A Day to Pause - Thanksgiving - October 10, 2021
Matthew 6:24-34
Deborah Laforet
A Day to Pause
Let us pray. May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by the Spirit and be words of wisdom for this day. Amen.
How many of you say grace before every meal? How many say grace at least once a day? How many of you say grace when you have company or on special occasions, like Thanksgiving? I have to admit that I fall into the latter category. I did not grow up in a household that prayed before meals, or prayed at all, actually. I did go to a Catholic elementary school though, so I learned by heart the prayers that were mandatory, like the Lord’s Prayer, the Hail Mary, and the grace before meals: Thank you, O Lord, for these, thy gifts, which we are about to receive, from thy country, through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
It wasn’t until I started going to the United Church, and especially to events with children and youth, that I learned that there were a whole bunch of fun graces: Johnny Appleseed, Superman, the Addams family. I didn’t know saying grace could be fun.
It also wasn’t until later that I learned the importance of saying grace before a meal. I read this week the following write up with some of the reasons we say grace: “To recognize that God’s creation gives us the food we eat, to give thanks for the people who grow our food and prepared it, to remember that food is sacred, because when we are are about to do something important like eating it’s good to pause.
I like the last reason stated here and want to focus on that for a bit: “because when we are about to do something important like eating it’s good to pause.”
Last week, we celebrated communion. We do a lot of praying before we actually eat together the bread and juice. Next week is World Food Sunday, a day when we pause to recognize the number of people who go hungry in our world. September 30 was National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and November 11 is Remembrance Day. Both of these days are about pausing to remember something important.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day, a day which I believe started around being thankful for the harvest and the abundance of the earth, but is now also about family and friends gathering and giving thanks for their many blessings, whether it be for each other, for health, for a home, for life and for love. Sometimes we give thanks for those we love who are not with us. For whatever it is we are giving thanks, we are pausing to remember, to honour, to bring close and to hold dear.
I wonder if we paused every time before we did something important, how our lives might change. If we paused before we got out of bed in the morning or before we went to bed. If we paused before turning on the car. If we paused before using water each day. If we paused before looking at our phone or computer. I wonder if it might change our habits, help us to slow down, keep us from being mindless throughout our day. Would our stress decrease? Would we feel less anxiety?
The passage Kent read for us today is one with which I struggle. Jesus, from a mountaintop, which is connected to Moses and his teachings from a mountaintop, offers a lot of advice to his disciples and the crowd of people below. He tells them not to worry about the food they eat, what they drink, or the clothes they wear. He puts up as examples the birds of the air. Do they worry about what they eat? He talks about the wildflowers, clothed in such splendour. Do they worry about what they will wear? He says those without faith, or in the original translation, he say Gentiles, worry about these things. God knows what you need and God will provide.
Now think about his audience. He wasn’t talking to people who would one day retire and have pensions. He wasn’t talking to people with regular incomes, online shopping and convenient nearby grocery stores, with free health care, or, no matter how much we grumble about politicians, the ability to vote for their government. The people Jesus addressed had reason to worry from where their next meal might come. They had reason to wonder if they would be clothed or have a roof over their heads tomorrow. They had reason to wonder what the Roman Empire might do next that would further oppress them. And yet, Jesus says do not worry about tomorrow.
I know people with anxiety. I know people who suffer debilitating anxiety. Medication helps, but there are many of us who worry about tomorrow, and sometimes about the few hours or minutes. I don’t want to make light of this. And I don’t to use this passage with words from Jesus to dismiss the anxiety people carry. It’s real and it’s a struggle.
The lectionary reading for today actually omitted the first verse of this passage: “No one can serve two superiors. You will either hate one and love the other, or be attentive to one and despise the other. You cannot give yourself to God and Money.” If we don’t hear this part of the reading, I don’t think we get the context of this passage. Do birds hate God and love money? Are wildflowers attentive to money and despise God? The birds of the air and the grasses of the field do not serve two superiors. What might our lives be like if we loved God more than money, or if we were attentive to God’s reign and God’s justice and less attentive to the reign of the almighty dollar or the justice of materialism? Might we worry less about what we have or don't have? We live in a society that encourages people to buy, not just want they need, but everything they want. We are told it will make us happy, that it will fill the void inside of us, and make life easier. Has it?
Let’s pause and remember where I started.
I began by talking about grace and being thankful for our food. I talked about Thanksgiving and how we take this day to remember the many things for which we are thankful. I don’t think I mentioned material belongings. I mentioned family and friends. I mentioned a home, our health, life, and love. We do give thanks for our vocation and for our jobs, because they fulfill us and give us purpose, but if we are only working for the money, to buy food, and clothes, and phones and computers, and vacations, and stuff, are we happy?
Today we pause. We remember what is sacred. We lift up those things in our lives that matter. We slow down, we breathe deeply, and we give thanks. For what do you give thanks today? Tell me for what you are thankful. Those at home, use the chat box. For what are you thankful? Maybe Carolyn can read some of what is shared.
May we remember today all that is sacred. May we pause and give thanks for the blessings in our lives. May we strive towards God’s reign and God’s justice on this earth, and may we invite the Creator, Christ, and Spirit into our daily lives and into our holy moments. Amen.