Gravy is a “deal breaker” at Thanksgiving for me.  Season your turkey and put it in the oven and normally it turns out great.  I know only one disaster and that was not the cook’s fault.  Dressing gets perfected over the years and I love a rice dressing.  Pie goes to the pie experts.  But gravy is just a challenge to get ratio of juices, flour, water, salt etc. balanced right and served hot – not store bought.  Yes, my pride is at stake!  So where does gravy come from?

         One of the favorite questions my Kenyan friends would ask of me besides “How many wives did Solomon have?”, “Is birth control a sin?”, was the question “Do Americans drink blood?”  Nomads in the desert, who live off their stock, will bleed their animals during the dry season, mix it with a little milk, and drink for building the blood and strength.  Anglos gagged at the thought and the Kenyans laughed at our ignorance of a tasty health drink but it always seemed to me it was another way to approach gravy.

         Merriam-Webster defines gravy as “ a sauce made from the thickened and seasoned juices of cooked meat” but it can also refer to the additional unexpected benefit from something – once we pay off the house, the rest is gravy, as we have no rent.  We also talk about being on the “gravy train.”

         Looking up the history of gravy I was surprised to see it first appeared in the Middle Ages in French and British cook books.  French tend to call it “sauce” but Brits talk about “gravy.”  So going back to the 14^th century, I am not the only one who needed help and instructions!  My friend last week could not stop ooohhhhing about the gravy that came with Kentucky Fried potatoes but which she poured over her biscuits and remembered her Southern influence from her mother.  Gravy is that extra that gets poured on meat, potatoes, rice, biscuits and anything else on the Thanksgiving menu.  Gravy brings extra flavor, juice, and delight to an experience.

         Jesus says, “¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. (John 10:10)” Jesus’ goal is not just the potatoes or the turkey for our lives but he comes that we may also experience the gravy that comes from his grace and interaction in our experiences.

         As you anticipate Thanksgiving next Thursday, reflect on experiences that were “gravy”, unexpected blessings, in your life.  Perhaps passing a test you thought you’d fail.  Perhaps the dream of a certain house became true or a dreamed of spouse.  I do not think Jesus was talking about just material blessings.  I know he has made my life better as I am gifted with forgiveness, prayer and scripture and the promises of eternity are “gravy.”

The Thanksgiving feast is a combination of sweet and savory flavors – hopefully balanced.  Pumpkin pie or apple pie is traditional though many families have competitions and favorites.  These are sweets we save room for.  Savory according to the Internet is the opposite, meat and vegetable dishes, even spices like parsley, sage and thyme (Thank you Peter, Paul and Mary!).  Savory can also refer to a person of integrity and moral fortitude.  I didn’t know that.  So when we talk about “less savory actions” we may be referring to something done in the shadows.  Where as someone who is “sweet” we suspect of just saying things to make us happy.

         Life is sweet and savory.  We have good days and bad days, ups and downs.  C.S. Lewis wrote the classic Screwtape Letters where Uncle Screwtape, a greater demon, is writing to his nephew Wormwood, giving advice about dealing with humans.  During a very low time my junior year in college, I opened the book and read Uncle Screwtape’s admonition to his nephew to not think that when a human goes through a rough patch and cries out to God that the person is rejected by God or rejects God.  Do not consider it progress in the war against the Great Enemy, God.  God is happy when a human looking out on a world that seems devoid of God, still cries out to God.  That person is learning to walk without a parent holding his hand.  That person is growing in faith.

         Thanksgiving celebrates the harvest, hopefully plenty (sweet), as we head into winter, a time of dark and unobservable growth (savory).  This Thanksgiving we acknowledge the losses of Covid, the economic inflation we are dealing with and yet each morning the sun rises.  Hopefully our children love us.  Technology allows us to communicate.  So, what else helps you handle the sweet and savory times of life?  The Psalmist shares:

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. (Psalm 119: 105)”

We have a God who reaches out to us whether we are sweet or savory and provides Scripture, salvation, and Spirit!  Thank you Lord!

There are many “k’s” associated with Thanksgiving: kin ie family, kindness, kissing folks as they arrive and probably more but I thought about kings.  Those first pilgrims traveled into an unknown future because they were fleeing the kingship of King George III.  For some it was a journey to find a place of religious freedom so they could worship God as they saw fit.  For others, I’m sure it was an adventure.  Some came as indentured servants.  Many died in route.  The “Boston Tea Party” that later occurred was symbolic of the tension of a king far away imposing his will on the colonies – taxation without representation!  So, today we do not have a king but a President.  The country the pilgrims came to did not have kings but chiefs, I suspect a similar dynamic, and thus not only ethnic conflict but to some degree the battle over who gets to control of what happens in “their kingdom.”

