Thanksgiving Day                                        The Rev'd David C. Cobb

James 1                                                     November 23, 2006      

Matthew 6                                                  Solemn Mass         

 

This is one of those days that calls us to look backwards.  There is the story of pilgrims and native Americans and the settlers in Jamestown, there are the thanksgiving days of our childhood, may even just last year, this is one of those days that most of us want to repeat what we've done, what we know.   

 

And as the year turns towards the quiet and dark of winter, in the end of the fall, even though we do not judge our year's effort by what's in a barn, there is a sense of taking stock in these days.  A year can bring the upheaval and astounding changes that re-direct our lives, a year can bring the subtle and all most hidden gifts and challenges that form our character and direct our paths, even if we do not always notice.  The people we encounter, relationships formed, deepened, renewed or broken. The work we have been asked to do, the work we have delighted in doing, what we have failed to accomplish or what we have finally given over and put down. 

 

All of this hangs just behind our thoughts and under lays whatever grace we say at table this afternoon. . 

 

If we pay attention, this is reason for thanksgiving in it all.  It is God's own gift of life that leaves us with a year to review, and it is God's own delight that gives us a world of unfolding seasons and of people to know and love, it is God's own generosity that gives us minds to imagine what we have not seen or heard, and by God's grace we have skill and a ability to make those things real. 

 

Not every year, but for all of us there are years that bring sorrow and difficulties we would never have contemplated surviving.  And yet, here we are.  In our deepest sorrow, there is some gift of the depth of love and in our frustrations there is the hope of knowing things should and can be better.  God gives us souls that can endure and hearts that can leap towards something better.  And so even in the dark days of our years, there is reason for thanksgiving. 

 

And in this moment, there is a call and a urgency, that we pay attention and recognize the generous acts of giving and the gifts around us and trace them back to the hand that pours them out on us.  Take nothing for granted and do not miss a single, seemingly inconsequential reason for knowing God as generous and purposeful.  And then, in this moment, there is a call to know ourselves by knowing God.  We too can give, we can be the cause for thanksgiving and delight in others, you can make someone's day, and what a wonderful thing, if by raking someone else's leaves or letting someone take the parking place you both see, in all the ways you can touch someone's life, what a wonderful thing that you can add to the world's sum total of gratitude and delight.  And if that seems to high a calling, at least try not to annoy people or make things worse.

 

This world demands our efforts even as it reveals God's creative goodness- “pure religion is this.”  James reminds us, to know and respond to human suffering, and to avoid the grasping and thoughtlessness, the gossip and back-biting that so often is the way of the world.  Even while this liturgy abounds with the images of nature's goodness and of plenteousness- it acknowledges our needs and the still more dire needs of those less fortunate than we.  Jesus does not counsel us to despise the world or to live in harsh asceticism.  We do worry about the winter coats and the grocery bill- and if our worries seldom make it down to the level of survival, we know too many people do live at exactly that level.  God knows our needs and theirs.  And it is in our hand, by God's grace to do something, to provide for ourselves and those we love, and to reach to the stranger that God loves.

 

This day carries us back to note carefully what has been, and to look more deeply at this moment,  to know ourselves, as if in a mirror, and then to act on the best that we have seen, on the image of human goodness that God reveals in Christ Jesus.  Finally, we look towards the future.

 

Do not be anxious, Jesus says.  Let me be clear, there are two things he is not saying.  First, he is not saying to ignore what is troubling and hard.  Jesus is a realist and the Church never forgets the cross or the confessional.  Second, he is not pretending that hunger, physical, emotional, or spiritual, is not real.  What was the bumper sticker, “If you're not outraged, your not paying attention.”  Jesus is paying attention, and expects that we will as well.  Anxiety is not relieved by pulling the covers over our heads, nor by deluding ourselves that we can create a pristine and isolated existence outside the changes and changes of mortal life.  Freedom from Anxiety comes from walking through the one world, the real world, with a heart that is grateful, with hands that are wiling to work for what is good.  And all of this rests on the realization that the one who says, “Do not be anxious.” has triumphed over the worst of it and offers forgiveness and new life.  All of this rests on the conviction that what happens here- the peace of Christ shared and ordinary gifts transformed even as a people are transformed, that this is the kingdom and that our past, our present and our future all are taken up into God's kingdom.  There is a future that is God's kingdom.  Today we will pray “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,” and even as we give thanks, that voice of yearning will go up to join the unending human answer to God's relentless work to create and re-store,  Do not be anxious- give thanks for all the good you have received, take this moment as the opportunity to do all the good you can, and trust that God who has given so much, will give us and all people the kingdom, all we have prayed and hoped for and more than we can imagine.