I have many things to be thankful for this season, such as my life, family, friends, health, and so much more ... here is a passage from an old college book that I had to read in Freshman Seminar. In this book title, Strength for the Journey, Peter J. Gomes writes about sermons he has done at the Harvard University. One of his sermons that has always stuck out to me is one title, Thanksgiving: What Have You Done for Me Lately?
Is the Lord among us or not? - Exodus 17:7
.............. As grand marshal, I had the extraordinary opportunity to sit in the reviewing stand and watch a two-and-a-half-hour parade of nations and their cultures pass by, represented by dancers in the streets, children, marching bands, drum and bugle corps, and mariachi bands; and to see an Irish pipe band following a group of dancers fromSenegal; and Hondurans, Pakistanis, and Germans all sharing their splendid colors, music and marching styles as they passed the Pilgrim landmarks or Plymouth Rock and the Mayflower. It was a sense of Thanksgiving that would have blown away the minds of those poor frightened little Pilgrims and their Native American hosts and guest, and extraordinary thing to behold. One woman nearby observed, in a good Midwestern American stage whisper to no on in particular but within perfect earshot of us all, that being in Plymouth for Thanksgiving was like being in Bethlehem for Christmas, only that it was a lot safer in Plymouth.I mention all of this to remind us how easy it is to feel good at this time of year. Basking in that international splendor, and looking at the many representatives of those nations marching in our streets who are in the headlines not for the joys and peace of their lands but for the trials and tribulations they have endured and are enduring, it is easy to rejoice in our own good fortune and to celebrate the fact that we invented this holiday, it is uniquely ours, and we have a right to feel good. It is also easy, however, to feel bad at this time of year, especially if we feel we haven't sufficient reason to feel good. We havehad, for example, bad financial news; the medical diagnosis is not encouraging; there are serious strains in the marriage; the relationship is breaking apart; and either Al Gore or George Bush will be president (this is a few years old!). I know people who have profited enormously in the stock-market boom of the last few years who, instead of rejoicingand being grateful to God for their unmerited windfall of wealth, are in a semi permanent state of depression and anxiety because they know it all must end sooner or later.
Some old Pilgrim friends - Pilgrim-descendant friends- go into hiding at this time of year, and curse their ancestors. "I hate the Pilgrims," says one of them, "for just because they were always cheerful in tough times, and thankful, and worked hard, and all of that, everybody thinks we should do the same. It was an ill wind that blew the Mayflower intoPlymouth Harbor."When these moods hit, and they do or they will; when we are not grateful or thankful or happy on sue; when the calendar and culture tell us we are to be pleased, happy, thankful, and joyful whether we are or not; when we remember the advice of Flanders and Swann, that "We should always be sincere whether we mean it or not" - at such moments we are likely to respond as did those difficult Jews in this morning's lesson, tempting and taunting God, and asking, "Is the Lord with us or not?" Are you on our side or not? Are you going to deliver the goods or not? Not way out there, not way back then, but now? Moses "called the name of the place Massah and Meribah" - which means, in translation from the Hebrew, places of "Testing and strife"- "Because of the fault finding of the children of Israel, and because they put the Lord to the test ....." The lesson takes place in the place of testing and strife.They were annoyed, as you will recall, by their privations in the wilderness, and some had even wanted to return to Egypt, where at least they had had three meals a day, drink, a certain familiar routine, and guaranteed employment. But the time we encounter them they have forgotten the facts of their oppression, and worse, they have forgottenthe facts of their liberation. They have forgotten how they were wonderfully led out of Egypt and through the Red Sea. They have forgotten their charismatic leader, Moses, and his great services to them; and they have forgotten God. We cannot say that they had forgotten the psalm that we read this morning, which lists all of those things, because the psalm had not yet been written. So, we cannot blame them for forgetting the psalm, but we can blame them for forgetting that the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever...............Now, you have perfectly good reason to ask what we, on the eve of Thanksgiving, are to make of this, and what points the preacher wants us to remember that there are three things to be learned from this lesson, and I hope they will see you through lunch, through Thanksgiving Day, and through the rest of your life, however short or long that may be.First, remember to remember. The thirsty Jews, so obsessed with their present privations, forgot to remember the God who had brought them out of Egypt in the first place, through all that water, and forgot to remember that that God would not bring them this far to let them die of thirst in the desert. That would be a wasted investment - all thattrouble and annoyance for nothing. This Thursday, as you gather around your tables with your dysfunctional families and friends, in invite you to remember not the usual good things, not the list of the blessings you have received, like an audit at the stockholders' meeting, but the bad things, by name, that have happened to you, the terrible things, the worst things.
THINK OF YOUR WORST MOMENTS, YOUR SORROWS, YOUR LOSSES, YOUR SADNESS, AND THEN REMEMBER THAT HERE YOU ARE, ABLE TO REMEMBER THEM. YOU GOT THROUGH THE WORST DAY OF YOUR LIFE; THERE MAY BE YET A WORSE ONE IN STORE FOR YOU, BUT THAT'S FOR NEXT THANKSGIVING. THIS THANKSGIVING YOU GOT THROUGH THE TRAUMA, YOU GOT THROUGH THE TRIAL, YOU ENDURED THE TEMPTATION, YOU SURVIVED THE BAD RELATIONSHIP, YOU'RE MAKING YOUR WAY OUR OF THE DARK AND OUT OF THE MIRY CLAY. REMEMBER WHO GOT YOU THROUGH.YOU GOT INTO THE MESS ON YOUR OWN, BUT REMEMBER THAT IT WAS THE LORD WHO GOT YOU OUT OF IT, GOT YOU THROUGH IT, AND WAS WITH YOU IN THE MIDDLE OF IT.
There are more troubles to come, infinite more troubles to come, and you may be in trouble right now, but i you remember to remember you will remember, as the old spiritual says, "How I got over." How I was spared, how the Lord did a wonderful thing in bringing me through to this present moment; and how he did it I will never know, how I got there I will never know, but I will remember to remember to thank God. remember to remember, and not just the good things- you'll take those for granted - but remember the bad things, and then look to see where you are. That's the first thing: remember to remember.
1. Remember to remember - the bad things, not just the good.
2. Thanksgiving is ThansLIVING, a life of gratitude, a work in progress.
3. God is not to be tempted but to be trusted. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
