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Advent, Apocalypse, and Thanksgiving
I've been pondering the First Advent texts, even as Thanksgiving approaches. While I've been grappling with these texts for close to thirty years, I still yearn for a gentler entry into Advent than images of apocalypse and end times. Yet this is God's invitation to us as we begin this season of waiting and wondering.
Mark 'Little Apocalypse' in chapter 13 is sobering and yet also provides invitation. There are troubles pressing up against the community; there is persecution. The people of God wonder whether or not the end time has come. But, the Lord's response is that 'the end is not yet.' While there may be trouble, trauma, and persecution, the end is not yet. Instead, Mark reminds us that no one can see the future; rather, our job is to be watchful and live with thanksgiving and love.
Be watchful and live with thanksgiving and love--what an image and invitation in the midst of the chaos that daily enters our home through both internet and television. Be watchful and live with thanksgiving and love! That is God's charge to us as we begin this season of Advent.
Howard Thurman's seasonal prayer of Thanksgiving brings this charge home. His words call each one of us to remember the life we are called to live: a life of thanksgiving and love. I share them with you this Thanksgiving day:
Today, I make my Sacrament of Thanksgiving.
I begin with the simple things of my days:
Fresh air to breathe,
Cool water to drink,
The taste of food,
The protection of houses and clothes,
The comforts of home.
For all these I make an act of thanksgiving this day!
I bring to mind all the warmth of humankind that I have known:
My mother's arms,
The strength of my father
The playmates of my childhood,
The wonderful stories brought to me from the lives
Of many who talked of days gone by when fairies
And giants and all kinds of magic held sway;
The tears I have shed, the tears I have seen;
The excitement of laughter and the twinkle in the
Eye with its reminder that life is good.
For all these I make an act of Thanksgiving this day.
I finger one by one the messages of hope that awaited me at the crossroads:
The smile of approval from those who held in their hands the reins of my security;
The tightening of the grip in a simple handshake when I
Feared the step before me in darkness;
The whisper in my heart when the temptation was fiercest
And the claims of appetite were not to be denied;
The crucial word said, the simple sentence from an open
Page when my decision hung in the balance.
For all these I make an act of Thanksgiving this day.
I pass before me the main springs of my heritage:
The fruits of labors of countless generations who lived before me,
Without whom my own life would have no meaning;
The seers who saw visions and dreamed dreams;
The prophets who sensed a truth greater than the mind could grasp
And those words would only find fulfillment
In the years which they would never see;
The workers whose sweat has watered the trees,
The leaves of which are for the healing of the nations;
The pilgrims who set their sails for lands beyond all horizons,
Whose courage made paths into new worlds and far off places;
The saviors whose blood was shed with a recklessness that only a dream
Could inspire and God could command.
For all this I make an act of Thanksgiving this day.
I linger over the meaning of my own life and the commitment
To which I give the loyalty of my heart and mind:
The little purposes in which I have shared my loves,
My desires, my gifts;
The restlessness which bottoms all I do with its stark insistence
That I have never done my best, I have never dared
To reach for the highest;
The big hope that never quite deserts me, that I and my kind
Will study war no more, that love and tenderness and all the
inner graces of Almighty affection will cover the life of the
children of God as the waters cover the sea.
All these and more than mind can think and heart can feel,
I make as my sacrament of Thanksgiving to Thee,
Our Father, in humbleness of mind and simplicity of heart.
Our language, our way of speaking, evidences whether or not our lives are a sacrament of thanksgiving. The Gospel reminds us that every day we are called to live the sacrament of thanksgiving to the very best of our ability. May this be the way our community is known and our lives are measured as we begin this new church year. May this be the way we are named by others: a people of thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving blessings to you all!
Blessings for the journey!  Debbie Rundlett General Presbyter Holy Habit: Gratitude Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. I Thessalonians 5:16-18 Take time this week to prayerfully read Mark 13. Then ask yourself, in this season of Advent, how will you live your life as "a sacrament of thanksgiving"? How will you make gratitude a holy habit? This next week, take time to write down one thing for which you are thankful each day. At the end of the week, reflect on the blessings you have experienced and give thanks to God. Ponder also how your life might be shaped more fully by gratitude, understanding that "gratitude is the heart's memory."
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