Psalm 126
Preaching
A Journey Through the Psalms: Reflections for Worried Hearts and Troubled Times
Preaching the Psalms Cycles A, B, C
Object:
Thanksgiving is a favorite holiday. There is nothing quite like this time when friends and families gather for a feast and a time of thankfulness. It truly is a great holiday on the calendar. However, it's important for us to realize that in the mix of our lives, Thanksgiving is not a Christian holiday. Thanksgiving was formally declared a holiday by President Lincoln during the struggles of our Civil War. In the ensuing years, it has woven itself into our culture to such a degree that we mark it on our liturgical calendars as though it were part of our Christian calendar.
Only the severest of cynics would attack Thanksgiving as a holiday. After all, what could possibly be wrong with giving thanks? Nothing. Nothing is wrong with this holiday. Indeed, this writer spends a good portion of the months prior to Thanksgiving scouring cookbooks for new ways to stuff a turkey. No. Whatever you do, leave Thanksgiving alone.
The only point that needs to be made for us, as people of God, is that for us Thanksgiving is not a holiday. Let's continue to take that fourth Thursday in November as a time to give thanks and gather in warmth and love, but let's move forward and take it a step further as a people of faith. Let us embrace Thanksgiving, not as one day on the calendar, but as a way of being.
The Lord has indeed "done great things for us," and as we awaken to the many blessings God has given us, thankfulness is a natural response. The challenge to us, though, is to claim thankfulness as a way of life. The call to us is to awaken each morning with a thankful heart for the gifts of breath and life. The pathway open to us is the intentional shaping of our moments and days so that each breath, each step, each word spoken is an utterance of profound thanksgiving.
And it's this intentionality that is most difficult. We have a way of forgetting, of slipping away from what some church folk call "an attitude of gratitude." Yet the call to live our lives on purpose in the Lord continues to come to us, steadily, patiently, persistently.
On this Thanksgiving Day, then, perhaps the church can hear the call to be a people who live lives of thankfulness. Maybe your congregation could step into a renewal space, taking each moment as an opportunity for thankfulness. Imagine, on this day of thanks, what would happen if every person entered each new experience, even the challenging ones, as a new chance to give thanks to God for the innumerable blessings that have been bestowed upon us.
Only the severest of cynics would attack Thanksgiving as a holiday. After all, what could possibly be wrong with giving thanks? Nothing. Nothing is wrong with this holiday. Indeed, this writer spends a good portion of the months prior to Thanksgiving scouring cookbooks for new ways to stuff a turkey. No. Whatever you do, leave Thanksgiving alone.
The only point that needs to be made for us, as people of God, is that for us Thanksgiving is not a holiday. Let's continue to take that fourth Thursday in November as a time to give thanks and gather in warmth and love, but let's move forward and take it a step further as a people of faith. Let us embrace Thanksgiving, not as one day on the calendar, but as a way of being.
The Lord has indeed "done great things for us," and as we awaken to the many blessings God has given us, thankfulness is a natural response. The challenge to us, though, is to claim thankfulness as a way of life. The call to us is to awaken each morning with a thankful heart for the gifts of breath and life. The pathway open to us is the intentional shaping of our moments and days so that each breath, each step, each word spoken is an utterance of profound thanksgiving.
And it's this intentionality that is most difficult. We have a way of forgetting, of slipping away from what some church folk call "an attitude of gratitude." Yet the call to live our lives on purpose in the Lord continues to come to us, steadily, patiently, persistently.
On this Thanksgiving Day, then, perhaps the church can hear the call to be a people who live lives of thankfulness. Maybe your congregation could step into a renewal space, taking each moment as an opportunity for thankfulness. Imagine, on this day of thanks, what would happen if every person entered each new experience, even the challenging ones, as a new chance to give thanks to God for the innumerable blessings that have been bestowed upon us.
