“No mood to be thankful”
Thanksgiving Eve 2011
Deuteronomy 8:7-18 / Philippians 4:4-9 / Matthew 6:25-33
I like Thanksgiving. The holiday, that is. The food and family, the togetherness, yes, the football, too. It’s a great day. Probably, you’d say so too.
I also like Thanksgiving (the theological concept.) Giving thanks to God is a regular part of my prayer life. Probably, yours too.
But preaching on Thanksgiving … well, that’s a different story. I’ve managed to avoid it since 1998 … until tonight. Thanks to my friends.
Now, it’s not that I don’t enjoy having the opportunity to share the Word with you. That’s always a privilege and honor.
It’s just that, well, what word about Thankgiving should I share with you?
After all, Thanksgiving Day isn’t a church holiday. It’s not on our liturgical calendar. In our shared Western catholic liturgical tradition, it falls between Christ the King (the end of one liturgical or church year) and the First Sunday in Advent (the beginning of a new liturgical or church year).
But the National Day of Thanksgiving (the official name for tomorrow) is a civic holiday, declared so by the President of the United States each year. Even though we might want to credit the Pilgrims, it’s at the proclamation of the chief executive that we celebrate this day, ever since 1789, when George Washington penned these words at the end of the Revolutionary War, and declared the first official United States day of National Thanksgiving:
Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor-- and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.
Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be.
Note that he got both houses of Congress to agree to this. That in and of itself would be a reason for thanksgiving.
Washington’s Thanksgiving was for just that one year, 1789, only. It would be left to Abraham Lincoln who, in the midst of the Civil War, set the last Thursday in November as a National Day of Thanksgiving. In 1863, he did so with these words:
The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God ... No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the most high God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people.
Ever since then, the President has kept the tradition of Lincoln alive by declaring a National Day of Thanksgiving. And tonight and tomorrow, thousands of churches will hold services on this only civic holiday which is also recognized as a day of worship by the Church.
Perhaps I would just be better off to recognize that this is a civic holiday, and leave it to the words of the statesmen and women, of the ages and of today. There have been years when I’ve done just that. But I think you expect more than that tonight.
So maybe I should look to the Church for some symbol, some mark of this day to honor and speak of. But the Church has no particular symbols for this day ... unlike Christmas, with the juxtaposition of Santa and baby Jesus ... that doesn’t happen at Thanksgiving. That probably has to do with the fact that people of many faiths observe this day. So we all think of the little pilgrim girl, the little pilgrim boy, the turkey. They are cute, warm and fuzzy reminders of the day.
Still, that's a little odd, when you think about it, because those first Thanksgiving Days were far from warm and fuzzy. The legendary Pilgrims – they to whom we say, we owe this day – the Pilgrims had suffered famine and disease and poor harvests, and many of their number had died. The memories and wounds of the Revolutionary War which Washington had won were still fresh. And Lincoln was in the middle of a horrible Civil War. It’s hard to see how anyone could have seen “the ever watchful providence of Almighty God” at work in that.
But they did ... this nation at those hard times in its history nevertheless took the time, dedicated a day to giving thanks to the Creator for all the blessings it had received.
Perhaps they ... our thankful forebears ... perhaps the reason for their desire for national thankfulness ... was that they were familiar with the text from Deuteronomy which was our reading tonight ... and that they drew parallels between the experience of the Israelites and their own experiences in establishing the American nation.
Certainly Washington’s and Lincoln’s words in their Thanksgiving proclamations, they strongly echo what we just heard read from the Old Testament.
So perhaps here is our symbol … in the Word, where the civic holiday crosses over into the theological concept.
Moses and the Israelites had been through a lot ... the Exodus from Egypt ... hopefulness turned to whining and disobedience in the wilderness ... years of wandering. Now Moses was preparing them to finally come into the Land which God had promised to his people so long ago. Once more they heard the story of how God had been faithful to his people as they traveled through the desert ... the “ever-watchful providence of Almighty God” was at work, as their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet swell during those forty years. They were fed, and protected from the dangers of the trip. And once more they heard the promises of God about how wonderful the land would be ... “a land with flowing streams ... a land of wheat and barley ... a land where you will lack nothing.”
It all sounded so wonderful ... a place of great wealth, riches, and success for them. They would be at last able to “build fine houses and live in them” ... to see their herds and flocks, and their silver and gold, and all that they had, be multiplied. But Moses knew how fickle God’s people could be -- himself included. So he reminded them once again, when they had realized all these blessings, to give credit to whom credit was due for all of them ... to their God, who had brought them to this place and who was the source of all that they had.
“Remember,” Moses said. “Remember the Lord your God” when you are tempted to think that all your blessings have come from your own hands. “Remember,” Moses said, for all that you have is just God holding up God’s end of the deal, the covenant of blessing God made with Abraham ... and in your wealth, your end of the covenant is to be “blessed to be a blessing” -- to bless God and praise God for all you have been given, and also, to use what you have been given by God to help the orphan, the widow, the resident alien in your midst.
Well, certainly Israel waxed and waned in its “remembering” of God, honoring God and giving God the credit, the praise for all their blessings. And there did come a day when God’s people grew fickle, causing God to seemingly withdraw “His protection and favor” from them, as they went into exile.
But God remained faithful to his people even when they were not; they were brought out of exile; they were even sent a Savior, his own Son, who continued to echo this call to “return thanks” to God for all that he gives daily, even life itself. And praise and thanksgiving became a chief focus of Christian worship ... even our own in this day and time, as our shared Western catholic liturgy still includes a “Glory to God,” and many of our hymns reflect this theme of praise and thanksgiving to our creator.