         Next Thursday we are to go to worship and give thanks for the bounty of this last year.  We might credit our President for some influence although we have been under two battling philosophies.  Many are not looking at bounty now but grieving loss on several fronts.  Others would for sure not think our “king” has much to do with our blessings but our own hard work.  We will feast, give an obligatory prayer if necessary, and shift to the TV and Christmas.  But the question still hangs in the air – on thanksgiving, whom do we acknowledge as the “king” in our life, to whom do we give thanks for our blessings, and to whom we are willing to bend our knee?

         All four gospels tell of the final trial of Jesus before Pilate, the Roman authority.  Pilate is astounded to hear that Jesus is being accused of being the king of the Jews.  He is accused of treason, deserving death.  Caesar who considered himself a god or a god representative anyway, was the ultimate authority all people in his empire owed allegiance to.  Pilate turns to Jesus and asks if he is a “king.”  Jesus answers that his kingdom is not of this world.  Pilate returns to face the crowd.

• John 19:  “Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews. ¹⁵ But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!” “Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked. “We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.

         So this thanksgiving, who will you acknowledge as your “king”?  Who is the ultimate authority in your life?  Wow, there is a question worth pondering and what that allegiance implies.  Perhaps take a few minutes and list on a piece of paper five ways that you bow to the “king” in your life, and five benefits of being in that kingdom.  Blessings as you reflect.  But remember, we have representation.  Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father!

The history of Thanksgiving cannot be told without the role of “neighbor.”  That first meal is iconic because it so embraces the concept of “neighbor” with all the good and bad aspects.  Neighbor often refers to the new and different from “us,” even as the Indigenous Tribes were so different from those strangers on their shores, those Pilgrims.  I know we debate today about some of the ethical ramifications of what unfolded as the years unfolded but that first meal embodies “neighbor.” Those coming to the American borders today are in many ways just as dissimilar to us as we were to the indigenous people then.  It’s part of the American identity.  History will decide if we are a “toss salad” or a “melting pot.”  Neighborliness is not just blessing those that we like but it is also making space for the “other” who is different from us.

         Jesus tells the story to a young lawyer who asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  Jesus flips the question back on him.  The man shares the Golden Rule, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.”  He answers correctly so he continues by asking, “Who is my neighbor?”  Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan.  A man was beaten up by thieves and left to die.  Three men of his tribe walked on by.  A man from the “other tribe” stopped, helped and cared.  So Jesus asks, “Who was the neighbor?”  The lawyer answered, “The one who showed mercy on him.”

         Thanksgiving is about being a neighbor, about showing mercy to those no matter how different they are from us.  Neighbors don’t see skin color differences, economic differences, age differences, or generational differences. 

         The Gospel of Mark tells it this way, “³² Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; ³³ and ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’—this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” ³⁴ When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” 

         As we begin to prepare for Thanksgiving let us think of people whom we may not have known well but who blessed us.  Perhaps it was an affirmation from a teacher.  Perhaps a friend called at just the right time.  Perhaps it was the gift of a smile when you were discouraged.  The stranger who stopped and helped you change a tire.  There are about 10 days till Thanksgiving.  See if you can give 10 people you do not know a smile each day and lighten their load.  Blessings.

The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) was the occasion of Catholics and Protestants warring and killing each other, not to mention plague, famine and starvation. The population of the German area went from 16 million to 6 million!!  That was a pandemic with no vaccination, no rich countries to blame, and with refugees fleeing all over Europe.  Eilenberg was a walled city so became an overcrowded place of disease and misery.  Martin Rinckart, author of the hymn of today, was an accomplished Lutheran musician who studied at the University of Leipzig.  At the peak of the war, it is said he did 50 funerals a day!!  This hymn is dated at 1636 and was translated into English by Catherine Winkworth who published it around the 1850s.

         The Reformation hymns put to music theology of the time but the hymn written by Rinckart approached spirituality differently.

Now thank we all our God,
with heart and hands and voices,
who wondrous things has done,
in whom this world rejoices;
who from our mothers’ arms
has blessed us on our way
with countless gifts of love,
and still is ours today.

