The Hiccup of Gratitude

 Anyone else think that Thanksgiving takes a beating every year?  Maybe rebrand it as the "Hiccup of Gratitude” on the way to Christmas?  Something of a Calendrical Speedbump, flattened a little more each year under the booming power of the Thunder Sleigh of the Christmas Machine? 

It is easily overlooked. There is a house in the neighborhood we moved from that had one of those 12 foot skeletons on their lawn. It went up on Labor Day in anticipation of Halloween and then the homeowners popped a big old Santa hat on its head and voila, stayed up well into the New Year.  But no turkey wings in between.

The modern sensibility of Thanksgiving is more of a safety hazard than a national holiday.  Who hasn't heard the story or seen the video clip of the individual (usually a guy) of uncertain culinary capacity and indeterminant common sense dropping their frozen turkey into a giant pot of boiling oil? 

The traditional cultural image of Thanksgiving does not fare much better.  We have the Pilgrims, immigrants recently arrived on these shores, all in matching outfits; earth tones and cool hats for the gents and pretty, if austere, dresses and head wrappings for the ladies; all freshly pressed and right out of the garment bags from the dry cleaner; gathered around the trestle tables, laden with food, set up outside (in late November, in Massachusetts so…COLD) as they welcome their Powhatan neighbors depicted as extras out of a cavalry movie from the Golden Age of Hollywood Westerns.  

A couple of observations to be made about this "traditional" image.  The first is that the Pilgrims would not have survived at all without the aid of their Powhatan neighbors.  The second is that while we have created a national holiday around this moment as a "cultural founding myth", the Pilgrims would have been horrified. The idea that we celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas (even before it became the juggernaut of the Thunder Sleigh) would have horrified them.

Pilgrims were Puritans in their religious background and outlook.  It is from their beliefs that we get the word ‘puritanical’.  Giving thanks is a clearly mandated Bible thing, so that is okay.  But a Holiday?  We do not have Holidays in the Bible, we have the Lord's Day-Sunday.  Jesus’ birth is in the Bible, and the shepherds and Magi were certainly happy about it, but there is NO mandate to 'celebrate' the birth of Jesus as a "holiday" at Christmas, much less an obvious concept like 'giving thanks' that should need no extra explanation, much less celebration.      

Thankfully (pun intended), we are not Puritans.  We have the gift of Holidays. WE NEED Thanksgiving.  Because there was truth in the Puritan fear that something like Christmas would become an overblown, overspent, overindulged bacchanalia (thank you “A Christmas Story”).   What has become a Hiccup of Gratitude needs to be a “Slow Down To One Half Mile Per Hour Speed Bump Or We Will Scrape The Muffler Right Off The Bottom Of The Car” REMINDER of Gratitude.  

So, as an American, thanks be for our nation and all the blessings we receive from her.

So, as a Christian, thanks be to our God for the birth of Jesus, the gift of our salvation.

So, as a person, thanks be for the true gift of love and fellowship that, while highlighted in this holiday season, is a foundation for decency and courtesy all the year through.

Peace,

Pastor Peter