Sermon for Thanksgiving
Day
St. Philips In The
Hills Parish, Tucson, AZ
The Rev. Vicki Hesse,
November 22, 2012
For Readings, click here
Thank You, God. Amen
The
other day I saw
this report about Sam Sifton,
the
national editor of the New York Times.
He has a
new book out called,
“Thanksgiving,
How To Cook It Well.”[1]
He said,
on the national news,
“Thanksgiving
is scary for a lot of people.
It’s a
holiday that’s filled with a lot of stress…
Do I
have enough plates?
Do I
have enough glasses?
Am I
really going to have a tablecloth?
What is
a tablecloth? Can I use a sheet?
That’s
cheap. Maybe I should…
What do
I do about Uncle Morty who’s an alcoholic?
He’s
gotta be there – but then he gets drunk!”
Sifton summarized,
“Thanksgiving
doesn’t have to be so complicated…Everything’s gonna be okay,”
“It’s a
pretty simple meal
when you
really think about it.
You’re
roasting a giant chicken.
You’re
mashing some potatoes.
You’re
mashing almost everything.
It’
basically a pile of mush on a plate
with
slices of big chicken.”
Even
still, Thanksgiving is scary for a lot of people
= = =
=
In
today’s Gospel message,
we get
the sense that the disciples were scared, too.
This new
vocation they chose – to follow Jesus –
was
filled with a lot of stress.
‘What will we eat?’ ‘What will we
drink?’ ‘What will we wear?’
See, up
to this point in the Gospel according to Matthew,
Jesus
had been preaching and teaching to them
in the “Sermon
On The Mount.”
There,
Jesus explained what it meant to be disciples.
He taught
a new way of looking at God’s kingdom,
about the
beatitudes,
about
being the salt of the earth and the light of the world,
about his
fulfilling the law (not abandoning it),
about how
to live in community, and
about how
to pray.
Our text
today comes right at the point in Jesus’ sermon
when
Jesus offers more instruction
about what
“righteousness” means.
So the
disciples begin to get scared and anxious.
‘What will we eat?’ ‘What will we
drink?’ ‘What will we wear?’
The
disciples, eager to please Jesus and to be good disciples,
might have,
at that moment had a wavering faith –
a faith
that until now, they could hold onto.
And here
was Jesus,
asking
them to move away from their cultural values
into a
life of trust and obedience in God’s reign.
This
made them hesitant; they needed reassurance.
= =
=
We are
not unlike those disciples,
eager to
please Jesus and to be a disciple,
but
sometimes with a wavering faith.
Jesus is
asking us to move away from cultural values
and into
a life of trust and obedience.
This
makes us hesitant; we need reassurance.
In fact,
few of us are exempt from worry and anxiety.
It’s not
uncommon to live with chronic anxiety,
and many
are scared – of losing our homes,
losing
our jobs,
not
having enough money for retirement;
caring
for our children or caring for our parents; and
avoiding
danger and terror attacks.
Those
who have little,
fret over
adequate shelter, food, and water;
finding
a decent job;
taking
care of their families;
having
enough money to survive.
All of
us – rich and poor, privileged and exploited –
have
legitimate reasons to fret and worry,
even
though we know that fret and worry
do not
change the realities we face.
Will God
love me if I don’t worry?
Will God
love me if I show my vulnerabilities?
Trusting
in God’s providential care is not easy.
If God
is going to lovingly provide for all my needs,
does
that mean that I can just goof off?
More
often than not, my faith waivers –
what if…
it doesn’t work out.
I feel
like it’s all up to me.
AND,
there is a tension of
living
as a disciple and
believing
in God’s loving providential care.
AND
we are
called to feed the hungry,
clothe
the naked, and
visit
those in prison.
= =
=
Which is
what the disciples had just heard
in the
Sermon On The Mount –
about
feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and caring for others.
At that
point, Jesus looked at the disciples and
smelled their
fear.
With
compassion, he began from their perspective.
Jesus taught
the disciples
in
language of their wisdom tradition.
He
appealed to their common sense and
their
understanding of how nature works.[2]
Isn’t
life more than food?
Isn’t
the body more than clothing?
