hearts and on our lips.

You're listening to The Jeff Kaven Show, episode 91, the ultimate Thanksgiving. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavins. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven show. Thanks for joining me. I know that this is a week for a great holiday.

in the United States Thanksgiving, and we want to talk a little bit about that today. We're certainly very grateful for Thanksgiving and opportunity for many of you to get together with family. They say that it's going to be a record, a record week as far as travel and blessings on you, whether you're flying or a riding in a car, taking the Amtrak or whatever you might be doing, by locating, who knows. But I pray for you and pray for me, really looking forward to it. Of course, there's so much to talk about Thanksgiving, and at the heart of our faith, the mass is a mass of Thanksgiving. And I do want to talk to you a little bit about Thanksgiving today, the ultimate Thanksgiving. And I'm going to be referring a little bit to one of my

books, praise God and thank him, where I talk about Thanksgiving. And I think it's an appropriate time to share that with you this week. He got some good feedback, and I always do every week. And I appreciate you writing me at the Jeffcaven show at ascensionpress.com. Cindy writes in and says, thank you for your ministry and encouragement to get out of our comfort zone. And that was one of the recent shows I did Show 89 on getting out of your comfort zone. She says, I'm attending your school of discipleship class in the Twin Cities, and along with my pastoral care minister, and it is giving me the incentive and courage to say yes to Jesus. We have been asked to put on an Advent retreat for the women of our parish.

Both of us will be speaking, which is not in our comfort zone. I will continue to pray for you in your ministry and ask that you pray for us as we step out of the boat and follow Jesus from Cindy. And Cindy, you've got that. I love to pray for you. And thanks for being a part of the discipleship school that I've done. I'm conducting in the Twin Cities. My new book just came out, The Activated Disciple. In fact, Cindy, you're going to be getting that in a couple weeks in the class. But all the rest of you, you can order that now at ascensionpress.com and get it.

And I'm teaching a variation of that in the Twin Cities. Levy writes and says, Just want to say that I always look forward to your podcast every week. I work as a nurse and burnout is common among us who work in health care, long and steady hours. and the feeling of so many people depending on you can be draining. Your weekly podcasts help me to carry on with this vocation of caring for people. You inspire me through your reflections on God's Word to give me more of myself to others. Most of all, you remind me that Christ loves me, which I almost always forget. Please include me in receiving your show notes.

Thank you for bringing God to so many people, continue the good work, Levy. you so much for your comment. And yes, show notes. If anyone's interested in the show notes, I typically will include the scriptures that I mention in the show or a song or prayer or something like that. And if you send us an email and in the subject line, just say, hey, I want the show notes. We'll get you on that list. And you'll get them for every single, every single show. One more email. I enjoy your podcast immensely. Your gentleness and humility really come through. and you are a very gifted host and proclaimer of God's Word and Truths, your show notes are outstanding. How far do they go back? Are they available for all your shows? Yes, they are. I think we

go all the way back, and this is show 91 right now, and so, yeah, I believe we've got show notes for almost everything, and you can go back, and you'll get those when you listen to the show. And you are suggesting what now here? Oh, you're suggesting that I do a show on the proto-eving Gellium, the Genesis 315 scripture that really is the first announcement of good news after the fall of Adam and Eve. And yeah, I'd like to do that sometime. I'll put that on the list. I appreciate your suggestion. And if you have any suggestions, you can write me at the Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. Well, we're at Thanksgiving. In fact, you might even be traveling and listening to the podcast right now if you get it on your smartphone through iTunes or Google Play.