It is hard to imagine a family spending their resources to help refugees and the ill flooding the streets of their town while the family ate scraps.  But so it was.  I chose the YouTube post and noted that the choir singing is from Cape Town, South Africa, that understands the pain in my lifetime of apartheid and yet they choose this song to sing.  Will we be able to raise our voices, our hearts and our hands and rejoice this Thanks giving?  Good question for reflection.  Please enjoy!

Maya Angelou is famous for her iconic quote, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

An anonymous person wrote, “It is not happiness that makes us grateful, it is gratefulness that makes us happy.”

The apostle Paul writes from prison in his letter to the Philippians chapter 4, “¹⁰ I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned for me, but had no opportunity to show it. ¹¹ Not that I am referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. ¹² I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. ¹³ I can do all things through him who strengthens me. ¹⁴ In any case, it was kind of you to share my distress.”

This Thanksgiving time let us monitor our attitudes.  Are we beginning to fret about Christmas and shopping?  Do personal burdens of losses cloud our ability to see blessings?  The purpose of this holiday is that we are to stop work and go to our places of worship and thank our deity for the harvest and for the blessings of this year.  Few people do stop and worship.  Our attitudes are a choice that reflects our values.  Perhaps now, as we enter the Thanksgiving season, it is a good time to check our attitudes.  Paul had learned to be content in jail, in hunger, and in plenty because he focused on God and not on self.  Write the word “attitude” down the side of your paper and try and think of words that start with those letters that you can have an attitude of gratitude about.  Never forget that people will never forget how you made them feel. They’ll forget if the meal is less than perfect but they will remember you!  May you be a blessings this Thanksgiving with your attitude of gratitude.

Have you seen those cute elementary or Sunday School projects where the child draws around the fingers on the hand or makes a hand imprint in a piece of clay?  The thumb becomes the head of the turkey and the four fingers become its tail feathers sticking up.  You have a memory gift and Thanksgiving has been celebrated.  Cute!

     Also my memory of Thanksgiving is that it takes lots of hands to put on a big family meal.  One family brings this and another that and the host does the turkey and that does not count all the other contributions.  The men use their hands to clap for football teams.  Us cousins would do the dishes with our hands and then do a family puzzle.  We always played “Button, button, who has the button” as our hands passed a button around under the long dinning table and then guessed who had it. Sometimes hands held cards for bridge or hearts. Hands usually are part of prayer.

         We have many idioms involving hands..  “Many hands make light work.” “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” And then when we want to claim something is beyond us, we say, “My hands are tied.”  Hands are important parts of our body.  We use our hands all the time.

         I love the Isaiah 49: 15,16:

Can a woman forget her nursing child,
    or show no compassion for the child of her womb?
Even these may forget,
    yet I will not forget you.
¹⁶ See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands;
    your walls are continually before me.

God says we are inscribed on the palms of his hands.  That makes me think of Calvary and the scars of his death on the cross.  His hands are not just the handprints we detect in a sunrise or sunset.  His handprint is seen in the smile and love of that child who makes the Thanksgiving turkey on a piece of clay for us.  His presence is felt in the hands that reach out and love us when we feel unloved.  The ELCA uses as their motto, “God’s work, our hands.”  Hands are important.

         Take time to think of how you use your hands to prepare the Thanksgiving feast, or how you use them to reach out to another.  Remember, love never ties hands but uses them to help others.  Blessings.

The Pilgrims probably did not eat turkey at that famous meal we talk about for Thanksgiving.  And contrary to popular opinion, Benjamin Franklin did not want the turkey to be the national bird.  He wrote a letter to his daughter saying the eagle on the national stamp looked like a turkey. I was surprised to learn both these facts.  Not only was Thanksgiving not originally a prayer day but turkey probably was not eaten.

         When I checked out slang like the comment thrown out, “What a turkey!” I discovered that a turkey is a person often considered a bit dull but then surprises you by coming up with a silly step in a dance entertaining everyone or gobble, gobbling out a response to surprise the listener.  In bowling, three strikes in a row is called “a turkey.”  Here’s the internet definition, “a person or thing of little appeal; dud; loser. a naive, stupid, or inept person. a poor and unsuccessful theatrical production; flop.”

         Pardoning a turkey at Thanksgiving by the President of the United States is a tradition that started with Abraham Lincoln when a turkey was sent to the White House.  Fun.

