Sermon, Thanksgiving (Year B)

 This weekend we are delighting in the gifts of the harvest!

What a gift it is, to be able to connect with loved ones near and far, and share the blessings in our lives. Our phones ring and our social media feeds are already flooding with pictures of loved ones sitting at decorated tables; perhaps our own kitchens are just bursting today as we anticipate a special time of gratitudinal feasting, tonight or tomorrow.

In many of our homes this weekend, our conversations may invite us all to share one or two of the things that are touching our hearts right now.
We’re thankful for family that love us… for the friends that we have chosen to share our lives with… for the delightful good weather… for our health (even when it’s imperfect)… for the communities we live in… for our neighbours…

Alleluia! We are thankful. And we know that it is easy to be grateful for those we love and who love us.

So let’s continue in that same vein, but going a little bit deeper this time. .
I’ll bet folks are thankful for having some money saved up… for being so financially secure that we can get a loan or a credit card… for receiving an education…. for having fulfilling employment… for knowing where our next meal is coming from… for being able to pray, openly… for getting up, even with our aches and pains, from a bed… and having that bed under a roof… and even having access to a tap that flows with clean water….

And if these things have always been a part of your life: my goodness what good fortune to be thankful for!

And this is where Thanksgiving takes us: deeper. With deeper awareness of the gifts in our lives, we also share the resulting opportunity to be more deeply grateful.

So now the challenging part… things likely not shared as gratitudes around the table…
Like being thankful for pain: yet we know that pain helps us to appreciate life’s joys all the more.
Or for crying tears of sorrow: though we know that tears are holy water, liquid love that flows from a blessed vessel.
Or gratitude for making mistakes: awkward, but we are blessed if we have been given the chance to learn from our mistakes, to make reparations, and do better.

I think you get the idea – even the challenging things in this life can be an opportunity for us to grow, to improve, to strive to be the best version of ourselves.
These challenges also allow us to be more understanding when others are going through them; our sympathy and empathy increase with experience – and for that we are thankful.

Living with an attitude of gratitude means that even the things that aren’t life-changing - like the flowers in the garden or the funny joke or the stranger that paid for our coffee – These normal things can help us to get into the pattern of remaining thankful.

We’re reminded to do that today – in our secular celebrations and also in our sacred scriptures:
Joel re-orients the community to be glad for the basic local realities of soil, of flora and fauna, of nourishment – and by extension, of each other.
In the Psalm, a basic farm reality of planting and reaping sets the scene and tone.
Paul rejoices in his encouragement to Timothy, of the power of supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings being made for everyone, as a means to build up the body of God and strengthen the heart of each.

And in Jesus’ examples of food and drink and clothing – and of the role of faith.
Teaching us anew that God is here, in the ordinary-ness of everyday life. We are being invited to dig deeper into our own lives, our hearts and souls, and find ways to thank God.

For we have received the gifts of God:
The gifts of love, of welcome, of community, of inclusion.
The gifts of faith, of connection with the divine, of the Gospel truth.

And with ALL of these gifts; the ordinary and the holy - comes the privilege and the responsibility of giving back. And of paying it forward. Of re-seeding the world with the love that we have known.

The re-giving is in Joel’s reminder to care for the soil and animals and plants – for the nourishment of today and tomorrow; knowing that we – as God’s people – will never be put to shame.
It’s in the enthusiasm of the Psalmist who reminds us what great things God has done – and continues to do! for us – and we are glad indeed!
It’s in the simple happiness as Paul overflows with the awesome joy of prayer to chat with God, and of the assurance of eternal life through Jesus Christ.
It’s in the Gospel, as Jesus invites us to focus on the things in our lives that we can so easily overlook, or under-value, or take for granted.

This giving of thanks helps us train our brain to appreciate the profound goodness in our lives, striving for the kingdom of God, comforted that we are already surrounded by all that we need.
In giving thanks we delight in the gifts that God has placed here, for us to recognise, appreciate, enjoy: and to share.

For part of giving thanks is in giving; thankfully.
And as we celebrate Thanksgiving, we also honour Rogation – that time of planting.
The harvest is not just an abundance that mysteriously appeared… it is reaping the benefits of what has already been planted, and cared for.
And the harvest carries within it the seeds for the future: a promise for a season not yet here; a joyful commitment to a tomorrow that may not be ours.
Thanksgiving is a time of gratitude for the efforts of the past, for the present abundance that is ours, and for the promise and potential for the future.

So today as we give thanks for those who have come before us, and we honour the goodness of today with thankful hearts, let us also commit to what we seeds we are planting for the future:
Seeds of worship and praise… of compassion and kindness… of growing and nurturing faith… of thanksgiving and community… of possibilities that we can’t even yet ask or imagine: but for which God already has a plan.

May we walk in faithfulness, thankful for all that we receive, and for the potential that God is placing in our hearts and hands.

I’ll close with a quote from Melody Beattie: “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial to acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, and a stranger into a friend.”

Thanks Be To God; this Thanksgiving, and always.