SCRIPTURE: Hebrew Bible: Deuteronomy 26: 1-11

OCTOBER 13, 2013

THANKSGIVING SERVICE

SCRIPTURE: Hebrew Bible: Deuteronomy 26: 1-11

Epistle: Philippians 4: 4-9

Gospel John 6: 25-35

MEDITATION:

“Amazing Year” to give Thanks

If there ever was a Thanksgiving when we as a congregation should be prepared to give thanks to God it is this one. What a year we have had!

Really our journey started almost two years ago in April of 2012. I left on sabbatical expecting everything to be “ALRIGHT” as we waited for Presbytery’s response on our request for Heritage status on our building. I wasn’t worried – I am by nature an optimist – and I expected a positive response. We didn’t get that and I was shocked. Then as I sat in my little resident room at the University of Toronto or at Queen’s everything seemed to unravel. We were under siege it seemed to “give up” and let Presbytery take over our board’s responsibility. It was a bewildering and an anxious time. I felt so far away and able to do so little to help. The board of this congregation worked like crazy, responding to many demands, meeting frequently and under some pretty tense circumstances. I remember giving thanks for them as I prayed alone in a strange church so far away. I was thankful for their wisdom and their determination to find solutions when it looked like there were no solutions. Every person on our board was amazing – in their stamina and in their dedication to a future that looked anything but promising. And when I got back from the East it was more of the same. It has been a roller coaster of events since that time as we as a congregation worked to come to the resolution that we have today.

I am very thankful for each person of this congregation who put their trust and their support in the board of this church as they made very difficult decisions. It has not been an easy time for them, or for me, or for all of you as we have come through these last few weeks. But here we are now with the future spread out before us. It is right that we should be full of joy this morning and thankful for God’s presence with us. We have come together to indeed “Make a joyful noise in this place – our home, which will remain our home into the future.

Maybe this is why those words in the scripture are so dear to me “My father was a wandering Aramean and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous.” The time in Egypt was difficult and the people cried out to God to help them. And God responded. God acted with miraculous signs and wonders and a new future was spread out before the people in the land that was flowing with milk and honey. And the people rejoiced and remembered to bring to God their thankful hearts and the fruits of their first harvest.

It was a positive outlook.Maybe a little over the top!Because history unfolded and the way and the land was not always flowing with milk and honey. There were many years ahead and the way was not always easy. And yet history continued to unfold and has continued right up to this day – to our day – and here we are. Our future is not exactly flowing with “milk and honey” either, but our future will unfold just as it did for our ancestors. We are at the beginning of something that offers us much hope in that future but we know that the road ahead will not always be easy. We are here though and we will continue to be here, as God’s people with God’s purpose and direction before us. It is now up to us just as it was for our ancestors. We can make the future bright and filled with all manner of possibility or we can cling to a past that is now behind us. It is really up to us.

There is no doubt that we are feeling some of the back lash from the decision we made. There is no doubt as we look around and see our pews more empty then usual that some people are angry at us. But that does not need to dismay us. We do not need to be discouraged. There is a world outside these doors that desperately needs us. And we are here. And we are thankful for each other as we come together to be God’s people here in our home.

Paul in his letter to the Philippians gives good counsel which I believe can guide us as well. “Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

These words feel like great comfort for all of us right now. We are not alone in this future before us. We have each other and we have God and the teaching of Jesus and all the saints to guide us. As Paul says, if we can keep our hearts and minds on “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praise worthy – think about such things.” We have a great deal of teaching behind us and if we strive to live out that teaching then we too can be optimistic about our future. The times are anxious but we do not need to be!

Eleanor Roosevelt wrote many years ago words which are just as true today: “We need imagination and integrity, courage and a high heart. We need to fan the spark of conviction, which may again inspire the world as we did with our new idea of the dignity and worth of free men. But first we must learn to cast out fear. People who ’view with alarm’ never build anything”, (Tomorrow is Now, New York: Harper & Row, 1963, xvii).

We are in a time of building. We do not need to be anxious. It is very fitting that today is Thanksgiving Day. It is a day when we are mindful and focused on all that we have and all that we are thankful for. As we gather today here and later with family and friends we can have that “joyful” sense that we have so longed for. And when we view life from a place of thanksgiving on a daily basis, we will be approaching life from a different perspective than when we “view with alarm.” We will not be afraid of the future or of the challenges of what lies ahead of us, for us or for our world. We will be disciplined to be thankful rather then afraid.

In my family when my children were young we had a tradition. While I was slaving away in the kitchen on Thanksgiving Day, my Mother would read to her grandchildren the stories from Winnie the Pooh. They had heard those stories many times before, but it was a special moment when Grandma read them again. It is a memory that we all hold dear. And there were many lessons in those stories.

Remember the wonderful lessons that you learned and then taught to your children and grandchildren from the stories in Winnie the Pooh. There was Eeyore, Eeyore, the sad looking Eeyore, always fearful, always bemoaning the doom that was just around the corner. Can’t you just see him in your minds eye, “It’ll never work it’ll never work – oh dear, oh dear” those were the words often heard from Eeyore’s Gloomy Place. Christopher Robin and Pooh and Tigger were FREQUENTLY able to help Eeyore see thinks from a more positive perspective.And Eeyore would come around. I remember one story when Eeyore is bemoaning that his house had blown away and his friends were able to help him. I remember him saying in that story, “Brains first and then Hard work. That’s the way to build a house.”

I think we should all try to be like Tigger and Pooh and Christopher Robin and help the Eeyore’s in our midst to see things in a more positive way. Remember “Brains first and then Hard work.” Because of course there is hard work before us. We aren’t yet in the land flowing with milk and honey. But we can be. Today we can be joyful and thankful for all that is before us and for the journey that we have been on that has brought us to this moment of thanksgiving in this “amazing year” that is now behind us.

Give thanks for each other gathered her. Give thanks for the beauty that surrounds us and sustains us now and tomorrow. Give thanks for God and all we have received. Give thanks for our friend and brother Jesus, who continues to teach us every step we take. And even give thanks for Eeyore and Tigger and little Piglet, friends together with Christopher Robin. We are so like them!!

AMEN