         So how does this tie in with our reflections today.  I suspect many of us have felt like a “turkey,” a person of little appeal, dull, perhaps misunderstood.  Few of us get three strikes in a row bowling.  But the idea of being pardoned from death inspires me.  In Mark 5 there is a story of a synagogue leader who comes to Jesus to plead for the life of his daughter who is on the edge of death.  We do not know her name.  She might be “every person facing death.”  In route to the house another nameless woman who has suffered from bleeding for 12 years sneaks up and touches Jesus’ hem and is healed.  Jesus calls her into voice and in that delay the news comes that the little girl has died.  Jesus goes forward anyway and raises the little girl.  “⁴¹ He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha cum,” which means, “Little girl, get up!” ⁴² And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). (Mark 5:41)” The girl is pardoned from death just like the turkey of Thanksgiving.  Both the girl and the woman are no longer dull, uninteresting, invisible people.  They are pardoned from their plight and have a story to tell.  I’m guessing they were super thankful!

         As we pause at Thanksgiving and think over this last year, may we remember the times when we felt like a dull “turkey”, condemned for being who we are.  But perhaps we can identify the hand of God reaching into our lives and giving us a new lease on life.  I know many are sad because Covid claimed the lives of loved ones, because of economic and educational challenges with children but let us ask God to open our eyes to see and remember when we touched his hem or when he touched us and life flowed back.  Suddenly our day became a “three strikes in a row” day.  We can say Thank You Lord!!  Blessings.

Psalm 100:4 

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name.”

Christmas songs are beginning to be heard in stores, decorations are up for sale, reminders to order early because the ports are backed up are trying to convince us to order gifts NOW but the truth the calendar reminds us of is that first comes Thanksgiving.  Perhaps there is a lesson here.  Thankfulness and not obligation may best motivate shopping.

We generally know the history of this holiday celebrated in the United States and Canada.  The President signs a law that we are all to rest from work and go to our place of worship and thank our deity for the harvest and the blessings of this year.  For many the transition from All Saints Day to Thanksgiving involves the process of grieving the loss of loved ones due to Covid or age or accident or ailments and then pivoting to celebrate.  Somehow our mood is dampened.  The early Pilgrims may well have understood as they had a rough arrival in this land and had to learn to survive.  Many died. 

         In 1621 the 50 survivors were met by 90 of the Wampanoag nation. Over the next couple days the two groups socialized with limited language and understanding of each other.  It ended with a feast that was not on long tables but probably both groups sitting on the ground or on barrels with plates in laps.  It sealed a treaty between the two groups until King Philip’s War in 1675-76 when many lost lives.

         Regular days of prayer, giving thanks for victories in life, were part of the culture. Yet in 1798 when the U.S. Continental Congress tried to legalize the holiday, it became a point of conflict.  Perhaps not dissimilar to masking today.  It was not until Oct. 3, 1863, when Northerners had the majority in government that a law was passed under Abraham Lincoln for the last Thursday of November for Thanksgiving.  1942 FDR named the fourth Thursday of November as the day and so it has stayed.

         The date we celebrate is not that important.  That Anglos may well not have survived without collaboration with neighbors is important and should not be forgotten.  As the USA has become more urban, travel for family gatherings makes Thanksgiving the most traveled holiday.  Family and friends are worth traveling to see.  Each family has traditions that govern the celebration: turkey or ham, who makes the pies, cranberries, vegetables, and what about rolls.  Yep that all goes into a celebration that may usher in the Christmas season but more importantly we will be reflecting on the state of our hearts as we approach this holiday.  We will use the letters of the word “thanksgiving” to guide our meditations.

          To prime the pump today, write the letters of thanksgiving down the left side of a piece of paper and see how many items of thanks you can list for each letter.  Tomorrow is “T” for turkey, thanks, talents, twins… Let’s not count sheep but blessings this month!

Tomorrow is All Saints Sunday.  Many churches honor those who have died this year by lighting candles or perhaps ringing bells and reading names.  The hymn “For All the Saints” was written in 1864 by Bishop William W. How in England for this Sunday.  It is based on Hebrews 12:1, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,”  Bishop How was known by “parishioners (who) called him by various popular titles including “the children’s bishop,” “the poor man’s bishop,” and “the omnibus bishop,” the latter designation for his frequent travel among the people of his parish.”  The hymn reminds us that all Christians are saints who walk in the company of those who have gone before and those who walk beside us.  We are a blessed people by our relationship with all of them.

         The hymn was intended to be a commentary on the third article of the Apostles’ Creed when the congregation confesses that they believe “in the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins and the resurrection of the body.”  The hymn was popular for All Saints Sunday but as Reformation and Halloween have become more prominent, this hymn’s familiarity has faded. 

         May you enjoy this more modern rendition of it!  Blessings.