Say “Yes” to Thanksgiving 11-21-2010
Holy God, God of our fathers and mothers, we know that you have blessed us with every good thing. We offer you our gratitude and our lives. Amen
Let’s face it—Thanksgiving is a bit of a hard sell these days. Sandwiched in between the money makers of Halloween on one end and Hanukah and Christmas on the other, it is mostly relegated to the bottom two shelves right under the witches’ hats and goblins’ ghost faces. Walking past the ceramic turkeys doing their best to snag some attention, I find myself wondering, “Surely there’s more…”
Living for years in Snow and Ice Country, I well remember that “Happy Thanksgiving” had a bittersweet ring, to most except for the downhill skiers. For, in snow country, Thanksgiving really meant the ending of any hope that we would still have days warm enough to make do without a coat. And the glorious leaves were more than gone, with some years, such as this one, already making way for the lovely white snow that is most often remembered for the back-breaking work of shoveling. I’m just sayin…it’s a holiday fraught with the tension of family and worldly claims upon our time, and we must choose to seek again the real meaning of giving thanks on this day. So, I wonder, “surely there’s more…”
Thanks be to God, there is more. And it is the MORE that calls us to this time, here tonight, in this beautiful place, with warm and loving friends and neighbors who came together to celebrate the MORE. So, I say, Happy Thanksgiving! Welcome to that delightful time of the year when the winter holidays are almost upon us, but not yet, the air is cooling, and, when we take the time, we may find ourselves in a particularly reflective moment—just the right time to celebrate the goodness of our God. Welcome to an attitude of gratitude that looks both behind and ahead—welcome to a time when we can meditate on all that God has given and all we have yet to give.
We are, all of us, in the greater scheme of things, relatively new congregations—we are still figuring out just what our own communities will bring to this larger community. For all of us, it is a great time to stop and say ‘thank you’ to the God who called us, all in different, yet similar ways, to be in this place at this time—being about the work of our Creator God. The passage I have chosen for reflection tonight comes from Deuteronomy, chapter 8. Now I know that the Hebrew scholars among us could take a considerably more thorough look at this passage, and so to them, I apologize ahead of time. This passage speaks volumes to all of us who sincerely seek to remember our God at this specific time in our lives and in the lives of our congregations.
The writer of Deuteronomy begins like this, and I am paraphrasing, “The most important thing you can do is keep the commandments of God, the God who claims you for his own. Travel the paths that your God chooses for you and walk those paths with a reverent heart. God is bringing you to a good and beautiful place...The harvest is plentiful there, you’ll never go hungry. The splendor of this place cannot even be described—it is that wonderful, full of endless resources and food for all.”
Now let me stop us for a minute right here. In this breathtaking, beautiful passage we are promised all things, both physical and spiritual—a wondrous land, where we will never want for anything. God, though, knowing our difficulty to understand and follow through at times, has a few simple requirements that we are called to observe: “After you finish eating and are fully satisfied, bless the God who has given you all that you enjoy.” In other words, say ‘thank you’.
You’d think that would be a simple request, wouldn’t you? But we need help, all of us, to explore and receive the depth of this attitude of gratitude. So our writer continues: “Make sure you don’t forget this generous God by failing to keep the commandments given to you. And, make sure that when you sit in your lovely houses and survey all that you have—watching life become better and better, make sure that you don’t get the idea that you did all this yourself. If you pat yourself on the back too many times, it will become a habit and you will lose sight of what God has done for you—that God that both formed this beautiful land and chosen you to reside in it”.
There are many things for these wanderers to remember about God’s miraculous “doings”—things like deliverance from slavery in Egypt, divine leadership in the wilderness, water and manna, sustenance at every turn. We know that they suffered many hard times, times that our writer says, believe it or not, should be accepted as a gift. What kind of gift is that? Doesn’t seem quite fair that we are called to be grateful for those times, too. But God used those difficult times to prepare the wanderers for the promised land. Can we see the parallel for today? As relatively young congregations, we experience both good and hard times—and in all those times God graces us with ways to shape our growth and refine our attitude of constant gratitude. And so, like those in the desert, we are called to celebrate both—the good with the hard, the lean with the plenty.
And in one final warning, lest we fail to grasp its significance the first time, we are reminded: “If you start thinking to yourselves, "I did all this. And all by myself. I'm rich. It's all mine!"—well, think again. Remember that GOD, your God, gave you the strength to produce all this wealth so as to confirm the covenant that He promised to your ancestors—as it is today.”
So today we celebrate again God’s outpouring of goodness in accordance with the covenant God made with his people. Funny thing about a covenant—it requires two sides. As beneficiaries of God’s covenant with us, we are called to think upon our end of the covenant. And so we ask, what does this have to do with me or with my community here and now? Ah…here is where we come face to face with the “more” of gratitude. God’s gifts so generously given to us, calls us to put actions to our gratitude. To put walk to the talk, if you will.
Sincere thanksgiving will call us to see that the gifts so freely given, when taken into our hearts, will get us thinking in ways that challenge and convict us. God’s merciful love to us when received in humility and gratitude calls us to rectify our own indifference to the rest of the world. Authentic receptivity to God’s gracious goodness includes our commitment to grasp and fulfill our responsibility for those who are easy to forget. And so, with humble hearts, we follow in the paths given to us by God with gratitude and generosity.
We listen for a call to this special life of giving and receiving. Hear what the former Secretary General of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjold said: For all that has been -- thanks! For all that will be -- yes! Gratitude, then, is the gift of the eternal “yes”—a sacred yes to what we have been given and what we have to give. Gratitude, born of the knowledge that we are all interdependent, teaches us that what we do here in this place has the ability to touch those in need in places close at hand and far away.
Our interdependence in gratitude also calls us to recognize the importance of all those who have come before. We do not walk these ways as lone explorers—we walk them in the shadow of those who have gone before.
One such person who has gone before is medical missionary, Albert Schweitzer. His words remind us to look back as well as forward when we give our thanks. Schweitzer notes our dependence on others as we seek God’s will for our lives. Here is what he said: “At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.”
Say “yes” to gratitude this Thanksgiving! Say “yes” and be the light of the world! Say “yes” and reach out to kindle or re-kindle the light of every person with whom you come in contact. This year at Thanksgiving, become the sacred ‘yes’ that brings God’s love into the world! With thanks and amen and yes!
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