Thanksgiving is at hand

Traditionally, it has been a time to give thanks for a bountiful harvest.

The holiday traces its origins from a 1621 celebration at the Plymouth Plantation, where the Plymouth settlers held a harvest feast after a successful growing season. This was continued in later years, first as an impromptu religious observance, and later as a civil tradition.

Squanto, a Patuxet Native American who resided with the Wampanoag tribe, taught the Pilgrims how to catch eel and grow corn and served as an interpreter for them (Squanto had learned English while enslaved in Europe and during travels in England). Additionally the Wampanoag leader Massasoit had caused food stores to be donated to the fledgling colony during the first winter when supplies brought from England were insufficient. The Pilgrims set apart a day to celebrate at Plymouth immediately after their first harvest, in 1621.

BUT…

Dr. Timothy P. Schilling, a staff member of the Center for Parish Spirituality in Nijmegen (NL) writes in his article Pilgrims’ Progress :

For most Americans the Thanksgiving story begins with the Pilgrims’ arrival at Plymouth Rock; (…). But since I live in Holland, I like to give attention to the extended period the Pilgrims spent in Leiden (1609-1620), after leaving  England and before going to America.

Good idea, Timothy, thinks Pradusz, who himself has been living in Leiden since 1998. So let’s go back to Dr. Schilling’s article:

Dutch influences on the Pilgrims’ later experiment in selfgovernment can possibly be found in their practices of civil marriage registration and the democratic ellection of civic officials, both of which were established ways of doing things in Leiden.

But the best part of the story is yet to come:

Perhaps, too, one finds a precedent for the Pilgrims’ 1621 Thanksgiving celebration in the annual services, held on October 3 in the Pieterskerk. The celebration (part of a fair lasting ten days) commemorated and gave thanks for the 1574 relief of Leiden, when the city was saved from capture and massacre by Spanish Catholic Troops.

Holy Turkey… Can it be, that one of the most American festivals of all has its roots in the event that transforms all the inhabitants of Leiden into something like wild beasts and drives me crazy? It’s at least possible…

Pieterskerk

But let’s turn back to the idea of the feast. We already published a couple of reflections on Thanksgiving by Fr. Stephen Freeman on November 15th. A few days ago we asked one of our American Facebook friends, Rev. Dcn. Helen Waddle if she would have another Thanksgiving story for us.  Helen is a vocational deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma (ECUSA) serving out of Church of the Savior in Yukon, Oklahoma. Since 1997, Jesus’ Kids (a ministry of the Oklahoma Diocese) has provided her with the opportunity to serve in the inner city among people of various cultural, religious, racial and economic backgrounds. Whenever she can, Helen strives to give that experience a voice. She was kind enough to share a story with us. Here it is:

Thanksgiving Reflection

A little boy relates: “I’m walking home from school. There’s these dogs. BIG DOGS! They bark – and BARK! I’m really scared of these dogs. They’re BIG – REALLY BIG – and LOUD! And I hate walking home from school. But every day I get to that corner house and the dogs bark and jump. I just know someday they’re comin’ right over that little fence and get me! But they never do. ‘Cause I’m prayin’ and prayin’ and I run FAST and every day – EVERY day! – GOD gets me home SAFE! Man, oh, man! Thank you, God!”

And a young mother shares: “God knows I’ve been havin’ some hard times. I’m homeless now. My 3 kids and I live in my car. I still had that last electric bill to pay from when I used to live in a house. I needed to pay it but there wasn’t any money. I went to the electric company to talk to them and I waited in line for a very long time. The woman in front of me seemed happy. She told me she’d just inherited a lot of money and she was going around town paying off all her bills. I told her that was a blessing and to remember to give thanks for that because such blessings are of God. After the woman paid her bill, she turned around and put something in my hand. She squeezed my hand tight and smiled and said, ‘I’m going to do just that. Now you praise God too!’ I looked at what she’d put in my hand and it was just enough money to pay my bill! She couldn’t have known – but God did! I’m so glad for this experience of being homeless. I know my faith is strong and I can see my children too are growing in their faith because they see that at EVERY turn God takes care of us! Praise Him!”

In the Episcopal Church we don’t have the tradition of giving open, spontaneous testimonies during a service such as these that I witnessed at a friend’s church. Yet I’m sure we can relate to threatening enemies, economic struggle and other hardships. What are our own stories that we’re holding close within our hearts? And how do we “give thanks” for life’s difficulties?

The original Pilgrims' House in Leiden

As I returned frequently to my friend’s church over the course of a few years, I noticed the thanksgivings expressed in the various testimonies given invariably involved hardship. Yet the joy expressed was authentic. I wondered about the seeming incongruity of pain and joy until I began to hear within my own heart that verse within the General Thanksgiving of our Book of Common Prayer (p. 836):

We thank you also for those disappointments and failures
that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.

God knows I’d prayed that General Thanksgiving for a very long time while, quite intentionally, skipping over this verse. But over time as I listened to the testimonies of these faithful, I came to realize that the verse I resisted is actually the most important one of all. It IS there in the midst of life’s disappointments and failures, in ALL the circumstances that call us to depend on Him alone that we grow in faith and joy – an everlasting joy found in the increasing bond between Abba and His children – between us and Our Daddy…

For His Unfailing Care, give thanks… Amen.

Happy Thanksgiving, dear American friends! And, at the end we add some Native American music with Blessing: