medidtation on thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

In the next few days most of us will sit down to feast. It’s not exactly Ramadan, because we haven’t been fasting—that would hardly be the American way for us to eat. A recent TV article noted that we have found ways to make a 400 calorie salad into a 2,000 calorie event—and still call it healthy eating, because it’s a salad.

Anyway, we’ll feast with friends and relatives. We’ll look out over the expanse on the table (Norman Rockwell might live here) and give thanks. I just looked up the NYTimes webpage (nytimes.com) and there’s a nifty video on how to carve a turkey.

The idea of feasting is quite old. We put the our day-to-day existence out of sight for awhile and we celebrate. It’s something in the human nature to do so. Just look at the number of national holidays we have—New Year’s, Memorial Day, Labor Day, July 4th, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Yep, we want to regularize our feasts, and take opportunities to recognize the special times of life.

Thanksgiving, as the name implies, is about giving thanks. We have always used the Pilgrims first fall feast as the image we project—giving thanks for the harvest and thanks for their mentors, the Native Americans who helped out in a number of ways. As Christians, we give thanks to God for all this. Whether you think God created all this for you or whether you think God created the heavens and the earth and left it all up to us to be creative with it, we still are grateful for the centrality of God.

One time there was a king of Israel. Hezekiah was his name (715-687 BCE—see 2nd Chronicles 29-32. He was king after the bad boy Ahaz. To get the stink out of the holy places and the cities, Hezekiah proclaimed a time of worship, celebration and giving thanks to God. Though he wasn’t perfect, he got a head start on reforming the rituals of the life of the Hebrew nation and focusing on God instead of self. Hezekiah’s work lasted for a while.

When you think turkey, I invite you to think God, too, and creation, and work that lasts for a while.