What is Worship? Part 5 - Thanksgiving

What comes to mind when you hear the word "Thanksgiving" these days? Perhaps...

  • Turkey and all the trimmings
  • Macy's parade in the morning (I've even heard it called "Macy's Day Parade")
  • Football in the afternoon
  • Eating too much
  • Family dinners
  • A day (or two) off from work (or, perhaps, overtime/holiday pay at work)
  • Preparing for Black Friday sales
  • Starting Black Friday shopping online or in the evening in the stores
  • The beginning of the "holiday season"
What else might you add to that list?

Somehow, this notion of Thanksgiving has become a thoroughly secularized idea. Families might take time before the huge meal to say what they're thankful for (come on, admit it, you just say whatever you think of to get on to the food), but is that all there is to this holiday?

And to whom are we thankful?

I hear people say "Thank goodness" in order, I suppose, to avoid saying "Thank God," but who is goodness? And why should we be thankful to him or her or it? What has goodness done for you lately?

Do we take the time on this day or any other to be thankful to the one who really gives us all we have?

You see, Thanksgiving is not a holiday, a day on the calendar, or even a reason to celebrate. Thanksgiving is an act of worship. All throughout the Bible (and particularly in the psalms, the Hebrew book of worship), people are instructed to and actually do give thanks for what they have, for the ways they have been rescued, or for life itself. Thanksgiving is a way of life, not just a day of the year.

And we don't give thanks to some nameless "goodness." Or at least we shouldn't. The psalmists over and over again give thanks to God, the one without whom we would have nothing at all. God is the source of every good thing. But simply giving "thanks" is not where we are to stop, because the other witness of the Scriptures is that we, like Abraham, have been blessed to be a blessing. Whether we feel like we have been blessed a lot or a little, we have what we have so that we can bless others.

Our family has much to be thankful for this year, so we will gather, the four of us, around the table tomorrow and we will give thanks for life, for help, for hope and for God's presence in our lives. At the table of blessing we will worship. I hope you do, as well.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise him, all creatures here below
Praise him above, ye heavenly hosts
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost!
Amen!

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