First Thanksgiving - Prayer Not Food

What image comes to mind when you think of the first Thanksgiving? A turkey cooked over an open fire, or in a wood burning stove? People gathered around a table eating more food than they need? Those are common images that gave inspiration to our American holiday.

I was reading some material on sermomillustrations.com recently and welcomed my own sense of history being corrected. Taken from Today in the Word, July 1990, p. 22, here is the record of a first official time of thanksgiving. Subsequently, I saw this story elsewhere.

"The first American Thanksgiving didn't occur in 1621 when a group of Pilgrims shared a feast with a group of friendly Indians. The first recorded thanksgiving took place in Virginia more than 11 years earlier, and it wasn't a feast. The winter of 1610 at Jamestown had reduced a group of 409 settlers to 60. The survivors prayed for help, without knowing when or how it might come. When help arrived, in the form of a ship filled with food and supplies from England, a prayer meeting was held to give thanks to God."

That was the first Thanksgiving.

What Excites You?

Reading early this morning in Dale Burke's book, How To Lead and Still Have a Life, I stumbled upon a sentence that halted my reading. It was this: "When your memories are more exciting than your dreams, you've begun to die" (page 115).

Memories are precious. I just reminded a family of that this week during a funeral. I'm grateful for memories of my dad and my wife's mother, who each passed away in recent years. I'm grateful for more distant memories of my wife's dad. But grateful describes my reaction to those memories, not exciting.

What if your most exciting thoughts are about what has already happened? What if life becomes all about preserving the past? How can one live in hope if we are always focused on what has already happened? What of God's promise to Israel in Jeremiah's prophecy: "I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope" (Jeremiah 29:11)? God's people lived for centuries in hope of the coming Messiah. The Christian life is a life of expectation. Adoniram Judson's famous words pulsate with hope: "The future is as bright as the promises of God." We miss the hope of God's coming blessings and challenges when we do not look expectantly to the future.

Certainly our past is foundational. Some people remember great pain in their past. Some look back and see that things were easier, simpler. But the key word is "exciting." Do we want comfort and to be problem free? Or do we want things that excite us, challenge us and cause us to grow?

I think Burke may be right. When memories excite us more than dreams, we may indeed have begun to die.

Hearing the Hard Stuff

Preaching a brief series on Amos was both exhilarating and enlightening. I thought often of Steve Brown's comment that he nearly emptied the church preaching through Amos. It is a hard message. It pokes painfully at our culture of "turning our backs on the poor." Of course, we feel the pokes.

What amazed me, and encouraged me, was the near silence in the congregation as I preached those messages. Sometimes when I share a moving story or a heavy thought, movement and noise grind to a halt. During that series quiet seemed to be a steady mode. I was heartened. I was "proud" of our congregation. We were getting it.

What will come of it? Only time will tell. My hope is that we (individually and as a church) can truly turn around (repent)and set new agendas. I chatted briefly with the Chairman of our Mission Board recently. I suggested that we find ways for our affluent congregation to connect with the poor. He resonated with that. In America, what congregation is not affluent? Really now. We are so blessed. That blessing need not be the formula for guilt. Guilt only freezes us. But in our abundance we can choose to be generous.

So, let's utter those words first offered as a prayer by Bob pierce, founder of World Vision. He saw appalling suffering in South Korea in the early 50s. War loomed. And from his lips fell these simple words: "Break my heart with the things that break the heart of God."