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Offerings & Reflections
by Pastor David Taylor
Dear Church Family,
This Thanksgiving 2021, as you gather around with family and friends, remember these words of Paul:
1 Thessalonians 5:11-20. (NLT)
So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing. 12 Dear brothers and sisters, honor those who are your leaders in the Lord’s work. They work hard among you and give you spiritual guidance. 13 Show them great respect and wholehearted love because of their work. And live peacefully with each other. 14 Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are lazy. Encourage those who are timid. Take tender care of those who are weak. Be patient with everyone. 15 See that no one pays back evil for evil, but always try to do good to each other and to all people. 16 Always be joyful. 17 Never stop praying. 18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. 19 Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. 20 Do not scoff at prophecies, but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good.
Paul’s final advice to every Christian is filled with action words; encourage each other, build each other up, honor, respect, wholehearted love, live peacefully, urge, encourage, tender care, be patient, forgiveness, do good, be joyful, never stop praying, and be thankful in all circumstances. How will we use Paul’s advice to grow spiritually, to give hope, and reach out to others in thankfulness?
My wife, Toni shares gratitude each weekday morning during her devotion on FB and YouTube. One of her favorite authors is Diana Butler Bass, who wrote Grateful: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks (HarperOne, 2018). In 2016, Diana Butler Bass wrote “Thanksgiving Prayer” and yet it sounds like she could have written it in 2021. I want to share this prayer with you as a gift during this season. Let us remember to practice gratitude and thankfulness throughout the year.
Thanksgiving Prayer by Diana Butler Bass | (2016)
God, there are days we do not feel grateful. When we are anxious or angry. When we feel alone. When we do not understand what is happening in the world or with our neighbors. When the news is bleak, confusing. God, we struggle to feel grateful.
But this Thanksgiving, we choose gratitude.
We choose to accept life as a gift from you, and as a gift from the unfolding work of all creation.
We choose to be grateful for the earth from which our food comes; for the water that gives life; and for the air we all breathe.
We choose to thank our ancestors, those who came before us, grateful for their stories and struggles, and we receive their wisdom as a continuing gift for today.
We choose to see our families and friends with new eyes, appreciating and accepting them for who they are. We are thankful for our homes, whether humble or grand.
We will be grateful for our neighbors, no matter how they voted, whatever our differences, or how much we feel hurt or misunderstood by them.
We choose to see the whole planet as our shared commons, the stage of the future of humankind and creation.
God, this Thanksgiving, we do not give thanks. We choose it. We will make this choice of thanks with courageous hearts, knowing that it is humbling to say “thank you.” We choose to see your sacred generosity, aware that we live in an infinite circle of gratitude. That we all are guests at a hospitable table around which gifts are passed and received. We will not let anything opposed to love take over this table. Instead, we choose grace, free and unmerited love, the giftedness of life everywhere. In this choosing, and in the making, we will pass gratitude onto the world.
Thus, with you, and with all those gathered at this table, we pledge to make thanks. We ask you to strengthen us in this resolve. Here, now, and into the future. Around our family table. Around the table of our nation. Around the table of the earth.
We choose thanks. Amen
As we remember Thanksgivings of the past let us also remember to be thankful for today, amidst the challenges and uncertainty we are experiencing. Be thankful, be grateful, offer grace as a daily practice.
As you do that this season, I hope to see you in the pews, or meet you at the altar.