Thursday, November 28, 2024
Thanksgiving Day in the USA
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
The Lord bless you and keep you
Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?
I love putting together jigsaw puzzles made from pictures of village green, small church, and village folks walking to church in the morning to celebrate Thanksgiving, or Christmas, or any given Sunday.
Come, ye thankful people, come,
Raise the song of harvest home!
All is safely gathered in,
Ere the winter storms begin;
God, our Maker, doth provide
For our wants to be supplied;
Come to God’s own temple, come;
Raise the song of harvest home!
I don’t know their back stories. Father Brown and Miss Marple know them; they have been part of those communities for years and aren’t surprised by much of anything, including murder most foul.
I only know the bursting in my chest when I remember harvests on our farm, meals full of food from the garden and the barn, and Lutheran church services on the very holidays we’re celebrating, Thanksgiving and Christmas especially.
Going to church made the rest of the holly-day sweet and satisfying. Not just that we’d done our duty – it felt more like God’s breath sent us on our way, God’s kiss brushed our foreheads as we stepped outside, God’s benediction lifted its countenance upon us, and gave us peace. Isn’t that more than enough for any of us created ones? Turkey and dressing and cranberry sauce are just icings on the cake.
And of course many of us don’t taste that food, not so easily anyway. Even on this day of thanks, it’s easy to take each other’s comfort for granted rather than recognizing the gifts we have and sharing them with others who don’t.
Jesus spoke to the former leper, “Stand up and go. Your faith has made you whole.”
Not that Jesus removed his healing from the nine who did not return. They also stood up and went, laughing and leaping and praising God. But for the man before him on his knees, Jesus gave a second blessing: his personal assurance to this man that his faith was invaluable, more than he could imagine, both to himself and to God. Jesus asked him to trust his experience, reject his doubt, and let his faith lead him every day.
Thou Lamb of Calvary,
Savior divine!
Now hear me while I pray,
take all my guilt away;
O let me from this day
be wholly Thine.
May Thy rich grace impart
strength to my fainting heart,
my zeal inspire;
as Thou hast died for me,
O may my love to Thee
pure, warm, and changeless be,
a living fire.
While life’s dark maze I tread,
and griefs around me spread,
be Thou my guide;
bid darkness turn to day,
wipe sorrow’s tears away,
nor let me ever stray
from Thee aside.
Many Civil War soldiers, far from home, sang this song beside their campfires. They laughed and wept and celebrated however they could with their friends, the soldiers they fought beside the day before and the day after. They had no thought or idea about what might happen next. Their faith looked up, and that was enough.
When ends life’s transient dream,
When death’s cold sullen stream shall o’er me roll;
Blest Savior, then in love, fear and distrust remove;
O bear me safe above, a ransomed soul!
Far from the battlegrounds of the Middle East and elsewhere, today we’ll have a happy feast with our kids and grandkids and perhaps a guest or two in Springfield, as we have for years. I can’t wait for the family and the food, for the football and the fun (Bears vs Lions), for whatever movie we see after all of that, and for feeling how joy and thankfulness fill the air.
This day is the official holiday to celebrate God’s relentless generosity. What a gift to even have a day like this. This is the day that the Lord has made!
Thank you, Loving God. Open my heart to those around me, free all of us to trust our faith as we fall on our faces before your grace, mercy and goodness.
(Sirach 50, Psalm 145, 1 Corinthians 1, 1 Thessalonians 5, Luke 17)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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