We know this. We know as Christians that we’re supposed to give thanks … as the words of our Philippians reading exhort us, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.” Our most simple prayers, the ones we first learn, are ones of thanksgiving: “God is great, God is good … let us thank God for our food.”
We Lutherans hear this call to thankfulness loud and clear in Martin Luther’s explanation to the First Article of the Creed:
I believe that God has created me together with all that exists. God has given me and still preserves my body and soul: eyes, ears, and all limbs and senses; reason and all mental faculties.
In addition, God daily and abundantly provides shoes and clothing, food and drink, house and farm, spouse and children, fields, livestock, and all property – along with all the necessities and nourishment for this body and life. God protects me against all danger and shields and preserves me from all evil. And all this is done out of pure, fatherly, and divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness of mine at all! For all of this I owe it to God to thank and praise, serve and obey him. This is most certainly true.
Giving thanks has been so drummed into us as Christians that we maybe, probably do it by rote and without thought.
And that’s just the point, isn’t it? By rote and without thought would get us through those other words of our Scripture readings tonight: “Do not worry about anything” … “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink or wear.” We could just blissfully pass over them on the way to another wonderful Thanksgiving feast, waiting for us at home, the Turkey Day of our hopes and dreams.
Ah, but then it would be more than just the Israelites crossing DeNial, wouldn’t it?
Maybe that’s the reason I find it so hard to preach on Thanksgiving, especially these days, especially with these texts. For what kind of a cheap shot, callous word is this, in these miserable days of unemployment and budget cuts, economic uncertainty, desperation for so many? Today we just received the word from the 2010 Census that one in three Americans is either in or near poverty. “Don’t worry?” “Give thanks to the Lord with all your hearts?”
Sorry, God, I’m in no mood to be thankful. Not today. Not this year. And in fact, I’m pretty hacked off at those words, right there. They seem downright mean for so many, “don’t worry, be happy!”
But what if God’s rejoicing, God’s worry-less living, is not meant as some kind of knee-jerk response, not simply magic words we speak to “cover our bases” before we inhale our turkey and dressing … but rather, what if God’s thanksgiving is a state of being, a way of living, that we truly experience only through … that which signifies the loss of everything?
What if … real thankfulness … comes only … through the Cross?
Listen, O people of the body of Christ here tonight … Lutherans, Methodists, United Church of Christ and Disciples … we have been gifted by God to be in a unique place. We worship in churches which mark the liturgical year … the cycle of readings which follow Jesus’ life cycle. Tonight … and every Thanksgiving … we stand at the crossroads, between Christ the King Sunday and the first Sunday in Advent … between that which has been and that which will be.
On the one hand, we recall Christ the King’s Scriptures about Jesus, his final words and instructions as he makes his way to the Cross, which is his total emptying of self, the end of his earthly life, his total abandonment, the place where he cries “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
On the other, we anticipate those texts yet to come, the First Sunday in Advent, Jesus’ words about that which will be, after his death and resurrection, after his ascension to his Father and our Father in heaven, after these days of working and worshipping and waiting on our part … that great and glorious day when Jesus will come again to earth in his resurrected body, come to earth to make all things “on earth as it is in heaven,” to make all things new, finally and forever.
For us who worship under the sign of the Cross, we receive this National Day of Thanksgiving … a civic, a civil, holiday of our Government and Nation … we receive this day through the Cross … the Cross of Jesus Christ which puts to death … puts to death greed and want, hoarding and poverty, the sinfulness of how we humans treat each other, treat and steward God’s good creation, and treat God … the Cross of Jesus Christ puts it all to death, everything, once and for all, forever.
And this Cross of Jesus Christ also raises up … raises us up to see that, because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, because he will come again to make all things new, because of this … we who have died along with Christ to the old ways of sin and death are also raised up to a new way of life … life in which we can say, “I have enough … enough to live … and enough to share” …
… we are raised up to generosity and giving to those who God especially entrusts to us, in our care … the poor, the widow, the orphan, the stranger and resident alien in our midst …
… we are given strength and courage to stand alongside them against the sinfulness and selfishness of the world … to give them hope … to give them material gain … so that they, too, may live, and know, and feel, the love of God through us.
We who have been claimed and named by Jesus Christ as his own … put to death through our Baptism into his death … raised again to life because of his Resurrection … we have been saved FOR something, and given this new life FOR something …
And that something, right here, right now, on this eve of the National Day of Thanksgiving, is a call to action … a redemption of Thanksgiving … not just one day of excess which kicks off a whole season of excess … but, instead, we hear Christ’s call to a simple and whole way of living, living which shows our death-and-resurrection-life to the world …
… living through Christ the King who claims us as his own, …
…living into the Advent of the One who has given us the real freedom to live, in the words of Luther, as “little Christs” here on earth.
Here is true, and real, Thanksgiving … a posture, a lifestyle, a life … in which we point compass-true to the One who gives us the real reason to be thankful … and gifts us with life and freedom to give so that others may be blessed through us … so that the words of that old, old prayer might have new life breathed into and through them, through us, not just tomorrow but through every day of our lives …
O Lord … Lord of the Cross, Lord of the empty Tomb, Lord of the Resurrection … for what we have received, for what is ours now, for what we are about to receive … MAKE US TRULY THANKFUL.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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