Thursday, November 26, 2020          (today’s lectionary)
Thanksgiving Day in the USA
We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing
Well, yes, but we gather in much smaller groups this year, at least here in the Sandel-Comstock-Tomita-Catizone Lands. Fewer people, fewer parties, farther apart, masks replacing smiles … except we know you’re in there, you smile, you!
Less lipstick, and less travel. More confusion … what did you say? More communication with the eyes, with the windows of the soul. So in these co-vid times, we often find ourselves being more honest with each other without even intending it.
And in the ways of all flesh, this recursion into honesty is a good thing. Just look at what happens otherwise:
A mighty angel picked up a huge millstone and threw it into the sea. Babylon will never be found again. No more music, no more art, no more industry, no voice of bride and groom, not even the light of a lamp will ever be seen in you again. Never again will the nations be led astray by your magic potion.
I watched half our chickens walking aimlessly around the back yard gate this morning. Their alpha chicken was elsewhere. “Sheep without a shepherd,” I whispered, not wanting them to hear me. I felt sad for their aimlessness so early in the morning. We don’t need to be that way.
Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb. Salvation, glory and might belong to our God. Know that this is God, and that he made us, and we are his, we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Stand up straight and raise high your heads because our redemption is at hand.
I imagine during the Civil War that word trickled down of Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation of Thanksgiving, a day to “praise our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.” Union generals read the announcement to their soldiers. Confederate spies must have mentioned it to Confederate generals, and majors, and captains, who whispered the same suggestion to their troops. At that day’s dawn, firing did not resume. Instead cooking fires were kindled, and soldiers shared their breakfasts, wondering if they could maybe share some of it with the guys across the creek, over there in the trenches, on the other side of the line. Some of them were brothers. No strike that, all of them were brothers.
But mostly, they took naps in the afternoon on opposite sides of the works. The turkey and dressing, the sweet potato pie could not for long dissuade the principalities and powers of this dark world.
When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, know that its desolation is at hand. Flee to the mountains! A terrible calamity will come upon the earth and wrathful judgment on this people, who will fall by the edge of the sword, be trampled under foot, and people will die of fright.
When Jesus walks into this bloodbath, both sides stop their shooting. What a day of rejoicing that will be. When the Son of Man comes in a cloud with power and glory, stand up in plain sight and give thanks. The guns will all be dropped, no hands to hold them anymore:
Raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.
Margaret’s and my digital business card is headlined by a verse from Isaiah, by hope-filled words of peace and Thanksgiving …They shall no longer harm or destroy on my holy mountain, because the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
(Revelation 18, Psalm 100, Luke 21)
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