Thanksgiving Day

November 28, 2002

At our offertory we often proclaim, “All things come of thee O Lord.”  That is the message that God is imparting to the early Israelites in today’s reading from Deuteronomy.  In it he tells the people not to forget their forty years wondering in the wilderness.  How their sojourn was a time when the most rudimentary forms of early technology were stripped away from them - - -and how this experience gave them an opportunity to know first hand the reality of human life, - - - that we are 100 per cent dependant on God for all that we have.  Understanding we are totally dependent on God is an important lesson for all to know, but at the same time, it is a lesson we easily forget.  As we explore the history of the Israelites, we find that after they entered the land of promise, their way of life transitioned from that of a nomadic society to that of an agrarian and to some degree consumer driven society.  With this change, their sense of connection and reliance on God diminished as the façade of their early technology lulled them into a false sense of independence and self-sufficiency.

We too, have been lulled into a false sense of security by the ever-thickening façade of technology.  Think about it.  In this technologically advanced society, we have systems that water our crops during times of drought, fertilizers that increase crop out put.  We live in confidence that the Star and Omni will provide us an infinite amount of food that is available at our asking.  Biotechnology works towards producing immortality, every day we find new ways to fight disease and prolong life.  If it is not life that we are trying to prolong, it is life that we strive to create in test tubes and through genetic manipulation.  As humanity becomes more technologically advanced, the façade that blocks us from understanding the true precariousness of the human situation and how totally dependant we are upon God becomes thicker and more opaque.  At least, that is, for those of us who reap its benefits.

Last summer, twelve young people from the Redeemer left behind the comforts of Greater Boston to spend ten days in rural Puerto Rico.  Many of us are familiar with the tropical beauty of this Island. We love the blue green waters of the Caribbean and the white sandy beaches that surround it.  Many of us have enjoyed the grandeur and old world charm of San Juan as we have hurried through it to board one of the numerous cruise ships that sail out of its port each day.  Or, if we have viewed this island from the air, we have admired the lush tropical forests that cascade up and down its steep mountainous terrain. But what most have not seen in Puerto Rico is the life that takes place within the framework of the lavish beaches and lush mountains.  It is the life of the indigenous farmer who lives and works in the shadows of the lush mountains.  It is they who make up the majority of the rural Puerto Rican population.

It is the indigenous farmer who, starting at the age of ten, wakes up with the sun each day and travels from his or her simple dwelling to the cultivated slopes of the coffee plantations.  Each day, starting early in the morning until the mid-afternoon sun becomes to hot for them to work in, the workers walk up and down the 60 degree or steeper slopes, tending the plants, weeding and harvesting the ripened coffee beans one bean at a time.  This is a people where the façade of technology does not exist.  Each farmer is aware that each day he spends on the slopes could be his last accept by the grace of God.  They are aware each day when the harvest is good; they have received a gift from God.  They are keenly aware, that at any moment, a lost footing can cost them their work, or worse yet their lives, because a tumble can send them rolling 100 to 200 feet down the steep incline.  This is a world in which human suffering and death is always only a breath away.  This is a culture that truly knows and understands the words of our simple offertory prayer; “All things come of thee O Lord.” Because, this is a world in which there is no façade that hides them from their complete and total dependence on God.

This also is a world that knows how to celebrate and give thanks to God.  As our group traveled the steep winding roads of Puerto Rico, the curbs were dotted with small-enclosed shrines.  These shrines marked location of thanksgiving, places where loved ones fell, but escaped injury.  These are places where families have knelt in prayer, thanking God for sparing their loved one’s life and health. These are also locations where promises were made.  The promise or promisa, is an act of devotion.  In the case of one roadside shrine, a joyous mother promised to walk the mile or so from her home to the site twice daily for sixty days, praying the rosary each way.  Others have promised to aid in the building of churches and orphanages as part of their promise and thanksgiving to God.

However, the people of Puerto Rico are not only aware of God’s love in their lives through the miraculous gifts he has given them in preserving life and limb. They are also aware of God’s presence and sacredness in the mundane aspects of their lives.  The small chapel of San Juan Apostol, in the village of Barrinas bears testimony to their appreciation of the sacred within the mundane.  The chapel is filled with common objects that have been made sacred.  A bedpost now serves as a candle stand, a birdbath serves as the baptismal font, and an old television stand has been converted into their lectern.  All gifts from the people of the parish, gifts that were given out of their poverty as a token of their love and thankfulness for God’s never ending presence in their lives.

True appreciation and thankfulness to God is not found only in Puerto Rico.  Hanging on a bulletin board by the fifth grade classroom at the Nativity Prep School in West Roxbury is the prayer of one young man entitled, “Thankful”.  In it he says; “Dear God, I am thankful for you getting me where I am now. If it were not for you, I don’t know where I would be.  Dear God, I am thankful for all those football games I won and lost.”  Words of innocents, words of love, but most of all words of thanksgiving and incite that are as deep and as meaningful as the acts of devotion and love made by the indigenous people of Puerto Rico. 

We too are called to make acts of thanksgiving and devotion in response to how greatly God has provided for each of us here today. In his letter, St. James asks us, “to be doers of the Word.”  He instructs us to hear the Word of God in our hearts and then to respond in thanksgiving.  St. James continues, “ for if any are hearers of the Word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like.  But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act----they will be blessed in their doing.”

It is clear that the call to us this Thanksgiving day is to hear the Word of God in our hearts, to acknowledge that all things come from God, not just the big things, but also the smallest and most mundane. We are also called to acknowledge and respond to God’s love for us through prayers of thanksgiving and acts of loving devotion.  Amen  

The Rev Craig R. Swan

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