Saint Andrew’s Church
Lake Worth, Florida

Saturday Evening Before Thanksgiving Day [November 23, 2002]
Canon Richard T. Nolan

A Prayer Book Celebration

        Thanksgiving Day is a major Prayer Book feast, one of two national days recognized with its own assigned prayers and Bible readings; the other is Independence Day. Thanksgiving Day finds its roots in observances begun by colonists in Massachusetts and Virginia, a tradition later taken up and extended to the whole of the new American nation by the action of the Continental Congress.

Realistically What Can We Be Thankful For?

         What of next Thursday? What is it that we can all share in a spirit of Thanksgiving? First, you and I are sufficiently well that we have been able to arrive here tonight! Although we don’t fully understand the divine rationale for sickness and death in God’s evolving creation, each of us has in varying degrees the great gifts of perception and consciousness. Our various senses provide us with representations of what’s out there – beyond what happens in our own minds; in addition, we can think and recall, however imperfectly. Furthermore, we have emotions; we can be joyful, sad, and loving. Very importantly, you and I can make many kinds of choices; we can choose to love God, our neighbors, and ourselves; or, we can choose a lesser standard. With regard to all of these matters, we can be thankful that we are not assembled like rocks or trees or computers.

         You and I can be thankful that we have a shared basic identity and purpose. We don’t have to wonder who we are or why we’re alive. We need not be focused on social status or whether everyone approves of us. We need not be imprisoned by our roles in life or our occupations. We can thank God that each of us is most basically a named child of God whose fundamental purpose in life is to love and be loved. All else that we do is within that baptismal context. As individuals, we are constantly challenged to make this real in our lives and not just a quaint idea. We give thanks for our baptism, the root of all we are and all we are becoming.

        For those of us who are Episcopalians, we can be thankful for our Church. We are members of a Christian fellowship that experiences unity not in intellectual agreement, but in our worship together. Upon entering most Episcopal Churches you and I are not asked to leave our brains at the door! We live by informed Faith, not godlike certainties.

         I began my ordained ministry at the Choir School of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. Later, in addition to fulltime teaching I served a small, rural Connecticut congregation for over a decade. Then, after six active years at our multi-cultural Hartford cathedral, I retired, and Bob and I moved to South Florida. On various occasions I have officiated at services in Massachusetts, New York, other Connecticut parishes, and in this Diocese about 20 congregations from Clewiston to Palm Beach Gardens to Key West! I have experienced a wide-ranging diversity in creedal interpretations and in styles of worship. Although I am a persistent though loyal critic of the Church, I propose that we can be thankful for our comprehensive, untidy fellowship as we continue to evolve and mature. More especially you and I can be thankful for Saint Andrew’s Church, Lake Worth, and the inclusive, pastoral leadership of our rector – unique to this Florida region.

         It is within this positive context that we gather this evening. Yes, most of us have issues and problems, some overwhelming at times, others more manageable; some dilemmas that time will resolve, others that are impossible to solve.

What Does The Gospel Reading Have To Do With Being Thankful?

         Tonight’s Gospel reading (Matt. 6:25-33) is from the Sermon on the Mount. The entire Sermon opens our eyes to what love can mean when God’s Will is fully lived. It represents poetically (and not literally) the way faithful people will think, feel and act in a coming perfected world - the emerging Kingdom of God. As such, the Sermon is meant to shatter conventional images of fulfilled existence. It is intended to stir us to seek God’s mercy and forgiveness while we live diminished lives. The Sermon invites us to move forward on the path toward the perfectly lived life.

         In tonight’s selection we hear Jesus commanding his hearers not to fret, not to be anxious. Instead, those living in the dawning Kingdom of God are assured that their needs in the Kingdom will be met by God with no need to worry. What a wonderful existence that depicts for faithful disciples!

         Jesus’ guidance ran counter to common perceptions both then and now. Our own culture propels rich and poor alike toward a high level of worry -- to keep people consuming, to keep us too busy, to keep us competitive in everything we do, to sustain in our imaginations that the best possible life is for those who have the most stuff. With this weighing on our hearts and minds, our ordinary priorities lead to extraordinary anxieties. The more worried we are, the less loving we can be; the less loving we are, the less thankful we’ll be. The Lord’s teachings are designed to help us move away from priorities that create and sustain worry; his declarations inspire us toward a state of greater love. Then, to the extent that we love, we may radiate a spirit of thanksgiving.

Be Simply Thankful!

        At this season you and I are encouraged to step back from our normal position in the world, to let go of the typical responses we're conditioned to have and to move forward toward God’s ideal. As we do, we’re to be simply thankful. We should take stock of all that we have. We have been given another year, and we are invited to look at the reality of our lives and to know that despite the tensions, disappointments, and struggles of the year now ending, we can be thankful here and now in this imperfect world; we can feel loved – especially in this sacred place on this holy occasion.