It seems that Halloween has overtaken Thanksgiving as the prelude of Christmas. In October, Halloween decorations appear with flair and creativity. Once the day passes, however, the transformation to Christmas decorations is all but instantaneous! It’s not just a house or two, either. Stores stock the shelves with Christmas gifts. Christmas music fills the air. Christmas inflatables appear in front yards. What happened to Thanksgiving!? What IS everyone thinking?
In October of 1985 (I can’t believe it was forty years ago), three storms converged in the eastern part of West Virginia. The result of seemingly endless hours of rain was a mammoth flood that devastated one community after another. One of the hardest hit was Parsons, a small town wedged in between two mountains where the Shaver’s Fork and Black Fork creeks flow together to create the Cheat River. The rising waters had nowhere to go and tiny Parsons — along with Hambleton, and Hendricks — was left in ruins.
I was a young pastor in my second year after seminary serving in Shady Spring, WV. Shady was on top of a mountain so it wasn’t affected. I organized teams from my little church to provide assistance. There was a team that mucked out flooded basements. Another team provided food. And yet another team organized a drive to provide Christmas gifts for families that had lost everything.
Christmas came early in Parsons that year. The people there needed help and they needed it right away. Our team set out early one December morning to drive to Parsons to deliver presents. When we arrived, we were welcomed with smiles and hugs at a church that had survived the flood. We were ushered into the fellowship hall and fed what they had to offer. After the meal, we distributed the gifts we had purchased.
That’s when we found it. Right in the middle of all that ruin and rubble we found gratitude and thanksgiving. Right in the middle of that place where folks had been left with nothing, there was something big: the power of relationship and the undeniable presence of grace.
Throughout history, days of Thanksgiving have been proclaimed after periods of natural disaster, conflict, or war. Probably the most noteworthy in U.S. history was in 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that there would be a national Thanksgiving Day with hope that it would promote unity in a divided country. Right in the middle of a war, when siblings were pitted against one another and our nation was split apart over slavery, Abraham Lincoln asked the country to give thanks. What WAS he thinking?
Whenever we face adversity and hardship there is a choice that emerges. We can choose to rely on faith or not, to see the blessing in the midst of the tragedy or not. We choose whether or not to embrace a spirit of thanksgiving that will help us make it through. When the choice is made to be better, not bitter, it reminds us that there is something more. It offers the hope that there is a way through the uncertainty. It is the faith that God has not left us alone.
I just learned a dear friend is battling cancer. He is halfway through his chemo treatments. The diagnosis was a surprise. The work to overcome it is challenging.
In a recent text to me, he wrote: “The amazing part is that I feel so aware of grace and more grateful and joyful than I have ever experienced. Every day is a precious gift. Let’s keep making the most of each one.”
His life is in the balance. He was not planning on this turn in the journey. It is a hardship, filled with uncertainty and fear. And yet, my friend has found the deeper meaning that can only be discovered when realize the faith you proclaim is actually the faith that can you live by.
This Thanksgiving there are plenty of reasons for us to be sad, angry, or afraid. A war in the Ukraine continues to rob people of life. Policies around immigration continue to strike fear in families who hesitate to leave their homes. Political rhetoric continues to create a posture of retribution for anyone who disagrees. Division rather than unity spreads like wildfire all around us. And yet, and yet, there is that still small voice, that presence within that says, “Don’t forget. Every day is a gift. Find good reasons to give thanks.”
The Apostle Paul once wrote the people in Corinth, “Indeed, everything is for your sake, so that grace, when it has extended to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. So, we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For our slight, momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen, for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.” (II Corinthians 4: 15-18, NRSV Updated)
As we approach Thanksgiving and the season of Advent that quickly follows, I urge you to find the things for which you are grateful, for which you can truly give thanks. I pray that you actively look for, and find, the blessing in the day, the hope in the moment, the grace that breeds forgiveness, and the love that replaces all hatred and fear. It’s messy out there, to be sure. But we are not alone. There IS hope. There IS thanksgiving.
When we left Parsons that night, we noticed that the town had already decorated for Christmas. On a nearby mountaintop someone had constructed a huge star that cast its light over the flood ravaged town. It was a sign of hope in the midst of despair, fear, and anxiety. It was a bit early. But it was just right.
On second thought, maybe it’s just fine to decorate early for Christmas this year.
The Journey Continues, . . .
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Bishop Thomas J. Bickerton
New Hope Episcopal Area (New England and New York Annual Conferences)