And a lot of people do that. They will get the show every week automatically, and it's waiting for you. And some people will say that I love listening while I go to work, you know, or I'm having coffee in the morning, whatever it might be. Let's talk a little bit about Thanksgiving, shall we? And I'm borrowing some stuff that I wrote once from my book, Praise God and Thank Him. and that book is available from Franciscan Media, and we can put that in the show notes. How many times have you gotten yourself into a sticky situation and literally promised that

if you got out of it, that you would promise to fill in the blank? You know, I promised God, I'll go to church every week. I'll go to confession. I won't lie anymore. I'll stop drinking, whatever. Well, in the 1978 film The End, and if you're my age, you probably heard about it. It was Bert Reynolds, and an absolutely hilarious film with Dom Deloese. If you don't remember it, Google it, because it really is a pretty funny film. It's called The End, and the main

character is a guy called Sunny, played by Bert Reynolds, and he learns he only has three months to live. In his way of coping with this, this unwelcome news is to attempt suicide by swimming out into the ocean in the hopes of drowning. Okay, it gets better. After swimming quite a distance into the ocean, Sonny exclaims, here I come, Lord, and then plunges down deep into the water as a camera follows them. And then after a period of silence accompanied by the soundtrack of his son questioning where he went, the viewer is left to wonder if he is, in fact, dead. And then suddenly, sunny rises out of the water, gasping for breath and yelling,

I want to live. Well, after realizing how far out into the ocean he really is, he starts to swim towards shore, saying, I can never make it. I can never make it. And he's swimming. And as he continues to swim, he says, if you save me, God, I'll give you everything 100%. I'll give you everything that I own. Dear God, please save me. I don't want to die. And he keeps swimming toward the shore, unsure whether he can make it. And then he looks up and he sees the trees in the

distance and he says, please God, save me. I don't know if I'm going to make it, save me. If I make it 50% of everything that I have is yours. And he keeps swimming again. And then he sees the trees cresting on the horizon and exclaims, please, God, help me make the last 20 yards if you save me. 10% of everything I've got is yours. And when Sonny finally makes it to shore, he turns over, spits out the water, looks up into the blue sky and says, you know, God, you got some. some nerve asking for everything I've got. It's actually a very funny film. Now, how many times do we,

how many times have you cried out to God in distress and promised the world to him, only to go back on our word when all is clear? Everyone who finds himself in a dilemma intuitively turns to God and makes promises, whether they are empty or sincere promises. And our natural tendency is to promise God 100% isn't it? But when we discover that we're fine, we ignore our promise and may even say it was God's fault in the first place. But as we can learn from scripture in the sacrificial

system of the Israelites, there is a prescribed way to give God thanks for all that he has done for us, especially when he helps us through a perilous time. Maybe you're going through a perilous time right now. Maybe you are going through a time of a great trial, and you're thinking to yourself, you know, this is not a time where I'm really thinking about Thanksgiving. Well, in the Old Testament, there were several kinds of sacrifices, such as burnt offerings, grain offerings, which were performed for specific reasons. Now, the one with which we are most familiar is the Passover sacrifice, right? The Passover lamb, and Jesus is the paschal lamb. But there was another offering, in the Old Testament called the to-da offering.

This is really important for today's show. The to-da offering, and that was very significant. Now, the Hebrew word, to-da means Thanksgiving. And this word is used in modern Hebrew to say, thank you. So if you're at the airport in Tel Aviv and you help somebody, they're going to say, Todarabah. Thank you very much. Toda.

Todababab is very much. very much, and it's a very common phrase. And if you go with me to Israel in January, we go every January, I guarantee you're going to hear Todaraba hundreds of times when you're over there. Now, from a biblical perspective, Thanksgiving is more than just a personal expression from an individual filled with gratitude. Thanksgiving characterizes the people of God and is raised to a liturgical level as an expression of trust in God who saves. In the Old Testament, this liturgical form was the to-da offering. Whereas within the Catholic Church, this offering is called the Eucharist. Get into that in just a moment. Now, the book of Leviticus describes the to-da sacrifice in more detail.

