[Propertalk] Thanksgiving

Wed Nov 21 18:30:50 EST 2012

This is off to be examined before being offered tonight at 7 pm

Happy Thanksgiving!

Bob

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY                          			 
THANKSGIVING EVE
JOEL 2:21-27                         					                      21st 
NOVEMBER, 2012
1 TIMOTHY 2:1-7				                            	 
PSALM 126
MATTHEW 6:25-33

	Thanksgiving is our awakening to the realisation that so much has been 
given to us; so many people care for us; and that “we have so much to 
look forward to”.

Sometimes giving thanks comes quite naturally to us. At other times we 
recognise the value of gift we’ve been given, but we’re so overwhelmed 
we hardly know what to say. Then there are those other times when we may 
have become so accustomed to what we’ve been given that we ignore the 
giver and the possibilities that can arise from the gifts.

	Three petitions from “Night Prayer” stood out for me this past week as 
I thought about how I, how we, have been blessed.

	“We have wounded your love.
	O God, heal us.
	We stumble in the darkness.
	Light of the world transfigure us.
We forget that we are your home.
Spirit of God, dwell in us” 1

	Why on earth would Jesus, usually so sensitive to the needs of every 
single person He met, why on earth would Jesus tell His small group of 
close friends not to worry about where the next meal was going to come 
from, or where they might sleep at night, or how they might protect 
themselves from the cold? You might think that Jesus, living way before 
any immediate care centers, or “Helping Hands”, or meal programmes would 
have been a bit more sensitive. After all, a raging cold brought on by a 
couple of wet nights spent outdoors could be pretty serious.

	Coming right in the heart of what’s described as the “Sermon on the 
Mount”, after the chapter which begins the description of what 
constitutes blessedness, the sixth chapter is filled with short little 
comments about what’s vital for the life of a faithful follower of 
Jesus. And practically at the beginning of this section is Matthew’s 
version of what we now call The Lord’s Prayer”.

	It’s obvious that Jesus was concerned about people’s spiritual 
well-being. He wanted them to be aware of the importance of a 
comfortable and constant connection to God. But then the passage ends 
with the curious comment, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his 
righteousness, and all these things (– food, drink, clothes, shelter, 
and so on – first the kingdom and righteousness,) and all these things 
will be given to you as well.”

	From where on earth did Jesus think these were going to come? I think 
the answer lies in the juxtaposition of the words “Kingdom” and 
“righteousness”. And here’s the probable connection between this reading 
and this evening’s celebration. This IS a church celebration, an 
opportunity to celebrate those people, those resources with which God 
has blessed us. But it’s also an opportunity to reflect on what’s going 
on in our lives, how we, as Jesus’ friends,
are using those gifts with which we’ve been blessed.

	I see the key to all of this in the word “righteousness”. We’re invited 
to be a righteous people, folk who’re in a right relationship with God 
and with one another. It’s this behaviour and this attitude which draw 
us into the heart of God’s reign, and within the idea of righteousness 
we can see at least two facets.

The first is obvious, at least as far as this celebration is concerned. 
It’s thankfulness. The second actually should be pretty clear too. It’s 
responsiveness, responsiveness beyond ourselves.

	Think about being thankful. Ann Lamott, the very popular author, wrte 
an opinion piece in the New York Times last Saturday. She called it “The 
Prayer of an Unconventional Family” and she began, “Thank you, God, or 
whatever you call yourself, if you are really there at all, and if you 
have a nice sense of humor (on which I am banking), for the family you 
gave me.” 2

	This is a reasonable enough thought. Most folk sitting around table 
tomorrow may say something similar. But then she goes on to try to widen 
our idea of thankfulness in a way of which I’m sure Jesus would have 
been pleased – and amused!
	“I grew up,” she wrote, “I grew up wanting a normal family that said 
prayers and went to church, but thank God you mostly ignored my menu 
choices, because instead I got left-wing intellectuals. I got parents 
who worshiped at the temples of James Joyce and Willa Cather, John 
Updike and John Cheever, Dorothy Parker and Evelyn Waugh — whom, until I 
was 12 or so, I imagined as a nice Midwestern lady out in a garden who 
rolled her stockings down around her ankles when the Wichita sun grew 
too hot.

