Thanksgiving, Anyway!

            Thanksgiving Day is a time to reflect on what it is that we have and to thank our God for the goodness that there is in this world.  It isn’t always easy to see the goodness.  Sometimes we get hit in the face by the things that seem to be so wrong around us.

            I don’t really know what to say in the wake of the lack of an indictment in Ferguson, Missouri this week.  I must say that the cynic in me didn’t expect that there would be an indictment.  That was borne out in the belittling comments made by the county prosecutor when he announced the Grand Jury’s findings.  I wasn’t surprised that there were demonstrations and anger on the part of the people in the community.

            Of course, it would be better if we could curb the violence and take these things that happen in their stride; but in light of the way that the races have been treated in this nation, that is profoundly impossible.  It is certainly important that the citizens of the community tell the officials how they feel.  It is important also for the officials to listen to them, which seems not to be happening.

            I also have to tell you that I have never particularly liked the mythological story that undergirds our Thanksgiving tradition.  The idea of the black-hatted Puritans receiving food from Squanto the Indian and then a relatively few years later taking his land for their own is unnerving to me.  I’m not sure it really happened that way, but that isn’t important.  What matters is that we understand something of the need that we all have to give thanks for what we have received; and to know that our God is the source of what we have been given. 

            That also isn’t always easy to see.  We are constantly reminded that the rich have inherited the earth.  The one percent seems to control just about everything.  We can’t even have elections that are fair because money from super PACs pour into them and affect the outcomes.  We seem sometimes to be stuck in an unyielding political morass that just won’t yield, and give us the fairness and justice that we yearn for.

            But we have our families.  That is the source for most of us of our comfort; and this parish family is a source of comfort for many people who have no other place to turn.  That is what we have to give thanks for on this day. 

            Our scripture lesson for this holiday is the account of what Moses said to the people when they were about to enter the promised land that God had provided for them after their forty year sojourn in the wilderness.  Moses tells them that God is giving them a good land that will take care of all of their needs and will provide them with great wealth.  He then tells them that after they have created this wealth, not to forget that it is God who has provided it, not themselves.  This is a lesson that we still haven’t quite learned today.  We think that we are the source of all of the good things that have been provided to us; and that we, not God, are the great providers.  We see this in the so called one percent who have all of the wealth and continue to build it on the backs of those who have nothing, or who work for small wages while their providers continue to get rich.  This is what makes our thanksgiving difficult. 

            We need to remember to give thanks for small things.  When Jesus healed the ten lepers who cried out to him, only one, a Samaritan, came back to give him thanks.  Jesus asked, “were not ten made clean?”  But he closed the moment by telling the one who thanked him; “go, your faith has made you whole.”  That is what we always need to remember.  It is our faith in our Holy God that continues to make us whole.  Even in the face of all of the things that are oppressing:  Grand Juries that refuse to indict; rich who refuse to compensate their workers; police who can’t seem to curb their racism, we still, like that Samaritan leper need to give God continual thanks for what it is that we have received:  families who love us; churches who continue to serve the needy and all of the wonderful goodness that exists in the world, despite humanity’s continuing difficulty with understanding who is really in charge. 

           
God bless us all on this glorious day and remember to continue to love one another.  That is what our God continually asks us to do and when we do it, the world works well.