Rev. David Holwick Thanksgiving Sunday
First Baptist Church
West Lafayette, Ohio
November 23, 1986
A Thankful People
Psalm 107:1-9, NIV
For most of us, Thanksgiving represents a huge meal. For Celeste and me it is two huge meals. A group of us local pastors get together with our families on the weekend before the official holiday, and we have another meal with our own family. This way we can have hot turkey sandwiches until New Years day. It is definitely a food holiday. Sometimes we even take a moment to express thanks. In many families in our land it is the only time a group prayer is offered.
What makes Thanksgiving stand out is that it is not just a private celebration. Since our beginning as a nation we have honored this holiday. We were the first modern nation to officially set aside a day to give thanks to God.
Often we don't appreciate the blessings God has given us because we have never known it any other way. It wasn't like this for the early immigrants. They usually came here because they had no other hope. For these early Americans, passages like Psalm 107 spoke directly to them. Verse 3 says they were gathered from the east, west, north and south. No other nation has more immigrants than America. Verse 4 says they were wanderers with no place to call their own. Today we would call them refugees. In our own country there are families who fled communist Cambodia into Thailand, but Thailand wouldn't let them settle there and kept them in tightly secured refugee camps. The only hope they had for a new life was to come here. They risked everything, even their lives, to do it.
Verse 5 says they were hungry and thirsty. Hunger is a cliché to us. Our kids tell us they are "dying of hunger" which means they haven't had a snack in fifteen minutes. Hundreds of thousands of Irish came to this country because of a potato famine. It didn't mean they were low on French fries. It meant over one million Irish starved to death. Eyewitnesses saw people eating grass like animals, although it didn't help them. Bodies were stacked along every road.
When people are desperate they turn to God. The psalm (verses 6 & 7) continues:
"Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle."
We are a nation of refugees and immigrants and once they arrived they prospered. There's a lot to be thankful for. Our country is stable. We complain about the potholes and taxes but we know our government will still be around next year. Many countries can't say that. If you fall on hard times we have programs to provide for you. More than anywhere else, in America you can rise as high as your abilities and perseverance can take you.
Our country is free. It's hard to put your finger on exactly what freedom means but it is a big reason why so many people are thankful they are Americans. We can go wherever we want (checkpoints are common throughout Russia). Worship or not worship as we choose. Very few restrictions are placed on us, a freedom we can use to our benefit or our destruction.
As Americans we have a great deal to be thankful for and over the years we have given the thanks to Almighty God. Not every group has had the same views about God but there was a broad agreement that our blessings have been from him. The evidence of this can be seen in the covenant called the Mayflower Compact that the Pilgrims pledged themselves to before they ever set foot on American soil. Belief in God can be seen in the Declaration of Independence and Lincoln's speeches. The common feeling of Americans was that God brought us here, he had blessed us and he had given us great responsibilities.
The last part is especially important. Our blessings are not just here to be enjoyed, they must be used. Those early Pilgrims were trying to build a society that would be like the city on a hill that Jesus talked about. They would set an example that the rest of the world would be drawn to. I think this is why Americans get so concerned about famines in Ethiopia and persecution in Russia and racial apartheid in South Africa. These countries often feel their problems are none of our business but we make it our business, because we feel a moral obligation to make the world more just. As long as we don't become smug and self-righteous, this concern for morality and justice will keep our nation great. This has been America's heritage.
I see several trends today that threaten it. The first crisis is that we are forgetting God, in a very real sense. A New York University professor named Paul Vitz has studied the content of the textbooks used in our public schools. One feature stood out above all others: religion was scarcely mentioned at all. One textbook described the Pilgrims as "people who make long trips." Another describes the first Thanksgiving as a time the Pilgrims gave thanks, but it never says to whom the thanks was given to. God is never mentioned. Some of these textbooks made no mention of God or religious activities. Others refer to religion in our past history but are silent on its impact in the last one hundred years.
I don't believe Christian faith should get preferential treatment in schoolbooks, but I do believe it should be mentioned. These textbooks are a symptom of something far deeper. America will try to eliminate Christianity by ignoring it before it ever persecutes it, and believers will probably put up with it. We don't mention God to the people we work with, our friends or even our families. Our faith is so private it will just evaporate on its own (reduced to ritual) to the point of celebrating Thanksgiving by giving thanks to the turkey, period.
A second crisis facing America is that we may forget our responsibility. God has not blessed us for no reason. He expects - he demands - that we use it accordingly. I see a lot of selfishness in America. Most of us are far removed from those original immigrants. We've never been hungry or experienced war. The depression is ancient history and so we think that our prosperity comes so easily, like we'll never lose it. Thanksgiving should be a reminder that blessings can't be taken for granted. Only half the Pilgrims survived to eat that meal and if it weren't for the generous Indians they all would have died.
America is not alone in the world. I firmly believe we have a duty to extend our resources, our stability and our sense of freedom and justice to other lands, without always expecting something in return.
God has brought us very far. It is only in remembering our heritage that America will survive. Other than this, we have no special claims on God. Psalm 107 gives many parallels to the American experience but we are not the fulfillment of it. The psalm is talking about a liberation that is greater than coming to America. The real background is the worldwide exile of the Jews. Because they rejected God they were forced to wander among the nations. The bondage that is described is a bondage to sin. The Jews were miserable and cried out to God.
Many Americans know what this spiritual rootless-ness feels like. We have wealth and possessions, but we're still not free. We have families and friends but we don't feel like we're needed or belong. Most of our problems are not physical - they're in the heart.
The only true security is found in Jesus Christ. He is more important than our possessions, our patriotism or even our families. Because all these things will pass away - only salvation lasts forever.
When you gather around your Thanksgiving meal will Jesus be there with you? Will you be thanking him for your blessings? Will you be prepared to serve him?
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Typed on June 28, 2005, by Sharon Lesko of Ledgewood Baptist Church, New Jersey
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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