Thanksgiving Day

Our seminary experiences and our work as pastors may have provided for us relatively few resources for use as leaders in the celebration of national holidays such as Memorial Days, Independence Days, Veterans’ Days, and National Days of Thanksgiving. We may be urged by members of the congregations in which we serve to combine national holidays with Sunday Worship Services or even at times to replace Christian Worship Services with the celebration of national holidays within our congregations. Many of us respond to these requests by attempting, therefore, to include the celebration of national holidays within our Christian Worship Services several times each year, often with mixed results that for the people whom we serve confuse rather than clarify the distinction between civil religion and ecclesial religion and between church and state.

We are qualified leaders in ecclesial religion, but not in civil (state) religion. The national level of religion is prominent and is mingled with ecclesial religion with less than desirable results in much of the Older Testament. The national level of religion became prominent and was mingled with Christianity also in the Church after Christianity became essentially the state religion of the Roman Empire and of many of the nation states that evolved out of remnants of it, but within the Newer Testament the national religion of the Roman Empire was the principal oppressor of the developing Church, torturing and killing many of its most prominent leaders.

Even the most appropriate of biblical texts, therefore, such as the four selected for our use on Thanksgiving Day in Series B, do not address our situations of religious pluralism within constitutional democracies such as we have in the United States and Canada. As a result, we most often observe national days of thanksgiving only minimally within our separate ecclesial structures. Our most significant celebrations are usually only in our individual homes enjoying expansive family dinners and watching football games on large TV screens. Rarely do we come together as a total community to express our thanks to God within a civil religion setting.

Thanksgiving to God for life, sustenance, health, and other blessings should be for us a constant activity every day of our lives. If as the people of a particular nation we wish to specify a particular day near the conclusion of an ecclesial year or of a secular year, or during a season of fresh fruits, vegetables, and grain harvests as a day of thanksgiving as the people of a nation, perhaps we should be led in such thanksgiving events not by religious leaders of particular ecclesial religions but by the elected or appointed leaders of the state and nation, from executive, legislative, and judicial levels of government. Then there would be the possibility that all of the people of our communities and nations might participate fully and freely in thanksgiving to God. In such a situation, leaders at the various levels of government should not function as members of a particular ecclesial religion, but should address God in the name of all of the people of the community, state, or nation. There are resources for doing this within the literature and national patriotic hymns of each nation, state, and community. With proper preparation national, state, and community leaders can do this well. They, rather than ecclesial ministers, pastors, priests, rabbis, imams, etc., should provide the leadership on such occasions, not only on national days of thanksgiving but also on other public occasions such as meetings of units of government, dedications, public athletic events, graduation ceremonies in public schools, etc. This would eliminate or at least alleviate many of the problems that we have over the issue of ecclesial prayers and of ecclesial worship activities within the public schools.

If, however, we do come together ecclesially within our various individual Christian communities or as groups of congregations planning ecclesial worship together on national days of thanksgiving, the texts selected here for us can be used, with some adaptations to our particular situations.

Joel 2:21-27

This text from the Joel traditions is very relevant in agricultural and ranching areas in which, after one or more “lean” years of drought and famine, during the current year the amounts of rainfall have been adequate and have come at the times when they were most needed. It is not an appropriate text to use during a year in which the grass is brown or the land has been flooded. It is also not directly relevant in situations in which the people are affluent and urban and buy most of their food and eat in restaurants supplied with fresh food purchased from world markets.

This text is a prime example of the limitations of using lectionaries prepared in advance to be used in specific occasions where it cannot be known years earlier what conditions will prevail when a text will be used. It would be helpful for those of us who use lectionaries if in situations such as this in which the purpose is to give thanks to God for a bountiful harvest this text could be one option among others so that we could choose the one that is most appropriate. During years of drought and economic recession, for example, we need to use texts in which we are encouraged to believe in God no matter how adverse the economy and how barren the crops may be. An alternate text from the same Joel tradition for use during “bad” years could be Joel 1:10-14; 2:12-17. If our texts and our worship of God based on our texts are relevant, people will be helped and will come. If our texts and our worship of God based on our texts are not relevant, people will not be helped and they will leave.

Psalm 126

The range of situations in which use of Psalm 126 is relevant is much broader than is the Joel 2:21-27 text considered above. Conditions described here are less specific than in the Joel texts. The people are reminded of what the Lord God has done for them in the past and they call upon God to bring joyful conditions to them again now.

1 Timothy 2:1-7

This text, while not entirely appropriate for use in a civil religion celebration of thanksgiving, is a good choice for use among Christians. Requests, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings to God should certainly be made on a national day of thanksgiving and on every other day as well. We should ask God to guide “kings” and others who are in prominent positions over us so that “we may live an undisturbed and quiet life in all godliness and holiness.” What the writer of 1 Timothy 2:1-7 urged followers of Jesus to do within the oppressive conditions imposed by the leaders in the Roman Empire can and should be done today. It should be supplemented for us who live within constitutional democracies with responsibilities to use our resources in Church and State to provide assistance in health care, education, and lifestyle for all who need such assistance in our land and throughout the world.

Matthew 6:25-33

After followers of Jesus are urged not to be unduly concerned about securing lavish food and clothing for themselves, the key verse is the “bottom line” in Matthew 6:33, “First, strive for letting God rule your lives and for doing what is the right thing in all of the relationships of your lives. Then all of these other things will be provided for you.” This verse sums it all up very well, on Thanksgiving Day and on every day!