Thanksgiving Eve Service

Deut 26:1-11; Ps 100; Phil 4:4-9; Jn 6:25-35

I came upon an interesting account of the first Thanksgiving Feast that came from the journal of someone who was there. It reads like this:

From every hut come the ever faithful women, proudly trekking their way to the common house with the steaming dishes of corn and venison and wild turkeys and cakes and other delicacies too numerous to mention. Soon the long tables are loaded with a feast good enough for a king. The crowds outside wait rather impatiently for the order from the governor of the colony to come in and be seated. Soon, they hear his call, and the tables are instantly surrounded with hungry, vivacious, thoroughly thrilled men, women, and children of the Pilgrim band. A fervent prayer of thanksgiving for God's infinite mercies and bountiful goodness is offered by Elder Brewster . When the feasting and socialability are over, the settlers leave the tables and spend the afternoon playing games. The evening is passed with fireside singing and story telling.

On the following day, the Indian chief Massasoit arrives, by invitation, with ninety Indians from his tribe, to participate in a second feast. The Indians try at first to imitate their white hosts in the use of knives and forks, but they soon give up the struggle and sit cross-legged on the floor, devouring their turkey and fixings with a rather direct plan of attack. When they finish only the boards are left. After their feast they entertain their hosts with Indian dancing, war whoops, and bow-and-arrow marksmanship. The Indian chief, after exchanging tokens of friendship, mobilizes his men for their march back to their village, and the Pilgrims close their festivities singing: "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein."

Indeed, the Pilgrims were thankful people. They had suffered much, worked hard, taken many risks. Yet, in spite of their hardships, they were thankful to God.

I used to love going to the old cowboy movies. In fact, there was one cowboy movie that I liked most of all. It was "How the West was Won." In that movie Jimmy Stewart starred as a tough old pioneer-farmer who had sacrificed and killed enemies and spent hours of back-breaking work to clear his land and make a life for his family. And as I read the old testament lesson for tonight, I was reminded of a prayer that Jimmy Stewart prayed at the dinner table in that movie that went something like this:

"O Lord, we cleared this land. We plowed it. We planted the seeds with our own two hands under the hot sun. We watered the young plants, ourselves when you saw fit not to send the rain. Then we defended what was ours from those who would have taken it away. We harvested the crops and ground the grain that makes our bread and even cut the wood so our women-folk could bake it for us. So, I don't know why I should thank YOU, Lord, since WE did the work. But we thank you, anyway. Amen."

Jimmy Stewart's prayer makes sense to a lot of us who have worked hard to have what we have. Indeed, we work hard, often more than 40 hours a week, not to mention the drive back and forth. And, then, even maintaining a family life can be hard work. After all, there are all the things that the kids need, and the groceries, and the housework and dishes and lawn and garden work and washing the clothes, not to mention the work that goes into maintaining and nurturing relationships. So, when we finally sit down, physically and/or mentally and emotionally exhausted from it all, and think about giving thanks to God, we may, at times, be tempted to be cynical and ask, "Give thanks for what? Give thanks for what?"

Well, it is a good question to ask, cynical or not. It is such a good question, in fact, that our forebears invented Thanksgiving Day. We need to take time occasionally (even if it is just one day a year) to ask the question, "Give thanks for what?" And, if anything, the day gives us a chance to take a break from our busy schedules, perhaps to catch up with ourselves, maybe to do something a little different than what we normally do, even if it means simply cooking a turkey and peeling and boiling some squash. And, besides, taking that little rest may help remove or relieve some of that cynicism that so often results from just not taking the time we need to count our blessings.

Our scripture lessons for this evening are important in that they remind us that thanksgiving is important because it causes us to admit that it is God who is really in charge of things, and not ourselves. In our lesson from the book of Deuteronomy the people of Israel are told that once a year they should bring a thank offering to God and recount their history, remembering God's saving acts of grace from Jacob's trip into Egypt to escape a famine to God's leading them out of bondage into a land flowing with milk and honey.

They were asked to do this once a year and there was a reason for it. Like with Jimmy Stewart there was the temptation for them to think that they had acquired everything they had by their own powers and abilities. There was the terrible danger that the people would forget God and put more trust in the work of their own hands. And if they did this, if they forgot the Lord and took credit for their blessings, they would die as a people. They would cease to exist. It was simple as that.

So, what greater incentive can we have for giving credit where credit is due? Certainly, we may work hard. Certainly, it isn't without a lot of determination and skill and drive on our part that we have what we have. But, we shouldn't forget where that all may have come from in the first place -- from the Lord, himself. If we forget that for a long enough time we cease to be God's people. But, if we remember to give thanks and continue to admit whose it is that we are the blessings never cease.

There is a legend about two angels who were sent to earth to gather up the prayers of humanity. One of the angels was to fill his basket with all the petitions that people prayed -- all their complaints and wants and desires. But the other angel's job was to gather all the prayers of thanksgiving that people prayed.. Then, after a period of time, these angels were supposed to go back to heaven with whatever they had collected. Well, the first angel went back with a basket heaped high and running over with countless petitions. But the other angel, the one who was supposed to collect the thanksgivings, returned with a sad and heavy heart, for his basket was almost empty. Indeed, it is often easier to complain than to praise; easier to find the dark side than the bright side; easier to grump about something than to glory in something. It doesn't take a lot of intelligence or dedication to find something that is wrong. What is most helpful, however, is for us to take time to celebrate God's activity in spite of the imperfections around us. What is most helpful is to acknowledge God's word in the midst of things that aren't always just the way we think they ought to be. What is wonderful are those persons who continue to be empowered by the filling of the Holy Spirit in a Body that isn't always spotless or unblemished.

In a church in England one of the ministers has a robe that has the words, "Think--Thank" embroidered on it. If we stopped to think more, we would stop to thank more.

So, have you counted your blessings, lately? Sometimes when we count our blessings we think only of the major things and miss the small things. Sometimes blessings even come disguised as things that we might otherwise have thought were not so good. For instance, when one little kid was asked by his Sunday School teacher what he was thankful for, he stood up in his class and said, "I'm thankful for my glasses!" Then he explained why: "They keep the boys from fighting me and the girls from kissing me."

Likewise, there may be those of us who were able to thank God for being fired because it forced us to find the better job, higher paying, more fulfilling job. Or, there may be those of us who were able to thank God for that illness that came along and slowed us down because it helped us to realize that there are other more important things in life and hurry, hurry, hurry, all the time. If there are silver linings in every cloud, then we should thank God for the clouds, as well as for the blue sky and sunshine.

Indeed, it is important for us to ask the question, "Give thanks for what?" For in asking the question we acknowledge that God deserves it and not we, ourselves. So, what do we give thanks for?

Five thousand breathless dawns all new;

Five thousand flowers fresh in dew;

Five thousand sunsets wrapped in gold;

One million snowflakes served ice-cold;

Five quiet friends; one baby's love;

One white made sea with clouds above;

One hundred music-haunted dreams,

Of moon-drenched roads and hurrying streams;

Of prophesying winds, and trees;

Of silent stars and browsing bees;

One June night in a fragrant wood;

One heart that loved and understood;

I wondered when I waked at day,

How--how in God's name--I could repay!"

Amen.