Lectionary Readings
Blessed are you, God of Israel, for ever and
ever, for yours is the greatness, the
power, the glory, the splendor, and the majesty. And now we give you thanks,
our God, and praise your glorious name. For all things come from you, and of
your own have we given you. Amen.
While
there is much to lament this year, there remains much to rejoice in. St. Luke’s
has weathered this storm admirably – to my knowledge, the political rancor and
division hasn’t seeped into our community. And I can’t tell you how thankful I am
for that. I’ve spoken with many colleagues in ministry who have told me that
they’ve had church members leave their congregations to find churches that
better align with their political beliefs. Talk about putting the cart before the
horse. But thanks be to God that, to my knowledge, that hasn’t happened at St.
Luke’s. We’re still wrapping up our stewardship campaign for next year, but things
look like we’re going to be able to at least match pledge income from this year.
And this year’s budget is mostly on track – which is miraculous given that most
of you haven’t set foot in the church in 8 months. We’ve made a transition to
online worship and have people joining us who weren’t a member of this church before
March. These are wonderful blessings for which we say, “Thanks be to God.”
Personally,
though I’ve had moments of lament throughout all of this, it has been a year in
which my wife made the career change she’s been working towards for several years
and she absolutely loves her new job. I continue to love and be blessed in
serving St. Luke’s as your priest. Our kids have adapted well to the changes of
the year – and because I’m working from home with them, I’ve had time with them
that I would have otherwise never had. Not to mention the extra bonding they’ve
had as sisters. It sort of gets lost in the craziness of this year, but back in
January the Salisbury Post honored the work that we’ve done around
Becoming the Beloved Community by naming me “One to Watch in 2020.” In February,
Tyler and I spent an amazing 10 days in Jerusalem. In May, I graduated, from a
distance, from Sewanee with a Doctorate in Ministry. Indeed, there is much that
I give thanks for this year.
Towards
the end of today’s liturgy, instead of praying the typical Post Communion Prayer,
we’re going to use A General Thanksgiving, which thanks God for the splendor of
creation, the beauty of the world, the wonder of life, and the mystery of love,
as well as thanking God for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge
our dependence on God. In all things, we give thanks to God. St. Paul in 1 Thessalonians
would have us to “give thanks in all circumstances” and Job questions whether
or not is reasonable to “receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive
the bad?” Yes, even in 2020, a year that seems more like a curse-word than a number,
we give thanks to God.
Now,
though it is quite appropriate for Christians to give thanks to God, we do have
to acknowledge that the reason why we’re gathering, even if digitally, on a
Thursday to do so because today is a civic holiday. And for all the ways in
which Thanksgiving has been cheapened by parades, sales, and football – the beating
heart of this day remains thankfulness. Yes, the idea of Thanksgiving is rooted
in a harvest festival shared between the indigenous peoples of the land and
those who immigrated here, but you may know that it was Abraham Lincoln that
really cemented a national day of thanksgiving as a part of American culture.
In 1863, he issued a Presidential Proclamation which called for the last Thursday
in November to be set apart as a “day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent
Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”
Lincoln
understood the need to given thanks, even when it seemed like there was little
to be thankful for. In the opening of his Proclamation, he writes “In the midst
of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity… peace has preserved with
other nations, order has been maintained, and harmony has prevailed everywhere
except in the theatre of military conflict.” He goes on to note the blessings
of industry and harvest. In the midst of the Civil War, just three months after
the bloody battle at Gettysburg, Lincoln opens his Proclamation by writing, “The
year that is drawing towards its close has been filled with the blessings of
fruitful fields and healthful skies… These bounties, which are so constantly
enjoyed, that we are prone to forget the source from which they come… 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.”
What
Lincoln is describing, which is rooted in Scripture, is the idea that gratitude
is a way of life, not something we do after sitting down and balancing the good
and the bad to see if we have more to be grateful for than ungrateful. Consider
the reading we heard from Deuteronomy, Moses tells the people that they are
about to enter into a good land with flowing streams, wheat and barley, figs
and pomegranates, olives and honey. But Moses himself knows that he will never
enter into the Promised Land – and yet he tells the people to “remember the Lord.” Moses certainly could have
refused to be thankful given the fact that he won’t enter into the land that he’s
spent his entire life journeying towards. But no, he recognizes that we do not
give thanks because that is the polite thing to do, rather we give thanks because
it is the human thing to do.
The
great theologian Karl Barth noted that “gratitude is the creaturely counterpart
to grace.” What it means to be a creature is to be grateful to our Creator for
our creation. The fact of our being is pure grace – there is nothing to do but
to enjoy the abundant life we have been given, and gratitude is the means by
which we do that. Gratitude keeps us in proper relationship with God – one where
it is clear that we are recipient, that we are dependent, that are we are
blessed. Gratefulness, not for things, but for life itself is what puts us in
right relationship with God. That’s what the one healed leper in the Gospel
text from Luke experienced. Sure, all ten were healed, but through gratefulness,
one came into a closer relationship with Jesus and received grace upon grace.
When
we are not grateful, it’s not so much an issue of bad manners, but we actually
become less human, less like the people God intends us to be. The poet Dante,
in describing hell, mentions that the ungrateful are those who constantly go
around saying “mine.” When that is our attitude, we end up being contorted,
curved in on ourselves, unable to see the abundance that surrounds us. We end
up constantly looking over our shoulders to compare ourselves to others, making
sure no one is coming to take what we’ve deluded ourselves into thinking really
belongs to us, when the truth is that all things come and belong to God. And if
we get that wrong, we’ll get the whole of our lives wrong. It’s all grace.
Thanksgiving helps us recognize and enter into that grace. That’s what Lincoln
was attempting to do – heal a divided nation not by trying to hash things out
or work together, but by reminding us of our blessings. That’s what Moses
wanted the people to understand before they entered into a land that might fool
them into thinking they were self-made and self-sufficient. And this is what the
Holy Eucharist does for us and why it, not the turkey, is the most important
meal today.
It’s
been said that humans are created to be homo eucharisticus – a Eucharistic
humanity, a people of thanksgiving. The Eucharist is that great sacrifice of
praise and thanksgiving in which the love of God is presented to us, nourishing
our hearts and minds, and eliciting a response of gratitude from us. The
Eucharist is a sign of who we are created to be – the people of God who thankfully
receive the gifts of God. No, maybe this year hasn’t gone according to plan.
Maybe life hasn’t gone according to plan. Yet we are lavished with the grace of
being called, redeemed, and love by the God from whom all blessings flow. Thank
you to all of you, for you have been a blessing to me this year. Most of all,
thanks be to our gracious and loving God.