Notice how the offering is accompanied by unleavened bread, revealing the connection between the to-da offering, the thank-offering, and the Eucharist. It says in Leviticus 7, verses 11 through through 15, I'll put it in the show notes, and this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which one may offer to the Lord. If he offers it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the thank offering unleavened cakes mixed with oil, unleavened wafers spread with oil, and cakes of fine flour, well mixed with oil. With the sacrifice of his peace offerings for Thanksgiving, I'm continuing to read here, he shall bring his offering with cakes of of leavened bread. And of such he shall offer one cake from each offering as an offering to the

Lord. It shall belong to the priest who throws the blood of the peace offerings. And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for Thanksgiving shall be eaten on the day of his offering. He shall not leave any of it until the morning. And so the to-da offering, the to-da-offering, the to-da is subcategory of the peace offering mentioned in Leviticus. Now, as we will soon see here by the example of Jonah, the Toadah sacrifice, the Thanksgiving sacrifice, that's what we're talking about, Thanksgiving, right? That's what you're driving to Grandma's house for, right? The Toadah sacrifice was a thank offering from someone, get this, from someone whose life

had been saved from great danger, such as war or natural disaster. Sunny, in the movie of the end, should have made this kind of offering after he was saved from the ocean. Now, Jonah, who found himself in what looked like a fatal situation in the belly of the whale, committed to offer, he committed to offer a to-da offering in the temple if he survived. and Jonah promised God that he would pay his vow if God saved him. Jonah chapter 2 verse 9, but I with the voice of Thanksgiving will sacrifice to thee. What I have vowed, I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the Lord. So he's like Sonny in the movie the end. He's saying, you know, I'm in dire straits here.

I'm in a difficult situation. I'll tell you what, you save me. I'm going to the temple, and I will, I will, I'll pay the vow that I have made. I'll be there, Lord. I'll be there. And here's a little bit more about the details of the to-da offering. What would a typical to-da offering look like? Well, first, a person would bring an animal, in Jonah's case, a lamb to the temple, and present it to the priest, who would sacrifice it on the altar and then roast it. The law of Moses commanded that the sacrifice be eaten on the same day as the offer.

was made, and so family and friends were invited to a meal in order that all of it was consumed. Kind of interesting, huh? Thanksgiving. All the family gets together. Along with the lamb, unleavened bread was presented to the Lord and eaten at the meal along with the wine. Psalms of Thanksgiving accompanied the meal in order to commemorate the occasion and show gratitude. Many Psalms are considered to be Psalms of Thanksgiving, such as Psalm 22 and Psalm 69 and Psalm 116. And if you're familiar with the Passover meal, you'll recognize that it seems to be a type of to-da offering because the elements of the lamb, bread, and wine are present along with the singing Psalms in praise to God for his mighty deliverance from Egypt. Many scholars today also see the connection between the Passover sacrifice and the to-da offering at the Lord's Last Supper meal.

The focus of one's heart and mind during the toadah meal is to recall the salvation and the saving acts of the Lord. Thanksgiving and remembrance go hand in hand in the life of the believer. And I'd ask you today, as we get ready to celebrate or perhaps you've already celebrated, Thanksgiving, what has the Lord done for you? What great deeds has the Lord done for you? You know, I'm reminded of Luke chapter 17 verses 11 through 19. Remember the cleansing of the lepers? On the way to Jerusalem, he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by 10 lepers who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, master, have mercy on me. Kind of sounds like sunny, doesn't it? When he saw them, he said to them, go and show yourselves to the priests.

