Thankfulness

11/26 

Farmers Market

My good friend Rabbi Steve Blane and I have a tradition of sahrign a Thanksgivign service together.  Here is this year's reflection

 Good shabbes chaverim…we’re here on the Friday after Thanksgiving. A day that has come to be known by the strange designation “Black Friday.” I understand the connection with businesses going into the black, but it’s still weird… I do remember that as a kid, this day marked the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Do you remember when the stores waited until then to open their magical holiday window displays? I remember how my family would head to Pittsburgh’s South Hills Village Mall to start our Christmas shopping. And of course to the Jewish deli for hot pastrami or Reubens for lunch. Now we see the decorations go up the day after Halloween. Now Pittsburgh turns on the lights in early November and calls it “Sparkle Season” so as to be really inclusive, guess.

 Which leads me to what else is big this weekend. We’re right on the cusp of the first night of Hannukah which falls on the same Sunday as Christians begin Advent, that four week time of reflection and spiritual preparation leading up to Christmas…our sibling celebrations of glowing, growing LIGHT in the darkness. BUT…I’m not ready to let go of Thanksgiving yet…I’ve got leftovers! And warm memories of my family together yesterday. 

Did you know this is the 400th anniversary of the first Thanksgiving? The pilgrims were celebrating the fact that they had a successful enough harvest with enough laid away to get through the coming New England winter. Thanks to the Wappanaog Native Americans who had taught them how to grow corn and squash and harvest clams and fish and cranberries. (A decision they regret to this day!) By the way…we always associate orange and brown with Thanksgiving. For turkeys and pumpkins I guess. But orange now has a deeper meaning..it’s the color chosen by Native Americans to commemorate those who were forced into “Indian schools,” begun in Canada and now into the US. How they came together in that first Thanksgiving is more complicated than the story we tell but we’ll just leave it with the celebration tonight. My wife had grown up believing that Thanksgiving was started to give thanks to the Indians. She was really excited to share Thanksgiving with the family of the retired chief of the Pawnee Nation  our first Thanksgiving in Oklahoma. 

 So Thanksgiving is giving thanks. And that’s important. Walter Breuggeman, a Christian theologian ,says “Doxology is the beginning of resistance.” And Abraham Joshua Heschel said “It is gratefulness which makes the soul great.” Above all else, giving thanks is an affirmation that we are not alone. On the Upper West Side, the West Side Campaign Against Hunger just gave out over 1000 turkeys. Here in Harlem, where I live, neighbors in my building gave out 50 turkey dinners. The Harlem Lounge threw its doors open from noon to 4 for free dinners for all.

 But I want to get personal. In 1993, I lost my job…and my father…all in two weeks. I soon fell into depression feeling I was all alone. But a wise friend took me aside and said, “Look, you’ve got a roof over your head. You’ve got a family, friends and people who love you who will stand by you, not let you down. Start your day by giving thanks. It will get better from there.” And he was right, I did that. And no longer felt alone. And was soon on my way back. 

 Nahum Ward Lev in his book on the Hebrew prophets, talks about the spiritual discipline of giving thanks. He recommends every night before you go to sleep, remembering all that happened over the course off the day for which you are thankful…especially what wasn’t expected. Whether it’s first thing in the morning, last thing at night or better both, it helps keep us grounded. Going. Thankfulness for all we have is a way of being, a way of living. Rabbi Heschel also said, “Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement [to] get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.” 

 The song I sang tonight was written in England in 1864. It came to the US in the depths of the Civil War. Somehow while the world seemed to be falling apart, people wanted to believe that there was still much to be thankful for. 

 God of all, to Thee we raise, this our hymn of grateful praise…

1 For the beauty of the earth, 
for the glory of the skies, 
for the love which from our birth 
over and around us lies. 

Refrain: 
God of all to you we raise 
this, our hymn of grateful praise. 

2 For the wonder of each hour 
of the day and of the night, 
hill and vale and tree and flower, 
sun and moon and stars of light, [Refrain ]

3 For the joy of human love, 
brother, sister, parent, child, 
friends on earth, and friends above, 
for all gentle thoughts and mild, [Refrain] 

4 For yourself, best gift divine, 
to the world so freely given, 
agent of God's grand design: 
peace on earth and joy in heaven. [Refrain]