Day of thanksgiving November 23, 2006.

Joel 2:21-27

Psalm 126

1 Timothy 2:1-7

Matthew 6:25-33

In one sense it is strange that we come together as churches to celebrate Thanksgiving--which is, after all, a day marked in contemporary North American culture by reenactments of that first feast in the colonies, a day to watch football, overindulge ourselves in our excess, or shop till we drop. Not much of this way of celebrating particularly lines up with the Reign of God.

Yet, at the heart of this day is a festival of the harvest. It is a thanksgiving to God for sustaining us and all living things. In the lectionary cycle focusing primarily on the life of Christ, it is not often that we focus on the first person of the Trinity and God's divine actions of creating, which sustain our lives. With the life-giving, creating Spirit, we name on this day that our lives are utterly dependent on God. This day, as a harvest festival, pulls us into utter gratitude for our Creator and for the earth, which is life.

In the first reading from the prophet Joel, God speaks a promise of salvation and renewed life for all the earth. The first part of Joel describes a horrible locust plague that destroyed everything: "what the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten" (1:4). Joel names this plague as an act of God and calls the people to repentance, a call that will be heard. God will grant salvation, not only to the people but to all the land.

The promise must have been profound for the agrarian people who heard this message from Joel. As subsistence farmers, they were utterly dependent on the cycles of the seasons and on the earth to yield. In the regions of present-day Palestine, water was scarce and farming difficult work with family groups needing to plant grains, herd animals, and care for vines and fruit. The diversity of crop and stock was necessary to survive the difficult climate, and all lived in a complex and interdependent system of life. A plague of locusts as described here would have meant the utter devastation of a community. (18)

Given the utter interdependence of people with the soil, their crops, and the animals, these words are radically life-giving. Joel first speaks to the soil from which all life comes, including humanity (Gen 2:7). "Do not fear, oh soil ('adamah), for God has done great things." And Joel turns to the animals, "Do not fear, you animals of the field." As the prophet Elijah spoke to the widow at Zarephath and Gabriel spoke to Mary. Joel speaks to the soil and the animals: "Do not fear, for God will do great things in and through you." Despite the destruction, God's salvation will come not only to the people but also to the land and all its creatures.

The vision of joy continues to the people: "O children of Zion, rejoice, for the abundance of rain and harvest will be yours again." God will bring abundance and joy to the people, with abundant rain and harvest, that they will eat in plenty and be satisfied.

These texts point to the power and love of God--to both destroy life and bring it in abundance. As the people live in dependence on one another and the earth, they experience the depth of trust in God to bring life.

In the first letter of Paul to Timothy, we are instructed in prayer. In this letter, Paul is concerned about the proper living of community (made evident in the household codes and instructions for women and on true/false teaching). He begins these instructions by proclaiming how God is made known in Jesus and how we might respond.

This text is full of universalizing statements. Paul begins with a listing of things that should be done on "behalf of all people" (2:1). God desires for all people to be saved and to come to knowledge and the truth (2:4). Christ gave himself as a ransom for all (2:6). Paul gives instructions for living in the hope that God will break through all that separates us. Paul hopes that all people, not just those within the community, might know the truth of God. This is because "there is one God" (2:5), and Jesus is the one who makes our unity with one another and all creation possible.

For Paul, the prayers of the faithful in petition, thanksgiving, and intercession are never to be just about ourselves but are to engage a world beyond ourselves and our communities. We are even called to pray for kings and rulers. To pray for kings who were the prosecutors of the early Christian communities was revolutionary and radical; these rulers were seen as divine. By praying to God for their life and rule, the believer confesses that God is more powerful. God, not the emperor, has dominion. They pray in hope that God might create a way that they might be able to live with godliness and dignity.

In the familiar text from Matthew, Jesus calls us to trust in God our Creator who cares for the well-being of the flowers and the birds. These words of Jesus call us to rest in the trust that God will provide enough for us. And that "enough" is plenty, for even "Solomon dressed in all his glory was not clothed like one of these" (Matt 6:24).

This passage follows Jesus' command not to store up treasures on earth (6:19-21) and his comment that a person cannot serve both God and wealth (6:24). As a continuation of these readings, Jesus calls us away from our preoccupation with ourselves and our food and clothing, which distract us from the essence of life. We turn to the lilies and the birds to see that they live fully as they are created to live, and Jesus calls us to focus on what is important: "strive first for the Reign of God, and its righteousness and all these things will be given to you." We will have enough, just as we need. The good news of this text is that, along with all the creatures of the earth, we have enough. In trusting and striving for the kingdom, God gives us grace to know that everything else is just extra. It is too much, like painting a picture on a lily.

We preach to a world consumed by worry and anxiety. Anxiety is manufactured and marketed in this country. Our anxiety leads to hoarding, fear, hatred, and war, none of which is an element of the Reign of God. All of this anxiety is destructive to our relationships with one another and in the overconsumption that destroys the earth. On this day of thanksgiving, God gives us a whole different vision of life to proclaim to our communities: You have enough. God will provide for us, and life will be okay. More than okay, life will be abundant and good. Enough is most assuredly enough: we have much to be thankful for.

Poet and prophet Wendell Berry writes of the peace and gratitude that comes in our trust of God and the earth: "I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free." (19) SKO 

18. David C. Hopkins, "Life on the Land: The Subsistence Struggles of Early Israel," Biblical Archaeologist 50 (1987): 178-91.

19. Wendell Berry, "The Peace of Wild Things," from Collected Works (New York: North Point Press, 1985).