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THANKSGIVING SERMON – 2005

We have so much for which to be grateful! Let us keep our eyes open to the wonders of creation around us. Remember chemistry class in high school. I hated learning the Periodic Table. But I had a wonderful teacher who took something “boring” to a sophomore and made it fascinating. If the gravity of the atom were 5% weaker hydrogen would not exist but all the other elements would survive but we would not have water. If the gravity of the atom were 2% stronger hydrogen would be the only element on the Periodic Table that would subsist. Why is it that all the elements on that chart when frozen sink; except water? If H2O sank too, our world would not exist as it does, and life on our planet would be incredibly different. We have so much for which to be grateful; if we only open our eyes. But tonight, we gather together to observe a national holiday as our focus of gratitude.

Our National Holidays celebrate survival: Veteran’s Day, Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. But Thanksgiving celebrates a successful harvest for which our founding fathers thanked God.

The pilgrims landed at Plymouth in 1620; 385 years ago. In 1621 the colonial Governor, William Bradford proclaimed “all Pilgrims with our wives and little ones, do gather at the meeting house, on the hill… There to listen to the pastor and render thanksgiving to the Almighty God for His blessings.”

During the American Revolution, the Continental Congress approved a national day of Thanksgiving for December 18, 1777. It was Thomas Jefferson who did not continue the practice and then president Madison brought it back because he thought a prayer proclamation was constitutional so long as it only recommended observance and did not favor any one religious denomination over another.

During the Civil War, it was Sarah Hale, a magazine editor, who campaigned for President Abraham Lincoln to proclaim a national holiday. Shortly after the battle of Gettysburg, Mr. Lincoln established Thanksgiving in a language that stands in stark contrast to current public and political utterances. One wonders if the day will come when such language will be outlawed in the halls of our legislature. Mr. Lincoln said:

“No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these things. They are the precious gifts of the most high God, who, while dealing with us in anger for sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God’s blessings should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”

We have so much for which to be grateful; if we only open our eyes of faith. To quote Max Lucado:

Some see a storm, but eyes of faith see Noah’s rainbow.

Some see a giant enemy, but eyes of faith see David’s sling shot.

Some see their faults, but eyes of faith see their Savior.

Some see their guilt, but eyes of faith see His precious blood.

Some see their potential death, but eyes of faith see a home prepared by Jesus and a city whose builder and maker is God.

Tonight, if we are a traveler or a pilgrim, with family or alone, with friends or enemies, will we see how much we have for which to be grateful? Will we see with eyes of faith?