I want to wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving today. It is a gift to be able to gather and celebrate in this beautiful place of worship. We are, as always, grateful to the people of St Paul’s for welcoming us on this special day.
Thanksgiving
weekend is the biggest travel period of the year in the US. Airports are packed
and highways are filled to capacity as people are headed for reunions with
families and friends. I know that many of you have family members visiting
today. I also know that many of you are here in London and missing your
families—missing your homes.
Most of us
will try to soothe those feelings later with a Thanksgiving feast. Turkey and
all the trimmings, different regional touches to the meal, pies and cakes and
all kinds of treats. If we’re all very quiet we could probably hear our
collective stomachs growling.
And of
course there’s football. Not the elegant, non-stop version they play here, but
the heavily padded, hard-helmeted, brutal, stop-start version they play in the
States. It’s a beautiful thing. Sitting around with your friends and family,
watching other people pound each other in front of massive crowds.
But as much
as football is a part of this special day, Thanksgiving is a lot more like
baseball than football. Remember what the philosopher said… And by philosopher
of course I’m talking about the American comedian, George Carlin. Remember what
he said about the difference between football and baseball:
“In football
the object is for the quarterback, also known as the field general, to be on
target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers
with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz; sometimes he has to use a shotgun.
With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy
territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that
punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy's defensive line.
In baseball,
though, the object is just to go home.”
I know a lot
of us are away from home today. Thinking about our families is a big part of
the Thanksgiving holiday.
I read this
past week about a family that wanted to do something special for Thanksgiving. Here’s
how the story goes:
“The Taylors
were proud of their family tradition. Their ancestors had travelled to America
with the Pilgrim Fathers on the Mayflower. They had included Congressmen,
successful entrepreneurs, famous sports people and television stars. They
decided to research and write a family history, something for their children
and grandchildren. They found a specialist genealogist and writer to help them.
Only one problem arose - how to handle Great Uncle Jefferson Taylor who was
executed in the electric chair of the state prison. The
writer said she could handle the story tactfully. When the book appeared the
section about Jefferson read:
“Great Uncle
Jefferson Taylor occupied a chair of applied electronics at an important
government institution, he was attached to his position by the strongest of
ties, and his death came as a great shock.”
Now I got
that story off the internet, and I have no idea if it’s really true.
Hardly a day
goes by without someone sending me some story or claim in an email, or tweet, or
a Facebook message, and I have to wonder if it’s really true.
We’ve all
heard about how Bill Gates wants to send us some money or a new computer; we’ve
heard that Walt Disney is actually frozen somewhere, hoping to be thawed back
to life; We’ve been warned about the dangers of drinking Coca-Cola and eating
Pop Rocks candies; some people have tried to recharge their iPods by plugging
them into an onion (don’t raise your hands if you tried that); yesterday I saw
that Marilyn Monroe’s recipe for cooking a turkey was going around; and we’ve
all heard how signing on to Facebook will be the end of privacy as we know it.
That last one might actually be true… For the most part, though, all of these
are myths being spread around the world wide web.
Who can we
trust when we hear strange stories on the internet?
What source
can we rely on to keep us from taking these claims at face value?
Where do we turn
to find out if any of these things are true?
The answer,
of course, is Snopes.com. Snopes.com is a website that researches the stories
that circulate on the internet, and either confirms or debunks their details.
It has become a regular part of my day to check the Snopes site when something
crosses my screen that doesn’t look quite right.
In our text
today, the Apostle Paul, writing to his favorite church, was acting like the Snopes
site—he was trying to cut through the different messages that were being spread
around the first century church. Paul was reminding the early Christians to
keep their eyes focused on the truth that inspired their faith in the first
place. He was reminding them that their hearts and minds needed protection—that
they needed to be safeguarded from the messages going viral in that time and
place.
He said:
“Rejoice in the Lord always; Let your gentleness be known to everyone. Do not
worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God,
which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in
Christ Jesus.”
He follows
that with this charge: “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is
just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there
is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these
things.”
“Whatever is
true…” Keep your minds focused on things that are true.