And as they went, they were cleansed. They were cleansed. And then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back praising God with a loud voice and fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him, here it is, thanks. Giving him thanks. Giving him thanks. Isn't that beautiful? Well, during the reign of King David, the to-da offering was raised to a liturgical level when he appointed a priest to guard the Ark of the Covenant while it was housed in the house of Obedeedom before it was brought to Jerusalem. David's victory over the Canaanites completed the conquest of Canaan and made way for the permanent temple to be built in Jerusalem, and this great occasion was marked by, you got it, a to-da-da. offering and was shared with all the people of Israel. In fact, I'll put it in the notes. It's First

Chronicle 16, and they brought the ark of God and set it inside the tent which David had pitched for it, and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God. And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord and distributed to all Israel, both men and women, to each a loaf of bread, a portion of meat, and cake of raisins. And next, King David appointed Levites to praise the Lord before the Ark of the covenant. You see, Thanksgiving was so central to the Israelites liturgical worship that King David also appointed Asaph and his brethren to do what? To continually offer thanks and praise to God. We go on in 1 Chronicle 16. Moreover, he appointed certain of the Levites as ministers before the Ark of the Lord

to invoke, to thank and to praise the Lord, the God of Israel. Asif was the chief, and second to him was Zechariah, and others were mentioned. They played the harps and the lyre. And Asif was to sound the symbols. And the priests were to blow trumpets continually before the Ark of the Covenant. This is major stuff in the Old Testament. I love it. I love it. So this is very, very important. Now, using Psalms is a crucial part of expressing thanks to God, and so King Hezekiah offered a to-da-song to God after recovering from a serious illness. And a closer look at Isaiah 38 demonstrates the structure of the to-da song and offers practical tips on how to make Thanksgiving personal in our own lives. Listen to this pattern. And maybe you can make this your own. The pattern seen in Hezekiah

could be described as going from plight to praise. And my good friend, Dr. Tim Gray, describes it well. He describes well this movement. Listen. For instance, someone finds himself in a life-threatening situation, encountering serious sufferings. And then he calls out to the Lord with a lament, recounting his bitter experience to God. This lament is accompanied with hope and faith as the sufferer calls out to God for deliverance. The Lord answers with deliverance, and the lament turns into praise and thanksgiving. The one who has been redeemed gathers friends and family. Isn't that cool?

He gathers friends and family and gives thanks to God with a public demonstration of praise, which is marked with testimony of God's thankfulness and loving kindness. This is the pattern of Todah, the pattern of Israel's praise. Have you ever been delivered by the Lord in a powerful way and thought about bringing family and friends together and declaring the praise of God? Now, with the Toda offering as the backdrop, the Last Supper comes into clear focus. And we're going to talk about that when we come back. You're listening.

to the Jeff Kaven show. Reading the Bible is something we as Catholics know we should do, but let's be honest, it can be kind of complicated. Even though it's a complete story, the Bible isn't really one book. It's more like a library, with dozens of books and dozens of genres. There's poetry, prophecy, and prose.

There are apocalypses and revelations, historical accounts, and allegories. No wonder it's difficult to keep a finger on the story of God's love and plan of salvation for his people, the thread that keeps all of it together. If you're wishing there was a simple guide to help you tie all of this together, then you're just like Jeff Kavins and Tim Gray.

That's why they wrote the book, Walking with God. Walking with God is a single book that traces the story that ties the Bible together. It helps you to understand the big picture of the Bible. If you're looking to read more of the Bible, walking with God will help you do it with confidence, peace, and clarity. You can find out more and order Walking with God on ascensionpress.com or on Amazon. Hey, welcome back talking about the to-da offering, the Thanksgiving offering,

now that we're here at this time of the year and celebrating Thanksgiving. And I was just mentioning to you, you know, that the, with a backdrop of the to-da offering, the last supper comes into complete clear focus. You know that the Greek word for the Hebrew toadah is Eucharistia. Isn't that something? Which means Thanksgiving. So from early on, Christians referred to the Lord's supper as the Eucharist. Justin Martyr in 155 AD describes the Eucharist

in how the word was used in prayer by repeatedly referring to the Greek term Eucharistia. So taken from Jesus' own word, in Luke 22, Jesus took the bread and wine and gave Eucharistia. He gave thanks. He gave thanks. And we see that thanksgiving is what defines the mass. And every believer attending mass should be aware of this fact. But how many of us really are there? You know, the catechism says in paragraph 1360 that the Eucharist is a sacrifice of Thanksgiving to the Father, a blessing by which the church expresses our gratitude to God for all of his benefits, for all that he has accomplished through creation, redemption, and sanctification.

