Thanksgiving Day Service Message
Trinity Episcopal Church
by Ian Markham
November 24, 2004
America has certainly changed since 1621. In 1621, America was primarily populated by Native Americans and a few settlers in Virginia and New England. Today, America is a country of 260,000,000 people, a vast, technological, economic, success story, and the world’s only superpower. The most powerful nation the world has ever seen. One can almost understand how the Pilgrims on the Mayflower found themselves inspired by the story of the Jewish people One can see how the text we heard tonight from Deuteronomy must have so shaped them. They recognized in the Jewish people a shared sense of persecution. The Pilgrims fleeing persecution in England, the Jewish people fleeing slavery in Egypt. They recognized in the journey of the wilderness a shared journey across the Atlantic Ocean - a journey which had many perils and carried significant risks. They recognized the challenge of settlement where the Jewish people had to settle the land so the settlers had to cope with the changing extremes of New England season. Believe me quite unlike England. And they had the challenge of making the land productive. And of course 1621, is the moment, thanks to assistance of Native Americans, that they have their bumper crop and the first Thanksgiving.
From that moment to this, Americans in their calendar pause and celebrate with gratitude, the gift and achievement of America. Now at this point we all pause, for some there is an awkwardness here. Being grateful for what other people have done isn’t uncomplicated. We have close friends staying with us who are German and it’s interesting to talk to them about how they cope and come to terms with the role that Germany played in twentieth century European history. I’m an Englishman. I’ve got to cope with the embarrassment of a colonial age, which was often deeply exploitive and very inhumane. The America story has its dark period -the treatment of the Native Americans and of course the history of slavery and segregation. Yet, I must confess, I love America and Americans. In fact, I often find myself in a situation where I find I like America more than my American friends. I must confess to you all tonight, that I’m very partial to a Big Mac from McDonald’s and I quite like Krispy Krème. Even the bits of American that most Americans find a bit embarrassing, I rather like. I do believe there is a remarkable achievement in America. This is the most religiously diverse country on the face of the globe, where the particularities of each tradition are held deeply and sincerely and yet at the same time it’s a culture that firmly believes in the right of the other to be.
September 11 is in a strange sort of way is a long way away now; Afghanistan and Iraq have gotten in the way now. But its worth remembering that if an attack of that nature had happened in perhaps any other part of the world, such as India, you would have seen reprisals on a massive scale. It reflects well on a people that that did not happen. I think one should take pride in what this country is trying and striving to be. We should be grateful for living in America. But the gospel teaches us that we are called not just to be grateful for being here. Gratitude should shape our underlying disposition to absolutely everything. That is what makes sense of Jesus’ extraordinary injunction when he clearly and unequivivocably forbids worry. We are not allowed to worried at all. Now that seems so unreasonable. Worry is a potential state of mind for so many of us. My wife and I had a recent problem with our Mercury Sable. It looked like transmission needed replacing. We were told, “you’re looking at $3,000.00”. A sense of anxiety and worry pervaded the home. My jokes were no longer laughed at. (They’re not laughed at much anyway, but especially during those few days.) Yet the worry added nothing to solve the problem. It just exacerbated the problem. Worry exacerbates. It never helps. Even when those moments when we feel entitled to worry, perhaps it’s a life threatening disease, perhaps the danger of unemployment, even then Jesus says, “No. Worry will not help. It always makes the problem worse.” Instead, Jesus says, “ our underlying disposition should be gratitude coupled with trust.” Trusting in God that ultimately as we seek the kingdom of God so all these things will be added unto you. So this Thanksgiving shouldn’t just be for the moment. It shouldn’t just be for tomorrow. This Thanksgiving should become the underlying disposition of faithfulness to the God we worship. We are prohibited to worry about the trivial Mercury Sables. We’re not even allowed to worry about the serious. Instead, we are called to be grateful and called to trust.
May God give us the grace to do that. Amen.