Wouldn’t that
be nice? In a political climate that has become less about ideas and more about
discrediting people, wouldn’t it be nice if we could spend more of our time
focusing on what’s true and just and pure?
Now the
dictionary gives us a range of definitions for true.
To be true
is to be accurate: getting the facts and details just right.
To be true
is to be honest: being trustworthy and faithful in what we say.
Maybe for us
it’s summed up best by being near to the center of the target—Elvis Costello
can help with this one: “My aim is true,” he told us. To be true is to be
steadfast and loyal; to be consistent and just.
“Whatever is
true”, Paul says. Think on these things. Put them into practice.
Maybe for us
today it’s most important to remember that truth isn’t just something we find
when we look hard enough. Truth is also a discipline that we have to learn and
practice and protect.
For
Christians this means trusting that the work God accomplished through Jesus
Christ is enough for all of us—for the whole world—that it has the power to
restore our lives and this earth to the way they were meant to be. That’s the
story of the Christian gospel, and it’s a great and wonderful story.
But whatever
your faith tradition might be, the practice of knowing and telling the truth is
essential for healthy, peaceful, honest living. Remember how Paul started our
passage today:
“Don’t worry
about anything, but in everything by prayer and thanksgiving let your requests
be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
will guard your hearts and your minds...”
Bringing our
lives before God with thanksgiving in our hearts can be a source of peace. Being
thankful is one of the ways we keep our lives centered—it can keep us from
being too anxious—it can give us the peace that we crave.
In the old television
show, The X-Files, there was often a poster in the background that said “The
Truth is Out There.” But for us we know that sometimes the truth out there can
be harsh and threatening. Maybe that’s the biggest lesson we learned in this
last presidential campaign cycle.
After this
past year of sniping and slandering and destroying—after this year of conflict
over how governments should govern and how economies should work—after this
season of disunity and bitterness—after all of that, what if we paused to be
thankful for the freedoms we share, for the opportunities we have to change the
world and make it a better place for the people at the bottom of the wealth
chain?
Now that
would be honorable and just and pure—it would be pleasing and commendable and
it would be worthy of praise and celebration. Mostly, though, it would be true.
It would acknowledge the truth that there is desperate need in the world, and
that the combined resources and brainpower present in this very room, on this
very day, could help to provide a solution.
Thanksgiving
is a perfect time to be reminded that our feasts today are only a part of
today’s story. Our plenty tells only a part of what’s true about the world
today. And if we’re to be the sort of people who experience that peace of God
that surpasses understanding, then our celebrations and meals have to tell the
whole truth.
Let me
invite you, whatever your Thanksgiving holiday looks like, let me invite you to
take a moment and talk about this around your table. Tell the truth today.
Not to feel
guilty, but to sense the possibilities for solving some of the world’s most
challenging problems.
Not to cast
blame, but to join together in unity, and to refuse to let another year go by
without learning more about how the other two-thirds of the world lives.
Not to be
drowned in grief, but to be immersed in the hope that God has and shares for
his world and his people.
Let your
feast today, the turkey and stuffing, the bread and wine—let your feast today
inspire you and your family to work for a day when everyone simply has enough.
Because
that’s what it means to tell the truth. And that’s what it means to be truly
thankful.
My son and I
are learning the prayer of St Francis of Assisi—we say it together each morning
on our way to school. The words of this prayer acknowledge the problems of the
world, but they also ask for God’s help in being a part of the solution—they
ask for the strength to live and share a different truth, one filled with
justice and peace for all people.
Listen to
these words, and make them your own prayer today.
Lord, make
me an instrument of your peace.
Where there
is hatred, let me sow love;
where there
is injury, pardon;
where there
is doubt, faith;
where there
is despair, hope;
where there
is darkness, light;
and where
there is sadness, joy.
O Divine
Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be
consoled as to console;
to be
understoodas to understand;
to be loved
as to love.
For it is in
giving that we receive;
it is in
pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in
dying that we are born to eternal life.
Happy
Thanksgiving to all of you, and may God bless you today, and every day. Amen.
