Yesterday, down at the school we had a prayer service with
the school children. It began with the
first graders processing up the aisle carrying pictures of things that they
were thankful for, which they had made themselves. One child carried a picture of his house,
another of his family, there were pictures of nature, like beautiful trees and
mountains, and there was a picture of our church building.
They sang songs like “for the gifts of His Creation, thanks
be to God”, and “father, we thank thee who has planted, thy holy name within
our hearts.” They concluded with the
song “America the Beautiful” giving thanks to God for our nation, asking God to
bless it and protect it.
In the middle of the American Civil War, President Abraham
Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be celebrated on the final
Thursday in November.
I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of
the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning
in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday next, as a day of
Thanksgiving and Praise to our
beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.
And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly
due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with
humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his
tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in
the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently
implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation
and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the
full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and Union.”
Thanksgiving Day is a civil holiday, yes. Whose origins, before the scourge of atheism
and indifference to God swept over our land, our nations looked to the God of
Creation in thanksgiving and praise for his blessings.
In a few weeks, the busyness of the Christmas season will be
upon us, and we will be reminded to keep the Christ in Christmas, to remember
that his glorious birth is the reason for our celebration. Today, I think, we do well, to keep the
Thanks in Thanksgiving. To recall the
blessings of our life, food, shelter, family, the beauty of nature, and of
course our faith, which promises everlasting life. Those first graders who recalled their
blessings were so full of joy. There is
always a connection with gratefulness and joy.
The truly grateful heart is also a joyful heart.
In the Gospel, 10 lepers received healing, but it was the
one leper, who returned to the Lord to give thanks who was saved. True thanksgiving opens our hearts to the
eternal. True thanks is not just focused
on the things of this earth, but sees in them goods that come from God, which
we have a responsibility to use wisely.
President Lincoln also encouraged humble penitence for our
national perverseness and disobedience. What is perverseness other than misusing
the goods of the earth for selfish ends.
Selfishness and thanksgiving are like oil and water.
So we pray today, that God free us from all forms of
selfishness, and give us grateful hearts, that we may know his salvation, for
the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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