Look at
the birds… consider the lilies of the field…
look at
the grass
Therefore, do not worry, …
Jesus
asked the disciples to “seek first the kingdom”
not in a
“chronological” manner
but to
seek God’s kingdom above all else.
Jesus
reminded the disciples, you have one priority:
God’s
kingdom.
Think less about what you are
doing and more about what God has done, is doing and has promised.[3]
Jesus
assured them.
The one
who called them to this radical style of life
is also
the Creator
who lovingly provides for all of
creation and
who, in
the end, brings all of creation into God’s reign,
worry or
not.
Jesus
assured them.
Look, he
said,
God
comes to where you are most vulnerable –
eating,
drinking, clothing –
and that
is the cross of the moment.
It
was the cross of the moment
in
1863.
That
was a vulnerable moment for Abraham Lincoln,
when
he set the day of Thanksgiving
on
the fourth Thursday of November[4]
–
a
day we have observed ever since.
In
Lincoln’s
vulnerable moment,
his
life consisted of a confluence of anxious situations:
·
His political future was bleak:
o
If he was defeated in the 1864 election,
o
the confederacy would gain independence
o
and the Union
would be permanently split.
·
Members of his own cabinet openly detested
him.
·
His wife was being investigated as a
traitor.
In
this moment, Lincoln
must have had faith
in
God’s providential care.
He
must have discovered a spiritual practice
included
in many of Paul’s letters,
including
1 Timothy that we read today, that
“…
that supplications, prayers, intercessions and
thanksgivings
be made for everyone…”
In
Lincoln’s
vulnerable moment,
he
came to the awareness that
in
the midst of personal suffering,
the
one thing one needs most to remember
is
the goodness of God.
In
the face of circumstances that seem too difficult to endure,
Lincoln
discovered God’s goodness and mercy
by
giving thanks as one community.
When we
give thanks today, as one community,
we begin
to know God’s loving care.
We begin
to realize that we can face an uncertain life.
We begin
to know that we are not alone.
God
hears, sees, and cares about us and our situations.
God lovingly provides for all of
creation.
God is
already acting in our life
by
calling us here today; to share a meal –
a
special meal in our culture.
This
meal of common food
has been
in our tradition for years.
It’s
what people are craving
more
than carbohydrates and protein.
Today’s
meal helps us remember who we are.[5]
The meal
of which I speak, of course,
is the
Eucharist.
In
that spiritual practice of giving thanks,
we
have that supreme example each Sunday
and
which we observe today:
That
on the night in which he was betrayed,
Jesus
took bread and when he had given thanks, …
and
then after supper, Jesus took the cup
and
when he had given thanks…
In
THAT Thanksgiving, in THAT Eucharist, Jesus personally embodied God’s loving providence for all of creation.
God
provides food enough.
God
provides drink enough.
God
clothes you with righteousness and grace –
even to
those of little faith.
God gets
involved in Thanksgiving dinners and
pours
grace gravy overall the trimmings.
The good
news today is
that
Jesus is inviting people
to God’s
Thanksgiving Dinner,
where
priorities are clear.[6]
In the reign
of God,
people
look out for each other and share what they have;
people
take what they need and leave some for others.
In God’s
Thanksgiving Dinner,
people
think about their neighbors
even as they
think about themselves.
Let us
give thanks to the Lord our God!
It is
right to give God thanks and praise.
Amen.
[1]
“Thanksgiving Do’s and Don’t from Sam Sifton,” by Alexandra Ludka, November 16,
2012. Cited at http://abcnews.go.com/US/sam-siftons-thanksgiving-cook/story?id=17740861#.UKxNzWfAETA
on November 19, 2012
[2] New
Interpreter’s Bible, Matthew p. 210-211
[3] This
quote excerpted from Rt. Rev. G. Porter Taylor in his Nov. 21 weekly reflection
at http://bit.ly/U10BwV
[4] What
Makes This Day Different, p. 122-123
[5] YES!
Magazine, Fall 2012, page 31 “Tribe Returns To Traditional Diet” by Kim Eckart
[6] Feasting
On The Word, Eighth Sunday After The Epiphany, Year A, p. 406
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