From a Thanksgiving sermon, Nov. 24, 2010
Deuteronomy 26:1-11;
Our lesson from Deuteronomy gives us the following helpful suggestions.
First, take time to open your eyes and see the miracle of this earth, to try to see with God’s eyes, to watch over the earth as God does, to live in relationship with it, knowing that the earth belongs to God, and that the earth itself is part of our covenant with God.
Second, share what you’ve been given by bringing your offerings—and this offering of what God has given us has to be done thoughtfully, in the context of the story of our ongoing relationship with God.
And that ongoing relationship is that God brings us out of the messes we get into, back into awareness of our places, here on this earth, secure in God’s love and care for us, because we are part of the ongoing story of God’s love for all of creation.
Third, God wants us to offer thanks. As we say in our Eucharistic Prayer each Sunday, “it is right to give God thanks and praise.”
And as Rite One so poetically puts it, “ It is right and good, and our bounden duty that we at all times and in all places give thanks to Thee, O Lord, Holy Father, almighty, everlasting God.”
And then at last, having regained our awareness and truly seeing all the blessings of this life, and bringing our offerings to God with thanks and praise,
God tells us to celebrate.
So during this Thanksgiving, slow down.
Acknowledge and celebrate this three way covenant that God has made with us by granting us the gift of life on this earth.
Take time to look around you at this good earth, to see its beauty, truly sense the earth beneath your feet, feel on your face the heat of the sun that lights our days, taste on your tongue the rain that waters the ground.
And with thanks and praise, hold this bread that you will receive tonight in your hand, the true bread from heaven, the body of the One who came to live and die on this earth as one of us, to reconcile us to God, the creator of all things.
Eat this food laid out like a banquet before us now.
Eat this food that feeds us and brings us to our true home, Jesus, the One who gives life to us, and to the world, to the earth itself, this earth, flowing with milk and honey.
And then, go home rejoicing, and celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord has given to you and to your house, season after season, after season.