Christ Lutheran Parish

Thanksgiving 2008

Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. These words from the chorus of Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi ring true in every generation. Maybe that’s why Janet Jackson took a sample from the song and Counting Crows did a remake of it. It is in the midst of loss that we can get a good look at what we had. The things we took for granted before gain much more importance after they are gone. A job, a house, the growth of a 401k, loved ones, good health, health care benefits, thriving schools, churches, civic and fraternal organizations, mines, farms, dairies, open lands, plenty of fish and deer. Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.

I wonder if it wasn’t the same for the pilgrims who found themselves out of luck in the Americas. It was in the midst of want and scarcity that they came together to celebrate when the harvest was plenteous. For the pilgrims who were just trying to scratch out a living at first, but whose work, dedication, and commitment along with a big old helping of God’s providence allowed for a bounty to help them survive the winters, the blessings of food, clothing, and shelter gave them reason enough to celebrate feasts of thanksgiving in honor of the Creator and Sustainer who provided these gifts. But this celebration was only as great as the list of the losses that formed the subtext and backdrop of the Holiday.

We celebrate Thanksgiving because we know that good times aren’t always a given. We celebrate and give thanks to God for all He has given to us because we know that gifts are not to be expected or taken for granted. A favorable harvest is not a given. A prosperous economy is never a certainty. Good prices on commodities, lumber, and steel are not set in stone. What is certain is that God is good, and God provides. Maybe God doesn’t provide the ways we would hope. Perhaps what God gives us are opportunities to share, to work together, and to meet the needs of others. Maybe what God gives us looks like decline at first, but really it is an opportunity to share with others the gifts we have been given and to praise God for his love and generosity in the process.

Maybe the present economic reality is a chance to meet Christ among the least of these. Maybe the crisis that our parish is facing is a challenge to rise above an old way of being the church and to be transformed by a renewing of God’s purpose to save and bless the world. In order for us to experience the transforming power of God’s love we sometimes have to endure hard times. We have to pass through the fire in order to realize that we will not be burned, but purified by its flames. I know that in the midst of these circumstances it can be hard to be thankful. I know it is easy to become stuck in our own sense of desperation and loss, but if we weren’t challenged how could we grow in endurance, in faith, in hope, and in love?

Perhaps our challenges and struggles in life are opportunities to express thanksgiving for the many good things we do have and for the good gifts of healing, life, and salvation we have received. When Jesus healed the ten lepers in the region between Samaria and Galilee (Luke 17:11-19), only one of them returned to thank Jesus and to thank God. He was the outsider, the foreigner, the one we would least expect to return, but the other nine, where do they go? I wonder if they don’t return to miserable lives trading one kind of leprosy for another; one kind of misery for another. For it is in our gratitude that we find joy. It is by giving thanks that in the midst of our fears and uncertainty that we find we have been given more than we have lost and there are certain gifts that because of their eternal nature will never be taken away. Thanks be to God.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.