Thursday November 23, 2023
Steve falci
Thanksgiving Message & Reflection on Luke 17:11-19
Happy Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. Rob noted a couple of weeks ago how All Saints was his favorite feast day because Hallmark had yet to catch on. While Hallmark may have somewhat caught on to Thanksgiving, it remains a holiday that focuses on gratitude and family and has largely avoided cultural hype.
As I reflected on Thanksgiving this year, I first, almost by rote, gave thanks for the blessings in my life. And don’t get me wrong I am profoundly grateful for all God has blessed me with and as I look around this church at family and friends, I clearly have much to be grateful for!
But as I continued to reflect, it occurred to me that Thanksgiving is more than just an opportunity to express personal gratitude. We celebrate Thanksgiving as diverse communities of people across a country collectively blessed with much from God, but yet with many differences that often have resulted more in divisiveness rather than recognizing where those differences are indeed a gift, a gift of diversity on many distinct levels that enriches us all.
What if we were to focus on Thanksgiving as an opportunity to move beyond sincere personal gratitude to experiencing Thanksgiving as an occasion where we recall and recognize we are all a part of something larger?
Now I’m sure some of you are saying, thank you Captain Obvious, that is what Thanksgiving is and should be about! And I know most of you are probably more perceptive than I am, but in a time when we are as divided as we are, might the reminder that we are a part of something larger than ourselves, our individual communities and our individual ideologies provide pause to reflect and have gratitude for all we have together.
And more importantly, all the more we have the potential to be together.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus reminds us that all are included in “the larger,” particularly those on the margins of our society and also groups who have been marginalized because they have been viewed as other by the prevailing culture.
While travelling to Jerusalem, Jesus is approached by 10 lepers who ask for his mercy. He heals the lepers and sends them off to the priests to show they have been cured. We know lepers were outcasts in Jesus’ time, but Jesus does not hesitate to embrace his encounter with them and heal them. It turns out one of the 10 lepers is a Samaritan, a group that we know throughout the Gospels are treated as outsiders by the prevailing culture of Jesus’ time. In a sense this man was doubly excluded, yet Jesus has an extended encounter with the Samaritan leper, and in commending him for his faith, reminds us that all are included in God’s kingdom.
As Christians we know we are a part of something larger. We are called to recognize all as our neighbor, work to heal divisions and work in unison with the wonderful diversity that is not only our country but all of God’s humanity to contribute in our time to the building of God’s Kingdom.
This Thanksgiving let us cherish our time with loved ones, give thanks for all we have individually and collectively and revel in the fact that we are indeed a part of something larger! Something larger - that can help us see we are better when we are united in our diversity, stronger when we reach out to help a stranger in need and more hopeful that we can indeed build our common future together.