Thanksgiving Day 2006
The Rev. Canon Kathleen Kelly
We Homo Sapiens are quite impressed with our ability to walk upright on two legs and handle the complex thoughts needed for speech. But today’s Gospel reminds us of fronts where the lilies and the robins have bragging rights. They are infinitely better at celebrating what is rather than belaboring what is not. Have you ever seen a lily that showed signs of pining away over the fact that it is not a rose? Have you ever seen a robin preoccupied with the fact that a blue jay has a pretty blue plume, and it does not. The birds, the bees, the fish and the trees all seem to be gifted at simply relishing what is and being what they were born to be. We, on the other hand, spend much of our emotional time dwelling on what is not, or even worse dreading what might possibly be but hasn’t happened yet. You know what I’m talking about: WORRY, that inexcusable, faithless act most of us excel at. Have you ever noticed yourself even worrying inconsistently? We can worry about dying too young, and we can worry about living too long in an aged and disabled condition. I call it the “Goldie Locks Syndrome,” a spiritual disease of frightening severity.
There’s a reason for all this, of course, and it goes back to those wits we are so proud of. You see, with our reasoning ability, we know, unlike the lilies, that we are going to die. And what’s worse, we know that our petals will most likely fall off one by one before we die. And, we know that storms will buffet us while we are living. In short, we know that bad things happen to those who are trying their very, very best to get life right. Even people who eat broccoli three times a day while jogging for exercise are not immune from sadness. Some of you may approach this Thanksgiving struggling to give thanks because of tragedies that have visited you this past year. It can be very, very difficult to approach a holiday set aside for celebration when conscious of our own losses or the plight of so many around the world.
We need a guide, and we have an excellent one in the man who set aside this particular day as a day to give thanks. It wasn’t a pilgrim. You probably know that it was Abraham Lincoln, and we can learn anew by recalling the context in which he set aside this day as a national day of thanks. It was 1863, in the midst of the Civil War. More human carnage was occurring on our territory than we can now imagine. Every family was affected by tragic loss. Mothers and fathers had lost all their sons to the war. The founder of the Episcopal seminary in Sewanee, Tennessee lost every single family member, every friend, every possession; every piece of sod at his home was charred. It was in this context, that Lincoln said to the nation, it is time to pause and give thanks. Thankfully, he left a beautiful proclamation telling us what he had in mind.
It cries out to the people: remember, there is always cause to give thanks, and thanksgiving is our salvation. He reminded the people of facts that have dimmed with the passage of time: When America fell into Civil War, the still-expanding imperial powers of Europe began licking their chops. Maybe this whole United States thing would be a short-lived experiment. Maybe they could sweep back and exert control. That had not happened, and Lincoln implored the people to give thanks for this because thanksgiving is the key to peace. All war, all violence, all bloodshed stems from the false impression hat there is not enough to go around, so we need to fight over what is. Thanksgiving reminds us that abundance abounds. There is more than enough, and no need to fight.
And Lincoln reminded the people of an even more important truth: Whatever is happening, God is still in our midst. With God in our midst, new life and new possibilities are always at hand. He urged the people to recall that babies were still being born; new life was at hand.
Lincoln’s last reminder is perhaps the best. He pointed his listeners to the needs of others: to widows, orphans, mourners and sufferers. With God’s wild imagination in the mix, there is the possibility that we will not only experience new blessings, but that we will become new blessings, new blessings to others. I was driving through the wine country recently. The vineyards were showing beautiful fall colors. You have probably noticed metallic strips that are used to ward off birds. The metallic strips were shimmering all over. It struck me, that if we had eyes to see every one of God’s ideas for how we might better become blessings to one another, those ideas would cover our sightlines with such twinkles. I invite you to hold that image in mind. Consider that divine ideas are peppering the landscape with shimmering possibilities from heaven.
We gain the eyes to see those shimmering ideas through thanksgiving. It takes us from the world of what is not, to the world of what is and yet may be. As you give thanks this day, know that in the eyes of heaven, you are a bundle of shimmering possibilities.