	“I wanted an Eastern blue blood PTA mother, but thank you for a 
Liverpudlian who studied classics in college. She could quote Aristotle 
— and W. B. Yeats and Doris Lessing, and had long, beautiful, dark 
hair.”

	How insightful is that? Following Jesus’ lead, and thinking about 
righteousness and the way God’s reign should unfold, we’re brought to 
recognize our sometimes narrow focus and shortsightedness. We want 
family members who never argue; a car that never has to be in the shop; 
a computer which never crashes; and so on. God would probably wish the 
same for us. But we’re stretched every which way because things DON’T 
always fall into place as our understanding might expect or wish.

	How much more pleasure might God get, then, might we ourselves 
experience, if we were able to offer thanks for the ways in which the 
unexpected, even the unwelcome, open up newer and greater possibilities 
for us?

I don’t really relish setbacks, or accidents, or anything of that 
nature. But I believe Jesus is challenging us to look at what we have 
and to ask – ask Jesus Himself, ask ourselves, ask our family and 
friends, “What on earth can I do with this?”

	It’s in asking questions like that, it’s in offering thanks for 
challenges, and differences, even for the ability to work through 
struggles, that I think we come to discover more about who we are, and 
how we relate to God, and how we’re part of God’s picture.

	So perhaps tomorrow, at least, if not every day, I may suggest to 
myself that I learn to give thanks for those things which compel me not 
to take things for granted, those things which train me to understand 
what gratitude, and God, and righteousness are all about.

	But the second thought I suggested was that seeking God and 
righteousness cannot be done apart from our interaction with other 
people.

	Perhaps Jesus was trying to get people to look beyond their own needs. 
You and I hear the word “turkey”; better yet, we smell one cooking, and 
we think about sitting down at our own table, looking at our own plate, 
and reaching for our knives and forks. But righteousness compels us to 
think of other people, and other tables, and what may or may not be on 
them.

	A writer in Jerusalem posted a meditation on Monday. It was written 
before the recent rocket and aircraft attacks. But we can’t help but 
think of the fragile cease-fire declared this afternoon, our time. Even 
so, it included this.

	“Perhaps someone at this table
	Or in a home nearby
	Is nursing a broken heart,
	Or hiding the secret of addiction, violence, trauma or pain,
	Someone whose sorrows and losses are judged and shunned
	By our neighbors and our society.

	Let this day be the beginning of a deeper love for all beings.
	Let this day be the beginning of healing for all creatures.
	Let this day be the foundation of service to Your world.
	Let this moment be for rejoicing in all Your gifts.”  3

	This, to me, is seeking God and seeking righteousness, and it’s all 
wrapped up in the act of giving thanks. No matter who we are, no matter 
where we are, no matter what’s happening in our lives, we are part of 
the family of God which is called to feast at the table which is 
prepared for us.

	And so I come back once again to that prayer of Thanksgiving I quoted 
for the past month, a prayer a few of you have told me you’ve been 
trying to memorise. Well, I stuck one in each of the bulletins. If it’s 
still there, you might pray with me:
“Dear God,
Thank you for all that is good,
for our creation and our humanity,
for the stewardship you have given us of this planet earth,
for the gifts of life and of one another,
for the love which is unbounded and eternal.” 4

NOTES:

1 	“Night Prayer” from “A New Zealand Prayer Book” Collins © 1989. Page 
168

2“The Prayer of an Unconventional Family” By ANNE LAMOTT. OPINIATOR. 
EXCLUSIVE ONLINE COMMENTARY FROM THE TIME. DRAFT November 17, 2012, 3:25 
PMComment Draft is a series about the art and craft of writing. 
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/

4	“Night Prayer” from “A New Zealand Prayer Book”, page 167 ff.

Robert P Morrison
Interim Vicar
The Episcopal Church of St Alban
PO Box 1556
Albany OR  97321   541-921-1076 (cell)