SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, November 26, 2023

Dear Friends in Christ –

There is a story told about Mark Twain, the American humorist of the 19th century. Supposedly at the height of his success he was paid $5 per word for every word that he wrote! So… an admirer sent a check to him for $2500 and asked what was his favorite word. Twain kept the check and sent back a note that said, “thanks!” His note reflected a sentiment formalized in this country in 1621 when the pilgrims set aside a day of Thanksgiving after their first harvest. It was in 1863 that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November.

His proclamation began: "The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God."

He states this “in the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity.”

150 years later we are in the midst of continuing wars, we have witnessed unparalleled natural catastrophes, and much of the world that was created and deemed “good” is under siege, in famine or conflict. And we– who were created, we are told, in God’s image and deemed “very good”– find new opportunities to perpetrate terror in the old fashioned ways of natural and unnatural tragedies which will shape generations.

And still, the community of faith confounds the world, each other, and sometimes ourselves. We approach this season with thanksgiving, and I would suggest that we approach this time also with praise.

With great joy in being your pastor –