Giving Thanks On The Way
Happy Thanksgiving, Aldersgate!
Before the turkey comes out of the oven and the football games begin, here are a few fun Thanksgiving facts for you to share around the table:
Wild turkeys can run up to about twenty five miles per hour and can fly even faster. Their domestic cousins that end up on most of our tables do not move quite that fast.
Benjamin Franklin once suggested that the turkey would make a better national bird than the bald eagle. Imagine that on our money.
Macy’s was not the first store to sponsor a Thanksgiving parade. A department store in Philadelphia called Gimbels held one four years earlier.
In 2007, a pair of pardoned turkeys were flown from the White House to Disney World to serve as honorary grand marshals in the Thanksgiving parade.
Here is the part that matters most to me though. Thanksgiving is still one of the few days when our whole culture pauses, even just a little, to say thank you. We gather with family or friends. We call or text people we love. We bow our heads over a meal and remember that every good gift has a Giver.
Scripture invites us into that posture all year long. In First Thessalonians, chapter five, verses sixteen to eighteen, Paul writes, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances. For this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Notice he does not say give thanks for all circumstances. Some things that happen to us are not good. But even there, God can meet us, and gratitude can help us see grace that we might otherwise miss.
Today I am giving thanks for you.
I am grateful for the way you care for one another through simple acts of love. For the cards you send to those who are grieving or celebrating. For the way you remember our older members and those who cannot be in worship every week. Those small gestures preach a quiet sermon about the heart of God.
I am grateful for the way you care for people in our community who are often unseen. You bring warm items for our unsheltered neighbors. You choose tags from the Angel Tree so that children can open gifts on Christmas morning. You stock the shelves and deliver bags for Food Share, and in the process you offer more than groceries. You offer dignity and hope. I still think about the team who discovered that their Food Share client was in the hospital and decided to visit instead of simply moving on to the next address. That is the love of Jesus in real time.
I am grateful that God has called me to be in ministry with you in this season. Your prayers, your generosity, your willingness to serve, and the way you love our neighbors remind me why the church matters.
As we set our tables today, we are also getting ready to set the table for a new season. This Sunday we begin our Advent series, On the Way. We will journey through the Christmas story by visiting some of the places that shaped it. Believe it or not, we begin not in Bethlehem, but in Rome. What does an emperor’s decree in a faraway city have to do with a baby in a manger and with our lives today? Come and see.
My prayer for you this Thanksgiving is simple: that you will find a moment to slow down, to breathe, to notice at least one blessing, and to whisper a prayer of thanks to the One who gives every good gift.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.
With Gratitude,
Rev. Rodney Whitfield
Senior Pastor
Aldersgate UMC