Homily Thanksgiving Day, St. Alfred's

Homily Thanksgiving Day 2024

St. Alfred's
Dale Hathaway
Nov. 28

Introduction: Various approaches to this day

Dearly beloved, we have come together in the presence of God to witness and bless ...

Oh, that's from a different liturgy. This is Thanksgiving Day. Another occasion. Another festive time. The focus here is Thanksgiving. Gratitude. Thank you.

But I must say, there's a mixed up pile of subjects that come to mind, driving this theme of "Thanksgiving".

The Collect of the day -- the prayer that opens our liturgy sets a certain theme. It's a "harvest festival". Such as religions have celebrated from time immemorial. It's at least a part of the decor of our Thanksgiving celebrations.

But really, the Collect suggests that we should celebrate and lift up the immigrants who harvest our food -- documented and undocumented, I suppose. And in the world we now live that particular theme is fraught with "issues."

For many this is the day par-excellence for travel and gathering with family and friends. We end up trying to be thankful for the record levels of congestion on the roads and in the airports.

And for some time now, the divisions in our country have challenged the conversation around the tables of our Thanksgivings. The talk about certain subjects is off limits when you've got Uncle Charles or Auntie Charlotte or your brother or sister. Oh my.

My earliest memories surrounding Thanksgiving Day have to do with 1st and 2nd grade lessons about the pilgrims and the "Indians"and how the founding narrative of our country begins with that "first Thanksgiving feast."

70 years later and that whole myth is fraught with problems. It leaves me thinking that, "There must be a "thanksgiving" in there somewhere, but it's not clear to me what that is."

If prayer is the focus on this gathering of Christians, then there two are certain challenges. What is prayer? I'm grateful to one of the members of the forum on Sundays for identifying one of the standard -- and superficial -- ways that people understand prayer. He called it the "Christmas list" form of prayer.

It goes: "God I would like such and such ... and if you can't get me that I'd like that and that." It can take the form of listing things you want for other people: "God please heal my grandmother. Help my son to overcome the obstacles he has built up in his life."

Do we give thanks for the Christmas list of things we'd like from God?

Finally, since inevitably church people -- like us -- end up being in church around Thanksgiving time, many of us know that the main service we attend on Sundays -- we observe that today we are celebrating Thanksgiving Day with a "Eucharist", the Greek meaning of the word is -- "Thanksgiving."

We know well that this is what we're supposed to be fully immersed in -- gratitude in all circumstances. A friend of ours often reminds me that, "You shouldn't should" on people.

Lots of "shoulds" end up being a part of our calculation of what we give thanks for.

Do you see what I mean that Thanksgiving is a mixed up pile of different themes?

Great Thanksgiving

There is a prayer of Thanksgiving in the Book of Common Prayer (p. 836) that I have used on multiple occasions for its riches and depth. A first prayer in the morning. A prayer to open evening prayer. ...

  • Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life, and for the mystery of love.

  • We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for the loving care which surrounds us on every side.

  • We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy and delight us.

  • We thank you also for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.

  • Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying, through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom.

  • Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know him and make him known; and through him, at all times and in all places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen.

For me this prayer focuses the real life that I live. My life is made up of ups and downs, clarity and confusion, running in circles as well as being in the zone.

We are so accustomed to the busy chaotic world around most of us, that we often fail to pay attention to the Splendor of creation. When was the last time you saw splendor? Or used it in a sentence?

It's there for those who have eyes to see.

And love, the awesome reality of Love. I had the privilege of accompanying someone who emerged from a decades-long depression when he experienced genuine, unconditional love. He said to me, "All these years I could find a rational way of denying the reality of a God who loved me in a personal way. But I found myself unable to deny the reality of love." He became new person the summer that happened.

For the care of family -- family is not biological or genetic. It is the persons who are in relationship with you defined by mutual support, mutual kindness and courtesy, mutual care and carefulness. There you find family.

Tasks and failures, challenges and disappointments. That is the place where we live. And the prayer invites us to see and experience the giftedness of all of it.

Above all, the gift of Jesus the Christ, the one who gathers all of creation into a bonded community of self-giving, embracing unconditional love -- mercy and redemption.

We who are gathered here today have experienced that, or at least caught a glimpse of it. And like the first disciples, we want more.

And so we give thanks.

Conclusion

You may have been in a position to hear me say that one of my convictions is that the purpose of life is to get to the end of it – and every day I'm getting closer and closer – to get to the end of it and be able to say, Thank you.

I got to that conclusion when I read many years ago The Diary of a Country Priest. The last words in that novel are the last words of the priest of the title before he died: "It's all grace!"

On a day like today, I think again of those words, read 50 years ago or so. It's not just that there is much to be grateful for. There is everything to be grateful for. There is more than we can possible say or imagine.

And so we give thanks.

November 26 In 1789, Thanksgiving is celebrated nationally in the United States for the first time

a prayer/reflection by Brother David Steindl-Rast

Gratefulness brings joy to my life. How could I find joy in what I take for granted? When I stop "taking for granted," there is no end to the surprises I find.

A grateful attitude is a creative one, because, in the final analysis, opportunity is the gift within the gift of every moment—the opportunity to see and hear and smell and touch and taste with pleasure.

There is no closer bond than the one that gratefulness celebrates, the bond between giver and thanksgiver. Everything is a gift. Grateful living is a celebration of the universal give-and-take of life, a limitless yes to belonging. Can our world survive without gratefulness?

Whatever the answer, one thing is certain: to say an unconditional yes to the mutual belonging of all beings will make this a more joyful world. This is the reason why yes is my favorite synonym for God.

And together we say Amen.

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