Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
According to Wikipedia: Thanksgiving is a federal holiday, celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. It originated as a harvest festival. The event that Americans commonly call the “First Thanksgiving” was celebrated long before our country was a country and long before our country decided to say thank you to the Lord; it was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in October 1621. This feast lasted for three days, and—as accounted by attendee Edward Winslow—it was attended by 90 Native Americans and 53 Pilgrims. It is recorded that the New England colonists regularly celebrating “thanksgivings”—or days of prayer thanking God for such blessings as a military victory or the end of a drought. As a nation Thanksgiving has been celebrated on and off since 1789, after a proclamation by George Washington was made as requested by Congress. Thomas Jefferson chose not to observe the holiday, and its celebration was intermittent until the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, when in 1863 Lincoln proclaimed a national day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens,” to be celebrated on the last Thursday in November. Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the date was changed amid significant controversy but from 1942 onwards, Thanksgiving as proclaimed by Congress has been celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. That’s the history!
But it is important to note that while the Pilgrims and apparently also Abraham Lincoln celebrated Thanksgiving as a day of thanksgiving to God, for many people, even now in the 21st century, Thanksgiving comes and goes without the least mention of God. I would venture to say that a great number of Thanksgiving meals that will take place tomorrow, will do so without a thought to saying, even the simplest of prayers, in order to thank God for all that we as Americans have or to even thank God for the meal itself. It is not that, everyone who fails to pray, is not thankful for all that they have and enjoy, it is just that for many, God is not thought of as the one who made such a bounty possible and, in some cases, God is not thought of at all. Many people are thankful, rather, to their employers, to family, to friends, to charitable organizations, to their country, to restaurant chefs, or to their own ingenuity and success. Many who forget or just do not take the time to thank God for their bounty are Christians. Many of these Christians will just get swept up in the excitement of having family to visit, chasing around young children or trying to fit the meal in between football games, or will just simply forget.
Our Thanksgiving holiday may not have been established by God or by the church, but it is certainly worthy of our celebration and is a good reminder that God has truly blessed us, and as such, an important aspect of the Thanksgiving celebration for us as Christians should be to remember to say thank you to God the Father and thank you to Jesus and thank you to the Holy Spirit. Can it be that it is so very hard for us to say thank you; so hard for us to remember to say thank you? While our Thanksgiving, as we celebrate it today, originated in the halls of Congress and has been proclaimed by politicians, in truth God called for such celebrations back in the time of Moses. I can’t help but to think that every thanksgiving celebration has at its roots in God’s call for Moses to command first fruits offerings as a way of acknowledging God’s hand in everything that was given to the People of God. While Moses does not specifically call upon the people to say the words “thank you” to God for their bounty, it is certainly understood.
Today we enjoy Thanksgiving for the food, for the opportunity that a lot of us have to be with family and friends, for the parades and (of course) for the football. There is nothing wrong with any of that, as long as, we take just the tiniest period of our time, to say thank you to the Lord. Can you, can we do that? Or are we so enamored with your own accomplishments that we think we have come by all that we have by our own wits and successes? Does our pride get in the way? Honestly, I can’t see these things as being a problem for us; these are the problems of those people who live grand and famous lives. My accomplishments are not nearly great enough, my wits and successes are nothing special, as a pastor I gave up pride a long time ago, so saying thank you is not nearly as hard for me and I would guess for you. What do you think?
I may not feel as thankful, when the weather is bad, or the food is not up to par, or everyone that I want to see does not come to dinner, or the parade is not great, or Dallas wins, but I am so very blessed; I will certainly find the time to thank the Lord. Think of all that we have to be thankful for, not only the world around us, but most special, the gift of Jesus to our world and to all who will follow him the promise of forgiveness and salvation. All that he has earned for the world by his life, deeds, sacrifice and death on a cross. Of all people, those of us who know Jesus have so much more to give thanks for. And there is the Holy Spirit; not only was the Spirit of the Lord given to us, but the Holy Spirit has showered us with gifts of preaching and teaching and helping and prophecy and learning and faith and opportunities for joy and more. Give thanks to our Triune God; don’t let yourselves forget; the triune God has not and will not forget us. Have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving!