Festival of Thanksgiving
True thanks-giving requires humility. Our modern culture encourages us once a year to “be thankful” but seldom if ever says to whom. While there may be valid reasons in a diverse culture to avoid words and themes not all could embrace, the result is often a “thankfulness” that is, in fact, self-congratulation and self-satisfaction. It is then too easy to thank our political or economic systems, our national work ethic, or our favored-nation status. If at heart we believe we deserve the good we enjoy, we cannot truly be thankful to the giver and source of all we have and are. Without the humility to admit that everything, down to our most recent breath, is grace, a gift from our loving God, we are like the rich farmer in Luke 12:13-21, of whom God says, “You fool!”
Humility is noticeably absent in political campaigns, as witnessed in the election just past. Self-congratulation is the norm. And yet, in our second reading, 1 Timothy 2:1-7, Paul reminds us, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.” It also takes humility on our part to pray for the flawed, human politicians who are willing to endure the degrading and exhausting process our elections inflict, in order to serve the larger, common good. People, institutions, friends, families, jobs, and circumstances do not need to be perfect or exemplary for us to be thankful for them. On this national holiday many gather for Thanksgiving worship in church settings that are strife- or tension-filled, in a culture that is deeply divided, in a nation long at war, and around family meals where hurts long past are still carried as burdens. It takes humility, grace, and love to be genuinely thankful in our real-life circumstances.
