Thanksgiving Sunday

Happy Thanksgiving.  Well, kind of.  I have this small problem with greeting card holidays.  I don’t like Valentine’s Day; tend to gloss over Mother’s Day and Father’s Day…on the other hand, I always remember “International Talk Like a Pirate Day.”  Facebook always reminds me.

But thanksgiving here in Canada is a bit of a mystery.  I remember in school colouring pilgrim’s hats; making those hand-print turkeys, and hearing the story about the first pilgrims to North America sharing this great feast.  Does this sound familiar?  I hope I’m not the only one.  There’s a problem, though: you guessed it – that’s the story of the holiday that was created by our neighbours to the south.

Here in Canada, we can trace the origins of this October festival to the dim mists of time, all the way back to…1872.  It was in April, then, and was declared a holiday to celebrate the recovery of the Prince of Wales from a serious illness.

Seriously?  If the Prince of Wales became seriously ill and then recovered nowadays, a full two-thirds the population of Canada would think: blast!  Willie was a bit closer!

Over the years, the time of year and date of an official thanksgiving holiday changed back and forth until 1957, when it decided it was to be the second Monday in October.  That’s right, folks, Monday.  If you’re in church on Thanksgiving, you can thank some very good marketing from the church folks back in the fifties for that.  It’s amazing what cultural guilt can do, isn’t it?

You see, my problem with the Thanksgiving holiday is purely linguistic.  Can you guess what it is?  I’ll tell you straight.  It’s the difference between a noun, and a verb.  A noun is a person, place, or thing.  That’s it.  It’s static.  I’m standing at a pulpit.  It’s just sits here.  It doesn’t really get used during the week; Sunday worship doesn’t centre around staring at this lovely piece of architecture, and to be honest, I’m not thinking that a lot of you faithful people think longing thoughts about this lacquered lectern throughout the week.

This pulpit isn’t alive unless there’s preaching that comes from it that can connect with you; with your hearts and minds and faith.  In the same way, thanksgiving is actually a verb.  It’s an action word.  Thanksgiving isn’t a holiday; there shouldn’t be a need to guilt people into realizing how good things are, or to remind farmers that giving thanks after a harvest is a good thing.  Thanksgiving isn’t a holiday; it should be a way of life.

In his letter to Timothy, Paul reminds his young friend to offer thanksgivings for all things and for all people.  ALL of them.  And a part of us thinks really? All things?  There are things that I am darn well NOT going to be thankful for.

But again, a reminder: Paul tells Timothy to give thanks for kings, and people in high stations.  In their time, though, most kings and people of high station thought Christians a nuisance at best; at worst a plague that needed to be exterminated.  These are not circumstances under which we could possibly consider being thankful in our day and age. 

We all have those things that cause us to be bitter and resentful around thanksgiving.  Certainly, we are surrounded by those things that are good, and that we are thankful for.  But beloved, I think you know in your heart what grates on you.  Maybe it’s your child who’s too busy to call once a week, once a month, let alone come and visit.  Or, it’s the child who won’t leave home.  Maybe it’s the test results that aren’t looking good, or the person in your life who is so adversarial that you wake up in the middle of the night feeling panicky.  Or when you think, what do I have to be thankful for, all there is left is a hospital room, a funeral, and a memory that you don’t want.

Yes, beloved, that is hard.  But I’m going to say that it’s harder to go through life hardening your heart and persisting in worrying about those things, than it is to root your thanks in God, and find life in Christ.  As Paul writes, the root of thanks should be rooted in praise of God, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.  And the truth is, that unless we learn thanksgiving as a way of life, rooted in God, then when we will never find fulfillment in our lives as individuals, or as families.

When Jesus speaks to the apostles, he talks to them about a problem that is consistent throughout our history: they worry.  In fact, they worry A LOT.  But then again, they don’t have jobs, homes, income, or a retirement plan.  They’re surrounded by people who don’t like them and their boss likes talking about what’s going to happen when he dies.  You could maybe understand a little bit of their worry.  Jesus covers just about everything – food, clothing, shelter.  As he reminds the disciples, even the wild things are clothed and cared for by God, and they are much, much, more important to God that those wild things are. 

But then Jesus gives the punchline: strive first for the kingdom of God.  He urges the disciples to live like God’s promises to them are real.  That’s the secret.  The disciples, like us, are used to all of our modern conveniences of faith: a whole lot of lip service for those things that we’ve already gotten that are good.  But Jesus has revealed that they’re still full of worries.  Worries, it seems to Jesus, are a sign that we are more confident in our own problem-solving abilities than in God’s. 

So Jesus gives us something else to think about – God already knows those things are needed.  But strive for God’s kingdom, and all those things will be added to you.

Is it that simple?  You can sit back and chortle to ourselves…after all, you’ve heard about Hope Mission, and the Bissel Centre, and all the other social organizations who are desperate for donations so they can help people who are in desperate need.  Where’s Jesus, then?  Do they just put their trust in God, and things mystically happen?

Well, it turns out that it is maybe that simple.  Because, beloved, the kingdom of God that Jesus tells you to strive for begins with you.  It begins with you acting together and coming together in praise of Jesus Christ so that you become signs of God’s kingdom for others.

Because here’s the thing:  Jesus tells the disciples not to worry, because Jesus knows what it’s like to be human.  Do not worry?  Really?  The people I know who worry about money the most – and are the most reluctant to share it.  The people with the fullest closets are the people who claim to have nothing to wear.  The largest house is the one that can house the most problems.  The pursuit and worry of things are distractions.  So Jesus challenges you to focus on the kingdom of God around you:  those people, who you see and who you don’t, but whom God desires to be brought to Christ.

So be thankful, beloved of God.  Go and bear the good news, and share your blessings with others.  Share your burdens, because you don’t need to bear them alone.  This is the family of God; this is part of the kingdom that is promised. 

Let thanksgiving be the hallmark of your life; let grace be a way of living, rather than just the prayer you say before your meal today.

And let God’s people say ‘amen’.