Yesterday I shared a bit about the stress and anxiety that I experience during the holiday season. Like I said, I try to take steps to mitigate those things. I try to get necessary rest, take vitamins and other meds, use a Happy Light, and try to focus my thoughts and energy on things that may redeem this season and create a positive from the negative.
I have to admit, Advent and Christmas are much easier for me to grasp the redemption stories. They are all about Christ and the preparation for us to receive Him.
Thanksgiving, however, poses a bit of a conundrum.
After all, the holiday seems to be an homage to gluttony and self-serving individualism.
A far cry from the ideal that we say we celebrate.
And, I think we may be hard pressed to find too many Native Americans who are thankful that their land and cultures were invaded and destroyed as a result of that first meal.
What, then, can we take from this particular holiday that brings life and blessing for everyone.
Let’s take a look at what we consider the first celebration with the Wampanoag and the Puritans. Maybe there are a couple take aways that can help make this holiday more meaningful.
One of the first things that jumps out at me is the contrast of how that feast was celebrated.
Today, we usually gather with our own family. When I was growing up that included the extended family on my Mom’s side. We usually had about 20 or so. That is, until we kids grew up and started adding to the count with kids of our own.
The point, though, was that we were isolated in our own, comfortable familial cocoon.
Contrast that to how our forebears celebrated.
Theirs was a community feast where everyone gathered to celebrate a successful harvest. They shared whatever they had with the everyone in both the Puritan community and the Native American community.
Theirs reached beyond the doors of their houses and touched the lives of everyone.
Each brought to the table what they had. There were most likely the Three Sisters of Maize, Squash, and Beans. The hunters supplied meat. Those who plied the waters brought fish.
The point is, it was a communal celebration, not a private one.
Perhaps we may find something redemptive in that kind of sharing.
The were welcoming of the “Other.”
This may be the biggest redemptive act of the entire holiday.
As I was looking for something to help me wrap my head around this holiday, I got out my Book of Common Prayer and read the prayer for Thanksgiving.
Part of that prayer is,
” Make us, we pray, faithful stewards of your great bounty, for the provision of our necessities and the relief of all who are in need, to the glory of your Name.”
Notice that the prayer asks God to make us Faithful Stewards in order to provide for our own needs as well as those of All Who Are In Need.
The Native Americans did that very thing.
For reasons of their own, they chose to help these “Others” who had sailed across the sea and landed in their backyard. The Native Americans were Faithful Stewards of Creator’s bounty.
Note that the reason for this stewardship and sharing is to bring Glory to the Name of God.
Perhaps we, too, can not only be mindful of our stewardship of the resources we have been graced with, but can find ways to welcome and support those people who are looked upon as “Other” in our culture.
Maybe, just maybe, this holiday has some merit besides over-eating and falling asleep with a football game on the tube. Perhaps there is hope that God’s Good Grace may use this day for God’s Glory and our continued metamorphosis into the Image of God in Christ.
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