Scripture: Deuteronomy 8:10 – “You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you.” (NRSVue)
Since the 1980s, there has been strange culinary expression known as the turducken, which, in case you do not know, is a chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey. It was especially popular with the late John Madden. As I ponder about Thanksgiving tomorrow, I think we can see various parts of thanksgiving stuffed into one another. And sometimes, we are so dazzled by the outer layers, we fail to appreciate or understand the core within.
The outer layer of Thanksgiving is its standard public observation. It is a time for family and friends to gather for a massive meal. Associated activities include watching football and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, arguing about politics, and preparing for the beginning of the Christmas shopping season on Black Friday. All of these are fun, but few have much to do with giving thanks.
The next layer touches on the religious origins of Thanksgiving. In the times of the Pilgrims and Puritans, Thanksgiving was not an annual event, but an occasional one declared when things were going well or when a bad period like a drought or epidemic had ended. It was a way to see God’s providence in their lives. Sometimes our family Thanksgivings involve a ritual of actual thanksgiving. Everyone may be invited to say something they are thankful for that year, or someone will be invited to say grace or a prayer. This is to be as short as possible. When I pray every year, I begin “Dear Lord…”, but before I get much further, I hear my wife whispering under her breath, “Say Amen… Say Amen… Say Amen…” These prayers can be perfunctory especially when people are more worried about the outer layer of fun rather than the inner layers of true thanksgiving.
The third layer to me at least involves guilt. As we express gratitude for all our blessings, I sometimes think, “Why don’t we do this all the time?” It reminds me of the times when we feel ungrateful or take the good things in life for granted. There is a serious temptation to forget to say thanks to God. The Bible warns about this regularly, but one of my favorites comes from the Book of Deuteronomy, when Moses is giving his last exhortations before the Israelites enter the Promised Land. He describes how the riches and bounty of the land but reminds the people that it has been won not by their own efforts, but by God. And to forget God is to lose the promise of the land. Moses gives this good advice that we, too, should take to heart: “You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you.”
The final layer gets past the surface and the guilt into the final core of thanksgiving: making connection with God. When we say thanks to God, it is not for God to feel appreciated, it so that we remember to appreciate God. When we begin our prayers with what is good in our lives rather than what we need, we are able to better trust God and see God as a friend and not as a distant master. We know we do not need to rely on our own strength and know that we risk messing things up when we do.
So, this thanksgiving, carve deep into the turducken of gratitude and find the loving heart of God at the center.
Prayer: Dear Lord, we thank you for all your blessings. Keep our hearts ever on you in the times of plenty and the times of need. Amen.
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