A Sacrifice of Thanksgiving 2023

“I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the LORD” (Psalm 116:17)

In our Thanksgiving letter President Winger asks you to contemplate the meaning of the Psalmist’s words that we often sing in our liturgy. If Christ has already made a once-and-for-all sacrifice for the sins of the world, what sacrifice can we offer back to God? He writes:

Thankfulness isn’t just a thought in our head. It’s an action expressed firstly in worship, where we respond to the Lord’s gifts of Word and Sacrament with songs of praise and prayerful cries. But thanksgiving also includes putting to use the gifts God has given for the sake of His kingdom.

The Thanksgiving letter, being sent this week to all congregations in LCC, also highlights an unusual seminary student: Rev. Saulo Bledoff, from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil, enrolled in the seminary’s MTS degree to upgrade his seminary education. But he got far more than he bargained for! The barriers and delays to his plans were used by God to deliver even greater gifts. He was called to serve a Canadian church and received from his new country a faithful wife. All this taught Saulo what the author of Proverbs meant by “the preparations of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord” (Prov. 16:1).

Please support students like Saulo and all the seminary’s work for the Church by donating as a sacrifice of thanksgiving: Support Us.