Friday, November 21, 2008 - Edmond, Oklahoma
On Thursday, November 27, our nation will observe its annual Thanksgiving holiday. This is the opening day of my favorite season, a festive time filled with cherished family traditions and joyful celebration.
Finally, we can begin decorating our house for Christmas. Already, I have ordered my necessary fruit cake and peanut brittle. Sweaters and my almost 40-year-old leather jacket are out of storage and ready for wear. After viewing of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on television, I will be ready to hear the music of the season. Soon, Robbie and I will go through our umpteenth viewings of White Christmas, A Christmas Story, Holiday Inn, Christmas in Connecticut, A Christmas Carol and It's A Wonderful Life. This year, we are excited about our grandson, Andy's, second Christmas. It really is "that very special time of the year!"
For us, Thanksgiving gets off to an early and appropriate start with our church's annual "Thank You, Jesus" banquet. This Sunday evening, November 23, over 700 believers in Edmond's First Baptist Church will come together for feasting and celebration. This great time of fellowship will reach a stirring climax when our pastor, Dr. Alan Day, leads us in observing the Lord's Supper. Then, we are just days away from our spectacular Festival of Lights and Living Christmas Tree. These are our gifts to our community and reminders that it all about Him, our Lord, Jesus Christ.
This morning, anticipating all of this, I paused to reflect on the history and current significance of Thanksgiving in our country.
Some historians trace the origins of our North American thanksgiving celebrations back as far as 1578 in Newfoundland, but the traditional roots of our modern holiday are found 45 years later in Plymouth Plantation, Massachusetts. A colony of European pilgrims, seeing their crops destroyed by drought, had prayed and fasted for relief. As saving rain began to fall, Captain Miles Standish came with the news that a Dutch supply ship was on its way. Overwhelmed with gratitude, the believing colonists spent June 30, 1623, in thanksgiving to God.
Occasional, autumn harvest celebrations were observed throughout the American colonies for the next 150 years. But in 1789, Elias Boudinot, a member of the House of Representatives from Massachusetts, moved that a day of thanksgiving should be established to thank God for allowing our nation to create a constitution that would guarantee the preservation of our hard-won freedoms. A Congressional Joint Committee approved his motion, and on October 3, 1789, President George Washington issued a proclamation that began with these words, "Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor--and Whereas both Houses of Congress have by their Joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness. Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be--"
If you want to credit anyone for the establishment of Thanksgiving as an official holiday, the recognition should go to Sarah Josepha Hale, the author of the poem, Mary Had a Little Lamb, and the editor of Ladies Magazine and Godey's Lady's Book. For 36 years she crusaded for a national day of thanksgiving. Governors, senators and presidents were bombarded with her petitions, and her magazines were filled with articles championing her cause. Finally, her persistence was rewarded. Following the Union army's victory at Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that November 26 would be a national Thanksgiving Day, and that it would be observed every year on the fourth Thursday of November.
In an effort to energize the economy during our nation's Great Depression, in 1939 and 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving back to the third Thursday in November. He did this to give suffering merchants more selling days before Christmas. However, he soon discovered that Americans do not take lightly anyone messing with their cherished traditions. In 1941, a Congressional Joint Resolution officially set the fourth Thursday of November as our official Thanksgiving holiday.
Today, in our increasingly secularized culture, Thanksgiving has more to do with feasting, football and the anticipation of frenzied shopping on "Black Friday" than with President Washington's original proclamation that the day be "devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be--"
True thanksgiving only happens when people realize that they are blessed and acknowledge the true Source of their blessing. Without a point of reference, giving a holiday a name is without significance. An unbeliever can hear good news, glibly say, "thank God," and it have no more meaning than if he shouted, "zippity do dah."
Thanksgiving's real roots are found in the Bible. When God's people returned from captivity and rebuilt fallen walls, the Bible says, “At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, they sent for the Levites wherever they lived and brought them to Jerusalem to celebrate the joyous dedication with thanksgiving and singing accompanied by cymbals, harps, and lyres." (Nehemiah 12:27, HCSB)
Psalms overflow with thanksgiving: "I will praise God's name with song and exalt Him with thanksgiving." (Psalm 69:30, HCSB) Paul admonished the Colossian believers to "Devote yourselves to prayer; stay alert in it with thanksgiving." (Colossians 4:2)
As we approach Thanksgiving this year, Americans are being assaulted with warnings of impending economic doom. Fear is getting a death grip on many people whose hope is built on the shifting sands of humanism and materialism. There is a sense in which our leaders need to echo the words of President Roosevelt in his first inaugural address: "Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance....our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep..."
However, we must not see charismatic leaders and government subsidies as our hope. Historically, demigods have seen fear breeding crises as their opportunities to enslave people to dependence on their regimes. Fear regarding economic welfare and national security will lure people into the forfeiture of their freedoms. This happened in Russia during the crisis of World War I. It happened in Germany during depression and national disarray following that war. It happened in China following the devastation of World War II. It is happening today in places such as Zimbabwe.
A time of crisis is also a time of opportunity for God's people. It is a time for repentance, renewed commitment, counting blessings and affirming hope. It is a time for allowing the light of Christ to pierce the darkness of a despairing world.
Paul encouraged believers not to "worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:6-7)
When our hope is in the Lord, we can rest on the wisdom of Proverbs 3:25-26, "Don’t fear sudden danger or the ruin of the wicked when it comes, for the LORD will be your confidence and will keep your foot from a snare."
When our neighbors look into our faces during this Thanksgiving season, will they look into the face of fear and desperation, or will they look into the face of hope and anticipation? We are blessed. During the next few days, let us count our blessings, naming them one by one. Instead of fanning the wildfires of fear, let us lift high the torch of hope!
This Thanksgiving, America and the world need the witness of those who are taking to heart the promise and admonition of 1 Peter 3:13-15, "And who will harm you if you are passionate for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear or be disturbed, but set apart the Messiah as Lord in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. However, do this with gentleness and respect, keeping your conscience clear, so that when you are accused, those who denounce your Christian life will be put to shame."
Enjoy family, food and friends. Cheer for your team. Take your grandchildren and dog to the park. Start testing the Christmas tree lights. But do not forget, it is THANKSGIVING.
