Gratitude

On our dining room table we have a (stuffed) Turkey we use to decorate in the fall. It has detachable tail feathers that you can write on, and so as the season goes we add things that we are thankful for leading up to thanksgiving.

Over the years the content has changed, from diapers and sleep, to coffee, to school and my teachers, to vaccines and masks.

But a few things are always there - faith, family and friends.

These constants - which are sometimes blessings and sometimes… not so blessings - remind us of who we are and where we came from.

The thanksgiving readings include one of my favorite lines from Deuteronomy - when you make your offering before the Lord say “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number.” You may have much to give thanks for this year, you may feel you have very little, you may have a full house or a half empty table, but as you gather take a moment to consider our faith story and your own story.

That we came from a wandering aramean, whose family grew in great numbers, until they found themselves exiled in the desert. They came into a land of promise, until they were exiled again. Kingdoms waxed and waned, wealth has come and gone. Saviors born and crucified, prophets celebrated and tortured, but through all of that we have always had faith, family and community.

As Christians we do not judge ourselves by the standards of the world or by our present circumstances. We consider the whole of the story, and give thanks for all of it.

Today I give thanks for Memorial’s story, and I hope today you will take a moment to give thanks for your whole story.