What Are You Thankful For?

Yesterday I had the privileged to preach at the Redding Interfaith Thanksgiving Service.  Each year the worshiping communities of the town come together at a different house of worship to give thanks in prayers, readings, and song.  Worship leaders were represented from Episcopal, Congregational, Catholic, Lutheran and Reform Jewish houses of worship.  


I decided I couldn't have a complete conversation, but did ask them a question: What are you thankful for?  After a brief moment of slightly awkward silence as people realized that I actually wanted to talk to them, one of my congregation members spoke (Thank God for ringers!) 


After the worship service I received so many fantastic comments from people about how great it was that I was interactive and engaging.  It truly was humbling.  


So enjoy the sermon, and what are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving is a very American holiday that speaks to many people regardless if their families have been here since the days of the pilgrims or they just immigrated here last month. There are many traditions that make up Thanksgiving that people delight in across the nation, regardless of age, or gender, or ethnicity, or religious affiliation or family make up.  There is the turkey, and all the trimmings, pie for dessert, watching a parade in the morning, either in person or on TV, and watching or playing football in the afternoon. For me, one of my favor traditions is going around the table and each person saying what they are thankful for. 

So this Thanksgiving what are you thankful for?

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We as a people, as a nation, do not do this often enough, pause and reflect on what we are thankful for.  We get so carried away in the hustle and bustle that is daily life that we forget to pause and give thanks.  And yet there is something humbling about giving thanks. 

When we say we are thankful for something, whether that is telling God that we are thankful for what has been given to us or saying “thank you” to a fellow person or just having a feeling of thanksgiving we are admitting that we do not have complete control over what has been given to us. 

When we are thankful, we are admitting that we didn’t receive our jobs or nice home or expensive car just because of our own hard work.  That others have helped us along the way, by educating us, or giving us break when we might not have deserved them.

When we are thankful, we are admitting that the love from our family and friends is not our own doing. Sure we are adorable, who wouldn’t want to love us and we love them. But as many of us know too well, just because you are loving, doesn’t mean that you will be loved in return.

When we are thankful, we are admitting that often we are just lucky.  We have been the lucky ones who have been born into a country where diseases like malaria and tuberculosis are basically non-existent even when they still kill thousands world wide each year.  We are the lucky ones who have not developed cancer, or diabetes, or heart disease, or Alzheimer’s, and just because we haven’t yet develop such a disease doesn’t mean that it still won’t strike us. 

When we are thankful, we are admitting that others have not been so abundantly blessed.  When we are thankful for the food that is on our table, we realize that not everyone has a table, that not everyone has food. That a child dies ever 4 seconds in this world often due to malnutrition. That there are 430 thousand people in Connecticut that are considered food-insecure. 

Giving thanks means admitting that we have been blessed.  We have been blessed by God, we have been blessed by others.  And we are blessed in so many ways that we should take more than one day a year to spend in Thanksgiving.