Rethinking Thanksgiving

My belly is still full and I am about to pass into rich, dreamless sleep, the kind that comes from tryptophan and good memories. However, I've been thinking a lot lately about Thanksgiving. It is a quintessentially American holiday, a fixture of our civil religion. Civil religion isn't necessarily a bad thing. But I think Christians have a responsibility to critically reflect on the ways in which civil religion mingles with their faith, and possibly hinders it. 

I am considered about some of the language I hear around Thanksgiving. I squirm a little inside when I hear people give thanks for their possessions, health, affluence. At its worst, an American Thanksgiving becomes a celebration of affluence. And I don't think that pleases God. 

That oldie-but-goodie hymn, "Give Thanks," says:

Give thanks with a grateful heart

Give thanks to the Holy One

Give thanks because he's given

Jesus Christ, his Son

We are supposed to give thanks for God's gift of Jesus Christ ( Christmas and Thanksgiving can go together!). Jesus is our ultimate gift, not our shiny cars and big houses. Jesus, after all, had no place to lay his head.

Or another great hymn, "For The Beauty Of The Earth"

For the beauty of the earth

For the beauty of the skies

For the love which from our birth

Over and around us lies

Lord of all, to thee we raise

This, our hymn of grateful praise

God's creation and love received from others and all around... that's why we praise God. 

But I know it's hard. I know that even though I'm a college student, I'm extremely rich by global standards, and even by some American standards. I think God wants rich people to acknowledge the spiritual danger of wealth and to feel a moral imperative to give it away. 

I am thankful for God's grace. I am thankful for every family member around my Thanksgiving table, and for all of my friends. I am thankful for the hard work my dad does so we can afford Thanksgiving dinner, and my mother's loving labor over our turkey, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, etc. I pray that day by day I can witness the ways God is at work in my life and the lives of others around me and give thanks. And that I'll be too distracted by grace to be worrying about money.