Dear Friends,
How do you practice Thanksgiving? Now, I don’t mean the practice of eating turkey, pumpkin pie, and stuffing—though that is delightful, and I can’t wait to have my Thanksgiving dinner.
I mean the practice of giving thanks—of lifting up to God each and every blessing with thanks and joy. It’s not always an easy practice, you see. Often, grief and fear and frustration get in the way. They weigh down the joys until joy disappears and all we see is the rest. It’s human, it’s normal, and it definitely feels like a side effect of the pandemic.
Nonetheless, Paul entreats us in the letter to the Thessalonians, “Give thanks in all circumstances.” Paul, don’t forget, was no stranger to struggle, to grief, to fear, to frustration. Again and again, he found his mission thwarted by the Roman Empire, by his fellow apostles, even by the churches he was trying start.
So how do we follow in Paul’s footsteps? How did he do it? I believe it begins with this simple last sentence: Do not quench the Spirit. The Spirit, you see, can guide us in this practice, and the Spirit is the one who can bring joy, faith, hope, and love out of thanks. And where do we find this Spirit? Well, it seems simple, but I’ve always found that where love is, there the Spirit has set up shop.
Many of us learned to listen for the Spirit from the saints who went before us all. The saints who loved and nurtured and encouraged us. That is why I find it so fitting that we begin this month of worship with All Saints Sunday. It gives us a moment to give thanks for the saints who went before us—for their faith, their witness, their love, their determination to follow the Holy Spirit.
Moreover, as we give thanks, we might find the courage, the strength, the hope we need to carry on. To love our neighbor, feed the hungry, walk with the lonely, comfort the grieving.
This month, then, I invite you to give thanks. Give thanks for the blessings of the saints before us, for the loving community in which we find ourselves, for the kingdom into which God promises to transform the world. And when it feels difficult to find the thanks in all the struggle, look and listen for the Spirit, which you’ll find wherever there is love. Thanks be to God!
See you in church.
Pastor Bob
