Give Thanks

Good morning to you all who have come to the Cornerstone to join us in prayer,
wherever or whenever you are in the world.
You are very welcome on this last Friday in November.
This is the day after Thanksgiving, the United States’ national day of gratefulness,
celebrated by people of all faiths and none.
It’s a day when everyone goes home to the family, an entire country on the move.

Let’s begin with Psalm 136, a song of gratitude.

It is good to give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures for ever.

Give thanks to the God of gods.
His love endures for ever.
Give thanks to the Lord of lords:
His love endures for ever.

who alone works great marvels.
His love endures for ever.
who made the heavens in wisdom,
His love endures for ever.
who spread out the earth on the waters.
His love endures for ever.
He made the great lights in the sky —
His love endures for ever.
the sun to rule the day,
His love endures for ever.
the moon and the stars to rule the night.
His love endures for ever.

He remembered us when our fortunes were low
His love endures for ever.
and rescued us from our enemies.
His love endures for ever.
He gives food to all humanity.
His love endures for ever.

Give thanks to the God of heaven for his love endures for ever.

Psalm 136: 1–9 & 23–26

This holiday marks the first recorded Thanksgiving held in 1621.
About a hundred people left England on the Mayflower in September 1620, 400 years ago,
heading for the new colonies, aiming to profit from a fresh start.
Some were separatists looking for religious freedom outside the not-long-established Anglican Church.
They weren’t farmers or hunters, had landed far north of where they should have and it was November.

Massachusetts wasn’t an empty place
the Wampanoag people had lived there for centuries, fishing, farming, hunting and keeping society.
Giving thanks was part of their daily life: every forage or harvest, every hunt was accompanied by a prayer.
The poorly prepared Pilgrims ran out of food and fell prey to disease.
If it hadn’t been for the Native Americans’ gifts of food and care and learning no one would have survived.
As it was, twenty-five children, twenty-two men and only four women
made it through the year to reap that autumn harvest.
In October 1621 over ninety Wampanoag people arrived
with five deer, berries, corn, and vegetables to join with the settlers’ feast.
That first harvest festival lasted 3 days!

The event was marked somewhat regularly until 1863 when, in the middle of a bloody civil war,
Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November a National Day of Thanks.
That war would take more soldiers’ lives than two World Wars and Vietnam combined –
some 620,000 dead.

We thank the Lord for everyone moved to give of their plenty to those in need.
We thank the Lord for carers and key workers who contribute their skills,
their daily breath, to serving the sick and the frail, keeping us all able to fight disease and distress.
We thank the Lord for all the small things that give us hope: a smile in the street,
a wave on Zoom, an unexpected parcel, a phone call, a card.
In our gratitude may we be inspired to go and do likewise.

Amen

Those early Massachusetts settlers had a magnificent party,
but I like to think that their greatest joy would have arrived earlier that year, around Easter,
when the cranberries and blueberries came into flower
and when the green shoots of corn burst from the dark earth.
These were the promise of a future life, their immunisation against starvation!

We thank the Lord for the work of science developing vaccines to protect us from disease.
Overwhelm our leaders with waves of gratefulness that this bounty may be shared across the world.
Help us all greet today and every day in thankful hope.

Amen

Cheryl Montgomery