Community Thanksgiving Homily

…   Today’s Community Thanksgiving allows us all to come together in praise of all that we have –the wild abundance we’ve been given – and in service and welcome to our neighbors.  Some will be cooking onThursday, some will be traveling, some will be without family, and today we are all gathered together around the table, in fellowship and sharing.  It is another type of communion or Eucharist, that allows us to meet one another in the breaking of bread, or “the stuffing of the turkey,” if you will.  And in fact, “Eucharist” means Thanksgiving.  In this way, every Sunday, every mass is Thanksgiving!

Pretty soon, just next week, it will be Advent, and we will begin the count-down to Christmas and then the New Year.  And so at this time of year, we both begin to consider all that the holidays mean, including service to neighbor, AND to look forward to the next year. And with this backdrop, the church asks us tothink about our own resources and income, and how we can support God’s work in the world.  Parish members are asked to make financial pledges for 2025.  And all of us are asked to make a thoughtful offering so that we can continue to serve God and our neighborsin this place.  It is an awesome opportunity and responsibility.  And we do it with the example and Kingship of our Lord and Savior as guide.    

Last week I had the honor of teaching stewardship at Princeton Theological Seminary.  A practical seminar, for a group of 12 students preparing for ordination.  I provided many resources.  And I want to share with you now an excerpt from one of my favorite theologians and writings.

Walter Brueggemann, writes on the “Liturgy of Abundance.”  And he says this….

As a little child Jesus must have often heard his mother, Mary, singing.  And as we know, she sang a revolutionary song, the Magnificat – the anthem of Luke’s Gospel.  She sang about neighborliness: about how God brings down the mighty from their thronesand lifts up the lowly; about how God fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty.  Mary did not make up this dangerous song.  She took it from another mother, Hannah, who sang it muchearlier to little Samuel, who became one of ancientIsrael’s greatest revolutionaries.  Hannah, Mary, and their little boys imagined a great social transformation.  Jesus enacted his mother’s song well.  Everywhere he went he broke the vicious cyclesof poverty, bondage, fear, death; he healed, transformed, empowered and brought new life.  Jesus’ example gives us the mandate to transform our public life.

Let us pray that today’s meal will strengthen us together to transform our public life.  

God bless you and Happy Thanksgiving!