Two
Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday October 11, 2026 – Thanksgiving Weekend
Scripture Readings: Deuteronomy 8:7-18
and Luke 17:11-19
Happy Thanksgiving! This is a weekend
that comes around every year and it gives us an opportunity to pause, and
notice, and say thank you. This is a
weekend when many of us will be gathering with friends or family or chosen
family to share a meal. As the different
generations run around, we have a chance to make memories; and if we aren’t
part of a big gathering this year, it is a weekend when many of us look back on
the memories that we carry of meals shared.
And as we break bread together – and turkey – and squash – and potatoes – and
pie – in many Thanksgiving gatherings there will be an intentional space to
pause and name the things we are grateful for. Grateful for the food. Grateful for the company. Grateful for the beautiful October day.
And I, like many of us, have been thinking this week about gratitude, and what
gratitude actually is. Because I think
that gratitude is more than just a feeling.
Yes, it is something that we can feel – gratitude is a combination of
love and joy and maybe just a bit of yearning as well. But rather that just a feeling that comes and
goes, I think that true gratitude changes us.
We are transformed by gratitude, in the very best possible way. Once we’ve experienced gratitude, we
experience the world differently; we approach the world differently.
And while the story from the gospel of Luke is obviously a story about
gratitude – ten lepers are healed, but only one of them comes back to Jesus to
say thank you – I think that the reading we heard from Deuteronomy is also
about gratitude.
Some of you have heard me say this before, but I love the book of Deuteronomy!
(Well, maybe not the parts that talk about stoning people or keeping slaves,
but the overall message of Deuteronomy is a powerful one, all about thresholds
and hope for the future.) If you remember the story of the Old Testament, you
will remember that the Ancient Israelite people had been slaves in Egypt; but
then God appeared to Moses in a burning bush. Moses went to Pharaoh and demanded, “Let my
people go,” then Moses parted the waters of the sea so that the people could
cross over to safety. After that, the
people spent 40 years wandering through the desert wilderness, dependent on God
to guide them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night,
dependent on God to feed them (manna and quail, anyone?), and dependent on God
to provide water in the desert, water that miraculously flowed from a stone.
Deuteronomy is set at the end of those 40 years, as the people are about to
cross the Jordan River and enter the Promised Land. It is a threshold moment as the people are
about to leave behind the hardship of the desert to enter a land flowing with
milk and honey. The reading that we heard this morning begins by speaking of
the abundance that the people are about to encounter: wheat, barley, fig trees, and pomegranates;
springs and underground waters; bread in abundance. And God is worried that the people are going
to forget the lessons that they have learned in their 40 years of wandering.
You see, in the desert, they had to depend on God for everything and there was
an immediacy to their dependence; but when they encounter abundance, there is a
risk that they will forget that God is still the giver of all good things. And God reminds the people to continue to give
thanks to God as the giver of all good things even when the fiery pillar fades,
even when water can be drawn from wells rather than trickling down the face of
a rock, even when dry flakey manna is replaced by fresh vegetables and
recognizable grains. God is still the
giver of all good things, even when God is less visible in the giving.
And so for us, whether we are in a desert period of life or a “promised land”
period of life, God is the giver of all good things; and when we recognize this
and give thanks to God, then we are freed to live our lives without fear of
running out. Even in the wilderness, the
manna was refreshed every day; and in the Promised Land, there was food and
water for everyone.
A couple of years ago, I spent a week in Ottawa with the Canadian Foodgrains
Bank, advocating to Members of Parliament of all political colours to maintain
and increase Canada’s foreign aid spending on sustainable agriculture around
the world. There was one MP meeting that
I was in, along with two other volunteers, and in this one I was taking the
lead. I began by explaining the work of
the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, and ended by saying, “Our vision is a world where
nobody is hungry.” The Member of Parliament
we were meeting with jumped in and said, “I believe that this world is
possible,” and we replied with, “So do we – that’s why we’re here!” Out of gratitude for our abundance, our
country should be able to share with others who have less.
God is a God of abundance, and I truly believe that God dreams of a world where
nobody is hungry. God fed the people in
the desert, and God provided for the people in the Promised Land; and God
instructed them to remember to give thanks at all times and in all places.
Recognizing God’s abundance, and then pausing to give thanks, frees us from
fear of running out, frees us from fear of scarcity. Gratitude then frees us to be generous
towards others, living our lives with open hearts and open hands, sharing with
others out of our abundance, because we know that God is the source of our
abundance.
Gratitude is more than a feeling – gratitude transforms us towards
generosity. And this is where I’ll put
in a plug for our Thanksgiving / Giving Thanks gratitude activity. The details
are on the insert in the bulletin, and will be appearing on Facebook in 10
minutes or so. Each day for the next
week, there is a gratitude prompt, a suggested donation, and a prayer, as we
let our gratitude transform us towards generosity.
For God is a God of abundance, not just today, but God’s abundance will persist
even when the leaves have all fallen and the pumpkin pies are just a
memory. God’s abundance will persist
even when the river freezes and the gardens are hidden under a blanket of
snow. God’s abundance will persist when
the leaves unfurl and seeds are sown.
Because God’s abundance is never confined to a weekend or a season but
is for every season; and our gratitude is never confined to a weekend but is
something that we can live 12 months of the year. Thanks be to God! Amen.
Happy Thanksgiving
everyone!
(Don’t forget to save room for dessert!)
Photo: K. Jones, Thanksgiving Dinner
2021
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