Thanksgiving Day Reprieve:

I will praise your name,

and sing hymns of thanksgiving.

 (Sirach 51:11)

I’ll leave our creation story behind this morning. It’s Thanksgiving Day. President Lincoln, in the midst of the Civil War, declared Thanksgiving Day a national holiday.

During our fall to winter national holidays state and church leave their differences and dance about: Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day. You have to work on it to make such celebrations secular. Can we give thanks without some thoughts about our Creator? And Christmas... there’s no getting around it. It has to do with what happened that night when “certain poor shepherds in fields where they lay, on a cold winter’s night that was so deep;” as the hymn goes. Or, New Year’s Day celebrating two-thousand and some years since when? Even when the powers manage to change AD (Year of our Lord) to CE (Common Era), you can’t help but notice that it’s still two-thousand and some years since something big happened. So, let’s enjoy the holidays. It’s about our origin story.

That first thanksgiving came after the pilgrims endured their first New England winter—a dreadful winter. Of the twenty-six heads of family only twelve survived, and of the eighteen married women only three lived to see the winter snows melt away. They sent the Mayflower back with orders for Ale and women. With new arrivals, and the help of Squanto and his agricultural tips, “the earth brought forth life.” Following a bountiful harvest, Pilgrims and Indians celebrated with a thanksgiving feast.

In a few hours we will celebrate our Thanksgiving Day feast with the Mickelson side of the clan. Like that first thanksgiving, there is loss. Jan died this last year. Ron lost his wife. Pam and Kim lost their mother. The grandchildren lost their grandma; and, Linda lost one of her dearest friends. And yet, something good and beautiful remains (1Tm 4:4-5):

Everything created by God is good,

                  and nothing is to be rejected,

provided it is received with thanksgiving;

                  for it is made holy by God's word and by prayer.

So, let’s gather around the table, sing our hymns and offer our prayers of thanksgiving: “I will praise your name, and sing hymns of thanksgiving.”