[The following is a reflection I gave to the Eagle’s Trace residents at a Thanksgiving Service held on November 23, 2021.]
Once again, we’ve listened to the story of the Thanksgiving prayer offered by the Israelites almost 4000 years ago, as recorded in the Book of Deuteronomy. This is a story about a people who made a journey, an Exodus, from a land of oppression to a land of freedom.
This story tells of how – once they had settled there and had brought in their first harvest from this new land – they gathered together to offer the first fruits of that harvest to the Lord God. They bowed down and worshiped him. And then they rejoiced together.
Almost 400 years ago, another pilgrim people journeyed from a place of oppression to live in a new land of freedom. They, too, survived that first year in the wilderness they had discovered there. They, too, harvested the first fruits of the land over which they had labored.
Both the Israelites and the Pilgrims of Plymouth joined with strangers among them – with those who did not share their same beliefs – and they celebrated. Together, they rejoiced around the tables holding their mutual harvests.
Today there are those among us who, sixteen years ago, began a new journey as they moved to Eagle’s Trace. Over the following years, our neighbors have grown ten-fold as we opened new communities and plan for even more.
It was two years ago, back in November of 2019, that we last gathered together to celebrate our common gratitude for the nation in which we live and for this community where we reside. It was a time before very many of us had ever heard the word: coronovirus.
That was a time when our image of a Thanksgiving celebration focused on a Norman-Rockwell-painting in which family and friends surround a table bearing a huge turkey and all the trimmings. It was a celebration for giving thanks for all the good things that had happened to us during the previous 12 months and for the material possessions we had obtained since our last, annual dinner together.
However, the words from the Second scriptural reading we heard this morning – from the Gospel according to Saint Luke – strongly suggest we should give thanks, not for the things we possess, but rather for the trust we have in our Lord God, our merciful Father, who provides everything we now have … or will ever hope to have.
The people of the original Exodus placed their trust in the Lord God to lead them from Egypt to the land of their ancestors. The pilgrims from England placed their trust in God to lead them safely to a new land, a “New” England. And we, ourselves, have trusted God and have made significant changes late in our life to come here to Eagle’s Trace and new beginnings.
There were some Israelites who, during the Exodus, wondered why they were making the journey. They recalled their homes in Egypt and thought about returning to the supposed security of their former captivity.
During their first harsh winter in Plymouth, when so many died, there were some who longed to return to the security of England – even if it might mean giving up their freedom to worship as they wanted.
However, both the Israelites of the Holy Land and the Pilgrims of Plymouth trusted in God and in one another. They remained in their new lands, with their new ways of life.
Today, we too, continue to exist in days of anxiety, days in which it may be difficult to give thanks when we are burdened by the cares of the world
●… cares about covid-19 and other illnesses, other diseases of body and spirit;
●… cares about climate change, about floods and fires and other uncertainties about the physical world we will leave for our grandchildren,
●… cares about civil and cultural unrest and the political world we will leave for our grandchildren,
●… cares about moral attitudes and events and the spiritual world we will leave for our grandchildren.
Nevertheless, we are invited, once again, to give thanks for the assuredness that the Lord God will protect us from external harm and give us internal peace.
As we continue to be stewards of the resources needed for our personal and communal health and welfare, for our lives and those of the generations to follow, we trust that God will continue to extend his blessings to us – as well as to the birds of the air and the flowers of the fields.
We also offer our hope that we, ourselves, may grow in trust, the foundation for giving thanks to God.
● Trust in our own self … that we will not bring harm to our own well- being … through actions we do, or fail to do.
● Trust in others … that together we can find a common ground for our mutual life and welfare … both here in our community of Eagle’s Trace and that of our state, country and world.
● And finally … Trust in a God who unites our diverse humanity with bonds of understanding and an interwoven fabric of life.
Each one of us carries in our pockets small bits of green paper that bear the words, “In God We Trust.” This morning, as we gather together to offer our mutual giving of thanks, let us resolve to carry these words not merely on these pieces of paper … but to engrave them within our own hearts … “In God We Trust.”
And most important of all, when we give thanks …. either gathered with companions on the road we travel together… or alone in our room … let us recall that where our treasure is, there also will be our hope, our trust and our thanksgiving.
{Reflection given for Eagle’s Trace Thanksgiving Service: November 23, 2021. Text: Deut 26:1-11; Lk 12:22-34}