Eucharist means, first of all, Thanksgiving. Dr. Gray points out that the Eucharist is both a Passover and Toda offering in one, as the Passover meal has the form and content of the to-da offering. It's beautiful. Oftentimes we come to Mass fully feeling the impact of our lives and dilemma, don't you? I know so often, you know, the first 10 minutes of sitting down at Mass, you're thinking about what happened that week or what you're going to be facing this coming week or the doctor's report or tax time or the principal wants to talk to you about one of your kids.

well, it's here in the Mass that we bring our plight to God and recall his saving actions. Jesus as the new David and the great high priest leads us in thanks to the Father for the salvation he has brought us. We offer up Thanksgiving to God in the Mass and celebrate the victory of our risen Lord. The victory of Christ in the Mass is our victory as we are joined with Him as His Body

And every time we enter into the Mass with a sense of plight, we should exit with praise and thanksgiving in our hearts and on our lips. My friend, that's my message to you this week. The Mass. The Mass is the great Todah. It's the great Toda offering that celebrates the new Exodus from sin and bondage. As the Passover was Israel's national Todah meal, the Eucharist, is the church's to domil. Jesus said, do this in remembrance of me. We are called to remember with

grateful and thankful hearts what Christ did for us on the cross. Truly, it is the cross that holds the key to our moving from plight to praise. And if we fully enter the mass with our minds and hearts and recall the saving actions of God, it should result in a deeper trust in the one who loved us and died for us. Remembering Jesus by celebrating this memorial of his death and resurrection should create in us a filial trust, a family trust, a deep family bond of security. And so I want to encourage you this week, since the Eucharistic celebration is the center of the Christian faith, and all other sacraments orbit the real presence of Christ, to be a Catholic Christian means that Thanksgiving is at the center of our lives. We learn through the

liturgy that we are called to be a people of Thanksgiving, and we realize that an attitude of thankfulness continues on in our lives, even when the Mass is ended. And the sheer number of times that Thanksgiving is mentioned in the Mass should alert you and alert me. It should alert us to just how important Thanksgiving is in our lives. Like the ten lepers, only one turned around and said, Toda, Todaraba. And I would ask you at this year, Thanksgiving, is your heart filled with Thanksgiving for all that Christ has done?

You know, one thing that's really interesting, what the rabbis taught in Jesus' day. This is fascinating. They taught in Jesus' day that when the Messiah comes, all sacrifices will cease. except one. The Todah offering, the Eucharistic offering. That's what they taught. And when the temple was destroyed in 70 AD, guess what? Sacrifices ended, and only one continued, and that was the Eucharistic sacrifice, the toda offering. So giving God thanks in everyday activities bridges the gap and

integrates our lives in such a way that we become whole, healed, and filled with joy. And we celebrate this in the Mass. Go to Mass this week. Let your heart overflow with Thanksgiving. And say to the Lord, Lord, you know what? You have saved me. You have been so merciful and kind. I will serve you the rest of my life. And I will share with others what you have done in my life. Hey, behalf of my wife and myself on behalf of everybody at Ascension, my wonderful producers, Christina, Marisa, we do wish you a very holy Thanksgiving and a week of gratitude and praise to God for all that he has done. Let me pray for you. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I thank you today. Oh, there I go again. I thank you for the work you've done in my life.

Lord, I know I'm a sinner. I know I'm in deep need of your mercy and I ask you for your mercy. I thank you for your sacrifice, your body and blood that you now give to me as an adopted son. And as the bride, I receive you into my life. And I cherish you. And I just say, Lord, Todar Abba. Todarabah. In Jesus' name, amen.